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What would be the best way to deploy upgrades to a piece of software with the following requirements:

The upgrade:

  • Must be run from a client machine, not a server.
  • Must Show a dialog to select a network location and copy files to a share.
  • Must show a dialog to enter SQL Server connection information and the upgrade must connect to SQL Server to run an upgrade script.
  • Must not change anything on the client machine from which the upgrade is run. (Nothing in Add/Remove programs, registry, etc. I.e. no Windows Installer.)
  • Must not rely on any additional dlls or frameworks. The user must be able to download a single file and run it from Windows XP SP2 without having to install anything else.

Some things I have looked into:

  • Batch files (can’t show a dialog to allow the user to enter connection information)
  • OSQL (can’t show a dialog and can’t copy files)
  • WiX (runs on top of Windows Installer so it puts things on the client machine from which it is run)
  • Custom C#/VB app (requires .NET framework)
  • Winzip/WinRAR (can't show a dialog, can’t run SQL Scripts)
user655653
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1 Answers1

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If you don't want to rely on any dlls and frameworks, you should make a native app, this can be, for example, custom winrar sfx (you can run additional scripts after extraction, this can be a batch that executes sqlcmd).

vissi
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  • I don't think winrar sfx will allow me to create a dialog for the user to enter SQL Server connection information (server, database, username, password). Am I wrong? – user655653 Mar 14 '11 at 00:49