Understanding the types of install artifacts

This section provides information to help you understand the different types of install artifacts.

For any successful application installation, you need to provide the appropriate set of installation artifacts from the following:

• Installer/Uninstaller
  A program to handle installation (and uninstallation of your application) may be needed if you need to do anything more than provide an update site to allow installation of your application.
• Update site
  An Update Site is the key mechanism to enable installation of the application.
• Features
  A feature is the only level of installable unit that exists. You cannot choose to install only certain plug-ins from a feature. The Plug-in Development Platform provides wizards for creating Features.
• Plug-ins
  Plug-ins provide the core logic capability for the application, but they must be grouped into features in order to be installed using the Update Manager.
• Native libraries
  Plug-ins may use the Java™ Native Interface (JNI) to access native library code. Native libraries are by convention placed in a fragment specific to an operating system or architecture to the plug-in providing the Java classes (native libraries can all be placed within a single plug-in).
• Configuration file updates
  Most of the changes required when installing an application can be accomplished by providing the appropriate plug-ins. However, some of the configuration files used by the Lotus® Expeditor platform may need to be updated.
• Installation instructions
  You should make sure that any installation instructions for your application are clearly provided to your customers.
• Enterprise distribution instructions
  You should also consider the needs of enterprises to use an enterprise distribution mechanism to install the application. Any artifacts that must be installed should be clearly identified.