Tutorials webOS IPKG Installer

Introduction

IPKG Installer is a single file which contains your IPK, application details, homepage and even a donation link.

Once double clicked all the user has to do is click Install and the application is installed on their phone.

What this means is applications can be packaged in one file for easy installation.

Supported Opperating Systems

There are two versions of this tool.

One Java (All OS’s supported) and one Microsoft Dot Net 2.0 (Windows Only, may run under Mono).

Java Version

With the Java version all that is required is Novacom drivers and the WebOSDoctor.jar. (I have kept this convention to match WebOSQuick Install. (See [WebOS Quick Install[1]]).

The Java Version has the following features:

• Can detect if the installation was successful or if installation failed.

• Works on all platforms.

Windows Version

The Windows Version has the following features:

• Only the Novacom drivers are required.

• This application natively supports connecting to Novacom WITHOUT the webos java file. Users don’t have to worry about downloading such a large file.

• Can detect if the installation was successful or if installation failed.

• Detects if Novacom is installed and started. If it is not started it will start it for you.

Licence

Both applications are open source and I am happy to work with anyone to include new functionality or help packaging up your application.

Source Code

See [IPKG Installer GIT[2]] for source code.

Compiling Java Version

Download the source from the above GIT repository.

Requirements:

WebosDoctor.jar

Java JDK

Netbeans or ANT.

Customise for your Installer

Copy your IPK file(s) to “src\IPK\resources” and name it/them how they would appear in "/var/usr/lib/ipkg/info/".

For example:

/var/usr/lib/ipkg/info/my.app.testing would become my.app.testing.ipk

Open the Installer.Settings file in “src\IPK\resources” in a text editor like wordpad or Notepad++.

For each IPK add an entry like InstallerPackageX where X is a number starting at 1.

For example:

InstallerPackage1=my.app.testing

InstallerPackage2=my.app.testing2

Change the other settings to match your requirements.

Edit about-Installer.png and Main-Graphic.png with your own graphics and logos as appropriate.

ANT and the Java JDK (Not Tested Sorry)

If you have ANT and the Java JDK you should be able to run Compile.cmd in the root directory of the extracted files.

This should create a file called IPKInstaller.jar in the dist folder.

NetBeans and the Java JDK

If you don’t have ANT installed I recommend you use Netbeans 6+. Netbeans can be downloaded from Java SE Downloads - Sun Developer Network (SDN) with Netbeans.

See download called “JDK 6 Update 16 with NetBeans 6.7.1”.

Open the project in Netbeans and press shift+F11. This should create a file called IPKInstaller.jar in the dist folder.

Compiling DotNet Version

Download the source from the above GIT repository.

Requirements:

DotNet Framework 2.0.

Customise for your Installer

Copy your IPK file(s) to “src\IPK\resources” and name it/them how they would appear in "/var/usr/lib/ipkg/info/".

For example:

/var/usr/lib/ipkg/info/my.app.testing would become my.app.testing.ipk

Open the Installer.Settings file in “src\IPK\resources” in a text editor like wordpad or Notepad++.

For each IPK add an entry like InstallerPackageX where X is a number starting at 1.

For example:

InstallerPackage1=my.app.testing

InstallerPackage2=my.app.testing2

Change the other settings to match your requirements.

Edit about-Installer.png and Main-Graphic.png with your own graphics and logos as appropriate.

Open the IPKG Installer.vbproj file in a text editor like wordpad or Notepad++.

After the line "<None Include="Resources\about.png" />" add the following line for each IPK file.

<EmbeddedResource Include="Resources\FILENAME.ipk" />

For example:

<EmbeddedResource Include="Resources\my.app.testing.ipk" />

<EmbeddedResource Include="Resources\my.app.testing2.ipk" />

Compile

Double click Compile.cmd. (For best results run Compile.cmd form a command line window.)

It should create a file called IPKInstaller.exe in "obj\Release".

Donate

Whilst this is open source if your find any of my code handy especially my work in DotNet (that took quite a bit to get working) please contact me for help and if you can please donate. [[3]]

Special Thanks

Thanks to pimpmypre from [webosgroup[4]] for the idea and testing.

Thanks to rwhitby from [webos-internals[5]] for hosting the Git repository and testing.