Java Reference
In-Depth Information
• There are three different possibilities for Deployment Policies regarding the strategy of
updates. Updates can be mandatory at application launch, user-requested, or automatic.
•Highly customizable, both in technical settings (proxy settings, for example) and in user
interface.
Also to consider is the very good quality and availability of technical documentation.
Several missing features are as follows:
•As said before, the role of the Distributor is not general enough to be performed by
third-party organizations taking advantage of this software. This tool has been provided
mainly for in-house deployment; that is, for companies that produce, deploy, and use
their own software.
•Little details (as of version 1.3) such as a difficult management of standard JRE distribu-
tions, a not-so-finely-grained JRE version definition, and so on.
•Finally, some stages are partially covered, as mentioned before. The only additional ser-
vice beyond standard deployment services is a logging system that can be used for statis-
tics, properties inspection, and other management operations. Also, publication features
are a bit too coarse, especially for complex product lines.
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The power of the addressable Deployment Policies comprises update strategies, per-user poli-
cies, connection options, and so on. A quite rich set of policies, though with only a few possi-
ble values, is available that covers all the more useful cases.
DeployDirector is a complete new-generation deployment solution that addresses the needs of
organizations using Java software and necessitating sophisticated control on their own pro-
duced Java software.
DeployDirector Bundler for JNLP
A related utility is offered by Sitraka, mimicking its more sophisticated DeployDirector's GUI
for visually creating a JNLP file for deploying Java code by means of the Java Network
Launching Protocol.
InstallShield Java Edition
Having seen the importance of installer utilities, it is time to cover one of them practically. We
mention InstallShield Java Edition here simply because it is an installer utility written in Java.
Figure 2.6 demonstrated the particular case of our reference abstract deployment model
adapted to installer utilities. It is time to see concretely what this class of products (listing,
among others, Denova's JExpress, InstallAnywhere, and so on) offers to Java developers.
