setup and

[msstrang]

Hey all,
I've just finished my first VB project (based on my 5000th VBA project) and hit this speed bump:

I want my setup file to deploy to "C:\SDG", but everything online says to do this I need to proceed the following way:

File - Add - New Project

Setup and Deployment submenu gives you six template choices:

Setup Project

I'm running VS2005 EXPRESS and do not see the Setup And Deployment submenu. Does this not exist for the EXPRESS version. What can I do?

 

[cjelec]

I don't think you do. You only get features like this with the full versions, which you have to buy.

 

[msstrang]

that's what i thought.
i thought maybe there would be a resource to download these templates somewhere out there?

does anyone know of such a resource?

 

[cjelec]

Do you know anyone with vs2005 pro?

If you do, you could ask them to create a setup project for you, then add it to you current project.

 

[msstrang]

no, but i found a way to create a setup project using sharpdevelop IDE.

now that i've created a setup project (in theory it works, i built it)i'm a little confused on how to get this setup project to load my existing project?

any advise?

 

[cjelec]

I have 2003 so I don't quite know what how 2005 lay out looks like,

In your Solution Explorer you have an item 'Solution ' + the name of you project. If you right click this to show the menu, you can Add > Existing Project. Select the project file ('.*proj'?) to add it to your current project. In theory you should now be able to add the files and settings to it.

I don't know if it will work with the one you've created, but its worth a shot.

 

[msstrang]

In express you can't add ".proj", only ".vbproj", which sharp develop does not saveas.

I did figure out how to deploy without having to buy the full price Visual Studio. It's only a bit complicated, the steps are as follows:

1. USING MICROSOFT VISUAL STUDIO EXPRESS DEPLOY YOUR MAIN PROJECT BY filemenu-build-publish
2. Specify a temporary location to publish.
3. Instal will be from CD or DVD-ROM
4. The application will not check for updated (just what I used for my app, may not HAVE to be this way)
5. Finish.

6. Close Visual Studio Express and open Sharp Develop 2.1 (free IDE)
7. Select New Solution
8. Setup-Setup Project
9. Set Focus on your project in the project tree on the left hand pane.
10. Select XML tree tab on bottom of screen, provide as much info as you can.

11. Go to your temporary location where you published your main project. Copy the folder in this location and paste it in the folder where your setup project is located.

12. Back in your setup project select "files.wxs", add the file information for all of the files you just added. ex
<File Id="crazy.ico" Name="crazy.ico" Source="tempProjfolder\crazy.ico"/>

13. Modify the "Directory" "Long Name" to be the folder name where you want your program to deploy.


That's it. Save and Build. Worked for me pretty good.