Blueprint for Windows Installer

We want to make the Windows installation simpler than the current one.

We want to allow an Emergency Management field worker to download a single executable which installs everything necessary even without Admin rights.
This means providing an option for which folder to install in (default to c:\program files\sahana eden).
Inside this folder have:

• ​Web2Py binary inc Python
  • applications\eden
  • Python dependencies:
    • "making a new binary distro with an updated file is as easy as unpacking and replacing the pyc file in the library.zip file"
    • lxml: ​http://codespeak.net/lxml/
    • Shapely: ​http://pypi.python.org/packages/any/S/Shapely/
    • ReportLab:
      • ​http://www.reportlab.org/downloads.html
      • ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/1647eb41d601e334
    • xlwt: ​http://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlwt
    • Better Internationalisation support for Sqlite: ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/browse_thread/thread/a98973adb0225649
• ​FirefoxPortable

Shortcut should be created on Desktop & Start Menu (cutomisable to turn off) which runs app:

• start service, if installed but not started
• start app if no service installed
• load Portable Firefox onto start page: ​http://localhost:8000/eden

If Admin rights are available, then provide the option (default) to install Service & start Service at boot.

Chosen Tool:

• ​Nullsoft Installer

Status:

• InstallationGuidelinesWindowsPythonInstaller
  • Developer version should also include the contents of http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/Sahana-Eden.zip
  • Developer version should also add an Icon on the Start menu/Desktop for Eclipse
• http://eden.sahanafoundation.org/browser/static/scripts/tools/standalone_exe.py
  • Clean the Eden folder (databases/errors/sessions)
  • rename it as 'init'
  • Zip-up folder contents
  • Customise NSIS\Contrib\zip2exe\Modern.nsh:

    !include "MUI.nsh"
    !define MUI_ICON "c:\bin\web2py\applications\eden\static\favicon.ico"
    
    !insertmacro MUI_PAGE_DIRECTORY
    !insertmacro MUI_PAGE_INSTFILES
    
    !insertmacro MUI_LANGUAGE "English"
    
    Section "install"
     
        ;Add files
        SetOutPath "$INSTDIR"
    
        ;create desktop shortcut
        CreateShortCut "$DESKTOP\Sahana Eden.lnk" "$INSTDIR\web2py.exe" ""
     
        ;create start-menu shortcut
        CreateShortCut "$SMPROGRAMS\Sahana Eden.lnk" "$INSTDIR\web2py.exe"
    
    SectionEnd
    

  • use NSIS' zip2exe.exe to convert to an .exe

Possible alternatives:

• ​InnoSetup
• ​Prism

Script which can run Web2Py after installing any necessary dependencies into Source Python:

• ​http://groups.google.com/group/web2py/msg/394d736bade72bd4

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BluePrints