popHealth Windows Installer
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This repository contains the files and scripts necessary to build a one-click
installer of popHealth for Windows users. This is not the place to go if you
just want to install popHealth on a Windows platform. However, is you are a
developer, working to enhance or update the installer for the latest version
of popHealth, than you're in the right place.
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+ Prerequisites:
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* NSIS (Nullsoft Scriptable Installation System)
The windows installer is built using the Nullsoft Scriptable Installation
System (NSIS) tool. Specifically, it was designed with version 2.46 of the
tool.
NSIS Project URL: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/
NSIS Documentation: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Docs
Downloads: http://nsis.sourceforge.net/Download
* unzip command
The batch file that prepares this directory prior to running the installer
uses the unzip command. If you are using the Windows git client included in
this directory, it includes the necessary command. Simply add the directory
<GIT HOME>\bin to your PATH and you'll be set. <GIT HOME> refers to the
directory where git is installed (C:\Program Files\Git by default).
* OLE-COM Object Viewer (optional)
While not explicitly necessary to build the installer, some aspects of
installing something on windows (i.e. adding a scheduled task) require
invoking Windows components via an Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) or
Common Object Model (COM) interface. Doing this from an NSIS install script
requires determining the ordinal number of the desired COM interface
function. The OLE-COM Object Viewer allows the COM interfaces installed on
the system to be browsed to determine these numbers. It is included with
Microsoft's Visual Studio development environment. I believe that it is
also part of the Windows 2000 Resource Kit.
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+ Building
=====================
Building the installer is quite simple. After installing NSIS, make sure the
NSIS install tool directory (C:\Program Files\NSIS by default) and the Git bin
directory are included in the PATH environment variable. From the directory
where this file resides, simply execute the following commands:
preparefor [32 | 64]
makensis [/DBUILDARCH=[32 | 64]] popHealth.nsi
The first command is a batch file that prepares the directory for either a 32
or a 64 bit build of the installer. If no option is specified, 32 bit is
used as a default. The preparefor batch file will also run the makensis
command with the appropriate BUILDARCH define. If the makensis command is
run separately without a /DBUILDARCH argument, then a 32 bit build is assumed.
If all goes well, this will create an executable called either
popHealth-i386.exe (32 bit) or popHealth-x86_64.exe (64 bit) which is the
one-click installer for the popHealth project for the respective architecture.