ClickOnce: Restore a Previous Version of an Application

Gary Pronych — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:37:09 GMT

As a standard, we use ClickOnce to deploy all of our applications.

I don't want to get into all the benefits as I have discussed some in a previous post.

To summarize my scenario, I do software development for a 24 x 7 x 365 manufacturing plant.
Our systems must always be online and we must provide after hours support.

This week, one of our developers deployed an update to his end users.
It was not until 7 PM that the end user determined there was a significant bug in the application that could cause a mill delay. (Bad!)
I was on call and I was not at all familiar with this application, luckily the developer notified the team of this update and the fixes included. The bug was a part of one of these fixes, so I knew I could rollback to the previous version so the end user can continue his job and this new bug can be resolved during the next business day.

As a developer, you may consider something like
'grabbing the source code for the previous version, build it, and deploy'; which can be time time consuming.
With ClickOnce, you have 2 easy to use options.

1) Change the Version on the Client
- Ask the end user (or remote control) to navigate to the CONTROL PANEL -> ADD REMOVE PROGRAMS
- Scroll down the list of applications until you find your application name, in my case it is called RSA
- Click Change/Remove
- You will then have two options
a) Restore the application to its previous state
b) Remove the application from this computer

Select a) and the previous build will become the current version.
The caveat is the user must use Start -> All Programs -> Your Application Folder -> Your Application Name <RSA> to load the previous version.
They must run the application from the install folder to get the newest update.

This option works for a single client and is a temporary solution, what if a permanant rolback is required?

2) Change the Current Application Version
You have likely published a number of version of your application so you ClickOnce publish folder may look like this.

You will see in this picture, there are a number of <ApplicationName>_<version>.application files as well as folders.
There is only 1 application with the name <ApplicationName>.application, in this my scenario it is called RSA.application.

My latest build is 1_1_0_14, to restore to 1_1_0_12 I need to follow these steps
- delete RSA.application
- Make a copy of RSA_1_1_0_12.application and rename it RSA.application

The next time a user of this application attempts to load their application, they will be notified of an update. Once they select OK, they will be rolled back to 1_1_0_12.

Hope this helps,
Gary Pronych

ClickOnce: Winforms Deployment - Part 1

Gary Pronych — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:27:07 GMT

Currently my client has a number of WinForm applications in development.
When it came time to deploy these solutions to end users in multiple facilities, discussions of xcopy installations started.

Xcopy is not the best solution; in the past it has been servicable to meet this requirement, today we have better options.

Some of the flaws of xcopy deployment include
- Network connectivity required: if the PC is off it will not get the update
- Installation Lists: You need to know which PC's have your software for when updates are available
- Versioning: Some clients may be running different versions which could damage your data integrity
- Dependencies: If your software requires any components, you will have to create an installer for each version

Since Visual Studio 2005, including 2008, there is a feature built-in feature know as ClickOnce.
It is my experience is that this 'out of the box' feature is under utilized or developers are not aware that this feature exists.

ClickOnce Provides:
- Automatic Update: The application 'calls home' to check for the newest version, clients are prompted to update their version
- Rollback: The client can rollback using Add/Remove; the developer can also make the adjustments using the published version

You can publish an application can be publish to
1) A URL
2) File location including on your network

I won't get into the specifics of the options; they are pretty straight forward and there are articles on how to use the publish wizard.

But what if you have to deploy and manage a legacy application, or a vendor provided application?

Managing Other Windows Applications using ClickOnce

After my client started seeing the benefits of ClickOnce, the next question was, 'Can I use this for my vendor provided applications?'.
This is actually very easy to implement.

1) Create a new Visual Studio project
2) Copy your vendor provided components into your project
3) Call the application executable in your code
<code>
namespace AppLauncher
{
   class Program
   {
      static void Main(string[] args)
      {
         Process.Start("LegacyApp.exe"); //put your executable name here
      }
   }
}
</code>
4) Publish the application with the above publishing wizard.

Anytime the vendor provides an update, overwrite the project files, increment the publish version and publish the update.
Next time your end user executes the Launcher application, they will be prompted to update their application.

We have used this strategy for deploying applications to less than 20 internal users and it has worked well.
We looked into options of creating a 'Whats New' message on first load; which is something we may still look into for the future.

In part 2 of this series, I will describe some troubleshooting and advanced details that will assist you with ClickOnce.

Forms Development

ClickOnce: Restore a Previous Version of an Application

ClickOnce: Winforms Deployment - Part 1

Managing Other Windows Applications using ClickOnce