Software Deployment

Hi Tom,

Why not add a custom action before the copying of the files starts and delete what you want?

You can even deinstall the version first if you like.

Marcel

Marcel,

Cheers for the reply, much appreciated. At the moment I have only really been using ORCA to manipulate the msi's. I haven't as of yet looked into really cusomising packages beyond that. I do use the Citrix IM Packager for CTXFarm applications but that doesn't do anything like create an msi.

What application do you use to set custom actions? Or is it possible to just use ORCA and tell the app to run a .cmd or .bat?

I will have to get some application packaging software suite soon. Once the farm is complete we are going to be looking at SMS. At last count we have approx 120 different applicaitons that will all need packaging. At least half don't have msi's :( . Any recomendations would be appreciated.

Tom

ORIGINAL: Yakboy

Marcel,

Cheers for the reply, much appreciated. At the moment I have only really been using ORCA to manipulate the msi's. I haven't as of yet looked into really cusomising packages beyond that. I do use the Citrix IM Packager for CTXFarm applications but that doesn't do anything like create an msi.

What application do you use to set custom actions? Or is it possible to just use ORCA and tell the app to run a .cmd or .bat?

I will have to get some application packaging software suite soon. Once the farm is complete we are going to be looking at SMS. At last count we have approx 120 different applicaitons that will all need packaging. At least half don't have msi's :( . Any recomendations would be appreciated.

Tom


Hi Tom,

You can enter your custom actions directly in Orca but that's MUCH more dificult in most cases.

Here in The Netherlands, most companies use Wise Package Studio with a second place for InstallSield Admin Studio. I worked with both and I prefer Wise Package Studio.
There are not much people that can package a serious application with Orca (some at Microsoft I guess) and even if you can, a tool like Wise Package Studio saves you a huge amount of time.
With this kind of applications you can make a snapshot before the application install and one after and from that it derives the files, registry keys, etc. you need. After that you do some cleaning up (captured keys and files that shouldn't be in the package) and add some custom actions if needed (usually you don't need them).
If you have to tailor a vendor MSI you can make an MST (template). It's also possible to add custom actions in MSTs.

I advise you to download a (fully working) demo at Wise.com.

I hope this helps a little.

Marcel

Marcel, again thanks for the message. I will perhaps go and grab a demo.

I'm definetly going to need one or the other of these SW suites, your reccomendation has been taken on board.

Thankyou.