We were just discussing this. Too bad the archives of this mailing list are
inoperable.
Here's my post from Monday:
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The "wizard" or stub installer is a native application on each platform. C++ I
think. It's purpose is to provide the essential components of a working
application with http/ftp functions and nothing more. The binary itself is
quite small - around .5 mb on Windows including an exe & dll. But the other
half of the answer is that all of the installer related functions are built in
to shared library files, written in javascript I believe. This set of
libraries are a downloadable component seperate from the stub itself, which
means you can often update the installer without updating the stub.
The basic method you'll use to build an installer is pretty easy, if
undocumented. Essentially, you modify the config.ini to use your own values,
and within the config.ini describe the components of the installation you want
the installer to handle. A component can be one or more files. Once you have
the components described, you list them within installer "types", such as
"Full", "Minimim", "Custom", etc.
You then create your components. It is usually a matter of placing your
component files within a folder structure:
\
\install.js
\bin
\bin\myfile1.exe
\bin\myfile2.dll
etc.
The install.js file is a javascript file that tells the installer how to handle
the files. Usually it needs little modification except for file names,
versions, and size information, but apparently you can do some nifty things
with it that I've never needed to do.
When you have the file structure laid out, you just zip it up to retain the
folder structure, rename it from .zip to .xpi ("zippy"), and you're done.
What's really nifty (from my point of view) is that you, the developer, can have
a say in what the installer does even after the customer installs it - at least
for future installations. As a part of each of my installers, I make a
component that is the binaries of the installer stub itself, and another
"config" component that is the config.ini, install.ini, readme and license
files. In each of the installer types, I include the component that has the
config.ini. So each time my customer updates, they get a new set of
configuration files from my server, and the installer becomes a new version
that knows about new things. My customers never even have to open a web
browser to update their software, and certainly don't need to hunt all over my
support site looking for new versions, know how to unzip files, etc. I just
upload new .xpi's to the server and tell them to update using the update icon
in my application. Painless. I'm just bummed the Mac version was killed.
Have fun
Rob Brandt
Business Edge Software
http://www.businessedgesoftware.com
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Quoting Michael Seele <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
> this is not very tragically. importat are windows and linux!
> but can i use XPInstall as installer for my application? is it very hard
> to change it for my application?
> please give me some infos!!!
>
> Andrew Schultz schrieb am 24.03.2004 16:01:
>
> > Michael Seele wrote:
> >
> >> hi,
> >>
> >> i need a good cross-platform(windows, linux and maybe mac) installer
> >> that i can us to create executable setup files of my application!
> >> i've heard some realy interesting things about XPInstall. one of that
> >> was that i can use XPInstall as "cross-platform installer"-creator
> >> for every application i want! is that true? how must i do that and
> >> what files do i need to use it? is there a tutorial in the web which
> >> shows me what i have to do to use XPInstall for me and my application?
> >
> >
> > there is no installer for Mac OSX. :(
> >
> > http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xpinstall/wizard/
> > (the Mac version on this page is Mac OS9)
> >
> _______________________________________________
> Mozilla-xpinstall mailing list
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> http://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/mozilla-xpinstall
>
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