Writing Your Own Setup Program

You can write your own setup program for applications that run under a COBOL run-time system, such as Server Enterprise Edition. Setting up an application that runs under Enterprise Server requires that the application is deployed to Enterprise Server, but there are no other major considerations.

When you provide your own setup program for an application that uses a COBOL run-time system without Enterprise Server, first you need to decide how your end users will install your 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 Server Enterprise Editionwithout Enterprise Server are:

• As a standalone application, statically linked to the run-time system. This requires your executable file, the Microsoft Visual C++ run-time system msvcrt.dll and the Server Enterprise Edition licensing files.

  You need to create an installation procedure that:

  1. Installs the Server Enterprise Edition licensing files in the same directory as your application.
  2. Sets up a license database if this is the first time an application using Server Enterprise Edition is being installed on this machine. Subsequent installations use the same license database, so that the database holds a pool of licenses for all the uses of Server Enterprise Edition on the machine.
  3. Installs and starts the license manager service.
• 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 Server Enterprise Edition 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 Server Enterprise Edition without 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 Server Enterprise Edition (or the selected run-time files). Your installation procedure also needs to set up licensing.