by
Kevin Luck >> Mon, 14 Feb 2000 22:04:34 GMT
I have used various InstallShield products to install JADE applications and would personally only use InstallShield Professional 6.1 (ISP6) at this stage. This gives you access to the InstallScript language which makes it possible to control schema loads and the like. It means a new language to learn but it, like the JADE language, has something of a Pascal heritage so you will find some aspects similar to JADE.
I say "at this stage" because Windows 2000 comes with Windows Installer built into it. This changes the approach used for installations mainly because the installation engine is built into the operating system rather than supplied with the setup package. This increases significantly the features that you can build into your own installations. Whilst you can, in theory, set up an installation using only the Windows Installer platform SDK from the MS website it appears to me to be a very complex exercise. A commercial GUI installation product like InstallShield For Windows Installer (ISWI) is well worth using. The InstallShield Professional 2000 product is actually a bundle of both ISP6 and ISWI. By the way ISWI can also be used with Win95/98 and NT 4 (it automatically bundles the install engine with the setup files for these O/S's).
I have had only a cursory glance at Wise so I can't compare the two. My reason for choosing InstallShield was that JADE itself uses it and this opens up the possibility of repackaging my applications and the JADE installation in one seamless bundle to hopefully make life simpler for the end-user installer.
To find out anything else and get demo copies etc go to
www.installshield.com
Cheers, Kevin