The IzPack team is proud to announce the 1st release candidate of IzPack 5.0.0.

Although it is considered quite stable according to the user reports and many automatic unit and integration tests, IzPack 5 still serves the purpose of testing and reporting.

Special thanks to all active developers, contributors and users who helped making this version another milestone towards launching the Maven-based IzPack 5.

The new version has been also deployed to the Codehaus Maven repository and should be mirrored soon to all connected repositories.
Feel free to test and report bugs, either to the mailinglist user@izpack.codehaus.org or if you can describe some technical background file an issue at https://jira.codehaus.org/browse/IZPACK.

For a list of what has been changed since 5.0.0-beta11, see IzPack 5.0.0 RC1 changelog in JIRA.
For a the complete release notes of implemented features, improvements, bugfixes and common tasks in IzPack 5.0.0 see Release Notes - IzPack - Version 5.0.
Although there has been done much work since 5.0.0-beta11, there are still some open issues, and probably there will come some more.

There might be more changes visible in the source code repository, for a complete log of particular changes (experts only) see log on GitHub, where the active development happens.

Apologizes to the fans of IzPack 4 - we know you are out there, but it hasn't been worth to make a new release due to the very few contributions made in this version.

Enjoy this new version 5.0.0 RC1 and keep in touch.

René

On behalf of the whole IzPack project team, I am pleased to announce the releases of IzPack 4.3.4 and IzPack 5.0.0-beta7.

You can download those releases from the IzPack downloads page and through Maven.

All credits for the release of IzPack 4.3.4 should go to Mark Miller who did a significant effort to backport fixes from the 5.0 branch to the aging 4.3 branch. Meanwhile, the development of IzPack 5 is going forward and you are highly encouraged to test it on your own projects. Some people have reported success in using IzPack 5 beta releases in production settings.

We would like to thank all our contributors and developers for making this release possible! Big thanks also go to our loyal users.

Finally, please remember that IzPack is not an opensource project with corporate backing, hence this is why we greatly need your help and contributions for developing it!

Release Notes for IzPack 4.3.4

Maven users should use version 4.3.4-SNAPSHOT of the standalone compiler plugin. The Nexus Codehaus repository does not allow us to release this plugin anymore.

The following issues went into this release:

Bug

• [IZPACK-391] - hidden="true" for Packs does not work for TreePacksPanel
• [IZPACK-427] - UserInputPanel: inputs should not be validated when panel is reloaded due to checkbox/radiobutton having revalidate="yes" in their spec
• [IZPACK-433] - ShortcutPanel fails to load if shortcutSpec.xml is UTF-8 encoded and contains non-ascii characters
• [IZPACK-461] - ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in TreePacksPanel
• [IZPACK-475] - ProcessPanel is ignored in console mode
• [IZPACK-480] - Console Install option does not invoke Process Panels
• [IZPACK-528] - The value of the encoding attribute of <res> element is still ignored
• [IZPACK-554] - spec txt and id set without localization files shows the id in the panel
• [IZPACK-567] - FinishPanel (SimpleFinishPanel) repaint
• [IZPACK-596] - Ubuntu 10+ needs .desktop files to be executable
• [IZPACK-603] - UserInputPanel: inputs should not be validated when panel is reloaded due to checkbox/radiobutton having revalidate="yes" in their spec
• [IZPACK-608] - deseclect is misspelled in console installer mode for checkboxes
• [IZPACK-610] - FinishPanel has hardcoded path for Uninstaller location
• [IZPACK-611] - Console Installer misspelling: Install was successeful
• [IZPACK-636] - JDKPathPanel does not work in console mode
• [IZPACK-637] - JDKPathPanel does not work in automated mode
• [IZPACK-645] - Null pointer exception at automated install
• [IZPACK-647] - Unable to launch wizard (panel) after creating the setup.exe in windows 7
• [IZPACK-656] - SimpleFinishPanel has hardcoded path for uninstaller
• [IZPACK-657] - izpack-standalone-compiler 4.3.4-RC1 in maven central
• [IZPACK-660] - ProcessPanelWorker does not clear old jobs, it keeps adding additional jobs
• [IZPACK-661] - JDKPathPanel fails on console JDK path check on Mac OS X

Improvement

• [IZPACK-650] - itemState change events from UserInputPanel combos unconditionally cause revalidation; behavior should be controlled by REVALIDATE attribute instead
• [IZPACK-654] - The installer should simply switch to console mode when a headless env is detected, even if the user has not passed the -console cmd

Release Notes for IzPack 5.0.0-beta7

The following Git commits went into this release:

- Log -----------------------------------------------------------------
[maven-release-plugin] copy for tag izpack-5.0.0-beta7

Anthonin Bonnefoy (3):
[izpack-651] Be sure to include directory entries in jar so that package detection can work later.
[izpac-651] Don't copy stream if it is a directory
Merge branch 'master' of ssh://git.codehaus.org/izpack

Cory Downey (1):
Replace uses of ZipOutputStream/ZipEntry/ZipException with JarOutputStream/JarEntry/JarException IZPACK-662

Julien Ponge (21):
[maven-release-plugin] prepare for next development iteration
Version bump on plugins and dependencies.
IZPACK-652 - This patch runs the workingDir through the IOHelper.translatePath function.
Forward port of the fix for IZPACK-654 from the 4.3 branch.
Merge remote-tracking branches 'origin/develop' and 'codehaus/master' into develop
IZPACK-647: Unable to launch wizard (panel) after creating the setup.exe in windows 7
Merge branch 'master', remote-tracking branch 'origin/develop' into develop
Fixes a NPE.
Merge branch 'master' into develop
Fix for IZPACK-528 by Timothy Fridey.
Fix for IZPACK-656 by Marcelo Marzola Bossoni.
Fixes a broken cherry-pick.
Fix for IZPACK-660 by Manny Lim.
Fixing bad links
Maven Site Plugin upgraded.
Slovak translation update by Milan Madzia.
Typo
Version bumps for some dependencies.
IZPACK-664: make the build work again with Maven2
Do not bundle the source code anymore.
[maven-release-plugin] prepare release izpack-5.0.0-beta7

Phillip (1):
Allows ProcessPanel executeFile to have a workingDir

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Pierre Laporte recently wrote some IzPack tutorials in French:

• http://www.pingtimeout.fr/2011/04/automatiser-linstallation-dapplications.html
• http://www.pingtimeout.fr/2011/04/automatiser-linstallation-dapplications_21.html

They cover the creation of an IzPack-based installer and its generation from Maven. If you speak La Langue de Molières then this is definitely worth a read!

I am very happy to announce the availability of 2 releases of IzPack today!

The impatient can go straight to the downloads page on IzPack.org and fetch those releases.

IzPack 4.3.4-RC1

IzPack 4.3.4-RC1 is an unexpected thing. When we started working on a new codebase towards IzPack 5, we opted for not making a further release from that branch. The rationale was that our resources were limited. Nevertheless, our community proved not to be passive, and Mark Miller stepped up to backport useful bug fixes from IzPack 5 back to the 4.3 branch. Thanks a lot to him for the great work!

This release candidate will become the final release if there are no problems. Here is a list of changes in this version:

Release Notes - IzPack - Version 4.3.4

** Bug
    * [IZPACK-391] - hidden="true" for Packs does not work for TreePacksPanel
    * [IZPACK-475] - ProcessPanel is ignored in console mode
    * [IZPACK-480] - Console Install option does not invoke Process Panels
    * [IZPACK-554] - spec txt and id set without localization files shows the id in the panel
    * [IZPACK-567] - FinishPanel (SimpleFinishPanel) repaint
    * [IZPACK-596] - Ubuntu 10+ needs .desktop files to be executable
    * [IZPACK-608] - deseclect is misspelled in console installer mode for checkboxes
    * [IZPACK-610] - FinishPanel has hardcoded path for Uninstaller location
    * [IZPACK-611] - Console Installer misspelling: Install was successeful
    * [IZPACK-636] - JDKPathPanel does not work in console mode
    * [IZPACK-637] - JDKPathPanel does not work in automated mode
    * [IZPACK-645] - Null pointer exception at automated install

** Improvement
    * [IZPACK-650] - itemState change events from UserInputPanel combos unconditionally cause revalidation; behavior should be controlled by REVALIDATE attribute instead

IzPack 5.0.0-beta6

Meanwhile, work is going forward on IzPack 5. I am pleased to announce the release of beta6. It is starting to look good from my point of view. Especially, the uninstaller is now working again. You should really have a look at it on your own projects!

The git commits summary is as follows:

[maven-release-plugin]  copy for tag izpack-5.0.0-beta6

Anthonin Bonnefoy (1):
     [uninstaller] Test with associated fix for missing class in uninstaller

David Duponchel (3):
     IZPACK-644 : IOException when launching the uninstaller
     bug found by Thiessen Todd : exception when using an xi:include tag with panels.
     xinclude support with xstream

Julien Ponge (25):
     [maven-release-plugin] prepare for next development iteration
     Disabled this non-IzPack test fixture as side-effects prevent running in parallel.
     Run tests in parallel! (4 threads per CPU core)
     Fixes IZPACK-645, provided by Stuart Wallis.
     Merge branch 'develop' of github.com:jponge/izpack into develop
     Merge branch 'master' of github.com:jponge/izpack
     Merge remote-tracking branch 'codehaus/master'
     Merge branch 'master' into develop
     Better condition for writing uninstaller elevation data. The uninstaller still has problems though.
     This helps in understanding where the issue with the uninstaller is.
     Introduced a failing test to reproduce the JarMerge bug causing the addition of '/+(.*)' for single-file resources.
     Could this be the fix?
     Test case enhanced for missing icon files in the uninstaller.
     Include img/* from the uninstaller skeleton into the real uninstaller.
     Cleanups post-uninstaller woes resoultion.
     Merge branch 'develop'
     WTF Android?
     Wiped commented out blocks of code.
     Merge branch 'develop'
     Included findbugs reporting.
     Removed testability-explorer.
     Merge branch 'develop'
     Added JXR for generating cross-references.
     IZPACK-650 don't validate entire panel on combobox select, author mark sipos
     [maven-release-plugin] prepare release izpack-5.0.0-beta6

Rene Krell (1):
     Fix for IZPACK-642

Last but not least, work on the user documentation is still very much needed. David Duponchel and others did a few edits recently, but there is still a lot of work to do.

...10 years!

I would like to end this announcement on a special note. IzPack was started 10 years ago bar a few days. It all started as a fun project for me to learn Java and try to understand that thing called opensource. I did not expect such success to be honest...

I have met lots of people along the way, and learned so many things by trials and errors. This goes well beyond technical matters. Learning how to foster a community around a pet project and make it an industrially renowned product has been a rare privilege.

I have way too many people to thank for their contributions to the project, really, so I am sure that I would offend lots of them if I started listing the outstanding IzPack developers!

Nevertheless, fostering an opensource project is not just about technical things... This is why I would still like to personally thank some people for their very very special help at some point or the other. Hopefully they know why

• Romain Guy
• Elmar Grom
• Alexis Moussine-Pouchkine
• Eduardo Pelegri-Liopart
• Ludovic Poitou

Thanks a lot to everyone involved in the project, and thanks to all of you for your interest in IzPack! Long live IzPack!

-- Julien Ponge, the guy who started it all 10 years ago.

Maksim Sorokin shares some great blog posts on IzPack!

It's all available at http://maksim.sorokin.dk/it/tag/izpack/