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IZPACK can be easily integrated inside an Ant build process. To do so you first need to tell Ant that you would like to use IZPACK :
<!-- Allows us to use the IzPack Ant task -->
<taskdef name="izpack" classpath="${basedir}/lib/compiler.jar"
classname="com.izforge.izpack.ant.IzPackTask"/>
If you want to use the standalone compiler (and therefore don't need an IzPack installation for building), the task needs to be defined as follows:
<!-- Allows us to use the IzPack Ant task -->
<taskdef name="izpack" classpath="${basedir}/lib/standalone-compiler.jar"
classname="com.izforge.izpack.ant.IzPackTask"/>
Don't forget to add compiler.jar or standalone-compiler.jar to the classpath of the Ant process.
Then you can invoke IZPACK with the izpack task which takes the following parameters:
Here is a sample of the task invocation:
<!-- We call IzPack -->
<echo message="Makes the installer using IzPack"/>
<izpack input="${dist.dir}/IzPack-install.xml"
output="${dist.dir}/IzPack-install.jar"
installerType="standard"
basedir="${dist.dir}"
izPackDir="${dist.dir}/"/>
Instead of using the install attribute to specify an external installation document, you can embed the installation config as a child of the izpack task using a config child element with a CDATA section. For example:
<property name="jboss.home.url" value="http://www.jboss.com/" />
...
<!-- Call IzPack with an embedded install using the config element -->
<izpack output="${dist.dir}/IzPack-install.jar"
installerType="standard"
basedir="${dist.dir}"
izPackDir="${dist.dir}/">
<config><![CDATA[
<installation version="1.0">
<info>
<appname>JBossAS</appname>
<appversion>4.0.2</appversion>
<appsubpath>jboss-4.0.2</appsubpath>
<authors>
<author name="JBoss Inc." email="sales@jboss.com"/>
</authors>
<url>@{jboss.home.url}</url>
<javaversion>1.4</javaversion>
</info>
...
]]></config>
</izpack>
Property references of the form @{x} are replaced by the associated x ant property if it is defined.
All system properties are available as $SYSTEM_<variable> where <variable> is the actual name _BUT_ with all separators replaced by '_'. Properties with null values are never
stored.
Examples:
$SYSTEM_java_version or $SYSTEM_os_name
When you conclude your installation with a FinishPanel, the user can save the data for an automatic installation. With this data, he will be able to run the same installation on another similar
machine. In an environment where many computers need to be supported this can save a lot of time.
So run once the installation on a machine and save your automatic installation data in auto-install.xml (that's just a sample). Then put this file in the same directory as the installer
on another machine. Run it with:
java -jar installer.jar auto-install.xml
It has reproduced the same installation :-)
You can add a picture on the language selection dialog by adding the following resource : installer.langsel.img. GIF, JPEG and PNG pictures are supported starting
from J2SE 1.3.
It is possible to specify an optional picture to display on the left side of the installer. To do this, you just have to define a resource whose id is Installer.image. For instance,
<res id="Installer.image" src="nice-image.png" />
will do that. If the resource isn't specified, no picture will be displayed at all. GIF, JPEG and PNG pictures are supported starting from J2SE 1.3.
You can also give a specific picture for a specific panel by using the Installer.image.n resource names where 
is the panel index. For instance if you want a specific picture for the third panel, use Installer.image.2 since the indexes start from 0.
There are some options to modify the graphic user interface. Most of them are managed with key/value pairs of the element <modifier> which will be located in the element <guprefs> in the installation description file.
Additonal to the picture in the language selection dialog it is possible to modify flags and the type of showing the language name. Following different views (without an images to reduce space).
There are some graphic elements and behavior which are prefered by some people and deprecate by other. The following keys are related to the hole installation (all panels).
It is possible to use an alternatively frame title. Normaly the title has the aspect "IzPack - Installation of " + $APP_NAME. If the langpack key installer.reversetitle is defined, the value of that key will be used instead of the key installer.title. There is no string added, but it is possible to use IzPack variables. The third heading example contains such a alternatively frame title. It is only possible to use predefined variables like $APP_NAME because the title will be created before the frame will be shown. It is common to use the name of the installation toolkit in the frame title.
Some standard panels have headings (e.g. ShortcutPanel). These headings are integrated in the IzPanel. In oposite to this following heading will be displayed in a separated panel potential for all panels with the same design. There is no need to modify existent java classes else declaration of some key/value pairs are enough.
There can be one real head and zero or more info lines. The headline will be written bold, the fontsize can be changed. Info lines will be indented and written with the normal used font. The heading message has to be written into the langpack (or custom langpack) file with the key <panel class name>.headline. Examples can be seen in eng.xml. May be the entries for standard panels are not present in other languages. Messages for info lines have the key <panel class name>.headinfo<info line number>. First info line has number zero. If no or empty headline messages will be declared in the chosen language no heading panel will be shown. This behavior can be used to suppress heading for special panels.
It is also possible to declare head and info lines additonal dependent on the panelid. The result is, that it is possible to declare different messages for panels which are shown more than one time (e.g. the UserInputPanel. In this case the key for heading is
<panel class name>.headline.<panelid>
and for info lines
<panel class name>.headinfo<info line number>.<panelid>
Panelids are declared in ELEMENT %lt;panel>. See The Panels Element <panels> . The standard strings are declared in the standard langpack file. For customized panels it is common to write the string into the custom langpack (see The Internationalization of custom panels. If (as example) in install.xml was following written:
<panels>
...
<panel classname="UserInputPanel" id="one"/>
<panel classname="UserInputPanel"id="two"/>
...
</panels>
Then the messages can be declared in CustomLangpack.xml_eng like
<langpack>
...
<str id="UserInputPanel.headline.one" txt="User Data one"/>
<str id="UserInputPanel.headline.two" txt="User Data two"/>
<str id="UserInputPanel.headinfo0.one" txt="Info 1 one"/>
<str id="UserInputPanel.headinfo1.one" txt="Info 2 one"/>
<str id="UserInputPanel.headinfo0.two" txt="Info 1 two"/>
<str id="UserInputPanel.headinfo1.two" txt="Info 2 two"/>
...
<langpack>
It is possible to place an icon on the right side of the heading. To do this a simple resource entry will be needed:
<resources> ... <res id="Heading.image" src="[my path in the source tree]"/> ... </resources>
There are some guiprefs modifier keys to use and modify heading (see above). Additonal it is possible to count the generell not hidden panels in the heading or navigation panel.
A normal IzPack GUI looks like
Key/value pairs to create IzPack installation with heading, no button and label icons and a panel text counter in the heading panel.
<guiprefs width="600" height="480" resizable="no"> <modifier key="useButtonIcons" value="no"/> <modifier key="useLabelIcons" value="no"/> <modifier key="labelGap" value="2"/> <modifier key="layoutAnchor" value="NORTHWEST"/> <modifier key="useHeadingPanel" value="yes"/> <modifier key="headingLineCount" value="1"/> <modifier key="headingFontSize" value="1.5"/> <modifier key="headingBackgroundColor" value="0x00ffffff"/> <modifier key="headingPanelCounter" value="text"/> <modifier key="headingPanelCounterPos" value="inHeading"/> </guiprefs>
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Changed resources and langpack keys to create IzPack installation with alternatively frame title, heading, no button and label icons and a text counter in the heading panel.
In install.xml
<installation version="1.0">
...
<resources>
...
<res src="border4.png" id="Installer.image.3"/> REMOVED
...
</resources>
</installation>
Add in <ISO3>.xml or CustomLangpack.xml_<ISO3>
<langpack>
...
<str id="installer.reversetitle" txt="$APP_NAME $APP_VER - IzPack Wizard "/>
...
</langpack>
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Changed key/value pairs to create IzPack installation with heading, no button and label icons and a panel progressbar counter in the navigation panel.
Key/value pairs for modifying IzPack GUI (references for panel images removed):
<guiprefs width="640" height="480" resizable="no"> <modifier key="useButtonIcons" value="no"/> <modifier key="useLabelIcons" value="no"/> <modifier key="layoutAnchor" value="NORTHWEST"/> <modifier key="labelGap" value="2"/> <modifier key="useHeadingPanel" value="yes"/> <modifier key="headingLineCount" value="1"/> <modifier key="headingFontSize" value="1.5"/> <modifier key="headingBackgroundColor" value="0x00ffffff"/> <modifier key="headingPanelCounter" value="progressbar"/> <modifier key="headingPanelCounterPos" value="inNavigationPanel"/> </guiprefs>
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The cancel dialog will be shown if the cancel button or the close button of the frame was pushed. In the standard dialog the title contains the question and the message an affirmation. In other dialogs often the title is a common heading and the question will be called in the dialog as message. The standard behavior will be modified if the messages installer.quit.reversemessage and installer.quit.reversetitleare declared.
Add in <ISO3>.xml or CustomLangpack.xml_<ISO3> <langpack> ... <str id="installer.quit.reversemessage" txt="Are you sure you want to cancel installation?"/> <str id="installer.quit.reversetitle" txt="$APP_NAME $APP_VER"/> ... </langpack>
Logging was made as copruduct at implementing other features. There was no common design for it. Therefor there is no one way to made logging of any kind else for each group a different logging stuff exist. Not nice, but reality.
The web installers allow your users to download a small installer that does not contain the files to install. These files will be downloaded from an HttP server such as Apache HttPD. If you
have many optional packs, this can save people's resources. Its very easy: people download a small Jar file containing the installer, they launch it and choose their packages. Then the installer will
get the required packages from individual Jar files located on a server, only downloading those required. It's that simple.
To create a web installer, add the <webdir> element to the <info> element (see section 2.3.2). The text must be a valid,
fully qualified URL for a direcory on the web server.
<info> <appname>Super extractor</appname> <appversion>2.1 beta 6</appversion> <url>http://www.superextractor.com/</url> <webdir>http://www.superextractor.com/download</url> </info>
You can force creation of a standard installer even if webdir is specified, by specifically creating a standard installer from the command line invocation or ant task (see ).
When installing, if the user is behind a firewall, attempting download the jar files may fail. If this happens, the user will be prompted to enter the name hostname and port of their firewall.
You may password protect the files using mechanisms provided by your web server, IzPack will prompt for a password at install time, when required.
IzPack is available in several languages. However you might want to internationalize some additional parts of your installer. In particular you might want this for the *InfoPanel and
*LicencePanel. This is actually pretty easy to do. You just have to add one resource per localization, suffixed with the ISO3 language code. At runtime these panels will try to load a localized
version.
For instance let's suppose that we use a htmlInfoPanel. Suppose that we have it in English, French and German. We want to have a French text for french users. Here we add a resource pointing to
the French text whose name is htmlInfoPanel.info_fra. And that's it ! English and German users (or anywhere other than in France) will get the default text (denoted by
htmlInfoPanel.info) and the French users will get the French version. Same thing for the other Licence and Info panels.
To sum up : add _<iso3 code> to the resource name for InfoPanel, htmlInfoPanel, LicencePanel and htmlLicencePanel.
Thanks to Thorsten Kamann, it is possible to translate the packs names and descriptions. To do that, you have to define a special identifier in the elements of the XML installation file and add the related entries in the suitable langpacks. For instance if you have the following XML snippet:
<pack name="core" id="core.package" ...> <description/> </pack>
then the related entries of the langpacks will look like this:
<str id="core.package" txt="Core Package"/> <str id="core.package.description" txt="The core package provides
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