Warning: This is not your typical tutorial where everything seems so easy. (If you want one of those see the “Getting Started Guide” for Wise Package Studio) I purposefully fall into traps to show you what to think about in order to get out of them. For a tutorial, Sun’s Java plug-in package is great since it falls into most holes that Wise has to offer.
We will also repackage for the toughest environment: the Restricted User (aka Limited Users in XP). The Restricted User cannot install software but is expected to be able to use software. Most developers don’t care for that environment so as a packager you are the one who must try to compensate without breaking security or the package.
NOTE:
Until very recently Sun did not package the JVM in MSI format. This
package is in fact an MSI within an EXE wrapper. The way that Sun
packaged it, however, the MSI file is also a wrapper! Inside the MSI
are 4 ZIP files that contain the actual files. Their MSI just copies
the ZIP files and extract the contents, bypassing all MSI’s
logic. But hey, it works for them for self-updating purposes. More
about when and why use MSI as a wrapper in the FAQs.
-Windows XP SP1
-Wise Package Studio v4.62 or v5.1
-2 PCs, one for the running SetupCapture (Snapshot PC) and one for testing (Testing PC). Both are Clean PCs as Wise describes them. See the Building your Rig section for more explanations.
-Sun’s offline install file for Java is called j2re-1_4_2_03-windows-i586-p.exe.
(Don’t worry if what’s on the web site is different. Sun updates the JVM quite often. Just grab one and go with it.)
Wise Package Studio’s SetupCapture has a feature known as SmartMonitor. The feature monitors the setup.exe for attempts to change/read files and registry settings. If you have a good CleanPC then you don’t really need the feature. In fact sometimes SmartMonitor add extra garbage to the package and you end up cleaning it out. I’ve had issues with SmartMonitor with this package during the creation of this tutorial. I’m even suspecting that it causes some of the infamous encoding bugs (See FAQ). Even though Wise enables it by default, for this tutorial it will be turned off.
