Using adxpublisher.exe for locally-installed ClickOnce builds

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Using adxpublisher.exe for locally-installed ClickOnce builds
Or, "Publisher failed. The installation url is not correctly formed." 
Yuki Izumi




Posts: 15
Joined: 2014-07-30
Hi there,

Using the "Publish ADX Project" dialog, you can specify a filesystem path for "Provider URL". The result is a published build which you can e.g. zip up, email to someone, and they can unzip it and install it from their filesystem.

For whatever reason, adxpublisher.exe refuses to use a local path in "installationUrl", exiting with:

Publisher failed. The installation url is not correctly formed.
Publisher error (stack trace):    at AddinExpress.Deployment.Program.Main(String[] args)


We'd like to automate publishing locally-installable builds -- is there a way we can do this?

Thanks;

Yuki
Posted 29 Oct, 2014 20:11:10 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi Yuki,

Do you use the '\\<machine name>\<file share>\<deployment manifest>' URL format to set the install location?
Posted 30 Oct, 2014 06:33:30 Top
Yuki Izumi




Posts: 15
Joined: 2014-07-30
Hi Sergey,

No; we set it to a local filesystem location. This works perfectly fine in the "Publish ADX Project" dialog, and the result is a deployment which runs anywhere, as long as you have all the files.

Yuki
Posted 30 Oct, 2014 20:39:04 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi Yuki,

If you use the local path, the installation/update will not work on another PC. Please use the correct path in adxpublisher.exe.
Posted 31 Oct, 2014 09:25:31 Top
Yuki Izumi




Posts: 15
Joined: 2014-07-30
Hi Sergey,

I think you may have misunderstood me. If you use a local path in the "Publish ADX Project" dialog, it's actually not taken into consideration by the resulting installer; it simply installs from the current path. You can verify this yourself: try publishing (using the dialog) to a local path, then take the resulting publish directory and move it elsewhere. The installation still works.

This is what happens if you were to deploy a non-ADX VSTO project using a local path as the destination; it 'just works'. And it 'just works' if you do this from ADX's Publish ADX Project dialog too! I just want to reproduce this with adxpublisher.exe.
Posted 31 Oct, 2014 18:44:37 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi Yuki,

How do you plan to update your add-in? Will you use the 'check for updates' feature or just uninstall the previous version manually via the Control Panel?
Posted 03 Nov, 2014 04:24:58 Top
Yuki Izumi




Posts: 15
Joined: 2014-07-30
Hi Sergey,

In this case, we'll be distributing updates manually (and they just run the new `.application` to update). The use-case is where users behind corporate firewalls cannot access arbitrary websites (i.e. the internet access is whitelisted), so we want to distribute builds directly to certain users.

Cheers,

Yuki
Posted 03 Nov, 2014 06:28:20 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi Yuki,

adxpublisher.exe contains a check that doesn't allow using local paths. I will remove the check and send the publisher to you via e-mail.
Posted 03 Nov, 2014 09:54:19 Top
Yuki Izumi




Posts: 15
Joined: 2014-07-30
Hi Sergey,

Thank you very much. I attempted this myself once before, but it didn't work; it seems like the way mage (?) was being invoked supposed a particular kind of deployment.

Best,

Yuki
Posted 03 Nov, 2014 18:35:37 Top
Sergey Grischenko


Add-in Express team


Posts: 7233
Joined: 2004-07-05
Hi Yuki,

Did you test the new publisher? Does it work for you?
Posted 05 Nov, 2014 05:08:39 Top