>Hi...I'm getting ready to deploy Opus 1, on a network. I've been developing this on my home network but now need to be able to deploy on multiple workstations with the data files on a Novell server and an .EXE file located on each workstation. The environment at the client site is different than my own...(different drive mappings, folder names, you name it.).
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>So my question is, can you use the setup wizard to deploy this thing on client machines? Some of the things I'm worrying about are:
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Absolutely, within some limits. I normally use Setup Wizard to create the runtime install for the worksttion, using it to put the VFP runtime, and if a gun is held to my hed, other common components like ActiveX controls on the workstation.

I use InstallShield for the remainder of the task by preference; if a Setup Wizard only solution is needed, then I use a post-setup executable to handle the task of creating shortcuts, mapping drives, setting up local configurations and the like.

With the post-setup exectable approach, you might want to create a network install by first creating the Setup Wizard for local installs as a complete package for installation. Once this is done, create another Setup Wizard package that does the install to netowrok for the application, dropping the first Setup Wizard package out to the network as a subdirectory of the network application directory. You can then run the network install from each workstation pointing to the workstation install on the net, and the post-setup executable can find where it is fired from and use that to create the necessary shortcuts at each workstation.

I find that using another package that's more full-featured than Setup Wizard (InstallShield Pro in my case because I already know it; InstallShield Express works well, with less scritping capability but a whole lot less learning curve than InstallShield Pro) to wrap the Setup Wizard-based runtime install and do the actual work except for what Setup Wizard does very well; installing the VFP Runtime.

>1. The project file so far, includes the data files (.DBC and tables)
>2. The data environment also includes the data files (there is a data environment for each form.)
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>Since the Setup Wizard includes everything in the subdirectory, I'm thinking that I could remove the data files and place them on my home server, and then rebuild the project. However, unless the drive mappings, etc are identical, the client's executable wouldn't know where to find the data. (Is it smart enough to ask the first time and then remember? I don't think so.).
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>The app builds and deploys fine as a standalone application. I'm using VFP 6.0 with the latest service pack (3)
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>Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
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>Thanks.
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>---- Larry