Deployment

After a project has been built and tested, it is ready for deployment. The output folder of your build, the location where you can find the files to deploy, varies by the build type.

• Uncompressed Builds: <BUILD Folder>\release\uncompressed
• Compressed Builds: <BUILD Folder>\release\single
• Web Builds: <BUILD Folder>\release\web

The particular steps for deployment varies by build type as well.

Deploying Uncompressed Builds

An uncompressed build requires the entire build folder to be deployed. You may deploy onto any medium that is capable of replicating the exact directory structures generated by the build. This includes network drives, hard disks, and removable media (such as CDs and DVDs, which the uncompressed build mode is most suitable for).

Please note that the uncompressed layout, while storing your application files in a readily accessible state, does not permit you to randomly replace those files. Because of the nature of Windows Installer and the way it handles resiliency, if you wish to update any of the files in the installation package, you will have to rebuild the installation. Simply copying the updated file to the proper location in the build folders may cause your installation to fail.

An uncompressed build may be launched by running either the .EXE file or the .MSI file that carries the project name in the build output folder.

Deploying Compressed Builds

To deploy a compressed build, simply copy the single .EXE file that is located in the build output folder. Compressed builds provide the most flexibility in choosing your target media, since they will work with practically all media types (they neither require a directory structure to be preserved, nor Internet connectivity).

A compressed build may be launched by running the single .EXE file.

Deploying Web Builds

A web build has two steps of deployment. The first step is to place the .EXE file found in the root directory of your build folder on your desired target medium. This can be practically any location. This .EXE file is your main installation file.

The next step is publishing your web media blocks on the web. The media blocks each end with a .7zip file extension. The file names will correspond exactly to the web media blocks they contain. For instance, a web media block named mainapp will be contained inside the file mainapp.7zip. Each of these media blocks must be available for HTTP download on the precise URL as specified in the web media block script item. Continuing the above example, if the mainapp media block has the Download URL field set to http://www.mycompany.com/first_component.dat, then the file mainapp.7zip must be renamed first_component.dat and published to the root of the http://www.mycompany.com web server.

Deploying Web Builds Offline

A new feature in InstallAware 3.0 is the ability to deploy your entire web builds offline. If the main setup executable can locate some or all of the web media blocks it requires directly in the same folder as itself, it will first attempt to use these local copies of the web media blocks, instead of downloading them. If this attempt fails, or for web media blocks which cannot be found locally, setup will download from the web.

This option is primarily intended for use in quick deployment and testing scenarios. If you do not intend to download web media blocks during installation, Compressed or Uncompressed builds will always deliver better performance.