[OT] Building Mac Installers

[J. Landman Gay]

Chipp Walters wrote:
> Scott,
> Let us know what you find out!
> I would like a Mac installer which would do the following:
> 
> 1) Create an Internet compatible DMG
> 2) Create an install finder window like:
> http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/StandaloneBuilderTutorial/16.jpg
> 3) Display the README.txt and LICENSE.txt files BEFORE allowing install
> (with checkboxes of course)
> 4) Extra bonus points if it actually installs anything. For some reason,
> Apple thinks mounting a DMG as a volume is the same as installing an
> application. Unless one knows to drag/drop the contents TO the APPS folder,
> the program is GONE next reboot (not to mention it is a write-only
> partition). An installer, which installs (like every other platform uses)
> would be nice.

I have to agree with Andre, use PackageMaker. I just finished creating 
an installer with this and it does everything you ask for and more. Once 
you've created your package, you can use a utility like DropDMG to put 
the pkg file onto a downloadable dmg file. Or you can just zip and 
distribute the pkg file; either one.

Note though that most Mac users have no problem dragging apps to the 
Applications folder and Apple recommends that if you are distributing a 
single bundle app, you should use the drag method rather than an 
installer. Installers seem to be a fairly Windows-oriented thing. The 
main reason my client and I had to use the Apple package installer is 
because we needed to set custom permissions on a folder, but other than 
that dragging would have been fine.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com