Use install anywhere to make your Java installer more efficient and flexible

This article describes how to better plan and design Java installers with Install Anywhere, provide multi-platform, multiple operating system deployments, define more flexible installation processes and environmental checks, and develop a more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing user interface. This article is primarily intended for Java software installer developers, assuming you have a basic understanding of Java and Ant development, and you can also see resources for more Install Anywhere-related knowledge.

Install Anywhere Introduction

Install Anywhere Overview

Install Anywhere (IA) is an installer software developed by the Flexera Software company. It provides a quick and simple and reliable way for software developers who install applications to create more professional software installers for Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Linux, I5/os, Mac OS X, Windows, and many more.

There are currently two versions of Install Anywhere (standard/Standard Edition and enterprise/Enterprise Edition). The Standard Edition provides the most basic functionality for installing software on multiple platforms, if the software installation logic is simple and does not require any coding and customization, the Standard Edition is the best choice for software developers, and if software developers want to develop complex installation software, customize installation actions, or customize the GUI for installing software, The strong functional support of the industry edition can be fully qualified. In this article, an enterprise version is used to explain how to use IA to develop Java installers.

Main function

Multi-platform multi-language installation supported

IA supports the latest version of a variety of platforms, such as Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, Linux, I5/os, Mac OS X, Windows, and so on. IA also creates a Java virtual machine that is compatible with the relevant platform for the installer, and the installer will run on this Java virtual machine. During the entire setup process, IA is able to handle all the automatic installation details and dynamically adapt to different target operating systems. At the same time, IA supports software developers in developing various forms of setup, including desktop software, enterprise software, multi-level WEB services, server-side programs, or client programs, and so on.

In addition, Enterprise IA has four language packs in English, French, German, and Japanese that provide full internationalization support and can automatically localize 31 different installation languages.

More flexible user interaction capabilities

Traditional setup programs often collect user input through the GUI, and then check and verify these user input in the installation logic, and return to the user in the form of error message when the input parameter does not meet the expectation or contains the error. The ability to precompile user input before running the installation logic and to perform pre-installed logic will significantly reduce installation error rates and shorten installation times. IA provides software developers with the customization of pre-installed programs, which enable developers to perform pre-installed checks on the target machine and user input by defining pre-installed logic, and even more flexible interaction with the user based on user input.

Best development experience and unlimited customization

The IDE for IA contains a fully graphical design interface and built-in powerful controls that allow software developers to create, maintain, and test installers without writing any code. At the same time, IA also provides more plug-ins and APIs that allow developers to customize the installer. Developers can design the appearance of the installer themselves, customize the installer's user interface, and use pictures or animations that match their company and brand.

Advantages and characteristics

Reduce software development costs: multi-platform sharing one installer can effectively shorten development time and optimize development resources, while IA also encapsulates more than 10 built-in controls, creating good behavior and dashboards to help developers quickly and intuitively create and deploy installers, saving valuable development costs.

Reduce the cost of quality assurance and support: Flexible preinstalled logic customization helps to detect and ultimately reduce end-user installation problems, thereby reducing the cost of technical support. At the same time, the simplification of documents also saves the cost of QA.

A preliminary study of IA

IA Beta access and installation

Login Flexera Software Homepage http://learn.flexerasoftware.com/content/IS-EVAL-InstallAnywhere-Enterprise, fill out your personal information and click Get Your free Trial Gets the Installanywhere trial version. After downloading the IA installation file, click Install.exe to run Setup and provide installation path to complete the installation.

In the example in this article, the IA2010 Enterprise SP1 is used.

"Hello World"

After the IA is successfully installed, you will find the starthere.htm file in the Manual folder under the installation path of your IA, which is a help document for IA, that is opened by using a browser, where our IA tour will start.

This document will quickly explain to all of the IA beginners How to build a java-based installer using the IA Foundation Wizard by importing the sample Java code OfficeSuite2000 from IA. Please refer to the building an Installer Using the Project Wizard section of this document Install Anywhere tutorials, which will start with very simple Java sample code, allowing you to quickly obtain Get a preliminary understanding of the main functions of IA. This article will build on this basis, in a later chapter, an in-depth description of how to use the Advanced view of IA Advanced Designer to develop your own custom installer.