Rockwell Automation 2727-MRSDK MobileView Terminals Software Development Kit User Manual - Manual (Page 17)

1 Publication 2727-UM004B-EN-P - February 2004
Chapter
2
Developing CE Drivers and Applications
General Considerations There are two general considerations for developing drivers and
applications for the MobileView:
•
Distributing and installing applications
•
Persistence considerations
Application Distribution and Installation
Application programs consist of EXE and DLL files that will reside in
the FAT partition of the Flash Storage. They will be installed much like
applications for Windows desktop operating systems.
Typically, a CE application will be distributed as a package containing
the run-time components, in compressed form, and an executable
“installation script” that manages the installation process. When the
installation script (typically “Setup.exe”) is run, the run-time
components will be decompressed and moved to their assigned
folder(s), desktop icons and start menu entries will be created, and
the system registry will be edited to register the application’s
components and associated parameters. Finally, an uninstall script
will be created and saved.
The InstallShield tool from InstallShield Corporation is recommended
for packaging applications for distribution. This tool alleviates some of
the difficulties associated with the development of installation scripts
and imposes a familiar “look and feel” on the installation process.
The application developer should give some thought to the means to
be used for distributing the installation script. Generally, there are two
means available: CDROM and the internet.
Installing the Application
Once the user has obtained an installation script by one of these
methods and the script resides on the user’s local desktop PC, he or
she may use any of three methods to install the application on the
MobileView.
Perform a remote installation by running the script on a PC host that is
connected to the MobileView using Data Exchange.