VS2010 Different publishing locations based on configuration

Question

I'm trying to divide my solution by three configurations:

1. Development

2. Testing

3. Release

All above will have different publishing location, so users can work with release, do their test in testing and see what is new in development release. All three versions will be build with different name postfixes and icons and installed on each user workstation.

For now I get :

Unable to install this application because an application with the same identity is already installed. To install this application, either modify the manifest version for this application or uninstall the preexisting application."

I can't even install this more than once at one workstation.

So What can I do to achive this?

Answer 1

You can not install the same application multiple times unless you change the deployment. The easiest way to do this is by changing the assembly name. This article explains this.

Answer 2

As time past, I can now see that the solution was quite close, just required me to be able to specify my requirements first.

So, now I can tell that it mostly depends on number of such configurations:

• if it is limited and low, i.e. live/test/dev, you can have each as separate project in solution, like AppLive, AppTest, AppDev, this requires refactoring to move everything that is common into separate projects, but it makes code and releases clearer and easier to manage.

• if those configurations are unlimited, or number is high, than way to go is to load configurations from file and pick one from the pool based on custom logic.

Currently I'm using mix of both, as I want to be able to release test versions earlier than live, but also my application is used by multiple branches, and each of them has some unique styling, logos and such, so this is applied from embed xml file, and proper set is identified based on Active Directory entries.