ClickOnce Apps Directory Structure
Stewart Berman
names are generated?
I built a simple ClickOnce application with one form, an icon and a few classes. The installation
created a directory structure with the following.
An empty directory. That is the lowest level directory on the path did not contain any files.
A directory with an .ico and .config file.
A directory with an .exe file
A directory with the same .ico, .config, .exe as above and an additional four files.
Linda Liu[MSFT]
What's the version of Visual Studio you're using? The ClickOnce publish
folder structures of VS2005 and VS2008 are not same.
The Publish Directory Structure part of the following MSDN document
introduces the publish directory structor of VS2005:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480721.aspx#adminc_topic20
The following MSDN talks about the publish directory structure of VS2008:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc707910.aspx
Hope this helps.
If you have any question, please feel free to let me know.
Sincerely,
Linda Liu
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Stewart Berman
I am using VS2005.
>The Publish Directory Structure part of the following MSDN document
>introduces the publish directory structor of VS2005::
I am looking for information on the ClickOnce default installation directory structure not the
publish directory structure. I see the same files (icon, configuration and executable) in two
directories and I want to understand why.
Linda Liu[MSFT]
Thank you for your prompt reply!
The installation directory structure is the same as the publish directory
structure.
How do you publish the ClickOnce application?
If you publish within Visual Studio 2005, the publish/installation
directory structure should be what is described in the
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa480721.aspx#adminc_topic20.
Stewart Berman
This was created as a vb.net 2005 solution with one project with one application.
There is absolutely no relationship between the directory structure on the web site I published to
and the installation directories on a machine that installed via the published web site.
The published web site has:
application name\
with the following files under it:
setup.exe
application name_major_minor_buld_revision.application
application name.application
publish.htm
application name_major_minor_buld_revision\
with the following files under it:
icon name.ICO.deploy
application name.exe.config.deploy
application name.exe.deploy
application name.exe.manifest
There were no ClickOnce applications installed on the test machine before this one. The ClickOnce
application created (under the ..\local settings\apps\2.0\ directory):
Data\
5MZTD7YN.WZP\LN95ZK9L.54V\
sabb..tion_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_e5ebe96eff2a1d2c\
Data\
1.0.3471.41962\
user.config
XOOJ71X5.NXD\
TYZBEX0T.LRT\
manifests\
with the following files under it:
sabb...exe_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_b5c39952d5cb1fbe.cdf-ms
sabb...exe_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_b5c39952d5cb1fbe.manifest
sabb..show_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_329f5e440f1aade0.cdf-ms
sabb..show_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_329f5e440f1aade0.manifest
sabb..tion_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_4421a3e61eac970f.cdf-ms
sabb..tion_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_4421a3e61eac970f.manifest
sabb...exe_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_b5c39952d5cb1fbe\
with the following files under it:
icon name.ico
application name.exe.config
sabb..show_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_none_329f5e440f1aade0\
with the following file under it:
application name.exe
sabb..tion_138c5e6214942aec_0001.0000_e5ebe96eff2a1d2c\
with the following files under it:
icon name.ICO
application name.cdf-ms
application name.exe
application name.exe.cdf-ms
application name.exe.config
application name.exe.manifest
application name.manifest
Is there any documentation on the installation machine's directory structure under ..\local
settings\apps\2.0? Why are there two identical copies of the application name.exe, icon name.ico
and application name.exe.config files?
v-l...@online.microsoft.com (Linda Liu[MSFT]) wrote:
Linda Liu[MSFT]
Hi Stewart,
Thank you for your detailed explanation. I undertand your question exactly
now.
Because the ClickOnce storage structure is considered private to the
implementation of ClickOnce, there's no detailed documentation of the
format other than this link on the ClickOnce cache:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/267k390a(VS.80).aspx.
There are also no plans to provide additional documentation of the store.
I will consult the issue in our internal discussion group for additional
details about the storage specifics.
As soon as I get a reply, I will update to you.
Stewart Berman
Are there supposed to be two copies of the executable and other files and if so why?
v-l...@online.microsoft.com (Linda Liu[MSFT]) wrote:
Linda Liu[MSFT]
Hi Stewart,
I got a reply to this issue. The following is the comment from our product
team:
Those files are single instanced through hard link, no extra disk space is
taken.
The reason for multiple copies are the way ClickOnce manages components of
an application. That actually help ClickOnce to share strong name signed
assemblies across different applications.
Hope this helps.
If you have any question, please feel free to let me know.
Sincerely,
Linda Liu[MSFT]
I'm reviewing this post in the newsgroup and would like to know the status
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Stewart Berman
ClickOnce applications is considered a proprietary trade secrete by Microsoft considering that the
directories are on the end user's machine. The duplicate hard links will undoubtedly lead to one of
them being deleted during a scan for duplicate files unless there is some rational reason for them.
v-l...@online.microsoft.com (Linda Liu[MSFT]) wrote:
Linda Liu[MSFT]
Thank you for your reply!
> I am still a little confused about why the logic behind the directory
structure of installed ClickOnce applications is considered a proprietary
trade secrete by Microsoft considering that the directories are on the end
user's machine.
The ClickOnce Isolated Storage is designed to be transparent to users in
order to prevent the users from running the installed executable from the
ClickOnce Isolated Storage directly. If an installed executable is run from
the ClickOnce Isolated Storage directly, it only runs as a normal
application and can't make use of ClickOnce functionality.
If you have any question, please feel free to let me know.
Sincerely,