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Welcome to the IzPack Confluence space
IzPack is a one-stop solution for packaging, distributing and deploying applications.
It is fully cross-platform and generates a single installer. As such, it is an alternative to native solutions such as platform-specific installers and package managers.
Many companies and projects have been using IzPack over the years.
IzPack-generated installers only require a Java virtual machine to run.
IzPack is published under the terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0, meaning that you can adapt it to your needs with very minimal constraints.
Sections
You can find below the links to the different sections of the space.
- [Developer resources]: resources for the IzPack developers and contributors.
- FAQ: frequently asked questions.
News
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.
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.
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
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/