Trying to distribute dependant project as part of ADX Project

Add-in Express™ Support Service
That's what is more important than anything else

Trying to distribute dependant project as part of ADX Project
 
Rob Sullivan




Posts: 42
 Joined: 2011-09-01
Morning all,

Wonder if you can help?

We've an excel addin which we're publishing from Visual Studio "Publish ADX Project".

This project has a dependancy, on a separate project within the same solution - which generates an .exe. I can see this exe is installed under folders like :

C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Local Settings\Application Data\assembly\dl3\3L8ZN1WD.9NX\0OWL8DXZ.OLG\4db1dd8f\f9d0cd52_c35dcc01

as part of the ADX project install, however

1) our users would like to run this as a standalone exe
2) the folder above contains only the exe and none of the dependant DLLs to run it.

Is it possible to be able to distribute it, and it's dependant DLL files into a directory under say C:\Program Files\etc.. as part of the same installer?

Thanks very much in advance for your help,
Rob
Posted 01 Sep, 2011 05:22:55 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Rob,

It looks like you use the CLickOnce installer for distributing the add-in on the end-user PCs. Am I right?

Please consider using the ClickTwice technology instead. It will allow you to bridge the gap and implement the required functionality. Please read more about this in the http://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2011/02/28/deploying-office-extensions-clicktwice/ article on our technical blog.
Posted 01 Sep, 2011 05:44:00 Top
Rob Sullivan




Posts: 42
 Joined: 2011-09-01
Eugene,

Thanks so much for getting back to me so quickly,

This is probably a really simple question - but when generating an installer for my dependant project (which works fine, thanks) is there any way to add a start menu, or shortcut? or even a batch file as a post install step to do the above?

Thanks very much in advance,
Rob
Posted 01 Sep, 2011 08:16:09 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Rob,

Sure. Using the ClickTwice technology you can add all these things to the MSI installer of your add-in.
Posted 01 Sep, 2011 08:47:24 Top
Rob Sullivan




Posts: 42
 Joined: 2011-09-01
Eugene,

Sorry - do you have any pointers to any guides on doing this?

Also is it possible to customise any of the installer images, like the banner, etc. they look a little "windows 3.1" (no offence) it would be nice to add a company logo ..etc.

Thanks,
Rob
Posted 01 Sep, 2011 08:50:19 Top
Rob Sullivan




Posts: 42
 Joined: 2011-09-01
Sorry Eugene - one more thing....

Is it possible to save the install directory somewhere, for eg into a config file/registry? (as part of the install process)

Our excel addin needs to be able to shell a new process, the binary being one of the items that's been installed, but I guess it's not possible to know until install time the path the user will install to.

Thanks again,
Rob
Posted 01 Sep, 2011 08:54:42 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Rob,

Please take a look at the http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/2kt85ked.aspx article in MSDN.

Is it possible to save the install directory somewhere, for eg into a config file/registry? (as part of the install process)


It looks like you need to add your own custom actions for the installer. You can read more about this in the http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d9k65z2d%28v=vs.80%29.aspx article.
Posted 01 Sep, 2011 10:08:41 Top