May 31, 2014

QAL API documentation


The QAL API documentation is now online for your browsing pleasure!

Python3-Sphinx was used, a small article on that subject may develop over time as well.


Cheers!



May 29, 2014

Windows installer done at last!


Phew. That was actually pretty hard. The WiX and MSI documentation is both lacking and confusing.

Anyway, the installer is now available for download at the files section at source forge.

It is burn-based, and downloads dependency packages and installs them.

As I mentioned before, I made a WiX primer, I have now updated that with some information on how to install pip packages:
http://www.optimalbpm.se/wiki/index.php/WiX.


Cheers!

May 23, 2014

WiX, .msi and a setuptools(easy install) and pip bundle

Hi,

I am forging ahead with the making of the .msi-files for the windows installation of Optimal BPM tools (or rather Optimal Sync, to be fair).

During the process of making the installation bundle(I want to include everything) i have been forced to create som  .msi:s that I would think could be pretty useful outside this project, namely a setuptools and pip windows installation bundle. Please download and if you encounter any problem, just create a ticket at the Sourceforge project page.

If course, for a Python application, these programs are very important. So now there is a way to easily include easy install and pip in an Python 3.3 windows deployment for those who want that. The installation checks for a Python 3.3 installation and installs the files in its /Scripts-folder.

By the way, WiX is one of the least well documented tools i have ever encountered. At the same time it is pretty complicated. And strange. So it hasn't been easy. Far from it.

However, in the end, I have managed to create a pretty flexible setup using WiX preprocessor variables. Which actually works in a predictable manner as opposed to WiX Properties and normal WiXVariable constructs which might or might not be available at "bind" time.

My current recommendation is to use preprocessor variables instead of the other stuff as they don't resolve in an equally predictable manner.
I will elaborate on that further on my writeup later on.



Until then, have a nice time.


May 7, 2014

Windows, MSI and fixes

Hi everybody,


The seriously bug fixed Optimal Sync(as of now at 0.8.3)  is about to be installable on Windows as well soon. I have started building an .msi-package, which turned out to be a bit more problematic than expected. However, I think I have overcome most of the problems.

So much, actually, that I have felt compelled to poste a guide on how WiX works and its caveats. The guide is thought of as a primer before you get into the official tutorial, which is a bit wordy and difficult to get.

I consider the problems I encountered quite typical of what most that develop an .msi-package encounters and that my example file is more useful. Especially, I use the paraffin.exe-utility instead of the quite insufficient heat.exe . I would imagine that most does, maybe the article can save them some time.

Anyway, the guide is at the wiki, here, and I hope it will help you understand WiX and its somewhat maddening quirks a bit better.

Cheers!