How do I install multiple clickonce(online only) apps from one clickOnce app? Preferably silently because i don't want a prompt for each installing app

Enkhbold Munkhbold 136

My company has several ClickOnce(online only) apps that are actively in use and my job is to make an app that installs the necessary apps from one location(my app). All of which run from our local intranet server.

I have found a way to silently install these apps using InPlaceHostingManager and specifying which apps were chosen in the code-behind and then choosing their '.application' files. And it seems to work fine on my test environment.
But doesn't seem to work on the actual server. (I think it might be because it's only running the .application file and can't work without the setup.exe)

So then to install these apps when the users click "install" how do I install these apps as if they were installed individually from the ClickOnce created publish.html page?

I don't think InPlaceHostingManager can install .exe files so how should I install these apps?

DaisyTian-1203 11,616 Reputation points

2020-07-29T02:08:09.79+00:00

Are all apps WPF application?Did you meet any error message when you deploy the apps in server with InPlaceHostingManager? If you want to install multiple applications at the same time, could you consider creating a new bootloader and downloading and installing other applications within it?
Enkhbold Munkhbold 136 Reputation points

2020-07-29T06:10:11.517+00:00

All apps are either WPF or a web app and all of them use the MVVM architecture and were deployed with ClickOnce.
Also, all the apps work on our local intranet server.
Currently, the users of our apps get their apps from the server like "http://mainserver:8081/apis/application1/publish.html" webpages that are deployed using ClickOnce and install the online-only apps from there. What I'm doing is more or less streamlining the installation of every single app from one place so it's more convenient and also we can add licensing to them.

InPlaceHostingManager can silently install using the .application file on my local test environment. but when I deploy my program and its called from a user's side, it can't seem to install it because it needs the setup.exe for its manifest or something.
Enkhbold Munkhbold 136 Reputation points

2020-07-29T06:10:28.323+00:00

using Process.Start("http://mainserver:8081/apis/application1/setup.exe"); seem to install fine but it prompts the user on every application installation.

I wanted to do something which will install the chosen apps as if it was installed from the publish.html page of every app but silently and only the user-chosen apps.

Currently thinking of using shell commands to silently install the setup.exe files without prompt. Is there some other better way to do this?
Enkhbold Munkhbold 136 Reputation points

2020-07-30T06:06:41.38+00:00

I've got the opportunity to test all of my install methods on the main server today.

And good news: InPlcaeHostingManager seems to do what I need it to do using the .application files created by the other apps, I have taken care of user selection and when to install on my code.

but now, I don't know why or how, but my app doesn't install right on the 1st try the error log says: "Strong name signature not valid for this assembly System.Management.Automation.dll." I deleted the code that was using PowerShell and removed the reference dll file but still gives this error.

And on the second try(When I press the run button on publish.html) it works fine.
What should I do to get rid of this error?

and thank you for your time.
DaisyTian-1203 11,616 Reputation points

2020-07-30T06:40:20.063+00:00

I'm glad that you successfully deployed apps. Do the two servers run in the same environment? After deleting the System.Management.Automation.dll, did you clean all the apps which related to Automation dll?
Enkhbold Munkhbold 136 Reputation points

2020-07-31T01:59:50.453+00:00

Not really two servers, I test locally on my own computer since I have to go through a lot of hurdles to access the main server, and it's much more efficient and easy for me to just test on my own.
There are some things I change before running my test code on actual user-computers but I think I have them under control.

And yes, I cleaned the entire solution and rebuilt it before deploying it again.
Enkhbold Munkhbold 136 Reputation points

2020-07-31T07:33:52.227+00:00

I used my code from a few days ago(before I tried using shell and other methods) and added the codes I made in the last few days little by little. And I'm happy to say that 1st startup error is not coming up anymore.

Sorry for wasting your time, I should have tried these methods before asking here. but at that time I could not figure out what to do for the life of me.

Accepted answer

Enkhbold Munkhbold 136 Reputation points

2020-07-31T07:45:51.5+00:00

Answer to the question I asked seems to be "InPlaceHostingManager" at least on intranet servers.
Because my App already asked for full trust before, the other apps can use that trust level and install silently(I followed how-tos from Microsoft Learn) using the .application files generated by ClickOnce.

PowerShell could also install silently but integrating it into my program was too much of a hassle for me.
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How do I install multiple clickonce(online only) apps from one clickOnce app? Preferably silently because i don't want a prompt for each installing app

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