RE: [stellation-res] Installation requirements

["Jonathan Gossage" <jgossage@xxxxxxxx>]

> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >[mailto:stellation-res-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Jim Wright -
> >IBM Research
> >Sent: January 15, 2003 6:03 PM
> >To: stellation-res@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >Subject: Re: [stellation-res] Installation requirements
> >
> >
> >John,
> >
> >Mark has asked me to look into the Windows installation puzzle, since (of
> >the three of us here) I'm the most familiar with Windows.
> >
> >This may be completely lame, but bear with me.
> >
> >Assume we give up on the notion of a totally portable installer.  The
> >differences between Windows and Linux installs is pretty
> >significant (esp.
> >for Stellation servers).  It's probably a lot easier to factor out the
> >platform-neutral parts (Stellation jars) from the platform-specific
> >installation scripts.
> >
> >Would it be reasonable to:
> >a) pack all the redistributables into one or more
> >self-extracting Jar files
> >b) Use a WSH (Windows Scripting Host) script to do the
> >Windows-specific parts:
> >         - Display Welcome screen; prompt for acceptance of license terms
> >         - Prompt for install location
> >         - Unpack the jars
> >         - Register runtime client and/or server components as needed
> >         - Add desktop and/or Start Menu shortcuts, if desired.
> >
> >c) Use a complementary script to uninstall Stellation (invoked
> >from Start
> >Menu shortcut;
> >     provided with installation-specific details (paths, components
> >installed) from Registry
> >     entries made during installation.
> >
> >Admittedly, this is hardly bulletproof, and a bit kludgy.  However, I did
> >something fairly similar with WSH about a year ago (installing
> >some PDFTool
> >components I built), and I believe all the tasks listed above can be
> >accomplished using WSH (and without installing Ant -- at worst,
> >the end user
> >might have to get the latest version of WSH from Microsoft, about a 750K
> >download).
> >
> >Note: I'm assuming that installation of Firebird (or another db)
> >is outside
> >the scope of the WSH-based Stellation install.  We should
> >certainly provide
> >installation instructions:
> >* Install Firebird first (here's how)
> >* When Firebird is running, install Stellation
> >    - Download/Install WSH if necessary (get .exe from MS and run it)
> >    - Download/Install Stellation (download jar(s) and a couple
> >of scripts;
> >      run the scripts, answer the prompts and you're done)
> >
> >This way, the Linux jocks can make beautiful Penguin-oriented scripts
> >without having to learn about Redmond rituals, and vice versa;
> >everyone can
> >use the same set of Stellation deliverables from within their
> >installation
> >incantations; and happiness should reign.
> >
> >I think this approach should work for a no-frills installation;
> >if someone
> >wants to build a better installer later, they're more than welcome too.
> >
> >Comments ?
> >
> >- Jim
> >

I have fouund a open source cross-platform Java installer that looks as if
it might come very close to meeting our needs and, since it is open source,
we can tweak it if necessary.

Take a look at

 http://sourceforge.net/projects/vainstall/

and see what you think. I havn't done anything about it yet because I had a
number of other things I wanted to complete first.

BTW I also have a Windows service launcher that we can use to launch
Stellation as a Windows server.It is also open source and we use it at work
for our products.

Regards

Jonathan

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