Automated: Publishing an Initial Version of an Application

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Prerequisites

This topic requires the following:

  • Composite Application Guidance must be downloaded and unpacked to a folder.
  • Internet Information Services (IIS) must be installed.
  • The ManifestManagerUtility solution must be built.
  • The Quickstarts\Modularity\ConfigurationModularity QuickStart solution must be built.

Note

If you are using Internet Information Services 7.0 (IIS7), the IIS 6 Metabase and IIS 6 Configuration Compatibility component is also required. To deploy the application from IIS7, you will need to change the Application Pool basic setting for the virtual directory to the Classic .NET AppPool instead of the Default .NET AppPool.

Steps

To publish the ConfigurationModularity QuickStart Application from Visual Studio

  1. In Visual Studio, open the solution file ConfigurationModularity.sln.
  2. Right-click ConfigurationModularity, and then click Properties.
  3. Click the Publish tab.
  4. Change the Publishing Location folder to https://localhost/ConfigurationModularity/.
  5. Click Updates.
  6. Select the The application should check for updates check box if it is not already selected.
  7. Select the Before the application starts option if it is not already selected.
  8. Click Publish Now.

The project will be built and published to the location specified.

To add the additional modules using the Manifest Manager Utility

  1. Run the ManifestManagerUtility.exe utility.

  2. On the File menu, click Open.

  3. Browse to and select the published deployment manifest (C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\ ConfigurationModularity\ConfigurationModularity.application).

    The commonly modified values from the deployment manifest and the list of files from the referenced application manifest will be loaded into the utility (see Figure 1).

    Ff921130.e6bbff5b-906f-46c3-beb6-1e1eba432078(en-us,PandP.20).png

    Figure 1

    Manifest Manager Utility

  4. On the Edit menu, click Add Files.

  5. In the Add Application Files dialog box, navigate to the Modules subfolder under the build output folder for the ConfigurationModularity QuickStart solution (for example, C:\CompositeWPF\QuickStarts\Modularity\ConfigurationModularity\ConfigurationModularity\bin\Debug\Modules).

  6. Select the following files to add them to the application manifest, and then click Open:

    • ModuleA.dll
    • ModuleB.dll
    • ModuleC.dll
    • ModuleD.dll

  7. In the Browse For Folder dialog box that allows you to select target location shown in Figure 2, navigate to the publish folder for the application, expand the tree to the version-specific Application Files folder, add a subfolder named Modules using the Make New Folder button, select the Modules folder, and then click OK.

    Ff921130.a39eef31-384e-4ddd-9442-afcd63669c76(en-us,PandP.20).png

    Figure 2

    Browse For Folder dialog box

  8. On the File menu, click Save.

  9. In the Select Publisher Certificate to Sign Manifest dialog box, click Browse, and then navigate to the publisher certificate that was generated by Visual Studio when you first published the application (for example, C:\CompositeWPF\QuickStarts\Modularity\ConfigurationModularity\ConfigurationModularity\ConfigurationModularity_TemporaryKey.pfx). Figure 3 illustrates this dialog box.

    Ff921130.4cb683c7-ab9e-4a49-925d-e888fe0f7168(en-us,PandP.20).png

    Figure 3

    Manifest signing dialog box

  10. Click Save and Sign.

Outcome

The published ConfigurationModularity application is ready for users to launch. In this case, you would provide them with a link to http://<yourmachinename>/ConfigurationModularity/ConfigurationModularity.application. The downloaded application will include the ConfigurationModularity QuickStart modules that are dynamically loaded based on the application configuration file.

More Information

For more information about this procedure, see Manual: Publishing an Initial Version of an Application. For more information about deploying WPF applications with ClickOnce, see Deploying WPF Applications with ClickOnce.

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