Solaris Web Start Wizards SDK

1. Introduction

As the networked world grows more and more heterogeneous, systems that "see past" inherent platform specifics are becoming increasingly important in delivering today's computing solutions. Gone are the days of "write once, run here." Individuals and corporations are combining platforms, people, and technologies into a melting pot of computing, dragging along legacy software and systems for cost-effectiveness. Making all of these systems run smoothly as a unified solution can be a daunting task, especially when the platforms on which these solutions are based change at a frenetic pace.

How do you get all of your systems on the straight and narrow so they can participate in the system? The answer, of course, is heterogeneous deployment, the topic of this paper.

1.1 Reasons for Cross-Platform Deployment

Why spend the resources to build a truly cross-platform deployment vehicle for software? One compelling reason is the end-user experience. In short, you don't want them to get it wrong. No matter what reason there may be for your software not deploying correctly, it will always make your software look bad to the end user. The fewer mouse clicks there are when installing software, the better. Having a streamlined, graphical install experience on Microsoft Windows, while having a tarball on UNIX", just doesn't make for a great image anymore.

The availability of cross-platform development and deployment tools has risen dramatically over the past five years. However, cross-platform tools are not a new idea. Powerbuilder, Tcl/Tk, and others have been providing cross-platform capabilities for years. With the advent of Java, things have become even easier. These advances are helping developers and system administrators quickly and easily deploy their software to multiple platforms.

2. Software Deployment Strategies

Getting software onto a set of heterogeneous platforms isn't as easy as one might think.