Application Release/Upgrade Strategyfor Silverlight Business Application?

Question

I am interesting in hearing if others have addressed release management for Silverlight applications.

I have a business application that is to be released shortly andam concerned about how to "release" updates to this application. Typically this application's users will leave the application open all day (and potentially all night) without reloading it.

What if there is is need to release an change that includes an web service interface change? How can this be deployed w/o causing errors on the client side?

We have grown so used to deploying ASP.Net apps by just dropping the latest code on the server. My only idea currently involves a client version number and a periodic timer on to check for updates.

I would love to know what others have done before implementing this.

Thanks, Mike

Answer 1

I just answered a question on how to make sure that .xap files are not cached by the browser, which might be of some help:
Prevent Silverlight xap from being cached by proxy server

But that's no use if the users never reload your application. In my own application this is not a problem since users will be automatically thrown out whenever we deploy an update to the web service. But I like your idea with the timer, I would go with that.