site_archiver@lists.apple.com Delivered-To: installer-dev@lists.apple.com Thanks, Karl, Thanks, -Howard On Aug 6, 2009, at 11:23 AM, Karl Kuehn wrote: On Aug 6, 2009, at 9:15 AM, Howard Moon wrote: So a few notes about this: _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/site_archiver%40lists.a... good points all, but our software is not something that is generally installed by system administrators, or in the background. (How would you handle the "normal" dialogs, like the license file and acknowledgement, read-me, etc., if run that way?) They're audio plug- ins (and supporting documentation files, etc.), and they run inside audio hosts. We need to be able to run an authorization application at the end of the installs to make it easier for users to authorize their software, and we can't do this from within the hosts. So, prior to running the authorization app, we display a message that says that the installation has completed and that the authorization app will run when they hit Continue. In VISE-X installers, this is easy-peasy. In PackageMaker, I tried using the Finish Up dialog for this (or whatever it was called), but when I do that, the post-flight action to run the authorization app executes before that screen is displayed. I need to display the message, wait for the user to acknowledge it, and then run the app. I really have no choice here. I guess I'll have to look into pkg plugins, then. (Are they easier to add to Iceberg than to PackageMaker?) I'm new to this list and to PackageMaker. I've been using VISE-X, and one of the things we do often is to add a custom dialog to the installation. I can't find any way to do this using PackageMaker. Overall, it seems like a much less useful tool than VISE-X (although it's free, so that's something!). Is there a way to add custom dialogs in PackageMaker? 1) You can create pkg plugins that can have custom dialogs, etc. You will have to do a little work, but it is not that tough. 2) You could put GUI things into scripts, but this is a really, really bad idea (see item 4). 3) I have rarely seen things that actually need custom GUIs. Most things will work with a thought-through custom package choices page. The only exception I can think of is EULA pages, and that is already part of the installer. 4) As a system admin I will STRONGLY caution you to rethink that putting custom dialogs in and installer, for all the same reasons that make VISE hated by system administrators: - Your installers will be used in situations where the person doing the install is not at the computer, and has no access to the GUI. Here I am talking about ARD installs, automated imaging systems, and the like. If you try and put up a GUI your installer may hang. These sorts of systems are becoming more wide-spread. And do you really want to get lumped in with Adobe in hatred by admins? - Installers run in the background that pop up messages will surprise users who may not know (or care) that IT is installing things/updates on their computer in the background. - Your program should more properly take care of anything you would do in an installer on first-run (or better yet: whenever it needs the information). Putting things in the installer only means that you can't correct them later. Remember: users of your product might not have access to the installer (that might be in the hands of IT). I've also heard about a free program called Iceberg. Is that something that might be more useful than PackageMaker (in Leopard)? Can custom dialogs be added in that software (easily)? Iceberg makes .pkg's, just like PackageMaker. So the outcome is going to be identical to PackageMaker. _______________________________________________ Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored. Installer-dev mailing list (Installer-dev@lists.apple.com) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/installer-dev/howard%40antarestech.co... This email sent to howard@antarestech.com This email sent to site_archiver@lists.apple.com