[duxhelp] DBT Installation

  • From: "Peter Sullivan" <peter@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <duxhelp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2005 15:13:47 -0400

Beta Testers,

You may well be wondering where we're at with DBT 10.6.

It appears to me that the time is right to switch DBT's installation
procedure.  While what is now DBT 10.6 remained a "service pack" release to
DBT 10.5, I didn't want to do this.  However, with the new numeric
designation we have a bit of freedom.

We've also been hearing more lately about installation problems.

What I propose to do is to retire our "homemade" SETUP.EXE process in favor
of a Windows Installer (.MSI) solution, built with a commercial installation
builder.  The following will be among our design goals:

1. Interactive and Administrative (automated) installations will be
supported.
2. Installation will be localizable, using the same procedure that allows
localization of the DBT interface itself.  (For those of you unfamiliar with
this process, our partners web site allows certain of our business partners
to edit the interface strings in various languages.)
3. Add/Remove will work properly (for a change).
4. It will remain possible to have installed different editions of the
software, each independent of the other.  Indeed each release -- even beta
1, beta 2, etc. -- will be independent.  This does imply that pre-release
testers may want to periodically use Add/Remove to clean out old pre-release
versions.
5. When a Service Release is approved, it will be set to install over the
earlier version with the same major & minor version, so that users who do
not do pre-release testing will not experience the same DBT overload in
Add/Remove programs.
6. Installation will give the option of installing a computer to use a
centrally-managed, possibly multi-user option (as can now be done with
NETINST) or to use a client-hosted activation.  This option will also be
available for Administrative installations.

All current installation options should remain possible.

I do not at this time propose to try solving the problem that installation
of SWIFT & Word BANA Templates is not possible for "All Users".

Also -- and importantly for some -- switching to a .MSI installer will mean
retiring NETINST.  Network adminstrators will instead be urged to use the
Administrative installation options built into Windows Installer.  The
difference to the end user will be that the resulting installation will have
software installed on the local machine.  This should improve performance
without affecting maintainability.  Moreover, while the software will be
local, the activation may either be local or server-based, as explained
above.

For those of you who have single-user installations, the impact should be
essentially none.  I'm most interested in hearing thoughts from those among
you who manage larger installations, or work with people who do so.

If we do go forward, the new installer will certainly need some testing.

Best Regards,

Peter

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