So, Visual Studio 2008 SP1 came out the other day, and with it brought .net 3.5 SP1. I’ll leave you to read the shiny new features and what it brings from elsewhere. The purpose of this post is to deal with the failure to update or install certain ClickOnce applications.
With ClickOnce being a under-advertised feature of the .net framework, nobody really published a changelog of what’s new in it. I’ve managed to dig this up though, as it became quite necessary to fix the above error. So I’ll refer you to this link which contains some hints.
ClickOnce supports the following new features:
- Suite Name: Your applications can now have sub folders on the start menu
- Error URL: Not used this one specifically, but I’m guessing when something goes wrong during deployment your users can be directed to this URL
- Creating Desktop Shortcuts: Fairly self explanatory
- Excluding a file from having a hash generated: Means that this file won’t have it’s download verified
- Clear Sign the package: Means that anyone will be able to update your app without having your private key (snk file)
So if you use any of those features, your users will require .net 3.5 sp1 installed on their computers. However, instead of prompting them with this useful message, they will receive an error telling them that System.Data.Entity cannot be found.
You can get round this by either not using the new features, or by marking .net 3.5 sp1 as a pre-requisite in your ClickOnce manifests