This page lists several ALP application deployment samples. The application role is assigned to simple pages in order to concentrate on the deployment techniques. Only a few of the samples contain important ASP code (see DB on the CD for example) and there is one common ASP based tool included in all the examples that may need it - TESTPC directory with two ASP pages intended to check the PC for certain common components and provide the user with link(s) to updates (on the net or on the CD - the samples point to our site but can be changed to point to a file on the CD).

The deployment scenarios are many and we hope these samples are good representation of the most popular ones. To build your own setup you can get the closest example and change its configuration, then replace the dummy application with yours. Download the ZIP files if you want to use the sample and the SFX (Self extract archives) if you want small and fast preview only. The SFX packages are created with WinRAR and can be unpacked without starting them by using the WinRAR archiving utility. The SFX packages are configured to start the installer or the ALPFrame after unpacking and will not allow you to extract the files from them.

* The installation is in fact simple copy operation. The uninstall registered in Add/Remove programs will simply remove the copied files..
** The SFX and the ZIP contain the same files the considerable difference in the size is caused only by the fact that WinRAR offers better compression than ZIP..

Notes

Adapting an example. Download the ZIP archive of the sample and unpack it in an empty directory. Test it - see how it works where the application resides and replace the sample application with the actual application which will be deployed. See if it needs additional components such as components that are not integral part of ALP (most often components from other vendors) and include them in the setup.cfg (in case of installation). Review the entire setup file and pay special attention to these parts:

• Base path of your application - common convention is to select something like %PROGRAMFILES%\YourCompany\YourApplication.
• If you have many additional components to include probably one or two more source aliases will simplify your further work.
• See if it will make sense to allow the user to select the installation location and add in the ASKDESTIONATION section a dialog definition for the location (s).
• Define appropriate links to your application in the LINKS section.
• Select carefully the application signature, log file prefix and uninstall file name (in MAIN and UNINSTALL sections). You can use the same signature for all of them - for instance you can devise something from your company name and the application name.
• Review, delete add options in the MAIN section (such as RunOnce, PackageVersion etc.)
• If localization is needed (or you want to change all the texts shown by the installer) copy the sample entries from the ALP documentation to the TEXT section (subsection of MAIN) and edit them.
• See if read-me dialogs will be needed - to show license agreement, some information etc.
• Configure how the application will be started after completing the setup (if desired)

See ALPInstall in NDL for full description of the setup.cfg syntax.

Which samples to download?

If you are going to deploy autorun application

Autorun applications are most likely of two different types:

• pure autorun - nothing is installed, everything runs from the removable media (CD, DVD, flash memory card/disk). Catalogues, Presentations, References etc.
• installed autorun - the application is installed on the PC but the major part of the data (data base, other resources) are still on the removable media. E.g. the installation process is short and as simple as possible but the CD is required because it contains data and resources used by the application.. Encyclopedias, Business applications, Recurring catalogues, other complex systems and hybrid applications (such as WEB/ALP hybrids)

Pure autoruns are not always possible. This depends on the components the application will use. For example an application that uses many COM objects from many different vendors will most likely need to install at least part of them first - so installing the application also will not make the install process much longer, or complicated. The pure autorun most often limits the components allowed to the ALP standard components (ALP internal objects and ALP Run-time library), ADO (features available in 1.5 or later - MS Access DBs in format compatible with MS Jet 3.5 and later), a few other standard components always available with IE and Windows OS, COM components from us or other vendors especially developed to support ALPFrame in autorun mode.
See these samples: ALPAutorunSimple, ALPAutorunDB, AutorunCopy, AutorunInstall, AutorunInstallSmart

Installed autorun is not bound by these limitations and may contain any possible application. Everything missing can be installed.
See samples: ALPInstallCDDB, ALPWithAppInstall, AutorunInstall, AutorunInstallSmart, ALPRedist

What you need to know?

See the ALPInstall or/and ALPFrame branches of ALP documentation (installed with the full ALP package only) and review the sample configurations in the deployment samples of your interest.

Additional notes

You can use ALPInstall to deploy applications without ALP or even non-ALP applications (even if we permit everyone to use it only the ALP customers receive guaranteed support for ALPInstall). Also in case you want to prepare autorun CD but installation is unavoidable - you can configure the setup to run once and if the user tries to run it again to start the already installed application (see the ALPInstall documentation in NDL).

What causes the limitations for the pure autorun applications? When autorun is considered it is assumed it would work on any desktop Windows system beginning with Windows 95 or at least Windows 98 if your audience is such. ALP caries wide range of components developed and tested to support all of them and there are certain standard components preinstalled on every system. Beyond that there is no guarantee the component you build (or downloaded) will be preinstalled on all the Windows PCs - on the contrary you can be sure it is not there by default. By design the COM components need registration with the system and without it they are unable to function correctly - so they cannot run from a CD without at least temporary registration. ALPFrame supports simulation of this process through its configuration but it can be used only by COM components written in ATL (using the typeinfoeex.h - see the code snippets on our site), or other components implementing IDispatch in registry independent fashion.

Although the above limitations may look a bit too strict in fact they are common for all the pure autorun systems - there are features supported by the autorun system itself and very limited set of external features that can be accessed. The standard ALP components include wide range of tools - in fact there is support for many non-visual features otherwise available only for C++ or VB applications for example. Many of the autorun CD solutions are built as custom applications that use generic file access to implement data base like functionality. ActiveX Pack1 family includes components for record based access to files and streams and even ADO independent SQL database engine. Generally an ALP application can achieve better platform compatibility with little efforts and minimal functionality sacrifices compared to many traditional programming environments.

Today the Windows 9X systems are much less. One can say considering compatibility with them is a kind of paranoia. ALP gives you various choices and you can serve any kind of audience with applications built for it. Even if you consider only Windows 2000 and later systems as targets for your product the ALP flexibility and minimal dependencies give you interesting opportunities - the rich run-time library will save you much troubles with untested external components and specific system configurations.

If you have questions please contact us.