Package Express is an expert that helps you create Self-Extracting packages quickly and easily. You may also use it to create a fully configured package in some steps and then customize the new project. Through an intuitive wizard interface, you just need to specify small details and it's done! Just press Compile and your package can be compiled without configuring the different options in Paquet Builder.
Package Express is a good mean to begin a project and then modify it according to your needs.
It will by default create a fully functional Self-Extracting wizard package.
Package Express requires you to provide it with some information about the new package you want to create. The collect of the different information items is divided into several steps. You can navigate through the different steps using the Back and Next buttons available at the bottom of the window.
Step 1: package basic information
Consists in specifying basic settings like the title, company information. Most of these settings are read from the environment options, so you will not need to fill in the different fields each time you open Package Express.
Note that all fields should always be filled in.
Step 2: source files
You have two choices: using an external archive (example: your end users have not the right tool to open your archive so you can turn it into a Self-Extracting archive) or telling Package Express the files you want to compress.
Package Express supports these three archive types: .7z, .cab and .zip.
If you do not use an external archive, the next step consists in selecting the files to be compressed.
Step 2 second part: which source files? (only if no external archive was specified)
Package Express can compress an entire folder (all files found in that folder will be compressed) or a list of files you specify.
In case you package an entire folder, you may also want to compress all files inside sub-folders. To do so, enable the option called "Include sub-folders": the source folder will be recursed and all files found inside it will be automatically compressed.
Otherwise you will need to press the Add button in order to manually add the files you want to compress. You can then select one or multiple files to be added to the list.
Step 3: user interface
What to show to end users? This step is designed to answer to that important question. Remember that Package Express creates wizard packages. The step 3 consists in adding pages to this wizard package or not.
- "Show a Welcome screen": should you include a welcome page in the wizard? Yes and even this is highly recommended: this step explains end users what the package will do (extract its files of course but what files?) It is up to you to select an existing RTF file (click on the previous link for further information) that contains a custom welcome text or to let Package Express create a default welcome page for you.
- "Use this custom bitmap file for the welcome screen": use this option if you want to change the default image of the wizard. Bitmap recommended size is available here.
- "Password protect the package": if you want to ask end users for a password. Without the correct password, the package will refuse extracting files. Passwords are case-sensitive.
- "Show an end screen" (optional): this step explains end users that the file extraction is complete and the package is going to close. It is up to you to select an existing RTF file (click on the first link for further information) that contains a custom text, or to let Package Express create an end page for you.
Step 4: behavior of the package
This step consists in configuring the behavior of the package. Paquet Builder packages not only extract files, they can also perform additional tasks like executing files (and much more but this is not the goal of Package Express).
File Destination Folder
- "Restore the file path information": if you use an external archive file, this option will be ignored. It is recommended that you however use this option in the case you enabled "Include sub-folders". It will cause Package Express to store the path information when compressing files (when extracting files, the package will restore the directories).
- "Extract files to the following folder": indicates where the package should extract its files to. See additional information and options here.
- or "Delete files after the execution of the program": indicates that unpacked files play a temporary role like in Setup routines. So they are first unpacked, then the package will delete them once the specified program closes after its execution.
Program Execution
If you want to execute a program or open a document file after the file extraction, then enter its filename in that field. See additional information and options here.
Note that the list only contains files that were manually added (it will be blank if you select an entire folder for compressing or you use an external archive).
Step 5: package output
Choose the output filename for your package. Optionally you may also specify its icon that will represent it.
Finally in the case you are not using an external archive, you can select the compression method to be used.
When you press Create, Package Express will configure Paquet Builder with the specified settings and you just need to press the final Compile button to create your Self-Extracting package ready to be delivered. Or even Package Express can launch the compilation itself if you enable the last option.