Enterprise deployment of Flash Builder 4, how?

[mrdigitalguy]

What sources or tools are available to aid in enterprise deployment of Flash Builder 4?  I need to create a 100% silent, 100% no touch installation and uninstallation.  I'd rather not capture it into a MSI.  I'm finding nothing on how to automate the installer at all.

I'd like some customization along with just how to do the actual install.  For example, being able to NOT install Adobe AIR, Flash Plugin/ActiveX and the accompanying Microsoft VC items or selectively installing them.  In our environment, EVERYTHING is layered - no application installs other vendor installs.  This simplifies managing and updating them.  When a user requests a application, all pre-reqs are installed and the actual app only installs if they all completed.

Thanks,

digital

[miles_monteleone]

Yes, please give us an option to silently deploy this software. I don't want to have to touch each machine and manually install, nor do I want to hand the software + key to our users and have them install it.

If I extract the setup files and run the 'set_up.exe' from the command line, the installer says it's running in 'Full GUI mode', implying there are other GUI modes available (namely silent). We just need to know the command-line arguments to supply to the installer in order for it to run in a silent/no-GUI mode.

Thanks,

Miles

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

Hi Miles and Mr. Digital Guy,

Rest assured that these installers are fully capable of being installed silently. The Enterprise Docs that list the exact steps for silent deployment are undergoing review now, and should be available very soon.

-Chris

[chris_barrett-xJGxpR]

Has there been any movement on this? We have users who are waiting for software. In an enterprise environment, it's simply unacceptable to do one off installations. I'll take anything, even beta documentation!

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

Hi,

We checked with the author of the CS5 Enterprise Deployment Docs, and he's getting close, but it's not quite ready yet. We'll post back to this thread as soon as it's ready.

-Chris

[chris_barrett-xJGxpR]

Is there any ETA on this? This delay is seriously frustrating. We need to get this setup for deployment. In an enterprise setting, these things simply cannot wait around. If the final docs aren't available, can we at least get some sort of time frame?

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

Hi Chris,

Looks as if the new Tech Note covering this has been posted for a couple of weeks now, but the author forgot to notify us, for posting back to this forum thread.

Are you able to get to this url?

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/842/cpsid_84211.html

-Chris

[mrdigitalguy]

I'm able to get to the article.  I will try it out and let you know if it's working for Flash Builder.

Thanks

[Stephl2-FbFfGm]

Hi,

It seems that there is nothing useful for the plugin version of FB4 Pro.
(not recognized by the Application Manager, files or folders to use for a silent install are missing)

We already have a silent install of Eclipse 3.5 for Php and Java developpers and now, we need a silent installation of FB4 Plugin
=> only one tool for Java/php+Flex developpers
=> only one configuration of Eclipse to deploy (proxy, subclipse...) for php, Java, Flex développers

Needs : silent installation with

- no EULA

- no internet connection (setup, flash players,...)

- independant installation of the flash players

...

And the most important : the Activation Key

How can we do?

Thanks,

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

Silent deployment of FB4 Plug-in is supported on Windows, but not on OS X.

More info on that here:

http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/849/cpsid_84927.html

That KB article doesn't mention how to push the Activation key, but I'll investigate the most straightforward approach for that. Silent Enterprise installs are only supported for Volume Licensing though, so in the interim you could also broadcast the Volume Activation key for manual entry at some point before the 60-day trial expires.

-Chris

[Stephl2-FbFfGm]

Hi,

Volume licencing : yes.

Silent Install is successful but manual entry is not a solution (or just for the first installs):

deployment must be made in an automatic way

(several sites, different teams, entirely automated installment, workflow of permission of installment, "ready to use" with custom installation: proxy, directories...., control of deployed volume…)

FB3 : use of a "snapshot" after the activation, for FB4 I'm looking for a more reliable method.

Thanks,

Stéphane

[Stephl2-FbFfGm]

Hi,

no solution for the activation Key?

Not a good idea to use the plugin version for enterprise deployment?

Thanks for your help,

Stephane

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

There is a way to push an Activation key with FB4 Plug-in, but it's rather convoluted, and has not been documented or tested yet.

If you have a choice of using FB4 Standalone instead of FB4 Plug-in for your enterprise deployment, that would be highly preferable. There's a lot of extra Enterprise infrastructure around the Standalone installers, not available for Plug-in.

-Chris

[miles_monteleone]

Adobe has released the Application Manager, which allows you to create an .msi-driven installer for CS5 applications. I've tested it and it works pretty well. You can grab it here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment.html

[mathurinbody]

Hi,

We are facing similar issue while installing the plugin version of FB4 but with external eclipse path :

The instructions provided herehttp://kb2.adobe.com/cps/849/cpsid_84927.html result in the installation of FB4 but configured with hosted eclipse only.

It looks like the USER_MAGIC_FOLDER_7 variable is not taken into account and the default (hosted version of eclipse) is choosen instead.

I've tried to generate the response file (with -r option), but only the following variables are returned:

USER_INSTALL_DIR=d:\\fb4
USER_INPUT_RESULT_4=0
USER_INPUT_RESULT_5=1

Any help would be very welcome!

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

Hi,

To extend FB4 Plug-in to other copies of eclipse, you can also just copy the link file from the dropins folder in the bundled copy of eclipse to the dropins folder in your own copy of eclipse (or the scripted equivalent of that).

Setting the path variable you mentioned should do that automatically, but failing that, the workaround is easy.

So I can reproduce that problem here, will you send me the exact path you were trying to pass, and also let me know which eclipse version and package you're plugging into (e.g. Helios for Java Developers, 32-bit).

Thanks,

-Chris

[mathurinbody]

Hi,

Many thanks for your answer and the workaround that we will try and use.

Here is the content of our installer.properties file : (we also tried with other paths and options without success)

INSTALLER_UI=silent
USER_INSTALL_DIR= d:\\\\fb4
USER_MAGIC_FOLDER_7= D:\\\\tools\\\\eclipses\\\\eclipse_FB

The eclipse version we are using is Galileo for J2EE developpers, 32-bit.

Rq : the non silent install works like a charm, so it looks more like a problem with InstallAnyWhere silent mode...

Thanks,

MB.

[C__Agruss__Adobe_]

For the path to your own copy of eclipse, if the link file isn't created automatically in silent mode, you could fix that quickly afterwards by copying the link file (either manually or with a script) from the bundled eclipse dropins folder into your own copy of eclipse.

Regarding silent deployment of volume SNs for FB4 Plug-in, we've been working up some documentation for that. Here's the approach, if anyone needs it.

Phase 1: Package the RIBS subinstaller (STIWrapper) for network deployment

• first, install FB4 Plug-in normally (interactively) once locally, to obtain the embedded subinstaller here: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4 Plug-in\install.support\AdobeFlashBuilderPluginSTIWrapperWin
• that STIWrapper normally gets run automatically and silently by InstallAnywhere. Because it’s in CS Installer format, an enterprise deployment engineer can use Adobe’s regular CS5 Enterprise Deployment tools to configure it for embedding a volume SN.
• when configuring the STIWrapper for Enterprise Deployment, the install path needs to go all the way down to the bundled Eclipse folder. For example that will be here by default: <Property name="INSTALLDIR">C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Flash Builder 4 Plug-in\eclipse</Property>
• docs and downloads for Adobe's Enterprise Deployment tools are available here: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/creativesuite/enterprisedeployment.html

Phase 2: Deploying FB4 Plug-in to End Users

Before deploying, it’s important that any previously installed versions of FB4 Plug-in and its STIWrapper have been uninstalled. Generally, the Plug-in uninstaller will uninstall the STIWrapper automatically, but for more robust deployments, the enterprise engineer may want to automate a prerequisite step of uninstalling both FB4 and its STIWrapper.

Next, the silent installers need to be deployed in this order:

1. install the STIWrapper first, using the CS5 Deployment Toolkit
2. run the regular InstallAnywhere FB4 Plug-in installer silently.

To run the Plug-in installer silently, you can either use the "FB4_Plugin_Win_Installer.exe -i silent" syntax in your deployment scripts, or else place a new file named installer.properties right next to FB4_Plugin_Win_Installer.exe, in the same VM folder, and include this line in that file:

INSTALLER_UI=silent

Important: in step 2 above you need to run the extracted FB4 Plug-in installer, using the same folder tree format found on the DVD, not the self-extracting ESD archive named FlashBuilder_4_Plugin_LS1.exe.

Alternatively, if you only have the ESD exe named FlashBuilder_4_Plugin_LS1.exe, and don’t have the FB 4.0.1 DVD available, you can obtain the same folder tree by running the plug-in installer interactively on a local machine. Cancel the installation right after it finishes with the part that says “...downloaded files are being extracted.” Locate the full plugin installer tree from your Temp folder, normally here: [yourHomeFolder]\AppData\Local\Temp\Adobe Flash Builder 4 Plugin\

Post this extracted folder (from the DVD or from the Temp folder) to a convenient share on your network and then use it for Step 2 above.

Note that this will only work fully on Win, because InstallAnywhere doesn’t support silent deployments on OS X. You could still use Step 1 on OS X to deploy a Volume SN the same way, but Step 2 would involve running the Plug-in installer interactively on OS X.

If you try out this approach, please let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

-Chris