Creating Web-Based Installations With Webdeploy - Symantec WINDOWS INSTALLER EDITOR 8.0 Reference

Creating Web-Based Installations With WebDeploy

Windows Installer Editor Reference
About Script Editor in the WiseScript Editor Help
Windows Installer version.
For best results with WebDeploy, the destination computer should have Windows
Installer 2.0 or later.
Note
This page is enabled in a .WSI only.
WebDeploy™ lets you create Web-based installations that minimize bandwidth
requirements by downloading only the files needed for the installation.
Examples:
If you set the installation to pre-install the Windows Installer runtime, and the
destination computer already has that runtime installed, then the runtime file is not
downloaded.
If the installation contains multiple features, only the features that the end user
selects during installation are downloaded and installed.
Without WebDeploy, you could create a single-file .EXE, upload it to an FTP server, and
let your end users download it by clicking on its link. The disadvantage of this is that a
single-file .EXE can be very large. The entire installation, including Windows Installer
runtimes, is downloaded whether or not it is needed on the destination computer. The
resulting download can take a long time and tie up bandwidth.
Note
You cannot use WebDeploy to run patches (.MSP) or transforms (.MST). To distribute
updates with WebDeploy, format the installation as an upgrade using the Upgrades
page.
For information on using WebDeploy with WiseUpdate, see
page 299.
You can use WebDeploy in several ways, depending on how you set the WebDeploy
options:
Create an .EXE that contains the .MSI
Windows Installer and .NET runtimes, and prerequisite files, if any, are external to the
.EXE. When an end user runs the .EXE from the Web, it runs the .MSI from the Web. The
runtime and prerequisite files are downloaded only if they are needed on the destination
computer.
See The WebDeploy Process
Prerequisite and runtime files that you add on the Prerequisites page are always
included in the .EXE.
This is the best method to use when distributing installations over the Internet because,
if a self-repair is needed, the .MSI is cached locally and no further downloads are ever
required.
Organizing Your Installation Into Releases
on page 205.
WiseUpdate Tips on
204