Allow apps to access ClickOnce deployment properties

[NikolaMilosavljevic]

Fixes: #53

Launcher is being extended to share ClickOnce ApplicationDeployment properties with the application being launched (.NET based). Properties are shared via Environment variables.

Variable names closely match old ClickOnce ApplicationDeployment class: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.deployment.application.applicationdeployment?view=netframework-4.8

New environment variables use the same name as old ones, with addition of ClickOnce_ prefix:

ClickOnce_IsNetworkDeployed
ClickOnce_ActivationUri
ClickOnce_CurrentVersion
ClickOnce_DataDirectory
ClickOnce_IsFirstRun
ClickOnce_TimeOfLastUpdateCheck
ClickOnce_UpdatedApplicationFullName
ClickOnce_UpdatedVersion
ClickOnce_UpdateLocation

New property is being added, for Launcher version:

ClickOnce_LauncherVersion

.NET application, launched by new Launcher, can use these properties directly, or indirectly.

Direct use would look like the following:

NameValueCollection nameValueTable = new NameValueCollection();
if (Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ClickOnce_IsNetworkDeployed")?.ToLower() == "true")
{
    string value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("ClickOnce_ActivationUri");
    Uri activationUri = string.IsNullOrEmpty(value) ? null : new Uri(value);
    if (activationUri != null)
    {
        nameValueTable = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(activationUri.Query);
        Console.WriteLine("Query string: " + activationUri.Query);
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

Indirect usage would require implementation of a new ApplicationDeployment class, at application level, that could abstract reading of environment variables and provide experience that is very similar to old .NET FX class.

A sample implementation of this class is shared as ApplicationDeployment.cs in this PR (under Documentation/dotnet-mage folder).

With addition of this class, sample usage becomes:

NameValueCollection nameValueTable = new NameValueCollection();
if (ApplicationDeployment.IsNetworkDeployed)
{
    ApplicationDeployment ad = ApplicationDeployment.CurrentDeployment;
    if (ad.ActivationUri != null)
    {
        nameValueTable = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(ad.ActivationUri.Query);
    }
}

This PR also adds a new switch to dotnet-mage, -TrustURLParameters (or (-tu). This allows developer to set the required deployment attribute using dotnet-mage tool. This is an improvement over old Mage tool, which did not support this functionality and required developer to manually modify application manifest to add trustURLParameters attribute, like this: <deployment install="true" trustURLParameters="true">

trustURLParameters need to be set to true in order for application to have access to ActivationUri and the URL parameters.

[nzain]

Great to see some love for click once... Is there a chance to tackle #113 (click once file associations)? Is it possible to hijack the ClickOnce_ActivationUri to somehow detect file association arguments?

[NikolaMilosavljevic]

Great to see some love for click once... Is there a chance to tackle #113 (click once file associations)? Is it possible to hijack the ClickOnce_ActivationUri to somehow detect file association arguments?

Thanks @nzain - we plan to look at few other issues after this one is merged, one of those is the file-association issue you referred to.

Current change for deployment properties and URL parameters was straightforward, well understood and prioritized.

[sujitnayak]

Some of these ToStrings appear unnecessary for string properties.

[billybednar]

I'd suggest using the round-trip format (O) rather than the default culture-specific format to preserve timezone and sub-seconds (assuming they are present).

[SilentBlueD666]

What mage tool version was this released in? Currently we use version 6.0.1.

[SwedishBobby]

How can I view the dotnet mage version?
And where does it install?

[heku]

I find there is a difference between .NET 4.8 and .NET 6/7. If you have app .setting file in your clickonce app.

• In .NET 4.8, the file was installed to AppData\Local\Apps\2.0\Data\....\user.config, which is the clickonce DataDirectory
• In .NET 6/7, the file was installed to AppData\Local\<AppName>\...\user.config, but the ClickOnce_DataDirectory environment variable still gives me the legacy path.

I didn't find any doc explain this difference, not sure if this is a bug or something by design. If it's by design, may I know any benefit of it?

[mzxqv]

The old .NET Framework ClickOnce solution has a fully covered code example in the link:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/deployment/how-to-check-for-application-updates-programmatically-using-the-clickonce-deployment-api?view=vs-2022&tabs=csharp

Would it be possible to get a equal covered code example in a .NET based solution?
As it is now, I don't understand how to perform eg Update()?