1. What is BeanBag?

2. What are the main features of BeanBag?

3. What are the prerequisites for BeanBag?

4. What are the supported operating systems?

5. What is BeanBag most useful for?

6. What is BeanBag least useful for?

7. What function is missing in the beta?

8. What additional functions are available on supported operating systems?

9. How do I install BeanBag?

10. Where should I report bugs or send comments?

11. What features can I expect in the finished product?

12. What are the known problems?


1. What is BeanBag?

BeanBag is an installer built around a Java(**) control file. It allows either simple, fully-automated zip-like installation or detailed control of the entire process, depending on the requirements of the installer. The output of the packager (bagMan) is a single self-extracting Java class that can be used to install your software on any Java (1.1)-enabled platform.

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2. What are the main features of BeanBag?

BeanBag will install single files or filesets (zip/jar archives) into predetermined or user-prompted locations. It will create directories and links/shortcuts as required. Although originally intended for the delivery of java classes, it will quite happily install normal executables, batch or text files, etc.

The BeanBag packager (bagMan) generates a control.java file from a list of installation instructions. This file can be used as is for simple installation or can be customized for more complex situations (such as choice of installation location or selection of packages to install).

The installer will take care of problems with platform-specific filename conventions (for example, which way do the slashes go?) and line endings on text files. Source files can be prepared using whichever conventions are most convenient to the user.

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3. What are the prerequisites for BeanBag?

BeanBag requires Java version 1.1 or higher. For full function, it also requires a supported operating system, but it is able to fulfill most installation tasks on any Java 1.1-enabled system.

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4. What are the supported operating systems?

Currently AIX(*) and Windows 95/NT(**) are supported. OS/2(*) will be added as soon as Java 1.1 and the Java Native Interface are available there. Other operating systems will be added when time permits and when 1.1 becomes available on them.

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5. What is BeanBag most useful for?

BeanBag is most useful for any installation across disparate platforms in which, without it, multiple installation routines would have to be written. Potential examples include java classes, applications and beans, documentation and source-code samples, etc.

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6. What is BeanBag least useful for?

BeanBag is least useful for operating system-specific tasks (such as OS upgrades). Currently, BeanBag cannot handle locked files, etc., although it would be possible to work around the restriction via the control.java customization.

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7. What function is missing in the beta?

Some APIs are unimplemented or restricted in function. See the HTML documentation for details. In addition, the final BeanBag will have GUI front ends for both the installation and packaging stages.

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8. What additional functions are available on supported operating systems?

Certain lower-level or OS-specific support requires methods native to the particular OS. Examples include installation of icons for folders or executable programs, creation of links/shadows/shortcuts, and access to system information repositories such as .ini files or registries. Where possible, BeanBag will attempt to compensate on unsupported platforms if such services are requested (for example, by attempting to use system commands if the OS is unix-like). See the API documentation for a full description of the function of each API on unsupported platforms.

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9. How do I install BeanBag?

Simply download the install.class file onto your system and enter the command: > java beanbag

This will install the installer packer (bagMan) into /classes/beanbag and some samples and documentation into /beanbag_examples.

To see the documentation point your browser at /beanbag_examples/html/tree.html

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10. Where should I report bugs or send comments?

Bug reports, comments, and suggestions should be sent to leng@hursley.ibm.com. If you are reporting a problem, please include as much detail as possible. If the bug is reproducable, please try to include the output of the install class (or the bagMan) by using the -d option to generate debugging information.

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11. What features can I expect in the finished product?

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12. What are the known problems?

The Windows version is unable to delete the native methods library (beanbag.dll) after installation. This file can safely be removed manually and a message to that effect is generated.

The AIX version occasionally reports "Internal Error: null" at the end of an uninstall. This can safely be ignored.

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