Here's my current scenario which is specifically what i'd like to discuss as a case study, however I want this to be open enough to address other deployment practices for .NET projects.
I have a .NET WPF Application written to perform manufacturing functional tests. Currently this software is deployed by copying the executable and it's dependancies to the target system. The slave communications systems are installed similarly, but installutil needs to be used to register a WCF windows service. This is all being done manually. Furthermore, configuration files are being read from custom xml data sources that are local to the application folder. No app.config is being used.
I think we can all agree this scenario is sub-par, and definately fails to even come close to an ideal launch condition
My questions are as follows:
- What should be used for setup and deployment? Setup and Deployment Wizard? Click-Once Deployment?
- How should I go about automating the installation of the windows service? Best way to specify custom username/password for the afforementioned service?
- What should be done about configuration if mutable application folder storage is considered harmful, how should I go about this? Isolated Application Storage?
Article links for any of the above would be ideal.