4 ms·

I'm interested to see how the community responds to their choice of ClickOnce as the deployment method. I use ClickOnce for several of my applications, and I'd

by evanw 14y ago

I'm interested to see how the community responds to their choice of ClickOnce as the deployment method. I use ClickOnce for several of my applications, and I'd say the users who dislike it the most have the highest technical aptitude (which, I'd guess, is a large part of GitHub's user base).

statictype 14y ago
shrug - Honestly, I thought the same thing - and then I only realized GitHub was a ClickOnce app after poking around at the shortcut it created on the Desktop. The installation was pretty seamless.
Splines 14y ago
Interesting. What's the usual cause for complaint?
- evanw 14y ago
  The most common questions/complaints I get are: - Why can't I find the installation directory? (ClickOnce doesn't use the standard C:/Program Files/ location, it stores program files in C:/Users/<your username>/AppData/Local/Apps/2.0 for security reasons.) - Why does the installer need a network connection? (ClickOnce downloads the required setup files from the internet.) The lack of a standard Program Files/.exe deployment also makes it difficult to map filetype associations, which is also a frequent complaint. I'll likely be going with non-ClickOnce deployments for the future. ClickOnce is great for deploying production software at work, but for a consumer audience, it isn't quite perfect. (Personally, I really like ClickOnce.)
  - HarshaThota 14y ago
    Don't know if it's mature enough but have you looked at NSync (https://github.com/xpaulbettsx/NSync https://github.com/xpaulbettsx/NSync)? Considering that Paul has been working on it and yet choose to go with ClickOnce, I am guessing it's not ready for prime time but it might be worth looking into anyway.
    - evanw 14y ago
      Yes I've been keeping a close eye on this project. Based off the readme, it sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. You make a good point though, as it was authored by the same user but ClickOnce was chosen instead.
    - xpaulbettsx 14y ago
      NSync isn't finished yet - ClickOnce is 95% of what we want but has some pretty damning flaws (tells people randomly that an app is "Unknown Publisher", certs expire after one year and now people have to uninstall/reinstall, proxy server problems, etc). NSync is my ongoing (not finished yet!) project to recreate ClickOnce
      - HarshaThota 14y ago
        I figured that was the case. How much of an overlap do NSync and NAppUpdate (https://github.com/synhershko/NAppUpdate https://github.com/synhershko/NAppUpdate) share? Would love to see some type of collaboration between the two. BTW is there a way to submit tickets other than email for GitHub for Windows? Maybe a GitHub repo? Would make it rather easy to submit and track issues while also limiting the number of duplicates.
        xpaulbettsx 14y ago
        NSync has a somewhat novel mechanism of delivering updates (via repurposed NuGet packages) that would be difficult to shoehorn into NAppUpdate or other frameworks
  - fmystic 14y ago
    You can set up file associations in the deployment configuration though, right?
    - evanw 14y ago
      Yes and it's actually really easy to do, it's built right into Visual Studio. The downsides are that you can't really do anything with it after you've set them (like at application runtime), the associations don't always work for some reason, and if the associations get changed by other applications you can't reset them unless the user re-runs the installer.
  - est 14y ago
    I fucking hate ClickOnce. The crappy downloader fails all the time. Not all places have a good QoS connection like North America. HTTP download can be restarted and resumed at anytime.
- Karunamon 14y ago
  Another one I can add is that certain security packages (coughSEPcough) can do weird things to the SXS repos that ClickOnce relies on. This will lead to applications failing to install with pretty much useless error messages. Granted, this 60/40 blame security software/clickonce, but it was a complaint nonetheless.
Encosia 14y ago
As a technical type, I don't mind ClickOnce. Chrome is another good example of a successful ClickOnce application that a lot of technically savvy types use. I think maybe ClickOnce's drawbacks are less of a sticking point when the application you're installing is one that needs Internet connectivity to be fully functional anyway.
jamesgeck0 14y ago
I like ClickOnce just because it has a built-in update method that doesn't necessarily require downloading the entire application installer all over again. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404267.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404267.aspx Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to mass update ClickOnce applications apt-get style.
- jamesgeck0 14y ago
  Of course, GH4W's first update _would_ downloaded the entire ~26mb package. I set myself up for that.
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by evanw 14y ago

statictype 14y ago

shrug - Honestly, I thought the same thing - and then I only realized GitHub was a ClickOnce app after poking around at the shortcut it created on the Desktop. The installation was pretty seamless.

Splines 14y ago

Interesting. What's the usual cause for complaint?

evanw 14y ago
The most common questions/complaints I get are: - Why can't I find the installation directory? (ClickOnce doesn't use the standard C:/Program Files/ location, it stores program files in C:/Users/<your username>/AppData/Local/Apps/2.0 for security reasons.) - Why does the installer need a network connection? (ClickOnce downloads the required setup files from the internet.) The lack of a standard Program Files/.exe deployment also makes it difficult to map filetype associations, which is also a frequent complaint. I'll likely be going with non-ClickOnce deployments for the future. ClickOnce is great for deploying production software at work, but for a consumer audience, it isn't quite perfect. (Personally, I really like ClickOnce.)
- HarshaThota 14y ago
  Don't know if it's mature enough but have you looked at NSync (https://github.com/xpaulbettsx/NSync https://github.com/xpaulbettsx/NSync)? Considering that Paul has been working on it and yet choose to go with ClickOnce, I am guessing it's not ready for prime time but it might be worth looking into anyway.
  - evanw 14y ago
    Yes I've been keeping a close eye on this project. Based off the readme, it sounds exactly like what I'm looking for. You make a good point though, as it was authored by the same user but ClickOnce was chosen instead.
  - xpaulbettsx 14y ago
    NSync isn't finished yet - ClickOnce is 95% of what we want but has some pretty damning flaws (tells people randomly that an app is "Unknown Publisher", certs expire after one year and now people have to uninstall/reinstall, proxy server problems, etc). NSync is my ongoing (not finished yet!) project to recreate ClickOnce
    - HarshaThota 14y ago
      I figured that was the case. How much of an overlap do NSync and NAppUpdate (https://github.com/synhershko/NAppUpdate https://github.com/synhershko/NAppUpdate) share? Would love to see some type of collaboration between the two. BTW is there a way to submit tickets other than email for GitHub for Windows? Maybe a GitHub repo? Would make it rather easy to submit and track issues while also limiting the number of duplicates.
      - xpaulbettsx 14y ago
        NSync has a somewhat novel mechanism of delivering updates (via repurposed NuGet packages) that would be difficult to shoehorn into NAppUpdate or other frameworks
- fmystic 14y ago
  You can set up file associations in the deployment configuration though, right?
  - evanw 14y ago
    Yes and it's actually really easy to do, it's built right into Visual Studio. The downsides are that you can't really do anything with it after you've set them (like at application runtime), the associations don't always work for some reason, and if the associations get changed by other applications you can't reset them unless the user re-runs the installer.
- est 14y ago
  I fucking hate ClickOnce. The crappy downloader fails all the time. Not all places have a good QoS connection like North America. HTTP download can be restarted and resumed at anytime.
Karunamon 14y ago
Another one I can add is that certain security packages (coughSEPcough) can do weird things to the SXS repos that ClickOnce relies on. This will lead to applications failing to install with pretty much useless error messages. Granted, this 60/40 blame security software/clickonce, but it was a complaint nonetheless.

Encosia 14y ago

As a technical type, I don't mind ClickOnce. Chrome is another good example of a successful ClickOnce application that a lot of technically savvy types use. I think maybe ClickOnce's drawbacks are less of a sticking point when the application you're installing is one that needs Internet connectivity to be fully functional anyway.

jamesgeck0 14y ago

I like ClickOnce just because it has a built-in update method that doesn't necessarily require downloading the entire application installer all over again. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404267.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404267.aspx Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to mass update ClickOnce applications apt-get style.

jamesgeck0 14y ago
Of course, GH4W's first update _would_ downloaded the entire ~26mb package. I set myself up for that.

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