Packing up an ap for the Framework
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I've got this cute little vbn ap I put together that I wanted to be able to run on someone else's PC. I tried to move a copy of the thing over there but it wouldn't recognize the file extensions. I thought for certain that as long as someone had the .NET framework, they would be able to run an ap, but this does not seem to be the case. Is there an easy way to use Visual Studio .NET to pack up an ap so it can be installed on a PC with just the Framework? Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
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I've got this cute little vbn ap I put together that I wanted to be able to run on someone else's PC. I tried to move a copy of the thing over there but it wouldn't recognize the file extensions. I thought for certain that as long as someone had the .NET framework, they would be able to run an ap, but this does not seem to be the case. Is there an easy way to use Visual Studio .NET to pack up an ap so it can be installed on a PC with just the Framework? Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
tanstaafl28 wrote: I tried to move a copy of the thing over there but it wouldn't recognize the file extensions. Your (vbn == VB.NET right?) application should have a .exe extension. What are the extensions of the files you are copying? tanstaafl28 wrote: Is there an easy way to use Visual Studio .NET to pack up an ap so it can be installed on a PC with just the Framework? Yes, you can add an installer project to your solution. Then tell the installer project what needs to be installed and build it. You will end up with some files that can be used to install and uninstall your application.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way! My Blog
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I've got this cute little vbn ap I put together that I wanted to be able to run on someone else's PC. I tried to move a copy of the thing over there but it wouldn't recognize the file extensions. I thought for certain that as long as someone had the .NET framework, they would be able to run an ap, but this does not seem to be the case. Is there an easy way to use Visual Studio .NET to pack up an ap so it can be installed on a PC with just the Framework? Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
So long as the target computer has the same version of the .NET Framework that you developed the app on and you copied over the .EXE and all of it's support files (.DLL's, .OCX's, .BMP's, .config, ...), it'll work. You might have other prerequisites, like updating MDAC on the target computer. RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome
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So long as the target computer has the same version of the .NET Framework that you developed the app on and you copied over the .EXE and all of it's support files (.DLL's, .OCX's, .BMP's, .config, ...), it'll work. You might have other prerequisites, like updating MDAC on the target computer. RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome
I suspected as much. I was able to get the ap to run just fine, but the file extensions are not recognized by the machine, even though I installed the framework and the SDK. :) Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
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tanstaafl28 wrote: I tried to move a copy of the thing over there but it wouldn't recognize the file extensions. Your (vbn == VB.NET right?) application should have a .exe extension. What are the extensions of the files you are copying? tanstaafl28 wrote: Is there an easy way to use Visual Studio .NET to pack up an ap so it can be installed on a PC with just the Framework? Yes, you can add an installer project to your solution. Then tell the installer project what needs to be installed and build it. You will end up with some files that can be used to install and uninstall your application.
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way! My Blog
I copied the entire folder containing the files because I wasn't sure which were required and which where not. As it turned out, the exe ran fine, it was just that none of the file extensions were recognized by the PC with just the Framework and SDK . The price of making .NET so "universal" seems to be all these associated files. It seems that a self-extracting windows installer containing all the necessary files in a compressed format would be useful, (whether or not it is practical is another matter). :) Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
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I suspected as much. I was able to get the ap to run just fine, but the file extensions are not recognized by the machine, even though I installed the framework and the SDK. :) Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
What file extensions? You said that you copied the .EXE file over and it didn't run. What else from the 'bin' folder did you copy over? And what file(s) are you trying to open by double-clicking on them? RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome
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What file extensions? You said that you copied the .EXE file over and it didn't run. What else from the 'bin' folder did you copy over? And what file(s) are you trying to open by double-clicking on them? RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome
I'm not clicking on any of the file extensions. I just noticed that they all have that default "Windows doesn't know what kind of file this is" icon. I thought the framework would at least pass the associations on, but perhaps it is too compact to include them. The executable still executes however. I copied over the entire bin because I was not certain which files I absolutely HAD to have in order for the executable to work. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
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What file extensions? You said that you copied the .EXE file over and it didn't run. What else from the 'bin' folder did you copy over? And what file(s) are you trying to open by double-clicking on them? RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome
The ap in question is from Michael Halverson's Visual Basic Step-By-Step. It's the "Lucky 7" slot machine program. Frankly, I would love to try using the installer option, but having little experience with it, I am uncertain as to how to properly configure it. I would want for it to check and see if the user has the correct version of the framework installed, and if not, direct them to the URL to install it first. From there, it would do what most Windows installers do- recommend a spot on the C drive, create the folder if none exists, ask the user if they want to view the "readme," and ask the user if he/she wants a shortcut on their desktop. Of course I suppose it would also have to include an icon in the Start-->Programs, and an uninstaller tied into the Add/Remove programs as well. I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to accomplish all of this...yet. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
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I copied the entire folder containing the files because I wasn't sure which were required and which where not. As it turned out, the exe ran fine, it was just that none of the file extensions were recognized by the PC with just the Framework and SDK . The price of making .NET so "universal" seems to be all these associated files. It seems that a self-extracting windows installer containing all the necessary files in a compressed format would be useful, (whether or not it is practical is another matter). :) Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
Certain files, like source code files, debugging information files etc. don't have file associations with them on them if you just install the .NET Framework because there are part of the development environment which is not intended for deployment. tanstaafl28 wrote: The price of making .NET so "universal" seems to be all these associated files It depends on what you are building. It is perfectly possible to build a fully featured application that just has one EXE file without anything else (other than the .NET Framework itself).
"You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." --Zig Ziglar The Second EuroCPian Event will be in Brussels on the 4th of September Can't manage to P/Invoke that Win32 API in .NET? Why not do interop the wiki way! My Blog
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I'm not clicking on any of the file extensions. I just noticed that they all have that default "Windows doesn't know what kind of file this is" icon. I thought the framework would at least pass the associations on, but perhaps it is too compact to include them. The executable still executes however. I copied over the entire bin because I was not certain which files I absolutely HAD to have in order for the executable to work. Still coaxing software out of the can after all these years...
Ahh... That's because the .NET Framework doesn't register a handler for those extensions. Those are done by the Visual Studio IDE. The files you need are project dependant. You'll definately need the .EXE's and the .DLL's from the bin folder of your project... RageInTheMachine9532 "...a pungent, ghastly, stinky piece of cheese!" -- The Roaming Gnome