About Deployment Projects
If you choose (on the Deployment Project Information page) to create and save a deployment project, Deployment Wizard takes the information you provide and produces a completed deployment project.
A deployment project consists of the following elements:
- Settings and file options specified by you while using Deployment Wizard. The wizard saves this information in package (.dpf) files.
- For example, if you specify a 3270 host in Deployment Wizard, this information is saved in the .dpf file. This file ensures that only 3270 modules are installed on end user machines when they click the wizard-generated web page.
- A Package Assembly (.dpa) file, which describes all HostExplorer components, regardless of the settings in the deployment project.
- HostExplorer product components, as well as any components, applications, and documents that you have specified to be packaged, so that they can be installed on an end user machine. Deployment Wizard builds .dpf files to contain this code, drawing the code from the HostExplorer product installation on the administrator’s machine.
- A generated web page (an .htm file) that combines all of these components. When an end user clicks the link on this web page, the necessary .dpf files are installed in order to start a HostExplorer product session.
To create a deployment project, use Deployment Wizard to create a web page (with associated component packages), and then place the web page on a server and distribute the URL to specific users.
The specified users access the web page and click the link to access a deployed HostExplorer product session. If any component installations or updates are necessary, they happen at this time. The HostExplorer product does the following:
- Automatically launches a session as an ActiveX control or Active document, using the end user’s browser window as a container.
- Automatically connects to the host that you specified in Deployment Wizard.
- Enables only the HostExplorer product menu commands and session options that you specified in the wizard.
The first time an end user clicks a particular session link, the Deployment Runtime component installs the necessary components on the their machine. If the end user has previously clicked a session link, the Deployment Runtime component determines if any component updates are necessary and makes those changes before launching the session.
How Deployment Projects are Saved