ClickOnce and Multiple Environments...

This is dedicated to the peeps that have been googlin' how to handle multiple environments and using ClickOnce.  When I mean multiple environments, you are deploying an application on multiple servers and in different environments, and the only difference are miniscule settings on the app.config file...

If you have:

- Multiple Instances of your ClickOnce app on Server 1

http://Server1/Development/MyApp.application

http://Server1/Test/MyApp.application

http://Server1/Production/MyApp.application

- Multiple Instances of your ClickOnce app on Server 1

http://Server2/Development/MyApp.application

http://Server2/Test/MyApp.application

http://Server2/Production/MyApp.application

With the setup above, all environments also have a manifest with the same name but just signed differently.

What's whacked is even though they are different applications when they download. What happens is the first one you download, will be the default app.config. This may sound crazy, but it's true... 

After some googlin' and spiking up some shizzle, I decided to new InitializeKISSMethod() (keep it simple stupid!). And ended coming up with a naming convention of [server].[environment].application and [server].[environment].manifest.  So it would looks like:

- Multiple Instances of your ClickOnce app on Server 1

http://Server1/Development/Server1.Development.application

http://Server1/Test/Server1.Test.application

http://Server1/Production/Server1.Production.application

- Multiple Instances of your ClickOnce app on Server 1

http://Server2/Development/Server2.Development.application

http://Server2/Test/Server2.Test.application

http://Server2/Production/Server2.Production.application

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So if you're a developer that is very depended on VS2005 (or 2008), this may be a lot of work! I would suggest automating this - will make your life ezed!

And remember, start with mageui.exe, then go all out with mage.exe.  You will get a better understanding what's happenin' when you are bustin' some serious ClickOnce nyahhhh.