I've just completed publishing jFileSync to www.jlion.com. jFileSync is a directory sychronization/backup utility that I wrote and that I use to make sure that the removable hard drive that I use as a backup device has all the latest updates.
What I found is that creating minimal documentation and creating a setup program took a lot of time. I probably worked on documentation and setup for almost a third as much time as it took me to create the core program.
By the way, setup/deployment projects in Visual Studio are much more flexible and powerful then they used to be. I was able to create a setup program for a windows service using a setup/deployment project, with minimal fuss and only two "gotchas" both of which I was able to overcome.
One issue was how to "install" the service once it had been copied to the computer (so it would appear in the services control panel and run properly). The answer here was to add custom actions. This is done by right clicking on the project in solution explorer and selecting "view custom actions". In the window that then appears, right click on "custom actions", select "Add custom action" and choose "primary output" as the option. It should automatically add four custom actions: install, commit, rollback and uninstall. If it doesn't you can add them individually one at a time. Same difference.
The other issue was how to change the default product name. This is certainly non-intuitive. If you right click on the setup project in solution explorer, you get a setup property pages screen with build and package information. This isn't what you want. But there is another (hidden?) property page that has, among other things, the product name used by the install.
To view it, right click on the setup project in solution explorer. Click on "user interface". Now right click on "start" (or any folder, I think) and click on "properties". The properties window appears but is empty. Good. Now, go back to solution explorer while still viewing the properties window and click on the setup project. Now you see author, description, product name, support url and other properties. There *has* to be an easier way to view these! :)
What I found is that creating minimal documentation and creating a setup program took a lot of time. I probably worked on documentation and setup for almost a third as much time as it took me to create the core program.
By the way, setup/deployment projects in Visual Studio are much more flexible and powerful then they used to be. I was able to create a setup program for a windows service using a setup/deployment project, with minimal fuss and only two "gotchas" both of which I was able to overcome.
One issue was how to "install" the service once it had been copied to the computer (so it would appear in the services control panel and run properly). The answer here was to add custom actions. This is done by right clicking on the project in solution explorer and selecting "view custom actions". In the window that then appears, right click on "custom actions", select "Add custom action" and choose "primary output" as the option. It should automatically add four custom actions: install, commit, rollback and uninstall. If it doesn't you can add them individually one at a time. Same difference.
The other issue was how to change the default product name. This is certainly non-intuitive. If you right click on the setup project in solution explorer, you get a setup property pages screen with build and package information. This isn't what you want. But there is another (hidden?) property page that has, among other things, the product name used by the install.
To view it, right click on the setup project in solution explorer. Click on "user interface". Now right click on "start" (or any folder, I think) and click on "properties". The properties window appears but is empty. Good. Now, go back to solution explorer while still viewing the properties window and click on the setup project. Now you see author, description, product name, support url and other properties. There *has* to be an easier way to view these! :)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home