> -----Original Message-----
> From: Trygve Laugstøl [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: December 3, 2006 4:18 PM
> To: [email protected]
> Subject: Re: [mojo-dev] On Appassembler features
[...]
> > It might be worth using something like IzPack
> > (http://www.izforge.com/izpack/) as a standard installer
> but you would
> > have to have a JRE to run it... I could even see writing custom
> > install panels for this, but thats a discussion for later.
>
> Ok, I see what you want now. I've specifically not added any
> installer concepts into the appassembler as I see the
> appassembler as something that would run before the assembly
> plugin and an installer plugin and that the generated files
> are something that would be installed like any other
> installable file along with the jar files.
Ahh... That sheds much light!
So appassembler would do things like define the application layout, generate
the launchers (like wrapper) and prepare things for assembly to bundle
them...
Hmm... Thats not a bad separation of responsibility and reduces the
complexity of any particular stage in the process.
I originally though the two should be tied together because a lot of the
installer portion of the build is defined by the layout and launcher
generation. For instance, I create an application that outputs a wrapper
config etc, now the installer has to know all about it to actually install
the service and presumably start it on install.
The two parts are very dependant on one another.
When I think of it, it doesn't have to be so tied together however... i.e.
if the app is assembled in target, the installer developer can then just use
the native installer application to generate an installer script and compile
the installer... A plugin could be developed that would simply call the
installer compiler on the user generated script (bout wouldn't require it).
In that model, the one thing I'm not sure about is the dynamic portion of
the installer script. For instance, I once built an installer using
InstallAnywhere and had to do some very funky things in order to update the
version information in the installer script itself. I also had to deal with
special cases where it was an upgrade rather than a new installation.
They are not trivial issues with a lot of installer applications, but at the
same time it would not be trivial to create a plugin that could cover
everything that an installer might have to do.
Anyone with thoughts on the installer/layout issue?
- Brill Pappin
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list please visit:
http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
