Update a WinForms-Application automatically (async)

Hello friends :)

I am trying to write a little application and, as I am only a student, i was wondering if someone maybe could help me with with some advices / tips to achieve the following:

On start, the desired program shall call a special function. That function looks onto a remote server (most likely it will be a NAS - network attached storage - with given username + password) if there is an update available. If yes, download & install it (including a display of the current progress) and restart program afterwards.

Having done some research, I found the following code snippet, hope it helps:

var webClient = new WebClient();
webClient.DownloadFileCompleted += new AsyncCompletedEventHandler(Completed);
webClient.DownloadProgressChanged += new DownloadProgressChangedEventHandler(ProgressChanged);
webClient.DownloadFileAsync("https://195.50.139.130:5001/FTP/KlingGastro Update/file.txt", "C:\\file.txt");

Please note: there is a blank character between KlingGastro and Update.

Furthermore the credentials are "KlingGastro" as username, please excuse that I will not post password due to security reasons. Lets say its "myPassword".

I think downloading is not going to be that big problem, I already found this tutorial:

https://ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/227/how-to-download-a-webfile-with-csharp-and-show-download-progress-synchronously-and-asynchronously

Rather the cancellation of the program by itself and the restart might could be difficult?

Sorry for all potential language faults in addition, hope it was nevertheless somehow understandable.

Would be really happy for every answer and help effort.

Best regards

Although you could reinvent the wheel again .... take a look into "Click-Once-Deployment" which does all the things you want.

2nd ... for downloading from a NAS having an UNC there is no need to use a WebClient - bc there is no Port 80 or 443 involved, neither HTTP - Protococols.

So I guess you should try to understand the fundamentals first before starting to dive deeper into networking.

For automatically log into anc UNC and Loggof afterwards you may use this:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
var uncShare = @"\\myServer\share";
using (var nc = new NetworkConnection(uncShare, new NetworkCredential()
{
Domain = "myDomain", // optional
UserName = "myUserNamen",
Password = "myPassword"
}))
{
var files = Directory.GetFiles(uncShare);
}
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
}
}
public class NetworkConnection : IDisposable
{
string _networkName;
public NetworkConnection(string networkName, NetworkCredential credentials)
{
_networkName = networkName;
var netResource = new NetResource()
{
Scope = ResourceScope.GlobalNetwork,
ResourceType = ResourceType.Disk,
DisplayType = ResourceDisplaytype.Share,
RemoteName = networkName
};
var userName = string.IsNullOrEmpty(credentials.Domain)
? credentials.UserName
: $@"{credentials.Domain}\{credentials.UserName}";
var result = WNetAddConnection2(
netResource,
credentials.Password,
userName,
0);
if (result != 0)
{
throw new Win32Exception(result);
}
}
~NetworkConnection()
{
Dispose(false);
}
public void Dispose()
{
Dispose(true);
GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
}
protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
WNetCancelConnection2(_networkName, 0, true);
}
[DllImport("mpr.dll")]
private static extern int WNetAddConnection2(NetResource netResource, string password, string username, int flags);
[DllImport("mpr.dll")]
private static extern int WNetCancelConnection2(string name, int flags, bool force);
}
[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public class NetResource
{
public ResourceScope Scope;
public ResourceType ResourceType;
public ResourceDisplaytype DisplayType;
public int Usage;
public string LocalName;
public string RemoteName;
public string Comment;
public string Provider;
}
public enum ResourceScope : int
{
Connected = 1,
GlobalNetwork,
Remembered,
Recent,
Context
};
public enum ResourceType : int
{
Any = 0,
Disk = 1,
Print = 2,
Reserved = 8,
}
public enum ResourceDisplaytype : int
{
Generic = 0x0,
Domain = 0x01,
Server = 0x02,
Share = 0x03,
File = 0x04,
Group = 0x05,
Network = 0x06,
Root = 0x07,
Shareadmin = 0x08,
Directory = 0x09,
Tree = 0x0a,
Ndscontainer = 0x0b
}

1 Reply

Know the answer? Post it — somebody with the same question will find it here.

Mario Scheeren5y ago
Although you could reinvent the wheel again .... take a look into "Click-Once-Deployment" which does all the things you want.

2nd ... for downloading from a NAS having an UNC there is no need to use a WebClient - bc there is no Port 80 or 443 involved, neither HTTP - Protococols.

So I guess you should try to understand the fundamentals first before starting to dive deeper into networking.

For automatically log into anc UNC and Loggof afterwards you may use this:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    try
    {
        var uncShare = @"\\myServer\share";

        using (var nc = new NetworkConnection(uncShare, new NetworkCredential()
        {
            Domain = "myDomain", // optional
            UserName = "myUserNamen",
            Password = "myPassword"
        }))
        {
            var files = Directory.GetFiles(uncShare);
        }

    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
    }
}

public class NetworkConnection : IDisposable
{
    string _networkName;

    public NetworkConnection(string networkName, NetworkCredential credentials)
    {
        _networkName = networkName;

        var netResource = new NetResource()
        {
            Scope = ResourceScope.GlobalNetwork,
            ResourceType = ResourceType.Disk,
            DisplayType = ResourceDisplaytype.Share,
            RemoteName = networkName
        };

        var userName = string.IsNullOrEmpty(credentials.Domain)
            ? credentials.UserName
            : $@"{credentials.Domain}\{credentials.UserName}";

        var result = WNetAddConnection2(
            netResource,
            credentials.Password,
            userName,
            0);

        if (result != 0)
        {
            throw new Win32Exception(result);
        }
    }

    ~NetworkConnection()
    {
        Dispose(false);
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        Dispose(true);
        GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
    }

    protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        WNetCancelConnection2(_networkName, 0, true);
    }

    [DllImport("mpr.dll")]
    private static extern int WNetAddConnection2(NetResource netResource, string password, string username, int flags);

    [DllImport("mpr.dll")]
    private static extern int WNetCancelConnection2(string name, int flags, bool force);
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
public class NetResource
{
    public ResourceScope Scope;
    public ResourceType ResourceType;
    public ResourceDisplaytype DisplayType;
    public int Usage;
    public string LocalName;
    public string RemoteName;
    public string Comment;
    public string Provider;
}

public enum ResourceScope : int
{
    Connected = 1,
    GlobalNetwork,
    Remembered,
    Recent,
    Context
};

public enum ResourceType : int
{
    Any = 0,
    Disk = 1,
    Print = 2,
    Reserved = 8,
}

public enum ResourceDisplaytype : int
{
    Generic = 0x0,
    Domain = 0x01,
    Server = 0x02,
    Share = 0x03,
    File = 0x04,
    Group = 0x05,
    Network = 0x06,
    Root = 0x07,
    Shareadmin = 0x08,
    Directory = 0x09,
    Tree = 0x0a,
    Ndscontainer = 0x0b
}
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