ArcGIS standalone application deployment

Question

I'm trying to build a deployment for a ArcGIS standalone application. I'm using ArcGIS 10 Engine controls in a WPF application with desktop and spatial analysis license. I'm using classes that only belong to desktop (IGxDialog, ...) and also engine controls (AxTOCControl, AxMapControl, ...) I followed the example of ESRI for creating deployment for engine applications The problem is installing runtime is not enough, but if i install the application on a pc that include an installation of ArcGIS desktop it works fine.

Now I need to build a complete installation that includes both desktop and engine DLLs without installing ArcGIS desktop, and I don't know how that can be accomplished any suggestions???

Answer 1

Because you have classes that only belong to desktop (IGxDialog, ...), Installation of Desktop is a must do. furthurmore you need an ArcGIS Desktop (engine will not be enough) license to initialize your application.

You can do some hacking to pack Desktop dlls with your application, but that is a violation of ESRI terms. Esri indicates that if there are any dependency upon Deskotp dlls, the Desktop itself must be installed. The same is true about Engine. for deploying an ArcEngine Application, its Run-Time must be installed and the dlls must not redistributed without esri products installation.

Suggestions:

• If you are developing an ArcEngine APP, remove dependacy to Desktop dlls.

• If you can write your application as an Desktop addin, do it because its the simplest way of developing with ArcObjects

Answer 2

your application cannot be stand alone, at least in my experience with ArcObjects, it became something really cumbersome trying to pack Alllllllllll the dlls that the library requires(not only the managed ones, it requires the ones in C++), moreover the registry entries that must be created to be able to use them.

You must set as a pre-requisite of you application that the client MUST have installed ArcEngine or ArcGIS Desktop (it depends the scope of your application) in the target pc, furthermore it must have a valid license of the components that your application use.

Lets be clear, if you are using ArcObjects (I assume that's true, because you are using AxTOCControl), you will require ArcGIS products in your machine in order to be able to run your application.

In other hand, if you really, really want an stand alone application, you should start looking to develop your app using the ArcGIS Runtime SDK for WPF or ArcGIS Runtime SDK .NET (two different products, the first one reach its last version, the second one is the next generation).