PackageMaker 3 issues resolved?
PackageMaker 3 issues resolved?
- Subject: PackageMaker 3 issues resolved?
- From: Bill Cheeseman <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:51:04 -0400
- Thread-topic: PackageMaker 3 issues resolved?
I seem to have stumbled into getting it right, though I'm not sure I
understand why.
I think it has something to do with the "relocatable" setting, which
apparently causes the installer to decline to install the product in the
designated /Applications folder if it finds the same version already
installed somewhere else on the target disk (such as in my Builds/Release
folder, where it always is while I'm still putting my product together). I
may have seen that documented somewhere, or at least hinted at, without
appreciating its significance.
I followed a number of false leads, some of them due to inaccuracies or
incomplete information in the article about PackageMaker 3 in the June 2008
issue of MacTech. For example, that article tells us to go through the
exercise of setting up a project folder reproducing the anticipated folder
hierarchy of the target installation. A number of articles about
PackageMaker 2 tell us to do that, too, and I assumed it was a requirement
of PackageMaker 3. It turns out that it is not, although I suppose it might
be a convenience over time for some people to help keep revisions up to
date. But as far as actually building an installation package is concerned,
I have discovered that dragging the release builds directly out of my
Builds/Release folder into the PackageMaker 3 window works perfectly well,
as long as I specify the final destination path correctly.
There are several incorrect or misleading instructions as well as omissions
in Apple's PackageMaker 3 Guide, as well. And it certainly doesn't help that
the Software Deliver Guide, which we are told is required reading, hasn't
been revised since 2006 (packageMaker 2 days, I guess). And it has content
problems as well, apparently having been cobbled together from older pieces
and newer pieces without adequate connective explanations to make it
sufficiently clear that some sections are talking about different kinds of
installers than other sections.
I'm curious to know why most of the installer packages I see out in the wild
show the full, final destination folder hierarchy when I open them in
Pacifist. Is this something that happened by design in PackageMaker 2 that
is no longer required in PackageMaker 3 (as noted above)?
Sorry to be so grumpy -- it isn't like me. But I've lost a lot of time that
could have been saved by better documentation. As soon as I find more time,
I will cite chapter and verse in a documentation radar.
--
Bill Cheeseman - email@hidden
Quechee Software, Quechee, Vermont, USA
www.quecheesoftware.com
PreFab Software - www.prefabsoftware.com
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