InstallAnywhere Professional vs Premier

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Summary

This article explains the additional features in the Premier Editions of InstallAnywhere as compared to the Professional Edition.

Synopsis

InstallAnywhere is available in two different editions:

InstallAnywhere Premier Edition
InstallAnywhere Professional Edition

Note: "Virtualization and Cloud" is optionally available with InstallAnywhere Premier Edition.

Following is a list of features that are available in the Premier edition of InstallAnywhere but not the Professional edition.

Discussion

Build Time Variables
Using InstallAnywhere Premier Edition, you can configure your project to use build-time variables, which are variables that have their values set at build time.

Custom Source Path Variables
The Premier edition of InstallAnywhere includes support for custom source path variables. Source paths are special variables that represent common paths to your project?s files. When you add a file, if the path to the file matches one of the values that is listed on the Source Paths tab of the InstallAnywhere Preferences dialog box, the source path variable name is substituted in place of the matching path. If you move your project and source files to a different folder or computer, InstallAnywhere can find all of the files by simply updating these source paths.

Docker Support

Traditional and Docker container outputs from one source project?With Virtualization and Cloud, which is available for purchase with InstallAnywhere Premier Edition, you can use your existing InstallAnywhere project to configure and build Docker images. InstallAnywhere Premier Edition with Virtualization and Cloud enables you to package and deploy Web applications to the cloud as Docker images that are run as Docker containers. Docker containers consist of a complete file system that includes everything that is needed to run?code, system tools, system libraries, and more. Containers that run on a single machine all share the same operating system kernel so that they start quickly and efficiently.
Available prebuilt base images?Search public and private Docker repositories for base images to include in your Docker images.
Advanced customization of Docker images?To customize your Docker image creation, you have the ability to edit the Dockerfile?the set of commands that tells the Docker engine how to generate a Docker image? that InstallAnywhere creates as you configure Docker settings in your project.

Virtual Appliance Support

Traditional and virtual outputs from one source project?With Virtualization and Cloud, which is available for purchase with InstallAnywhere Premier Edition, you can use your existing InstallAnywhere project to configure and build virtual appliances. InstallAnywhere Premier Edition with Virtualization and Cloud enables you to build cloud-ready virtual appliances that you can deploy automatically as hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings on a public cloud, or enterprise-ready virtual appliances that your enterprise customers can host in their own virtual environments.
Reusable VM template support for moving to the cloud?Virtualization and Cloud includes the ability to create virtual machine templates that help you streamline the process of moving multiple applications to the cloud and to virtual environments.

Run-Time Customization

Extensive run-time language support?The Premier edition includes default run-time strings in 31 supported languages. The Professional edition includes default run-time strings in 9 languages. The Premier edition also enables you to include custom localized splash screens in your installations. In addition, this edition lets you add your own external resource bundles to your projects; external resource bundles are custom locale files (one per locale) that provide additional localized run-time strings or replace the default built-in run-time strings.
Ability to add custom GUI panels?The Premier and Professional editions let you incorporate various standard GUI panels in your installation and customize various aspects of their appearance. Only the Premier edition lets you design your own custom panels that guide end users through the selection or completion of various UI elements such as text boxes, check boxes, and lists.
Flexible user-interface modes for installations?The Premier edition provides the ability to define which UI mode or modes your installations support. Options are GUI mode (which displays the installation wizard to end users and requires interaction from end users), console mode (which displays a text-only interface, similar to that found in ANSI terminal applications), and silent mode (which provides an automated non-interactive installation mode). The Professional edition has support for only the GUI mode.
Server deployment support?The Premier edition enables you to configure settings for deploying software to application and database servers. With this edition, you can also assign WAR or EAR deployment actions to a J2EE container for application server hosts, and SQL instruction actions that run SQL scripts during the installation on database server hosts.
End-user installer panel help?The Premier edition enables you to add help text to your installer panels?either the same help text for each panel or different help text for each panel.
Extensibility?InstallAnywhere provides a wide range of actions that you can add to projects to perform various operations before, during, and after your installation. Some of the actions are available only in the Premier edition. Examples of Premier-only actions include actions that copy, move, and delete files on target systems at run time.

Product Lifecycle Management

Built-in support for creating upgrades?The Premier edition of InstallAnywhere provides support for creating upgrades that uninstall earlier versions of the product if present before installing the new version.
Support for customizing the uninstaller?The Premier and Professional editions automatically create an uninstaller for a product. Only the Premier edition lets you customize the uninstaller by adding, modifying, reordering, or removing uninstall actions.
Instance management support?The Premier edition provides the ability to create installers that let end users install multiple instances of a product on the same machine.
Ability to share components with other products?The Premier edition enables you to optionally identify a component in your project as shared. A shared component is a set of files that two or more products can share. At run time, if this type of component is not already present on a target system, the installer adds it. If it is already present, the installer registers it as shared. The uninstaller does not remove a shared component if it is still required by another product on the machine. Sharing components is beneficial if you are creating installers for suites of products that share required resources.
Support for dependencies?Dependencies are components that are needed by the product that is being installed but are not actually installed by the installer. This is useful if your product relies on other components such as an application server or a database that may be installed by other applications.

Development Productivity and Flexibility

Flexible installer distribution options?The Premier edition lets you choose between two build output types: a CD-ROM installer (an uncompressed installer that you can burn onto one or more CDs, DVDs, or other removable media, or that you can copy to a network) and a Web installer (a single self-extracting executable file, along with an HTML page and embedded Java applet to make downloading the installer easy). The Professional edition provides support for Web installers only.
Project Portability?The Premier edition lets you define variables for commonly used source paths and then use those source paths instead of hard-coded paths when referencing source files throughout your projects. If you later change the directory structure for your source files or if someone opens your project on a different machine, you can update the source path for each variable as needed in one central location instead of manually updating each hard-coded path. Both the Premier and Professional editions include support for some predefined source path variables, such as $IA_PROJECT_DIR$, which is the location of the current InstallAnywhere project. The values of these predefined path variables cannot be changed.
Merge module support?Merge modules are essentially installer subprojects that you can create independently of one another and later merge together. Like an installer, a merge module is a reusable collection of installation functionality, complete with features, components, panels, actions, and files.
Flexible build configuration management?With the Premier edition, you can define tags to bundle related sets of actions, panels, features, and components, and assign the tags to the appropriate items in your project. Then you can associate the tags with specific build configurations to include or exclude items from builds.
Flexible build target management?With the Premier edition, you can create different build targets for each platform that your product supports. A build target defines not only which platforms an installer targets. It also specifies whether the installer includes a Java virtual machine (JVM), and if so, which one. In a Professional edition project, only one prebuilt build target is available for each platform; it is not possible to define additional build targets.
Project automation APIs?The Premier edition includes project automation APIs that lets you design, modify, build, and test an installation from an InstallAnywhere project via Java code. The Premier edition also has support for service layer APIs that you can use to customize your installation beyond the standard actions and panels; they also enable you to add advanced functionality to your custom code actions. For example, you can use the service layer to modify files, query the system registry, and determine whether an end user has administrative privileges.
Ability to optimize installer size by platform?The Premier edition lets you minimize the size of your final installers by excluding platform-specific resources.

Platform-Specific Capabilities

Ability to build pure 64-bit installers for 64-bit Windows-based systems?In the Premier edition, you can build pure 64-bit installers for Windows-based target systems. These installers can be run on 64-bit Windows-based systems that do not have 32-bit Windows-on-Windows (WOW64) functionality; this includes Windows Server Core, which supports disabling WOW64 support. These installers contain 64-bit self-extractors, LaunchAnywhere launchers, and VM packs, as needed. They can install to 64-bit file and registry locations and install 64-bit Windows services as required.
Authentication support for Apple OS X?based systems?The Premier edition includes support for requiring standard users to enter an administrator user name and password to install the product on OS X?based systems.

General Actions

Action	Description
Add Jump Label Action	Use this action to branch off the installation conditionally. By applying InstallAnywhere rules, developers may jump the end user to a later or earlier part of the installation, depending on the specifics of their system or install. Use this action in conjunction with the Jump to Target action. (Available during the Pre-Install and Post-Install sequences.)
Copy File Action	Copy a file from one location to another location on the end user's system.
Copy Folder Action	Copy a folder from one location to another location on the end user's system.
Delete File Action	Delete a file from the end user?s system. ? Installed file?Select this option to delete a file to be deployed by your installer. Then click Choose Target to choose the file you want to delete. ? Existing file?Select this option to delete a file from the target system, and enter the path (fixed or relative) and file name for the file you want to delete.
Delete Folder Action	Delete a folder from the end user's system.
Evaluate Dependencies Action	Evaluate dependencies on which the installer is based. This action sets the following InstallAnywhere variables: $DEPENDENCY_SUCCESSES$ $DEPENDENCY_FAILURES$ $DEPENDENCY_REPORT$ $DEPENDENCY_STATUS$
Execute Ant Script Action	Execute Ant Script allows developers to execute scripts designed for the Apache Jakarta Project?s Ant application. If this action is selected, InstallAnywhere bundles Ant with the application.
Execute Uninstaller Action	Runs the specified uninstaller with the settings provided for stdout, stderr, and exit code logging. This action also allows developers to define the GUI mode for the uninstaller.
Find Component in InstallAnywhere Registry Action	InstallAnywhere allows developers access to information stored in the Windows Registry through this action. This action retrieves the value or checks the existence of a key/value and then stores that information in InstallAnywhere variables to be used in the installation.
Jump to Target Action	Related to the Add Jump Label action, this action allows developers to jump over or back to a specific point in an installation. When controlled by InstallAnywhere rules, this action gives developers a conditional method of moving non-linearly through an install. (Available during the Pre-Install and Post-Install sequences.)
Modify Text File - In Archive Action	This action alters text files within an archive (ZIP or JAR).
Modify Text File - Multiple Files Action	This action alters several text files on the target system. Use this action any time you need to make the same changes to multiple text files within the same directory.
Modify Text File - Single File Action	This action modifies a text file on the target system.
Perform XSL Transform Action	This action allows developers to specify an XSLT and target for an Extensible Stylesheet Language transform. Predefined XSL Transforms can be found in <InstallAnywhere>\resource\extras\presets
Perform XSL Transform - In Archive Action	This action works the same as the Perform XSL Transform, but does so for files in an archive?quite useful for configuring web applications in WAR, EAR, and JAR files.
Show Message Dialog Action	This action creates a modal dialog that requests end user input. The message dialog box appears over the currently displayed panel.

Install Actions

Action	Description
Deploy WAR/EAR Archive Action	Deploy a WAR or EAR archive to an application server.
Install from Manifest Action	Install all of the files and folders specified in the manifest file on the end user's system. See Manifest Files for more information.
Install HP-UX Depot Action	Install and uninstall HP-UX depot files. You must specify the package name within the depot file, since it may contain multiple packages. In order to install multiple packages in the same depot, add one action for every package that you want to install. (This method does not increase the size of the installer.)
Install Linux RPM Action	Install and uninstall Linux RPMs. These RPMs can either be bundled with the installer or pre-existing on the system. If the RPM is relocatable, and the Relocatable check box is selected in the action customizer, the RPM is installed to its location in the file tree. Additionally, the RPM can be set to ignore dependencies (similar to the --nodeps option for the command-line RPM tool) and to force the installation (--force).
Install Merge Module Action	Install a merge module as if the merge module were run as a separate silent installer.
Install Solaris Package Action	Install and uninstall Solaris package files. These packages can either be bundled with the installer or pre-existing on the system. You must enter the name of the package. Additionally, InstallAnywhere supports bundling admin and response files for the package with the installer. For more information on these files, consult the man pages for pkgadd(1), pkgask(1), and admin(4).
Move File Action	Move or rename a file from one location to another location on the end user's system.
Move Folder Action	Move or rename a folder from one location to another location on the end user's system.
Run SQL Script Action	Run a SQL script on a database server.

Panel Actions

Action	Description
Choose Database Connection Panel Action	The Choose Database Connection panel action enables end users to specify information for connecting to a database.
Choose File Panel Action	The Choose File panel action lets end users select a file; it uses the file name and the path to the file as the values of InstallAnywhere standard variables. You can use these variables elsewhere in your installer.
Choose Folder Panel Action	The Choose Folder panel action lets end users select a folder; it uses the folder as the value of an InstallAnywhere standard variable. You can use these variables elsewhere in your installer.
Custom Code Panel Action	InstallAnywhere?s custom code API enables you to create custom panels where necessary.
Find File/Folder Panel Action	The Find File/Folder panel action implements a search process that searches portions of the file system for a specific file or for a file that matches a certain pattern. The end user can also choose a matching file.
Get Password Panel Action	The Get Password panel action lets end users enter a password. You can choose to validate the password against a list of specified passwords (enabling the index feature that allows different passwords to effectively unlock different features), or you can store the entered password in a variable (as when requesting a password to be used in a configuration routine). The installer automatically encrypts password values according to the security settings that are specified in the Variables view on the Project page.
Get Serial Number Panel Action	Implementing InstallAnywhere?s built-in serial number verification and creation routines, the Get Serial Number panel action enables you to add serial number functionality to the installer. You can choose to generate any number of serial numbers for any number of products. Serial numbers can represent unique products or sets of products. The action enables you to create rules that can manage all aspects of the installation based on rights that are granted by the serial numbers that end users enter.
Get User Input - Advanced Panel Action	The Get User Input - Advanced panel action enables you to get input from end users using multiple input types and setting multiple variables. This action can have radio buttons, check boxes, text fields, and menus?all on the same panel.
Get User Input - Simple Panel Action	The Get User Input - Simple panel action enables action enables you to get input from end users.
Scrolling Message Panel Action	The Scrolling Message panel action lets you display a lot of text in a message panel that includes scroll bars. This may be particularly useful for instructions.
Tomcat Runtime Deployment Panel Action	With the Tomcat Deployment Option panel action, you can offer end users one or more options for deploying to Tomcat servers, and also enable them to specify server connection information.
WebSphere Runtime Deployment Panel Action	With the WebSphere Deployment Option panel action, you can offer end users options for deploying to WebSphere servers, as well as enable them to specify server connection information.

Rules

Rule	Description
Check File/Folder Attributes Rule	This rule allows developers to check the attributes of a file or directory that already exists on the target system. Developers can check if the object exists, whether it is a file or a folder/directory, and whether it is readable or writable. The in-use/not in-use options are tested on Windows systems only.
Compare File Modification Timestamp Rule	This rule allows developers to compare the timestamp of an existing target file in order to make an overwrite decision.
Evaluate Custom Rule Rule	Custom rules built using the specifications outlined in the InstallAnywhere API can be tailored to fit the needs of the installation.
Match Regular Expression Rule	The Match Regular Expression rule allows developers to compare a string, or InstallAnywhere Variable to a regular expression of the developers choosing. Regular Expressions (regexp) are an industry-standard method of expressing a variable string. Developers can find considerable information on regular expressions, including archives of use full expressions, and web applications that can be used to verify the validity of the expression on the Web.
System i (i5/OS) Licensed Program Exists Condition Rule	This rule allows developers to determine if a licensed program, matched by the Licensed Program Identifier, Option, and Release Level, exists on the target i5/OS system. Any action to which this rule is assigned can be conditionally performed based on whether a matching licensed program is found or not found on the i5/OS system.
System i (i5/OS) Primary Language Install Condition Rule	This rule allows developers to compare one or more primary language settings with the primary language of a target i5/OS system. Any action to which this rule is assigned can be conditionally performed based on whether the primary language was matched on the target i5/OS system.
System i (i5/OS) Program Temporary Fix (PTF) Condition Rule	This rule allows developers to determine if a PTF, matched by the Licensed Program Identifier, PTF ID, Release Level, and PTF Status, exists on the target i5/OS system. Any action to which this rule is assigned can be conditionally performed based on whether a matching PTF is found or not found on the i5/OS system.

Languages

Language	Language Code
Arabic	ar
Basque	eu
Catalan	ca
Czech	cs
Danish	da
Dutch	nl
Finnish	fi
French (Canada)	fr_CA
Greek	el
Hebrew	iw
Hungarian	hu
Indonesian	in
Korean	ko
Norwegian	no
Polish	pl
Portuguese	pt
Portuguese (Brazil)	pt_BR
Russian	ru
Slovak	sk
Slovenian	sl
Thai	th
Turkish	tr

Additional Information

For additional details about the features that are included in different editions, contact your InstallAnywhere sales representative or a reseller.

More information can be found in the following HelpNet Articles:
General Actions
Install Actions
Panel Actions
Rules Reference
Language Codes

InstallAnywhere Professional vs Premier