Packaging and Distributing Products › Type of Product to Create › Considerations Before Creating a Product

Considerations Before Creating a Product

Before creating a product check that one of the following conditions is true:

• The product you are packaging can be installed independently and can run independently without any other software except the operating system. Then finish executing the steps in Using the Automatic Method (Standard or Custom mode). This is a product with no dependencies.
• A previously packaged product is required for the proper operation, but not the installation, of the product you are packaging. Then finish executing the steps in Using the Automatic Method. This is a product with dependencies. To specify one or more dependencies for the newly packaged product, you must define the dependencies in the info.sxp archive file, after the initial packaging process is complete.

  A very important example is a parameter product. If you have defined client parameters and created a parameter product, and the program needs other than the default values preset in the package, you must always install the parameter product first on the target computers before the actual program can run properly. Therefore, you must define a dependency for the packaged product on the parameter product in the info.sxp file.

  Another example is a desktop publishing program that requires specific fonts and printer drivers to produce the correct output. Although the fonts and printer drivers are not essential at installation time, they must be installed on the users' computers later and they must be defined as dependencies in the info.sxp file.

• The product you are packaging requires that certain software is not installed on the target computer. Then finish executing the steps Using the Automatic Method.

  When you create a product with a dependency, you can use the negative dependency feature. That means you enter a product name and version preceded by the ! operator in the InternalDependence section of the info.sxp archive file. Consequently, that product must not be installed on the target computer if you want to install the package you have just finished packaging. This is a very useful feature to account for incompatibilities between specific products, a company's hard disk restrictions, or other company policies.

  In contrast, if you want to specify a (positive) dependency, you can also choose to create a delta product instead of specifying a positive dependency.