PRITOBA-Delivery

Development of an InstallShield setup solution

On behalf of cqc consequent consult GmbH, eWorks was able to create an installation solution for consumer software. The software to be installed runs under the various Windows operating systems and offers the user a flexibly adjustable selection of print profiles. Depending on the program or PC location, different printers can be addressed and conveniently printed according to current requirements (color, black and white, page settings, print options). There is no need to repeatedly set options for each print.

The software is distributed by partners who have a range of personalization options in a web-based partner area. Each piece of software supplied is therefore unique and can be assembled and downloaded in just a few steps in a customer self-service portal.

The setup in the implemented solution consists of two components:

1. a classic InstallShield setup that copies the files to the Windows program directory, registers COM components in the registry and creates desktop shortcuts. Autostart functionality is also integrated.

2. a surrounding self-extracting archive that contains both the classic InstallShield setup file and the individual settings such as graphics, logos and other configuration data.

The advantage of this two-part solution is that the personalization can be carried out by the partners with simple means via a web interface developed with PHP and MySQL. The personalization step is designed to be lightweight, so that the setup can be created in a very short time and old versions can be easily archived. The personalization function can thus be installed on simple Linux and Windows servers without the need for extensive and slow build automation with a setup creation step.