What is Mage and in what way is it useful?

Question

I keep seeing references to Mage, but I don't understand specifically what it does and why it's useful/popular. If someone could give a quick rundown of it, it would be much appreciated!

Thanks ~

Answer 1

Mitch Wheat gave a great answer, and if you're just starting out with Mage, read the last link he gives!

I wanted to share some real code to give others help with their ClickOnce projects. I've found that using MSBUILD from the command-line to "create" the deployment is perfect for an automated build process. I never execute the Publish wizard from Visual Studio. Although, I do specify just about all the information on the Publish Tab in VS, so that I don't have to do it from the command-line. For example, "Application Files" is something I don't know how to do on the command-line.

THEN after the application is succesfully deployed to the server... I use "Mage" as part of my migration of the ClickOnce deployment from one server to another (e.g. Testing->Staging->Production)

For example (A PowerShell script that builds your solution running from a CruiseControl job):

&"$Env:windir\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe" "C:\Projects\MyCoolApp.sln" /t:clean /t:publish /p:Configuration=Release /p:ApplicationRevision=$Env:CCNETLABEL /p:PublishDir="\\TestServer\MyCoolAppFolder/" /p:PublishUrl="\\TestServer\MyCoolAppFolder/"

Then later, when you want to migrate your ClickOnce Application from "TestServer" to "QAServer" or "Staging" or "Production"... you would need to write a complicated script to do that. Here's what I came up with:

#########################################################################################
# PowerShell Script to Migrate a ClickOnce Deployment from one server to another.
# This is my first attempt at PowerShell... pardon the bad or incorrect code. :-)
# To run a PowerShell script from CruiseControl.Net:
# http://www.cruisecontrolnet.org/projects/ccnet/wiki/PowerShell_Task
# NOTE: When doing the initial build, ensure that the ProviderURL and ProviderDir are set.
#########################################################################################

$SourceDir = "\\TestServer\MyCoolAppFolder"
$DestDir = "\\StagingServer\MyCoolAppFolder"
$DeploymentManifestName = "MyCoolApp.application"
$DeploymentDestUrl = "file://StagingServer/MyCoolAppFolder"

# If your application is one that connects to a database, then likely you want it to point 
# to a different database depending what environment it's been deployed to.
# I use a SQL Server connection for this example.
$ConnStringName = "MyCoolAppConnectionString"
$ConnStringValue = "data source=StagingServerInstance;Initial Catalog=MyCoolAppDB;persist security info=True;user id=Gregg;password=Gregg"

# Unfortunately, you *must* specify the publisher when doing Mage, even though you specified it
# when you did the original publish, otherwise Mage will change the Publisher value to the 
# name of your Application. A bug in Mage I suspect.
$Publisher = "Gregg Cleland" 

# Risk: This next line assumes that the pfx certificate file is readily available.
# Just be certain it's the same key you used when you published originally.
$AuthenticationKeyPath = "C:\Projects\MyCoolApp\MyCoolApp_TemporaryKey.pfx"

# Note: This references the .NET 3.5 version of mage... the .NET 4.0 version of mage.exe can be found at:
# C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\NETFX 4.0 Tools\mage.exe
$MAGE = "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\mage.exe"

#########################################################################################
# Start off at the source location.
Set-Location $SourceDir

#########################################################################################
# Get the application manifest directory name and application manifest file name.
[xml]$doc = Get-Content $DeploymentManifestName
$ns = New-Object Xml.XmlNamespaceManager $doc.NameTable
$ns.AddNamespace( "asmv1", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v1" )
$ns.AddNamespace( "asmv2", "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:asm.v2" )
$xpath = "/asmv1:assembly/asmv2:dependency/asmv2:dependentAssembly" 
$appManifestPath = $doc.SelectSingleNode( $xpath, $ns ).codebase # Example: = "Application Files\MyCoolApp_1_0_0_5\MyApp.exe.manifest"
$position = $appManifestPath.LastIndexOf('\');
$appManifestDir = $appManifestPath.SubString(0, $position); # Example: "Application Files\MyCoolApp_1_0_0_5"
$appManifestFile = $appManifestPath.SubString($position + 1); # Example: "MyCoolApp.exe.manifest"

#########################################################################################
# Copy the deployment files and the latest application files to destination.
# Note: Do not forget to ensure the CruiseControl Service Logon has permissions to write to destination!
# Todo: If robocopy fails, throw "robocopy failed!" Most likely it is an Error 5, Access Denied 
# b/c the CruiseControl Service logon account doesn't have permission to copy to create/write to destination.
$CurrentDir = "$DestDir\$appManifestDir"
robocopy "$SourceDir" "$DestDir" /XO
robocopy "$SourceDir\$appManifestDir" $CurrentDir /MIR /XO

#########################################################################################
# Now that we have copied the latest build, let us navigate down into the destination's
# application manifest directory and do some work.
Set-Location $CurrentDir

#########################################################################################
# Remove the .deploy extension from all files. (Mage will throw an exception if you don't do this)
Get-ChildItem -Include *.deploy -Recurse | Rename-Item -NewName { [System.IO.Path]::ChangeExtension($_.Name, "") }

#########################################################################################
# Modify the XML in the app.config file per your needs (e.g. change the connectionStrings)
[xml]$doc = Get-Content $AppConfigFileName

$node = $doc.SelectSingleNode("configuration/connectionStrings/add[@name='$ConnStringName']")
$node.connectionString = $ConnStringValue

$xmldocPath = $PWD.ProviderPath # hack to avoid getting the silly namespace prefixed to the path for UNC paths
$doc.Save("$xmldocPath\$AppConfigFileName") # For some reason, seems to require the fully qualified path

#########################################################################################
# Finally... We get to the part where we use MAGE!
# Use MAGE to update the application manifest hash and sign it.
&"$MAGE" -Update $appManifestFile -FromDirectory "$CurrentDir" -CertFile $AuthenticationKeyPath

#########################################################################################
# Re-Add the ".deploy" extension to all files EXCEPT those that end in "application" or 
# "manifest". Do this AFTER signing.
Get-ChildItem -Recurse | Where-Object { !$_.PSIsContainer -and !$_.Name.EndsWith(".application") -and !$_.Name.EndsWith(".manifest") } | Rename-Item -NewName { $_.Name + ".deploy" }

#########################################################################################
# Finally, go back up to the Deployment folder and update the deployment manifest
Set-Location "..\..\"
&"$MAGE" -Update $DeploymentManifestName -ProviderUrl "$DeploymentDestUrl/$DeploymentManifestName" -AppManifest "$appManifestPath" -Publisher $Publisher -CertFile $AuthenticationKeyPath