[izpack-devel] Web installer repository

[Vladimir Ralev]

Currently the web installer supports downloading the hard-coded packs 
from a remote site. I am working on an enhancement to populate the 
available packs at runtime instead of compile-time. In order to avoid a 
huge redesign I am using what's usually available. Here is the dir 
repository dir structure I am working with:

baseURL (from the <webdir> string)
   +- install.xml (filesets are ignored because they should be compiled 
in the pack1...N files)
   +- packsinfo.xml (this one contains metadata of the packs not 
available in install.xml - nbytes for example)
   + -langpacks...
   +-..pack1...N

So, if the installer finds these files at the baseURL it will load the 
packs data from install.xml and packsinfo.xml, after that it will expect 
all packs (0 to N loaded from the remote install.xml) to be available at 
the repository base. If there is no install.xml it will fallback to 
using the static info (and still download  the remote packs as it 
currently does), if packsinfo.xml is not found (with install.xml found) 
the pack sizes will appear 0. packsinfo.xml is generated at installer 
compile time together with the pack1..N files.

We will probably be using it to allow users to select from multiple 
versions of the packs for reproducibility while also allowing newest 
versions to be available without going through the whole installer 
release cycle.

In order to keep this "repository" easier to maintain I am also looking 
into replacing all internal references to pack row number with 
references to pack ids. For example instead of naming the repository 
packs pack1, pack2, ..packN they should be pack-(PACK_ID_1), 
pack-(PACK_ID_2), ...N. This way you can easily replace and manage 
individual packs given you can lookup the id. There are many other 
internal refs to pack row number in izpack, all should be removed since 
a simple change in the remote install.xml would change the numbers of 
the packs (unless you add the files at the end).

Does it make sense to you?