1.2.1 What is an Application?
The concept of an Application important and binding. In previous releases of LANSA, an Application could consist of a collection of unrelated packages, or packages used for different purposes such as a client install package and a server install package. A LANSA Application is synonymous with a software product.
Now, the first Version in an Application defines the full product, including all objects and settings, and is used as the basis for subsequent Versions and Patches of the Application. Install options are used to determine what and how the package is installed, for example if installing with database or installing client portion only.
In the Deployment Tool interface the identifies an Application. It has an Application description and Company Name, which are visible to the end user and are used when installing and uninstalling the software product.
However, from a Windows Installer perspective, an Application must have a unique identifier that relates all of the Versions and Patches within this Application to each other. Each time a Version or a Patch is built, another unique identifier is generated for this particular build. These are Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs) and are stored at the Application level. The MSI and MSP installations internally use these unique identifiers to validate the installs. For example, when the second Version of a software product is installed the Application's unique identifier is used to see if a previous Version is already installed. If it is already installed the Version will be automatically uninstalled before installing the second Version of the product.