installCore

InstallCore Installation Platform

Developer(s)	Iron Source Software Ltd.

Stable release	7.37 / July 1, 2014 (2014-07-01)
Operating system	Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Type	Setup creator
License	Shareware
Website	www.installcore.com

installCore is an installation and content distribution platform, including an software development kit (SDK) for Windows and Mac OS X.^[1] The program allows those using it for distribution to include monetization by advertisements, charging for installation, etc.; some of the products using the platform have been rated potentially unwanted program (PUP) or potentially unwanted application (PUA), by anti-malware product vendors.^[2] The platform was primarily designed for efficient web based deployment of various type of application software. As of August 2012 installCore was managing 100 million installations every month,^[3] offering services for paid, unpaid and free software (using the SDK version).^[4] installCore is a product of ironSource which is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel with offices in San Francisco, CA in the United States and Beijing, China,^[5]

History

The installCore team introduced the first version of the SDK at the beginning of 2011 ^[6] the SDK was a fork of the FoxTab installer and had only basic Installation features. The first version only include 3 files - system.js, application.js and packages.js which support over the web software packages delivery and basic system modifications. The second version introduced debug capabilities, transparent support for the different windows versions and web forms support it also enabled seamless integration of JQuery and CSS 2.1 for better UI design

Features

installCore development platform provides a software development kit (SDK) based on JavaScript and HTML/HTML 5.0. Installation project can be compiled into a windows executable file and used for the software installation and distribution. The platform supports the following features:^[7]

Small stub (347 KB)
JavaScript based
Multilingual (Chinese and RTL languages are supported from version 3.1)
LZMA compression
Integrated download accelerator for remote files
Content delivery network (CDN), hosting files for download
Reporting and business intelligence module

JavaScript and HTML based user interface

Version 2.1 introduced a fully customizable design interface based on HTML, CSS and a JavaScript SDK.

<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
	<!-- sdk - include here the minimum required scripts -->
	<script type="text/javascript" src="sdk/debug.js"></script>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="sdk/form.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
	<div id="irsoForm" irsoTransition="fade" irsoWidth="620" irsoHeight="400" 
	irsoBorderStyle="bsNone" irsoStayOnTop="true">
	
	<div id="main">
		<div id="topPanel" class="irsoDragHandle">
			<div id="closeIcon" onclick="closeWindow()"></div>
			<div id="TOP_TITLE" class="irsoDragHandle" style="display:none"></div>
			<div id="logo" class="irsoDragHandle">Hello World!</div>
		</div>
	</div>
</body>

Since installCore version 4.10 the SDK integrated 12 fully pre-designed templates and a customization tool to create a WYSIWYG design.

Monetization features

The program has features supporting generation of revenue for users by advertising, charging for program installation, etc.

Full Windows API support, including full file system and registry access, loading and execution of dynamic link libraries and executing files.
Ad server technology, named FlowAutomator, to support optional 3rd party products during installations
Client side profiling algorithms, including data of previous downloads.
Full Html UI support including JQuery, Zepto.js and CSS 4.0
Optional Pay-per-install (PPI) monetization component.

Compiler make script

The installCore compiler program HtmlUiMaker uses a make script, such as the following example, in order to compile a JavaScript and HTML skin into executable installation programs.

; Example Make script - Set Paramters
[APP_MAKER]
; App_Maker parameters used to create output EXE file
SKIN="\skin"
; Set installer icon
APP_ICON="\resources\installer.ico"  
RAW_EXE=Setup32.exe
COMPRESS=1
OUT_EXE=\release\%EXE_CODE%Setup_v%VI_FILE_VER%.exe

Generated installer

The generated installer is a Portable Executable which contains the installation script. The installer can be configured to function as full installer or a bootstrap installer. As the installation script is compiled, it cannot be obtained from the delivered executable without reverse-engineering the binary.

Multilingual support

As of version 3.1 of the official release installCore fully support both Unicode and RTL but depended on Windows 2000 with SP 4 as minimum requirement to accurately present the UI.^[8]

References

↑ "ironSource's installCore launches Mac OS installer to offer comprehensive, cross-platform solution for developers". Software Developer Times. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
↑ Detailed Threat Analysis - Sophos, 8 Dec 2014
↑ installCore hits new high with 100 million monthly installs
↑ "installCore Introduces Super Targeting for Freemium-Model Desktop Applications". PRWeb. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
↑ Xiang, Tracey (Jun 6, 2014). "Israeli Application Distribution Service ironSource Set up Office in China to Help the Chinese Go Global". technode.
↑ InstallCore SDK documentation
↑ installCore Features
↑ List of languages supported in Windows 2000

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/29/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.