Problem Deploying NI Measurement Studio App with DAQmx

[TrevorW]

I have an application that simply polls an NI-ENET-9421 for on/off state on each channel. The application records changes in a SQL Server database. It works perfectly on the devlopment PC.

NOTE: I use ClickOnce deployment and am very frustrated ClickOnce is not fully supported!

Have noted that, I added a project for the VS2010 installer. I see the shared library dependencies recognized appropriately (none of teh NI assemblies seem to be missing). I Build the project and run the setup.exe as an Administrator on a windows 7 64 bit machine - the application is 32-bit because it uses shared assemblies that require 32 bit. However, none of the NI assemblies are registered in the GAC (global assembly cache). I added a Global Assembly Cahce folder and manually added the NI assemblies and set the 'Register' property to 'vsdraCOM'. I still don't get the NI assemblies registered.

What am I doing wrong? Again, I use ClickOnce (and love, love, love it) so I am not used to the intracies of the VS2010 installer. Is there anyway to create a standalone installer that will register the assemblies? What do I need to do to get them running on the client PC? When I try to run the application, it never opens and the Event Log shows it could not find the NI files to load.

I am now installing the Windows 7 Framework 4 SDK on the client PC and am hoping that I can debug what's wrong. Hopefully, someone here knows what steps I need to perform in order to register the NI assemblies properly. I find the instructions to be vague and incomplete. 

BONUS POINTS if someone knows how to create a bootstrapper that I can add to the ClickOnce deployment!!! I often have to update the application as we add more and more features and I just love how ClickOnce auto-updates seamlessly on all the client PCs.

Thanks in advance for any and all support!

Here are some images showing what I did in VSD2010 - they may help:

[TrevorW]

Okay, I got my deployment to work by manually installing the DAQmx driver on the client computer. Is this normal? Shouldn't I be able to reference the assemblies in my project and have them load appropriately via my own installer?

BTW: I really want want these projects to work with ClickOnce. I develop in house applications that are constantly being upgraded and ClickOnce makes life REALLY, REALLY, easy.

[Jackie_B]

Hi Trevor,

I very much understand that ClickOnce makes life easier for you and that you want to continue to use this. Unfortunately, the reason ClickOnce is not supported is because ClickOnce does not allow installation to the Global Assembly Cache. Because of this, you will not be able to move over the necessary Measurement Studio and driver assemblies needed for your installer and you will have to install drivers and components onto the client machines. This is inherent in the ClickOnce program. Please refer to the following KnowledgeBase for documentation regarding this.

If you want to continue using the ClickOnce program, there is a workaround explained in the article where you can bootstrap an installer to the ClickOnce installer using Windows 2.0. There are several Windows resources that will explain how to bootstrap an installer.

I believe that it would be in your best interest to learn how to create a distribution with Measurement Studio. This will bring congruity to your process and will allow you to access the expertise of National Instruments if you run into any problems related to this. Please refer to the linked KnowledgeBase for clarification on how to create a distribution with Measurement Studio. This process should be relatively intuitive. I would recommend creating a simple project and practicing the installation for practice. I hope that this addresses your post and wish you luck in your project!

Regards,

Jackie