Mac installer for audio sample libraries best practices?

[WillowWolf]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some advice on best practices for making a mac installer.

I recently completed my first sampled instrument plugin, and on windows I've created a very elegant installer. Using Inno Setup, I've created an installer that prompts the user to select a sample folder, then automatically unpacks all the audio samples to that directory, and generates a link file in the users appdata folder. When the plugin is launched for the first time it works seamlessly, without the user needing to worry about unpacking the samples, or locating the sample folder manually.

How do I make something similar for mac? Is there a preferred way to handle unpacking audio sample libraries? Is there a preferred way to generate a link file in the users Application Support folder?

I know that because of how permissions work on macOS I probably wont be able to replicate what I've done on windows, but any advice would be extremely helpful. Even just pointing me to a program that can create mac installers would be helpful.

Thanks.

(edit: spelling)

[Oli Ullmann]

@WillowWolf
You can use white box packages.

[DanH]

@Oli-Ullmann yes but you can't write to the system and user folders simultaneously on OSX so you end up needing a separate samples installer if you want the user to be able to choose their own sample location.

[David Healey]

@DanH said in Mac installer for audio sample libraries best practices?:

but you can't write to the system and user folders simultaneously on OSX s

You can, see the video I made about it

[DanH]

@David-Healey ooh, is there a link or is it patreon only?

[dannytaurus]

@WillowWolf You could look at Package Builder too. Apparently it's been updated to specifically handle installing audio plugins, so I assume it would do what you need.

https://www.araelium.com/packagebuilder

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus said in Mac installer for audio sample libraries best practices?:

specifically handle installing audio plugins

What does this mean?

@DanH said in Mac installer for audio sample libraries best practices?:

ooh, is there a link or is it patreon only?

Yes it's on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/108026744

The instructions are in the Packages documentation.

I'll also be including the instructions in the packaging workshop I'm working on.

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey said in Mac installer for audio sample libraries best practices?:

What does this mean?

I don't know. I'm repeating what I read in other posts here. Hence the 'apparently'

I do know it has an Audio Plugin option when you create a new package project.

And given that installing different files to different locations, including to both user and system directories, is a very common requirement for audio plugins, I assume it will handle it.

Haven't tried it myself yet though.

EDIT: looks like the Audio Plugin option might be purely a visual element, and it doesn't actually do anything special.

[dannytaurus]

@David-Healey You get the Destinations settings below. I'm not 100% clear if that means User folder and System Disk though.

EDIT: actually, that Destinations section just dictates what the user sees on this page of the installer:

I think just back away quietly. I'm just making things worse here

[David Healey]

@dannytaurus said in Mac installer for audio sample libraries best practices?:

You get the Destinations settings below. I'm not 100% clear if that means User folder and System Disk though.

Those are also in Packages, I think this is just a different UI for the same thing. Behind the scenes they're both using pkgbuild and productbuild.