1.1 What is the Deployment Tool?
The Deployment Tool enables you to package and distribute your Visual LANSA-developed product to your customers, whether they are internally or externally based.
Using the Deployment Tool, you start by creating an Application. Within the Application you create a Version containing the relevant objects that make up your Visual LANSA-developed product. You select specific LANSA objects for inclusion in the Version as well as nominating options and settings that relate to the environment in which the Version will be deployed. Non-LANSA objects can also be included in a Version.
Once you have completed the selection process the Version is built which produces an MSI file.
Your Visual LANSA-developed products are thus distributed to the end user for the installation of all the relevant objects on to their PC. All the user has to do is run the MSI file and follow the prompts - or you can use the Just In Time Upgrade to automatically update the user's version of the application, as necessary, each time the software product is started. (See Glossary for a description of the MSI file and Just In Time Upgrade.)
Your software product can be distributed and deployed using:
- An automatic installation from an application serving system
- A web based download which is initiated by operator selection
- A copy of the MSI file on to media such as a DVD
- Systems Center Configuration Manager software.
Applications may be maintained by creating a Version or a Patch based on an existing Version. A new Version may be used for a first installation of the software product or may be used to upgrade an existing installation of the software product. A Patch must be applied to an existing installation of the Version on which it is based.