InstallAnywhere Collaboration

Introduction

InstallAnywhere, for those unfamiliar, is one of many tools that can package software in a format that is easy to install onto a user’s machine. While playing with InstallAnywhere, especially InstallAnywhere 8.0, I discovered an interesting plug-in called: InstallAnywhere Collaboration. This plug-in allows developers and release engineers to better develop software as components that can be assembled for easier packaging as a whole.

The following is high level overview of what this plug-in is all about. This will probably be more interesting for those who have used or work with InstallAnywhere.

Getting Started

Here are a few references to help you give you more background:

• InstallAnywhere Collaboration Release Notes
• Creating a DIM Tutorial for InstallAnywhere Collaboration
• InstallAnywhere Collaboration F.A.Q.

Pros

1. Allows a developer to encapsulate his/her specific code and resources as a component. This component can then be contributed to release engineering for inclusion in the building of the greater product.
2. Allows a developer to unit test what he/she has created. The process consists of building the component and then running it.
3. The developer does not have to care how his component will be used in the greater product thus enabling him/her to focus on what he/she knows best.
4. The integration engineer does not need to worry about the intricate details of what is developed but just how it will install as part of the whole product.

Cons

1. Every developer must install InstallAnywhere in order to use the plug-in. This can get costly.
2. The plug-in only works with Eclipse which might be a big deal for those who do not use Eclipse.

A Quick Tour

Putting on my developer hat and looking at the Eclipse workspace, here is my newly created InstallAnywhere project:

If one opens the Example.dim file (last file listed in the screen shot above), it will launch the InstallAnywhere DIM perspective in the Eclipse workspace. This is where you can configure and add files to the DIM project. In this case, I only have Java class files and some graphical images as shown here:

Finally, putting on the release engineer hat, I can reference the developer’s Example.dim file via InstallAnywhere as shown here:

No comments yet.

Leave a comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.