Writing Your Own Setup Program

Applications that run in an enterprise server region

If your application runs in an enterprise server region, setting it up requires that the application is deployed to the region, but there are no other major considerations.

Applications that do not require a region

If your application uses a COBOL run-time system but does not run in an enterprise server region, when providing your own setup program for it, first you need to decide how your end users will install the application. Will they install your application together with its own run-time system or will they install your application separately from the run-time system, so that the run-time system can be shared with other applications?

The main ways of packaging an application and the COBOL run-time system in this case are:

• As an application using a shared run-time system - this run-time system is used by multiple COBOL applications on an end user's machine. It is installed in its own directory, separate from any applications. There is only one run-time system installed on the machine.

  You use the supplied setup program to install a shared COBOL run-time system (Enterprise Server) and to set up the relevant registry entries.

• As an application using its own application-specific run-time system - this run-time system is installed with and is used by a sole COBOL application.

  We recommend installing the full Enterprise Server. However for backward compatibility, you can still select the run-time files to install, some of which are mandatory, such as the licensing files.

  You create an installation procedure that installs your application and, in the same directory, installs Enterprise Server (or the selected run-time files). Your installation procedure also needs to set up licensing.