How do I correctly publish my app?

Question

I am using visual studio to create my first windows desktop c# wpf app.

I am at the phase I want to release/deploy/build it.

In Visual Studio Express 2013 I right click my project and click publish, I click next and leave the publish location default as I dont know what I should put, next I choose to have the users install from a cd-rom/dvd and tell it not to check for updates and click finish.

It then create a 'clickonce' application on my desktop. So I upload to it a web server, download it, and try to run it.

It fails.

It says:

Cannot download the application. The application is missing required files. Contact application vendor for assistance.

If I click details I get more detailed info:

PLATFORM VERSION INFO
    Windows             : 6.2.9200.0 (Win32NT)
    Common Language Runtime     : 4.0.30319.18449
    System.Deployment.dll       : 4.0.30319.17929 built by: FX45RTMREL
    clr.dll             : 4.0.30319.18449 built by: FX451RTMGDR
    dfdll.dll           : 4.0.30319.17929 built by: FX45RTMREL
    dfshim.dll          : 4.0.41209.0 (Main.041209-0000)

SOURCES
    Deployment url          : file:///C:/Users/Lanboy/Downloads/Bingo%20Game.application

IDENTITIES
    Deployment Identity     : Bingo Game.application, Version=1.0.0.1, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a82aa93ff33fa9be, processorArchitecture=msil

APPLICATION SUMMARY
    * Installable application.

ERROR SUMMARY
    Below is a summary of the errors, details of these errors are listed later in the log.
    * Activation of C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Bingo Game.application resulted in exception. Following failure messages were detected:
        + Downloading file:///C:/Users/Lanboy/Downloads/Application Files/Bingo Game_1_0_0_1/Bingo Game.exe.manifest did not succeed.
        + Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Application Files\Bingo Game_1_0_0_1\Bingo Game.exe.manifest'.
        + Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Application Files\Bingo Game_1_0_0_1\Bingo Game.exe.manifest'.
        + Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Application Files\Bingo Game_1_0_0_1\Bingo Game.exe.manifest'.

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION FAILURE SUMMARY
    No transaction error was detected.

WARNINGS
    There were no warnings during this operation.

OPERATION PROGRESS STATUS
    * [24/06/2014 19:49:15] : Activation of C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Bingo Game.application has started.
    * [24/06/2014 19:49:15] : Processing of deployment manifest has successfully completed.
    * [24/06/2014 19:49:15] : Installation of the application has started.

ERROR DETAILS
    Following errors were detected during this operation.
    * [24/06/2014 19:49:15] System.Deployment.Application.DeploymentDownloadException (Unknown subtype)
        - Downloading file:///C:/Users/Lanboy/Downloads/Application Files/Bingo Game_1_0_0_1/Bingo Game.exe.manifest did not succeed.
        - Source: System.Deployment
        - Stack trace:
            at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem next)
            at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadAllFiles()
            at System.Deployment.Application.FileDownloader.Download(SubscriptionState subState)
            at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadManifestAsRawFile(Uri& sourceUri, String targetPath, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, ServerInformation& serverInformation)
            at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadApplicationManifest(AssemblyManifest deploymentManifest, String targetDir, Uri deploymentUri, IDownloadNotification notification, DownloadOptions options, Uri& appSourceUri, String& appManifestPath)
            at System.Deployment.Application.DownloadManager.DownloadApplicationManifest(AssemblyManifest deploymentManifest, String targetDir, Uri deploymentUri, Uri& appSourceUri, String& appManifestPath)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.DownloadApplication(SubscriptionState subState, ActivationDescription actDesc, Int64 transactionId, TempDirectory& downloadTemp)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.InstallApplication(SubscriptionState& subState, ActivationDescription actDesc)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.PerformDeploymentActivation(Uri activationUri, Boolean isShortcut, String textualSubId, String deploymentProviderUrlFromExtension, BrowserSettings browserSettings, String& errorPageUrl)
            at System.Deployment.Application.ApplicationActivator.ActivateDeploymentWorker(Object state)
        --- Inner Exception ---
        System.Net.WebException
        - Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Application Files\Bingo Game_1_0_0_1\Bingo Game.exe.manifest'.
        - Source: System
        - Stack trace:
            at System.Net.FileWebRequest.EndGetResponse(IAsyncResult asyncResult)
            at System.Net.FileWebRequest.GetResponse()
            at System.Deployment.Application.SystemNetDownloader.DownloadSingleFile(DownloadQueueItem next)
        --- Inner Exception ---
        System.Net.WebException
        - Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Application Files\Bingo Game_1_0_0_1\Bingo Game.exe.manifest'.
        - Source: System
        - Stack trace:
            at System.Net.FileWebResponse..ctor(FileWebRequest request, Uri uri, FileAccess access, Boolean asyncHint)
            at System.Net.FileWebRequest.GetResponseCallback(Object state)
        --- Inner Exception ---
        System.IO.DirectoryNotFoundException
        - Could not find a part of the path 'C:\Users\Lanboy\Downloads\Application Files\Bingo Game_1_0_0_1\Bingo Game.exe.manifest'.
        - Source: mscorlib
        - Stack trace:
            at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath)
            at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy, Boolean useLongPath, Boolean checkHost)
            at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy)
            at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, Boolean useAsync)
            at System.Net.FileWebStream..ctor(FileWebRequest request, String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare sharing, Int32 length, Boolean async)
            at System.Net.FileWebResponse..ctor(FileWebRequest request, Uri uri, FileAccess access, Boolean asyncHint)

COMPONENT STORE TRANSACTION DETAILS
    No transaction information is available.

What am I doing wrong? Am I missing a crucial step? Do I need to host the manifest file on my server and point it to it somehow?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Update As per comments and answer I decided to take all the files given to me on publish and zip them. The files in the zip folder included:

Bingo Game.application
Bingo Game.exe.config.deploy
Bingo Game.exe.deploy
Bingo Game.exe.manifest

I then re upload to the server, download, unzip and click Bingo Game.application and it fails with exactly the same error as above.

Did you see this? http://stackoverflow.com/questions/24347722/publish-windows-app-to-be-emailed/24347981#24347981 — Gayot Fow, Jun 24 '14 at 20:30
Can you please add information about which files you uploaded, as well as which one you downloaded? — Stefan Over, Jun 26 '14 at 06:21
At people that have answered. It seems there is some confusion about what I have/havent uploaded, manifest to the server etc, I have tried above to put as much detail as possible, I did nothing outside of the steps above. Thanks — RSM, Jul 03 '14 at 10:48
Where did you get to with this? Is the problem sorted, or are you still not able to publish? — Paul Michaels, Jul 12 '14 at 06:23

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 01 '14 at 12:57

There are couple of things to check; firstly, are you seeing the following directory structure when you publish your app (if not then this is the structure you probably want):

BingoGame
    Application Files
        Bingo Game_1_0_0_0
            *.deploy
            Bingo.Game.exe.manifest
        Bingo Game_1_0_0_1
            *.deploy
            Bingo.Game.exe.manifest
    Bingo.Game.Application
    setup.exe

These files should be on the server that you're downloading from (it does look suspiciously like the manifest is not).

It's also important that since the build, none of the files have changed; if they have, and you don't want to, or can't rebuild, look at mage.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 24 '14 at 21:42

0

It seems that you are only uploading part of the file. You can see from the image below that the ClickOnce process generates multiple files. It looks like you didn't copy the .manifest file so the ClickOnce app can't verify that the program isn't corrupt.

MS Site

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff699352.aspx

answered Jun 24 '14 at 21:42

Ethan Turk

437
4
8

@rsm : This MS link is pretty good and works fine. Using this tutorial I have learned deployment and have deployed several application from the server with auto-update. – Arun Thundyill Saseendran Jul 01 '14 at 13:04

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 02 '14 at 16:40

0

After following the previous answers' directions to ensure that your manifest file is on the web server with the setup file, you need to ensure that IIS is serving ".manifest" files. I believe that IIS 7 allows this by default, but if you're on an older version of IIS, this might be the problem.

Check out Adding the Manifest Extension to the MIME Types on IIS

answered Jul 02 '14 at 16:40

Aaron Hawkins

2,611
1
20
24

im not on IIS im on an apache web server. – RSM Jul 03 '14 at 10:47

How do I correctly publish my app?

3 Answers3

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