Creating an In-Place Setup Package

See Also

Using in-place packaging, you can create a single self-extracting executable installer from a single Java project. In this way, you can avoid having to create a packaging project, which might be more complex than your packaging needs require.

Note In-place packaging is effective only when packaging a single project for a single package. For more information on packaging multiple projects or a project into multiple packages, see the Adding a Project to a Solution.

["Adding a Project to a Solution" is not completely documented in this release. If you want to package a project into more than just a setup package, then you can create an additional package project and set those package settings differently. For example, two packages are generated from the same project- one on the solution level, with a package project of its own (set to a .cab or .zip), and one on the project level, with a setup package.]

To create an in-place setup package

1. In the Visual Studio development environment, open a solution that contains a Visual J++ project.
   
   
2. Choose Build from the Build menu, and build the project. This is recommended if you are going to select specific class files to install.

This builds all the classes. If necessary, it also starts the browser and loads an HTML page included in the project.

3. In the Project Explorer, select the project, then right-click Project Settings.
   
   
4. In the Project Settings dialog box, click the Packaging tab. Click Enable Packaging, then from the Packaging Type drop-down control, select Self-Extracting Setup.

   On the Packaging Tab, do the following:

   • Specify the name of the self-extracting setup package.
     
     
   • Select the files that go into the package.

     You can leave them unselected, select them by file extension, or select all files.

   • Add any desired files from outside the project by clicking Additional Files and browsing for the files.
5. Click Advanced. On the Advance Settings dialog box, you can do any of the following, as needed:
   • Specify the title of the application your setup package will install on the client machine. This title will appear in the user's Add/Remove Programs dialog box, available from the Windows Control Panel.
     
     
   • Set the default installation directory, either as an absolute directory path name or as a path name relative to the Program Files directory.
     
     
   • Specify that your setup package should create a Start menu item from which the user can run your application.
6. Click Build to build the project. When this is completed, confirm that your setup package was built in the correct location.
   
   
7. Test the packaged setup file by running it.

   When testing, confirm that your package installs all of the files you included in it, such as Java class files, HTML pages, Readme files, .gif files, or others.

   Check also to see that your setup package added your application's name to the Add/Remove Programs dialog box, available from the Windows Control Panel. Once you have finished confirming the success of your installation, you can launch the un-installer from the Add/Remove Programs dialog box to remove your application.

You should now have a self-extracting setup package containing the files you specified, and an uninstaller.