Deploying Applications

After you've created an application, you can use Visual Basic to create a Windows Installer file—an .msi file—to install it. All you need to do is to transfer the .msi file to the target machine—a desktop, a notebook, or a Web server—and double-click it to install it, provided that the target machine supports the Windows Installer and the .NET framework so your application can function. You can create .msi installer files with Setup and Deployment projects in Visual Basic.

Let's see an example. In this case, I'll create an installer for an application named WonderApp, version 6.33, which you can see under design in Figure 25.12. When the user clicks the "Click Me" button, this application simply displays "Thank you for using WonderApp633!" in the text box, using this code:

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
    TextBox1.Text = "Thank you for using WonderApp633!"
End Sub

Figure 25.12: Designing WonderApp.

That's all there is to the WonderApp application. To create the executable file to distribute, select the Build|Build menu item now, building WonderApp.exe, which is the executable file we'll actually deploy.

Now we're ready to create an installer file for WonderApp, which I'll call WonderApp633.msi. To do that, select the File|Add Project|New Project menu item, opening the Add New Project dialog you see in Figure 25.13. Select the "Setup and Deployment Projects" icon in the Project Types box, and the Setup Wizard icon in the Templates box, as you see in the figure. The Setup Wizard lets you create deployment projects in the easiest possible way (although you also can create deployment projects directly, using the deployment project templates you see in Figure 25.13).

Figure 25.13: Creating a setup project.

Give the new project the name WonderApp633, as you see in Figure 25.13, and click OK to open the Setup Wizard, as you see in Figure 25.14.

Figure 25.14: The Setup Wizard, first pane.

Click Next to move to the second pane in the Wizard, as you see in Figure 25.15. As you can see in that figure, the Setup Wizard allows you to create different types of deployment projects, including those for Windows and Web applications.

Figure 25.15: The Setup Wizard, second pane.

In this case, select the "Create a setup for a Windows application" radio button, and click Next to open the third pane in the Setup Wizard, as you see in Figure 25.16. In this pane, you specify what you want to deploy. For example, you can deploy just the program itself, or the program and its source code, and so on. In this case, let's deploy the works—everything in the WonderApp application—by selecting all items, as you see in Figure 25.16.

Figure 25.16: The Setup Wizard, third pane.

Then click Next to go on to the fourth pane of the Setup Wizard, as you see in Figure 25.17. In this pane, you can include other files to be deployed, such as readme.txt files, licensing agreements, and so on.

Figure 25.17: The Setup Wizard, fourth pane.

We won't include any other files with the deployment package here, so just click Next to bring up the fifth pane of the Setup Wizard, as you see in Figure 25.18. This is the last pane of the Setup Wizard, so to create the installer file we'll use, click Finish.

Figure 25.18: The Setup Wizard, fifth and final pane.

When the setup project is created, select the Build|Build Solution menu item; this creates WonderApp633.msi for us, and that's the file you use to deploy WonderApp. To deploy the application, you copy WonderApp633.msi to the target machine. Double-clicking that file opens the Windows installer, as you see in Figure 25.19.

Figure 25.19: The Windows installer, first pane.

Click Next in the Windows installer to move on to its second pane, which lets you specify where to install the application, as you see in Figure 25.20.

Figure 25.20: The Windows installer, second pane.

Clicking Next installs the application, as you see in Figure 25.21.

Figure 25.21: Installing an application.

Now you can double-click the newly installed WonderApp.exe to run it, as you see in Figure 25.22.

Figure 25.22: Running the newly installed application.

And that's it—we've created an installation package and installed it. The process is similar for creating .msi files for Web applications—in that case, you select the "Create a setup for a Web application" option in the second pane of the Setup Wizard instead of the "Create a setup for a Windows application" option.

And now I'll turn to the Immediate Solutions section of the chapter for more details.