How to: Publish Different Versions for Different Groups
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This content is outdated and is no longer being maintained. It is provided as a courtesy for individuals who are still using these technologies. |
You may need to publish different versions of your application to target different audiences or groups. For example, you may have a production version of your application that most users need, but you may also have a beta version that you want specific users to be trying out. Additionally, you probably require that a single user can run both versions side-by-side on a single computer.
To address this scenario, you need to have two published versions on your computer. Each version will have its own deployment manifest and application manifest. The key thing that is required to support side-by-side execution of two versions of the same application on the same computer is to have a unique application identity in the deployment manifest. This piece of information is usually automatically populated when you publish your application from Visual Studio. By default, the identity is set to the name of the deployment manifest. You can modify this value after publishing by using Mage or the Manifest Manager Utility.
The application identity is different from the Product Name property that determines how the application appears on the Start menu and in Add or Remove Programs. If a product name is not set, it defaults to the name of the application executable file.
You should set the Product Name property in Publish Options to ensure that each installation gets a unique Start menu shortcut that is easy to identify. The default behavior if two applications are installed with the same application executable name is to add a number to the shortcut (for example, MyApp, MyApp -1, and MyApp -2).
For more information, see Automated: Publish Different Versions for Different Groups.
