Why IAClasses.zip Should Not Be Included as a Dependency in InstallAnywhere Projects

[#1]

Summary

This article discusses why IAClasses.zip should not to be in the dependencies of a project.

Synopsis

This article discusses why IAClasses.zip should not to be in the dependencies of a project.

Discussion

All of the elements which are present in IAClasses.zip are already added to the classpath by InstallAnywhere and are not required to be added explicitly by the installation author while designing the project file. The following reasons further illustrate why this should not be done:

1. Each version of InstallAnywhere has its own mapping of classes and resources in IAClasses.zip. Therefore, if IAClasses.zip is explicitly added for a project in InstallAnywhere 2015 and then the project is upgraded to InstallAnywhere 2017, this will cause build-time errors.
2. Adding IAClasses.zip to the dependencies would unnecessarily increase the size of the installer. This might result in more overhead time for the extraction process.