Building my own sample content installer

[Orvillain]

@d-healey said in There's something I don't understand about compiling a plugin:

If you're rolling your own you can disable it as Lindon suggested.

Hey Dave, on this topic... thought I'd move it to another thread. So my question is .... rather than packaging everything to a hr1 file, and then having the user jump through the install samples/choose folder steps within the plugin..... can't I simply ship these as part of my pkg/exe installer, have my install script put them wherever the user wants them, and have my install script create the LinkWindows or LinkMac file ????

[Lindon]

@Orvillain said in Building my own sample content installer:

@d-healey said in There's something I don't understand about compiling a plugin:

If you're rolling your own you can disable it as Lindon suggested.

Hey Dave, on this topic... thought I'd move it to another thread. So my question is .... rather than packaging everything to a hr1 file, and then having the user jump through the install samples/choose folder steps within the plugin..... can't I simply ship these as part of my pkg/exe installer, have my install script put them wherever the user wants them, and have my install script create the LinkWindows or LinkMac file ????

yes.

[Orvillain]

@Lindon simply put!

[d.healey]

@Orvillain I wouldn't recommend including the samples in the same installer as the binary, unless it's only a few samples.

For anything significant I prefer to provide a separate download. That way when you send out an update for the binary/presets/sample maps they don't have to redownload all the samples again - if you have 1000s of users this will soon show on your server bill.

[Orvillain]

@d-healey Not my bill to pay

Nah, but I get you. I get you. I'm pretty sure my client is going to want the simplest install experience available. They probably won't even want to give the user an option of where to install!! We shall see, but yeah, I think this confirms what I had in mind as being viable.

[d.healey]

@Orvillain said in Building my own sample content installer:

won't even want to give the user an option of where to install!!

Your client might change their mind when your users try and install on a system with low disk space.

[Orvillain]

@d-healey Yep, agreed! The BFD installers (which I was responsible for scripting) offered users an install location, and small/medium/large installs. It was a bit of a pain in the bum though, and it used a proprietary in-house installer that fxpansion made in the mid 2000's. Consequently, it was buggy as hell!

Looking forward to getting stuck in to some more modern installer packages eventually. I'll certainly communicate all of this!

[Lindon]

@Orvillain or you can go the route we took eventually - where the installed plugin looks for some meta data that tells it if the samples have been installed - and if not - downloads and installs them from within the plugin itself....

[Christoph Hart]

@Orvillain said in Building my own sample content installer:

@d-healey Yep, agreed! The BFD installers (which I was responsible for scripting) offered users an install location, and small/medium/large installs. It was a bit of a pain in the bum though, and it used a proprietary in-house installer that fxpansion made in the mid 2000's. Consequently, it was buggy as hell!

Looking forward to getting stuck in to some more modern installer packages eventually. I'll certainly communicate all of this!

You can use the inhouse HISE installer system from 2025 that is buggy as hell!

[Orvillain]

@Christoph-Hart The more things change, the more things stay the same!