How do you publish a clickonce installer that includes .net installer and Auto-Update functionality?

Question

I am using TeamCity for a continuous integration server and am deploying my application using a ClickOnce installer. I can get the installer to function and deploy my application but I cannot figure out how to include the installer for .net 4.5 if the computer does not already have it installed or how to enable the auto-update check feature in ClickOnce deployments. I am currently using the MSBuild file below to build my installer

<Project DefaultTargets="DoPublish" ToolsVersion="4.0" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/developer/msbuild/2003">
  <Import Project="$(MSBuildExtensionsPath)\MSBuildCommunityTasks\MSBuild.Community.Tasks.Targets"/>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <Version>$(BUILD_NUMBER)</Version>
    <Install>true</Install>
    <InstallFrom>Unc</InstallFrom>
    <UpdateEnabled>true</UpdateEnabled>
    <UpdateMode>Background</UpdateMode>
    <ClickOnceBuildDirectory>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\MyProject\bin\$(Configuration)\app.publish</ClickOnceBuildDirectory>
    <ClickOnceInstallDirectory>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)\Publish</ClickOnceInstallDirectory>
    <ClickOnceFinalLocation>$(env_PublishUrl)</ClickOnceFinalLocation>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <Target Name="DoPublish">
    <RemoveDir Directories="$(ClickOnceInstallDirectory)" ContinueOnError="true" />
    <MSBuild Projects="MyProject.sln" Targets="Clean;Build" Properties="ApplicationVersion=$(Version);Configuration=$(Configuration)"/>
    <MSBuild Projects="MyProject\MyProject.csproj" Targets="Publish" Properties="ApplicationVersion=$(Version);Configuration=$(Configuration);InstallUrl=$(ClickOnceFinalLocation)" />
    <MakeDir Directories="$(ClickOnceInstallDirectory)"/>    
    <Exec Command="xcopy /E $(ClickOnceBuildDirectory) $(ClickOnceInstallDirectory)" />    
  </Target>  
</Project>

Answer 1

You can use a bootstrapper to handle prerequisites like checking for the .NET Framework. Check the Application Deployment Prerequisites MSDN article, especially the sections about bootstrapping with ClickOnce and MSBuild.

There are also 2 more MSDN articles that detail how to install ClickOnce prerequisites and Creating bootstrapper packages.

As for auto-updates, do you want to locate the auto-update functionality outside the application itself, i.e., in an installer vs. in the application? There are several ways to allow ClickOnce updates in your application, including auto-updates via the ClickOnce Deployment API.

A brief explanation of using ClickOnce Bootstrapper packages can be found in this existing Stackoverflow article. Though you're not using WiX here, you can also check this this WiX thread, which is useful because you see some of the steps that didn't work along the way. These examples show the use of the GenerateBootstrapper MSBuild task to create the bootstrapper for the ClickOnce installer. Note that in the examples at the above links, the "Path" in the GenerateBootstrapper task is set to a subfolder under a Windows SDK location. This can be changed to another location, as long as that location has the necessary prerequisite packages.

Below is an example in which the .NET 4.5 Framework is set as a prerequisite for the install. The parent directory structure for the .NET 4.5 prerequisite is specified by the $(MyPathToPrerequisitePackages) property.

The BootstrapperFile item in the below example specifies the .NET 4.5 Framework prerequisite package. The value ".NETFramework,Version=v4.5" comes from the product.xml file in the Bootstrapper\Packages\DotNetFX45 folder, and allows the GenerateBootstrapper task to correctly identify the .NET 4.5 prerequisite/bootstrapper package. The "ProductName" value is simply a friendly description of the package.

<PropertyGroup>
  <MyPathToPrerequisitePackages>C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v8.0A\Bootstrapper</MyPathToPrerequisitePackages>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
  <BootstrapperFile Include=".NETFramework,Version=v4.5">
    <ProductName>.NET Framework 4.5</ProductName>
  </BootstrapperFile>
</ItemGroup>
<GenerateBootstrapper 
  ApplicationFile="$(MyAppAssembly).application"
  ApplicationUrl="$(MyClickOnceAppUrl)"
  ApplicationName="$(MyClickOnceAppName)"
  BootstrapperItems="@(BootstrapperFile)"
  Culture="en"
  FallbackCulture="en-US"
  CopyComponents="true"
  Validate="false"
  Path="$(MyPathToPrerequisitePackages)"
  SupportUrl="$(MyAppSupportUrl)"
  OutputPath="$(MyDesiredOutputPath)\" />