Re: Cached distribution contents in PM 3?
Re: Cached distribution contents in PM 3?
- Subject: Re: Cached distribution contents in PM 3?
- From: "Andrew Peckover" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 19 May 2009 18:37:27 -0700
Hi John,
I've puzzled over this too. Actually I've never used earlier versions and I
just recently started using installers on Mac, so I'm a "newbie".
But yes, going from raw to normal mode very often crashes it, especially
when trying to configure choices and subchoices. In my opinion, this
program is quite buggy.
The crashes are often cause by legitimate errors I've made in the code
(although sometimes I will in fact get an error message (error at line such
and such) rather than a crash). But other crashes happen even when no
errors are made in the code.
I have a specific set of steps I follow to prevent the crashes when making
an installer. Maybe this will help you.
First, I will have gone into raw editing mode and already created my
distribution script how I want it. Then I'll save the script in a text
file. Then to make the installer, I:
1. Open the PackageMaker document.
2. Type the title of the distribution.
3. Add packages by dragging them from finder.
4. ***here's the key - save and close the PackageMaker document***
5. Make a duplicate of it, in case it crashes or whatever, then I'll have a
backup.
6. Open the PackageMaker document, immediately go to raw editing mode
without making any changes in the UI.
7. Paste in my distribution script, then return to normal editing mode.
8. I can now do some other things in normal editing mode, such as setting
permissions and so on.
One reason I've had to use the raw editing mode is because, strangely, there
doesn't seem to be a way to configure subchoices in normal mode properly,
and I use subchoices alot.
-----------
I'm not sure about your first question (caching the contents etc.). Not
sure if this is what you mean, but when you look at the contents tab it will
show you all the files that have been in your source, even if you have
removed them since. I think the list of folders and files there is strictly
involved with setting the permissions of the files - since if I uncheck any
of the items, they are still included in my distribution. (i.e. checking or
unchecking files doesn't affect whether they are included in my installer.)
But I could be wrong about that. Anyways, just to be on the safe side, if I
change my source files, I usually do this:
1. Set the source folder to a different location. That is, the "Install"
field in the Configuration tab, I just set to a bogus directory.
2. Save and close the pmdoc.
3. re-open and set the correct directory. Unfortunately, I then need to
reset the permissions and file filters.
Now there is also "snapshot" feature to investigate if you want, under the
package menu - maybe it will help you
(in my testing, it didn't work presumably because my source is not on my
system drive, and it also crashed the program)
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Williams" <email@hidden>
To: <email@hidden>
Sent: Monday, May 18, 2009 8:57 AM
Subject: Cached distribution contents in PM 3?
Hi
I'm converting our PackageMaker v2 installers to use PM 3. I have
several packages that I then bundle into 1 distribution. It seems that
PackageMaker caches the contents of the packages into the distribution
at the time the package is added. If I remove files from my staging
area and rebuild the individual package the distribution does not seem
to reflect those changes.
Am I missing something?
Also, I notice a lot of crashes when switching from Raw Editing Mode
to the Normal Editing Mode. Is this a known problem?
And 1 more question: Is it possible in the PM 3 UI to rearrange the
choices in the distribution?
Thanks
--
John Williams
Sr Software Engineer
Typefi Systems Pty Ltd
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Installer-dev mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden
_______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Installer-dev mailing list (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
This email sent to email@hidden