Today I released the Windows Installer for Magna CRM I talked about some time ago!
It came out pretty well and I’m quite happy about it. It installs Apache 1.3, PHP 4.4 and uses Access as a database. Everything is installed under one directory and only 3 registry keys are created. Also it comes with a utility to easily change the configuration settings.
The reasons behind this were:
- Offer an extremely easy way to install the trial.
- Offer this as a permanent solution for small businesses.
Indeed it is now quite painless to install Magna CRM, either to check the trial or as a permanent solution. Moreover the installer handles upgrades too. Another good thing is that the download is about 2.1 MBytes (the zip version is about 1.5 MBytes).
The installer doesn’t run on Windows 95 / 98 / ME, but I believe this won’t be a big problem. The reason for this is for Apache to be installed as a service.
I will try to write a technical article on how I did it, what problems I faced etc.
Wow! This is very nice. Definitely removes hurdle for some of your potential customers.
BTW, I would be really interested in knowing how you accomplished this. The tools (doesn’t look like you used InnoSetup), techniques and pitfalls to avoid. [The reason I am asking this is, I also want to create similar web-environment which could work out of box.]
Thanks and good luck,
JD
Comment by JD — March 8, 2006 @ 03:42
Thanks JD!
I’ll try to write the detailed article soon but in general:
- I used NSIS because I was already familiar with it. Inno would do fine too.
- I created a desktop utility (I used Delphi), which is called both on install and later, to handle changes in conf files.
- I stripped Apache and PHP distributions of most files (final count: 3 files for PHP, 8 files for Apache, including all conf files)
- I prepared special php.ini.dist and httpd.conf.dist which had placeholders (e.g. %PORT%) so the configuration utility has an easier time changing the conf files.
That’s about it :)
Comment by Dimitris Giannitsaros — March 8, 2006 @ 11:41