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I've built an WPF application with visual studio 2008 and created an installer for it.Works fine so far.I realized it lacks the automatic updates feature, and after trying several solutions, i decided to give a try to clickonce deployment.After a successful deployment on a network server, i 've noticed that the application crashes after installation of the downloaded app.It complains about this:

Cannot create instance of 'Login' defined in assembly 'MyApplication, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'. Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. Error in markup file 'MyApplication;component/login.xaml' Line 1 Position 9.

here is the stacktrace

at System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException.ThrowException(String message, Exception innerException, Int32 lineNumber, Int32 linePosition, Uri baseUri, XamlObjectIds currentXamlObjectIds, XamlObjectIds contextXamlObjectIds, Type objectType)
at System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException.ThrowException(ParserContext parserContext, Int32 lineNumber, Int32 linePosition, String message, Exception innerException) at System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.ThrowExceptionWithLine(String message, Exception innerException)
at System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.CreateInstanceFromType(Type type, Int16 typeId, Boolean throwOnFail)
at System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.GetElementAndFlags(BamlElementStartRecord bamlElementStartRecord, Object& element, ReaderFlags& flags, Type& delayCreatedType, Int16& delayCreatedTypeId)
at System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.BaseReadElementStartRecord(BamlElementStartRecord bamlElementRecord)
at System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.ReadElementStartRecord(BamlElementStartRecord bamlElementRecord)
at System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.ReadRecord(BamlRecord bamlRecord)
at System.Windows.Markup.BamlRecordReader.Read(Boolean singleRecord)
at System.Windows.Markup.TreeBuilderBamlTranslator.ParseFragment()
at System.Windows.Markup.TreeBuilder.Parse()
at System.Windows.Markup.XamlReader.LoadBaml(Stream stream, ParserContext parserContext, Object parent, Boolean closeStream)
at System.Windows.Application.LoadBamlStreamWithSyncInfo(Stream stream, ParserContext pc)
at System.Windows.Application.LoadComponent(Uri resourceLocator, Boolean bSkipJournaledProperties)
at System.Windows.Application.DoStartup()
at System.Windows.Application.<.ctor>b__0(Object unused)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WrappedInvoke(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeImpl()
at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.InvokeInSecurityContext(Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.runTryCode(Object userData)
at System.Runtime.CompilerServices.RuntimeHelpers.ExecuteCodeWithGuaranteedCleanup(TryCode code, CleanupCode backoutCode, Object userData)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherOperation.Invoke()
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.ProcessQueue()
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WndProcHook(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
at MS.Win32.HwndWrapper.WndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam, Boolean& handled)
at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.DispatcherCallbackOperation(Object o)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.InternalRealCall(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
at System.Windows.Threading.ExceptionWrapper.TryCatchWhen(Object source, Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.WrappedInvoke(Delegate callback, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter, Delegate catchHandler)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.InvokeImpl(DispatcherPriority priority, TimeSpan timeout, Delegate method, Object args, Boolean isSingleParameter)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority priority, Delegate method, Object arg)
at MS.Win32.HwndSubclass.SubclassWndProc(IntPtr hwnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wParam, IntPtr lParam)
at MS.Win32.UnsafeNativeMethods.DispatchMessage(MSG& msg)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrameImpl(DispatcherFrame frame)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.PushFrame(DispatcherFrame frame)
at System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Run()
at System.Windows.Application.RunDispatcher(Object ignore)
at System.Windows.Application.RunInternal(Window window)
at System.Windows.Application.Run(Window window)
at System.Windows.Application.Run()
at myApplication.App.Main()

here is just the region the debugger is pointing to

<Window x:Class="MyApplication.Login"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    xmlns:src="clr-namespace:MyApplication"
    xmlns:UI="clr-namespace:UI;assembly=UI"
Title="My Application"  Height="400" Width="550" ResizeMode="NoResize" WindowStyle="ThreeDBorderWindow" WindowStartupLocation="CenterScreen" Name="Logine" Loaded="Logine_Loaded" Closed="Logine_Closed" Icon="orLogo.ico">

But the installer version as in the msi from setup project works fine.so i cannot see where the error is comming from since i can have design view.
Question 1 : Does any one have a similar issue, or is that a known issue?
Question 2 : If it's a known issue then what are alternative.I might give up on the clickonce but then i my automatic update feature will be lost (as in there is none which is not ovekill or seriously outdated that i can find right now).
thanks for reading this and for pointing me to the right direction.

black sensei
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  • XamlParseExceptions are usually caused by another exception that occurred during your window's constructor. Can you access the InnerException property of your exception and if so, what does it contain? – JustABill May 28 '10 at 13:10
  • ok `JustABIll` sorry for the late feedback from me.Actually you are right.It was a `null pointer exception` in the `ctor`.that's all i have in the innerException.Now that makes me bother to look at where the clickonce is installed.And based on `RobinDotNet` post i could have an idea on XP : `C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\assembly\dl3\GMR0THT4.V0C\1TGK7XE3.C5Z` and in there it is a mess.Multitude of folders.In fact one thing that can cause problems are images src and the sqlite db.I can't see the images folder nor the sqlite db.how? – black sensei May 31 '10 at 09:42

1 Answers1

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If you go to the ClickOnce cache and find the executable for your application and double-click on it, does it still fail? If so, then it is not a ClickOnce problem per se. It could be that you are missing some assembly in your deployment that is required. Or you are doing something that ClickOnce doesn't allow, such as accessing a folder that requires administrative privileges.

You can also try running it from your \bin\release folder after doing a build, but that won't tell you if you have an assembly on your machine that you're using that is not being deployed.

The ClickOnce cache on windows 7 (and vista) is here:
C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\obfuscatedfolder\obfuscatedfolder

From there, for a win forms app, it creates two folders, one called xxxx...exe_etc and one called xxxx...tion_etc... The one that starts with xxxx_tion (where xxxx = 1st four characters of your assembly name) is the one where the app is run from. I'm not sure if the folder names are the same for a WPF app, but hopefully they're not too different. The executable will only be in one folder. (And yes, you'd think it would be in the xxxx...exe_etc folder, but it's not.)

EDIT -- ADDED INFO

For the issue of missing images: Are they included in the project as files? If so, make sure the build action is 'content' and the 'copy to output directory' property is set to 'copy always'. Otherwise, it won't include them in the deployment.

For the database, same issue. It needs to be included in the project, and the properties must be set accordingly (set 'copy...' to 'copy if newer'). ALSO, open the Application Files dialog and see if it is marked as Include(Data). If it is, then it is being deployed to the Data directory. If you deploy it that way, when you publish a new version, it will copy the data forward to the new folders. You can find it programmatically using the ApplicationDeployment.DataDirectory property.

I generally don't recommend trusting your data to ClickOnce. If you deploy something as data, and the date/time stamp on your local version changes, ClickOnce will deploy the new version, and put the old version in a subfolder called .\pre. To me, this is dangerous, because you could modify the data accidentally. SQLCE changes the date/time stamp if you just open the database to look at the table structures. So I move the data and handle the updating of the database myself. If you want more information about this, check out my blog post on keeping your data safe from ClickOnce updates.

RobinDotNet
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