iNSISt Script Generation Framework

Updated Wiki: Home

OlympicCoder — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:40:29 GMT

Project Description

iNSISt is a flexible script generation framework for the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS). It works by transforming XML input files into NSIS scripts.

To get started, consult the framework documentation. Also, please leave us any feedback you have.

Background Information and Project Goals

If you're familiar with NSIS, you know it's a great tool for generating installers to deploy software, but you're probably also familiar with the following drawback: the script files it uses must be kept in sync with your development projects (as files are added or deleted, etc.). While you've probably seen some of the tools/wizards out there that have been created to make this easier, they have their own drawbacks as well, namely:

The UIs aren't decoupled from the "business logic," so the logic of generating NSIS scripts is duplicated across different UIs.
The business logic generally relies on a compiled executable, so changing how scripts are generated requires a recompile of the code.

To address these drawbacks, the iNSISt framework has the following design goals:

Decouple the UI for generating NSIS scripts from the "business logic" so that any UI (or even none) can be used.
Remove the dependency on compiled code from the auto-generated NSIS script structure.
Design the framework itself to be extensible so that new functionality can be added as needed.

If these goals are met, then developers can leave the mundane task of generating code to the framework and instead focus on more value-added tasks like creating better UIs more suited to their needs or, better yet, finding ways to integrate the framework with popular development tools (such as Visual Studio.NET).

For more background information, see How iNSISt Got Started.

New Post: Feedback

OlympicCoder — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 19:38:46 GMT

This discussion topic was created as an easy means to provide feedback (and preferably "actionable ideas" as well) for the framework.

Updated Wiki: Home

OlympicCoder — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:01:45 GMT

Project Description

iNSISt is a flexible script generation framework for the Nullsoft Scriptable Install System (NSIS). It works by transforming XML input files into NSIS scripts.

To get started, consult the framework documentation.

Background Information and Project Goals

If you're familiar with NSIS, you know it's a great tool for generating installers to deploy software, but you're probably also familiar with the following drawback: the script files it uses must be kept in sync with your development projects (as files are added or deleted, etc.). While you've probably seen some of the tools/wizards out there that have been created to make this easier, they have their own drawbacks as well, namely:

The UIs aren't decoupled from the "business logic," so the logic of generating NSIS scripts is duplicated across different UIs.
The business logic generally relies on a compiled executable, so changing how scripts are generated requires a recompile of the code.

To address these drawbacks, the iNSISt framework has the following design goals:

Decouple the UI for generating NSIS scripts from the "business logic" so that any UI (or even none) can be used.
Remove the dependency on compiled code from the auto-generated NSIS script structure.
Design the framework itself to be extensible so that new functionality can be added as needed.

Released: iNSISt v1.0 (Jul 24, 2008)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:39:32 GMT

This is the initial release of the iNSISt framework.

See the documentation for installation and usage instructions.

Created Release: iNSISt v1.0 (Jul 24, 2008)

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:39:32 GMT

This is the initial release of the iNSISt framework.

See the documentation for installation and usage instructions.

Source code checked in, #12423

OlympicCoder — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:33:18 GMT

Source code checked in, #12422

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