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Defining a Managed Install

With a set of component packages, you have the essential ingredients for developing an install experience for the users of your product. There are two mechanisms for creating an install experience: using metapackages and using distribution packages, described in “Overview of Software Delivery.”

Distribution packages are a major improvement over metapackages because, using distribution packages, you can separate the configuration of a package’s payload from the definition of the install experience it provides.

To support Jaguar and Panther users while at the same time providing Tiger uses the enhanced install experience distribution packages offer, you can create hybrid metapackages. These are metapackages into which you copy the distribution script from a corresponding distribution package.

As described in “What Is a Package?,” an installation process is defined through four aspects of installation packages: product information, package properties, installation properties (which include system and volume requirements), and install operations. Metapackages and distribution packages add an additional aspect: install choices. Install choices allow users to customize an install to, for example, prevent the installation of a product’s tutorial component.

The following sections describe in detail how to create compelling install experiences using metapackages, distribution packages, and hybrid metapackages.

Contents:

Creating a Metapackage
Creating a Distribution Package
Creating a Hybrid Metapackage
Placing a Packaged Product in a Container
Testing the Install Experience

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