Deploying with ClickOnce using IE and Firefox
ClickOnce applications can be deployed via the web using Internet Explorer
or (with .NET 3.5 SP1 and later) Firefox browsers. There are two primary types of
ClickOnce applications: those that are installed on the user’s machine (.application),
and those that run within the browser and are only available online (.xbap). This
article will discuss the deployment experience for each of these two ClickOnce
application types.
For installed ClickOnce applications, users typically go to a publish page (commonly named
publish.htm) to install the application. The publish page includes logic that will direct the
user to the correct setup package needed to run the ClickOnce application successfully. For
more information on the ClickOnce publish page, see How to: Specify a Publish Page for a
ClickOnce application
In Internet Explorer, when a user navigates to a .application, they are presented with a
prompt asking for their consent to run the application. If the user clicks ‘Run’ on the
prompt, the application will be installed and launched.
In Firefox, if .NET 3.5 SP1 or later is installed on the machine, a browser extension
called ".NET Framework Assistant 1.0" handles ClickOnce .applications. By
default, users will have the same deployment experience when the .application is launched
in Firefox as they have in Internet Explorer. However, in Firefox, the user can configure
the .NET Framework Assistant to display a prompt before the ClickOnce deployment engine
begins executing. If this option is selected, the user will need to accept one prompt,
shown in Figure 3 (below), in addition to the single prompt they must accept as in Internet
Explorer to launch the ClickOnce application.
WPF XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs) are accessed by the user by navigating to a URL with a
.xbap extension. The .NET Framework detects the absence of any prerequisites, and directs the
user to install the prerequisites before proceeding to run the application in the browser.
XBAP users have the same deployment experience whether the XBAP is run in Internet Explorer
or Firefox.
For more information on ClickOnce Deployment, see ClickOnce Deployment Overview,
Application Deployment Prerequisites, and
How To: Publish a ClickOnce application.
For more information on WPF XAML Browser Applications, see
Windows Presentation Foundation XAML Browser Applications Overview
Figure 1: WPF XAML Browser Applications (XBAPs) run in Firefox starting in .NET 3.5 RTM. [i]
Figure 2: The ClickOnce application launch experience is the same, by default, in Internet Explorer and Firefox. [ii]
Figure 3: Optional prompt displayed before running a ClickOnce application in Firefox v3
[i] http://www.asahiyamazoo-aict.jp/asahiyamazoo.xbap
[ii] http://www.asahiyamazoo-aict.jp/asahiyamazoo.xbap
