I regularly need to administer EMC Clariion SANs for which Java JRE 1.4
is needed. Unfortunately some other websites/applications need a more
recent Java version. Before I used a separate VM with an XP and Java 1.4
installed on it to administering clariions. This is some serious
overkill and I was looking for a better solution. VMware released
Thinapp 4.0, time to see if this is a better solution.
The Thinapp welcome screen.
{width=“244”
height=“205”}
Some info on how to use Thinapp. Make sure to always run it on a clean
PC so you’re sure that you include all necessary files in your package.
Under advanced settings you can select which drives you want to scan
during the prescan.
{width=“244”
height=“206”}
Before installing the application Thinapp needs to scan your system to
take a baseline snapshot.
{width=“244”
height=“205”}
The prescan is finished. Time to install and configure your application.
{width=“244”
height=“206”}
Once the application installation is finished, Thinapp does a postcan.
It looks for differences on the file system as well as in the registry,
all these changes become part of package.
{width=“244”
height=“206”}
Select the entry point you want to use.
{width=“244”
height=“206”}
Configure the security settings for the package and also the sandbox
location. The user’s settings are configured in the sandbox.
{width=“244”
height=“205”}
Now it’s time to configure the isolation settings. Merged isolation lets
you access the local user settings e.g. Firefox bookmarks. WriteCopy
isolation all files are newly created and the application has no access
to the local file system.
{width=“244”
height=“206”}
Select MSI generation when you want to distribute the package using any
software distribution tool.
{width=“244”
height=“206”}
Thinapp copies all files and registry settings to the project location.
{width=“244”
height=“205”}
The final screen. Here we’re going to browse the project as we have to
change some settings in the package.ini file.
{width=“244”
height=“204”}
As the Java JRE is packaged separately we have to edit the package.ini
file and remove the ; from the OptionalAppLinks line.
{width=“244”
height=“82”}
We can now build the Firefox project.
{width=“244”
height=“206”}
Repeat the same steps for the Java JRE. Once that’s build create a
“plugins” folder in the location of the Thinapped Firefox and copy the
Java package to it. When Firefox is executed it will look for any exe
file in the plugin folder and will link it.
No need to use a separate VM for administering Clariions anymore.
PS: Marrs posted an excellent
post
on the VMware forum on packaging Firefox to run several versions of Java
at the same time.
