What s Inside

What ‚ s Inside

Flat out, this book is filled with ideas and concepts we hope you will consider in your deployment efforts.

Chapters 1-3 are the introduction to deploying, planning, and assembling the installation setup. We provide ideas for your consideration from the moment you start a project, through the planning phase, and up to the time you are ready to create the deployment package for your customers to use to install your solution.

Chapter 4 describes the features and tools available to create deployment packages. The chapter details functionality you can expect to find in modern installation tools, what tools are available, and how one company worked through the process of selecting a set of tools for their deployment packages.

Chapter 5 is an in-depth look at the Windows Installer from a technical perspective so you can better understand what is happening under the hood when you use tools like InstallShield Express, Wise for Windows Installer, or any other Windows Installer tools.

Chapters 6 and 7 are in-depth experiences with deploying different types of solutions. Each chapter focuses on issues you will face in traditional workstation and network deployments and when deploying client/server technology solutions. Chapter 6, ‚“Workstation and Traditional LAN Applications Step-By-Step, ‚½ is the foundation chapter. This chapter outlines fundamentals for all applications and solutions. The client/server chapter discusses details specific only to this technology and special considerations you need to think about when deploying on this platform.

Chapters 8 and 9 address the post-install period of the software engineering process. Dealing with the release and post-release issues, ongoing support, and updating customers with the next round of changes. Some developers might consider deployment complete when the SETUP.EXE is finished running and the customer executes the product for the first time. We hope to convince these developers that deployment is a process that continues through the whole development life cycle.

Chapter 10 deals with security issues with Visual FoxPro solution. This is more than network security and an application login screen, it is the security of your source code and the ability for anyone with a few hundred dollars to hack the executable and open up your intellectual property.

Chapters 11 and 12 focus on the legalities and licensing with respect to deployment. Are your contracts handling all the sections that deal with deployment issues? What are your options in deploying software? What happens when you decide to release a product as shareware, freeware, etc. and what are your rights? We are not lawyers and do not even pretend to play one on television, but we hope to give you ideas to present to your attorney when you put together future contracts.

The first four appendixes (A-D) are How-To work with a specific installation tool. These are not the usual 4 or 5 page appendixes, these are in-depth how-to instructions mixed with some real world experience the authors interjected to ease the learning curve and provide inside tips to better use these products.

Appendixes E and F are references of tools and support forums we use all the time supporting the deployments we make. We hope you will find some gems in these appendixes. Appendix G on copyrights is some reference material related to the information presented in the Legalese chapter.

Updates and corrections to this chapter can be found on Hentzenwerke Publishing ‚ s Web site, www.hentzenwerke.com . Click ‚Catalog ‚ and navigate to the page for this book.