Problem with .application manifest, seems dependency/dependentAssembly/assemblyIdentity attribute version not updated consistently

Question

I've been struggling for quite some time trying to figure out why my clickonce install will sometimes update the application on the client computer and sometimes not.  I believe I have it narrow down to the attribute  "dependency/dependentAssembly/assemblyIdentity attribute version" as shown in the .application fie below.

It seems that the version number is not updating consistently (or at least in my universe).  Basically, if I publish directly to IIS using the PublishUrl as the localhost itself on my dev box, the version attribute gets updated everytime.  If I publish instead to a directory with msbuild (or even with vs directly) sometimes the attribute gets updated and sometimes not.  Below is my .application as well as a simple msbuild commandline that has the random behavior of sometimes updating and sometimes not.

msbuild proj1.csproj /target:publish /property:PublishUrl="d:\a" /property:ApplicationRevision=204 /property:ApplicationVersion="1.0.0.204"

I believe what I want to happen is the version below to always come out to version="1.0.0.204"

 

 

 <dependency>
  <dependentAssembly dependencyType="install" codebase="Application Files\ClickOnceFail_1_0_0_204\ClickOnceFail.exe.manifest" size="7661">
   <assemblyIdentity name="ClickOnceFail.exe" version="1.0.0.111" publicKeyToken="19dc826e220b6301" language="neutral" processorArchitecture="x86" type="win32" />
   <hash>
    <dsig:Transforms>
     <dsig:Transform Algorithm="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:HashTransforms.Identity" />
    </dsig:Transforms>
    <dsig:DigestMethod Algorithm="http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#sha1" />
    <dsig:DigestValue>eRX2gyZi3Gi49EsvbsYz9ksr6h8=</dsig:DigestValue>
   </hash>
  </dependentAssembly>

 

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Peter Kellner http://peterkellner.net Microsoft MVP • ASPInsider

Answer 1

The problem appears to be that in msbuild /target:publish, the manifest is not being regenerated if the assembly is updated after a normal visual studio build/all.

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Peter Kellner http://peterkellner.net Microsoft MVP • ASPInsider

Answer 2

Hi pkellner,

MSBuild /target:publish does not have the build, assemble actions. So it does not generate the manifest. For MSBuild, it defines three tasks we can use to generate a ClickOnce deployment, they are GenerateApplicationManifest, GenerateDeploymentManifest and GenerateBootstrapper. (for please refer to: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms171466.aspx) Please try to configure the MSBuild script and build to generate the Application Manifest and Depolyment Manifest.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,

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Bob Bao [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 3

I'm still a little confused.  I think the root of my problem is that I have a step in my build process where I obfuscate my assemblies.  Essentially, after I've done a full rebuild of my project, I have a process that obfuscates in place all the exe and dll's in my bin/release directory.  At this point, I want publish to pick up those files and push them to a clickonce location.  Will this work?   I don't want  msbuild ../target:publish to attempt to generate a new binaries because it will overwrite my obfuscated ones.

Am I thinking about this correctly? I'm new to this and don't really grock the complete build process, what gets hashed, etc. so please correct me if I'm wrong or suggest a better way.  The goal is to get my obfuscated assemblies in my clickone deployment (including my .exe)

thanks.

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Peter Kellner http://peterkellner.net Microsoft MVP • ASPInsider

Answer 4

Hi Bob,

I've successfully generated the application and deployment manifests following the above articles.  I'm a little lost on how to create the Bootstrapper.  Is there a way to get the syntax out of visual studio 2010 for how it created the bootstrapper?  Any pointers would be appreciated.

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Peter Kellner http://peterkellner.net Microsoft MVP • ASPInsider

Answer 5

Hi pkellner,

Please take a look at the following blog: http://codeprairie.net/blogs/chrisortman/archive/2008/04/16/using-msbuild-to-create-a-bootstrapper-for-you-installer.aspx and this project may help you on generating the Bootstrapper: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/bmg

Sincerely,

---

Bob Bao [MSFT]
MSDN Community Support | Feedback to us
Get or Request Code Sample from Microsoft
Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 6

Have you found a way to update the assembly identity version? I've also tried setting the property from the command line using /property:ApplicationVersion = x.x.x.x with no success. Thanks!