GlassFish Wiki : OpenInstallerDeveloperToolsNBSuiteInstallerBuilderFAQ

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<h2>
Netbeans Application Installer
Generator FAQ
</h2>

Plugin and its usage

<ol>
<li>
<a href="#WhatIsNBSuiteInstallerBuilder" name="WhatIsNBSuiteInstallerBuilder" id=
"WhatIsNBSuiteInstallerBuilder">What is
Netbeans Application Installer Generator</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#where-download">Where can
I download/update this plugin</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#sys-requirements-plugin">What
are the system requirements</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#howto-steps">How to create an
installer for my NB suite application</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#what-actually-happens">What
actually happens during installer generation</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#where-is-generated-installer">Where can I find the generated
installer</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#what-is-other-zipfile">What is
the other zip file which is generated along the installer zip file</a>?
</li>
</ol>




Installer related

<ol>
<li>
<a href="#distribution-mechanism">What is
the distribution mechanism that I can use to distribute the installer</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#sys-requirements-for-installer">What are the system requirements for the target
machines to run the generated installer</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#which-java-for-running-installer">How do I select which JDK to use for running
the installer</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#does-plugin-configures-jdkhome">Does this installer configures jdkhome for my suite
application during installation</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#customize-installer">I want to customize the generated installer.
How can I</a> ?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#report-issues-feedback">Where
to report issues, suggestions and feedback</a>?
</li>
</ol>




Plugin project

<ol>
<li>
<a href="#state-of-pligin-project">What
is the state of this Plugin project</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#connection-between-openInstaller-plugin">What is the connection between this plugin and
openInstaller.org</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#homepage-of-plugin">Where's the
home page for the Plugin project</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#more-info-on-plugin">Where can
I look for more information</a>?
</li>
<li>
<a href="#plugin-sources">Where are the
sources</a>?
</li>
</ol>






<hr width="85%">




Plugin and its usage

<ol>
<li>
<a name="WhatIsNBSuiteInstallerBuilder" id="WhatIsNBSuiteInstallerBuilder">What is</a> Netbeans Application
Installer Generator? 
 Its a Netbeans plugin (or a module as its called
alternatively) that creates installers for Netbeans Module suite applications. This
plugin enhances the Netbeans module developer support (apisupport) by adding the installer
generation capability right into the IDE. The generated installer supports multiple
platforms and is multi-home enabled (multiple installations on a system), extendable and
customizable. The installer during the installation will not clutter the user home folder
with any data. All data is persisted in the installation directory. So this makes cleaning
up easy.. just blow up the installation directory and the system is clean and ready for
another installation.
</li>
<li>
<a name="where-download"
id="where-download">Where can I download/update this
plugin</a>? 
From here (TBD)
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"sys-requirements-plugin" id="sys-requirements-plugin">What are the system
requirements</a>? 
 The plugin runs
on Netbeans 5.5.x and Netbeans 6.0 beta 1 running on J2SE 1.5.0 any update or J2SE 6.0
update 1. On Solaris however, Using Netbeans IDE running on J2SE 6.0, you can generate the
installer, but the installer does not run using J2SE 6.0 due to the known issues.
</li>
<li>
What do I need to have
to do before generating installer? 
You need to configure your suite project
to be 'Standalone application'. The plugin will check this during installer generation
process. You will be assisted in this process if the plugin finds that the module suite
project is not configured.
</li>
<li>
<a name="howto-steps" id=
"howto-steps">How to create an installer for my NB suite
application</a>? 
 Its simple:
<ol>
<li>
Download and install the plugin
into your Netbeans IDE.
</li>
<li>
There would be a new toolbar button
with an icon of CD <img src="click_installer_generator24.png">will be added. Select
your module suite project in the Project View to enable this button.
</li>
<li>
You could also choose this option
from the 'Build' menu or from context menu of your suite project in the Project
view.
</li>
<li>
Upon selecting and if your suite
project is already configured as stand-alone, a wizard will be shown asking few basic
questions about your suite application. (If the suite project is not yet configured,
you will be asked to do so at this point)
</li>
<li>
You will be asked to provide the
project name, version, short description (one liner) and vender information on the
first screen. You can optionally set the JDK version and system RAM and disk
requirements for your application.
</li>
<li>
The next wizard screen will ask for
the application license that you would like to show to the users to acceptance.
</li>
<li>
Once you provide the license
information and click 'Finish', the installer generation will begin.
</li>
<li>
After the completion of the
installer generation, you will be shown with the option to run the installer and once
you choose, the plugin will run the generated installer. This option can be used for
testing purpose.
</li>
<li>
The generated installer will be in
the form of a zip bundle and its placed under 'dist' folder under your suite project
directory. The installer zip bundle is named as <your-suite-app-name>-installer-image.zip.
You can rename this to anything you want. This zip bundle is now ready for
distribution.
</li>
<li>
There's one more zip bundle created
in the same 'dist' folder and is named as <your-suite-app-name>-installer-project.zip and
this contains the installer source files. This zip bundle can be used to further
customize the generated installer.
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"what-actually-happens" id="what-actually-happens">What actually happens during
installer generation</a>? 
No rocket science here! The plugin first
generates the usual zip bundle that Netbeans creates for all suite projects. It then uses
an Installer project template and updates few files to customize the installer files for
the current suite application and then bundles the installer runtime along with all
files.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"where-is-generated-installer" id="where-is-generated-installer">Where can I find the
generated installer</a>? 
Under your suite project's 'dist'
folder. Its named as <your-suite-app-name>-installer-image.zip.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"what-is-other-zipfile" id="what-is-other-zipfile">What is the other zip file which is
generated along the installer zip file</a>? 
That's the installer source files and
metadata files that you can use to customize the generated installer further. This zip
bundle is named as <your-suite-app-name>-installer-project.zip. This bundle is not for
distribution unless, you want to distribute the installer sources along with your suite
application.
</li>
</ol>

 


Installer related

<ol>
<li>
<a name=
"distribution-mechanism" id="distribution-mechanism">What is the distribution mechanism
that I can use to distribute the installer</a>? 
Its a zip bundle, so you can host it on
a website or an FTP server. Users of the installer just have to download this zip
file, unzip and run the launcher scripts for their platforms present on the top unzipped
folder. There are two scripts, one for Windows and another for *NIX systems. This plugin
will be enhanced to generate a JNLP descriptor and that would make running the installer
using JNLP possible.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"sys-requirements-for-installer" id="sys-requirements-for-installer">What are the system
requirements for the target machines to run the generated
installer</a>? 
Windows (2000, XP), Ubuntu and Solaris
(sparc and X86). The plugin is tested on these platforms. It is not tested on other
platforms, but it may work on other platforms like, Vista, other Linux flavors. On Mac OS
X, there's a known issue. But on Solaris, the installer currently needs J2SE 1.5.0
(all updates) for itself to work.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"which-java-for-running-installer" id="which-java-for-running-installer">How do
I select which JDK to use for running the installer</a>? 
During installer generation on the first
panel of the wizard OR you can customize JAVA_HOME variable in the installer launcher
scripts for your target platforms. The launcher script read and use the JAVA_HOME from the
environment if its available during execution.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"does-plugin-configures-jdkhome" id="does-plugin-configures-jdkhome">Does this installer
configures jdkhome for my suite application during installation</a>? 
Yes it does. There's a small script
which updates the user selected JDK during installation in the etc/.conf file. This
configuration is done during the installation process.
</li>
<li>
<a name="customize-installer" id="customize-installer">I want to customize the
generated installer. How can I</a> ? 
This support is upcoming.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"report-issues-feedback" id="report-issues-feedback">Where to report issues, suggestions
and feedback</a>? 
The best place to get help is
dev@openInstaller.java.net.
</li>
</ol>




Plugin project

<ol>
<li>
<a name=
"state-of-pligin-project" id="state-of-pligin-project">What is the state of this Plugin
project</a>? 
Pure pre-alpha (If this state exists at
all!). The plugin is still under development and there would be bugs and missing
features.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"connection-between-openInstaller-plugin" id=
"connection-between-openInstaller-plugin">What is the connection between this plugin and
openInstaller.org</a>? 
This plugin uses openInstaller installer
framework to generate installers. This project is conceived as a sub project under
openInstaller. See www.openInstaller.org.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"homepage-of-plugin" id="homepage-of-plugin">Where's the home page for the Plugin
project</a>? 
There's no home page yet, but you can
look for more information on the wiki
(http://wiki.glassfish.java.net/Wiki.jsp?page=OpenInstallerDeveloperToolsNBSuiteInstallerBuilder) and use the developer alias:
dev@openInstaller.java.net.
</li>
<li>
<a name=
"more-info-on-plugin" id="more-info-on-plugin">Where can I look for more
information</a>? 
dev@openInstaller.java.net and wiki
(http://wiki.glassfish.java.net/Wiki.jsp?page=OpenInstallerDeveloperToolsNBSuiteInstallerBuilder)
</li>
<li>
<a name="plugin-sources"
id="plugin-sources">Where are the sources</a>? 
More details upcoming.
</li>
</ol>















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