Manifest Generation and Editing Tool, Graphical Client (MageUI.exe)

  • Article

MageUI.exe supports the same functionality as the command-line tool Mage.exe, but with a Windows Forms-based user interface (UI). With this tool you can create, edit, and sign deployment and application manifests.

Both Mage.exe and MageUI.exe are part of the .NET Framework SDK, which is available as part of Visual Studio, or from the Microsoft Developer Network (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=78240).

The following menu and toolbar items are available.

  • Deployment Manifest; Menu: File, New
    Creates a new deployment manifest.
  • Application Manifest; Menu: File, New
    Creates a new application manifest.
  • Open; Menu: File; Shortcut: CTRL+O
    Opens an existing deployment manifest, application manifest, or trust license for editing.
  • Save; Menu: File; Shortcut: CTRL+S
    Saves to disk the document which currently has user input focus.
  • Save As; Menu: File; Shortcut: CTRL+A
    Saves a file to disk, enabling you to supply a new file name and/or location.
  • Save All; Menu: File
    Saves the changes made to all files currently open within MageUI.exe.

  • Close; Menu: File; Shortcut: CTRL+F4
    Closes an open file.

    If you modify a file before closing it, MageUI.exe prompts you to re-sign the file with a public key, key pair, or stored certificate.

  • Exit; Menu: File; Shortcut: ALT+F4
    Quits MageUI.exe.
  • Cut; Menu: Edit; Shortcut: CTRL+X
    Removes the currently selected text from the application and moves it to the system Clipboard.
  • Copy; Menu: Edit; Shortcut: CTRL+C
    Copies the currently selected text to the system Clipboard.
  • Paste; Menu: Edit; Shortcut: CTRL+V
    Pastes text from the system Clipboard into the currently active text element.
  • Delete; Menu: Edit
    Deletes an element currently selected in a list, such as a trust license on the Deployment Manifest tab. For more information, see MageUI.exe Deployment Manifest Tab.
  • Preferences; Menu: File
    Opens the Preferences dialog box. See the following section for details.
  • Close All; Menu: Window
    Closes all files currently open in MageUI.exe. If one or more files need saving, MageUI.exe prompts you to save them. MageUI.exe also prompts you to select a signing key for each unsigned or altered file.
  • Contents; Menu: Help; Shortcut: F1
    Opens this Help documentation.
  • About; Menu: Help
    Displays version and copyright information regarding MageUI.exe.

Preferences Dialog Box

The Preferences dialog box contains the following elements.

  • Sign on save
    Prompts you to sign a file whenever you save your modifications.
  • Use default signing key
    Uses the key entered in the Key file text box to sign all files. This eliminates the signing prompt that typically appears when you save a file and Sign on Save is selected. Use the Browse button next to the Key file text box to select a key file.

Signing Options Dialog Box

The Signing Options dialog box appears when you save a manifest or trust license for the first time, or when you change a manifest or trust license. It only appears if the Sign Manifest on Save option in the Preferences dialog box is selected.

This dialog box contains the following elements.

  • Sign with certificate file
    Signs the manifest with a digital certificate stored on the file system.
  • File
    Provides an area to type the path to the .pfx file representing the certificate.
  • ...
    Opens a Choose File dialog box for selecting an existing .pfx file.
  • New
    Generates a new .pfx that is not verifiable through a Certificate Authority (CA). For more information about the types of certificates used for signing ClickOnce deployments, see Trusted Application Deployment Overview.
  • Password
    Provides an area to type the password used for signing with this certificate. If not applicable, can be left blank.
  • Sign with stored certificate
    Displays a selectable list of digital certificates stored in your computer's certificate store.
  • TimeStamping URI
    Displays the Uniform Resource Locator (URI) for the time-stamping service that ClickOnce should use to verify the certificate's timeliness. For more information about time-stamping, see ClickOnce Deployment and Authenticode.

Tab and Panel Descriptions

When you open a document with MageUI.exe, it appears within its own tab page. Each tab contains a set of property panels. The panels contain grouped subsets of the document's data. For information about the UI elements available for editing each type of document, see MageUI.exe Deployment Manifest Tab and MageUI.exe Application Manifest Tab.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Deploying a ClickOnce Application Manually

Reference

Manifest Generation and Editing Tool (Mage.exe)

Concepts

ClickOnce Deployment Overview