I want to send client the FileMaker dmg, but I need my "Assisted Install.txt" in there. I'd also like to have the LicenseCert in there if possible as opposed to asking them to download it to their "Downloads" folder. A lot of people have altered their default downloads folder, and it becomes a hassle trying to explain the situation to them.
So- how can create or alter the DMG to have my Assisted Install.txt (and license hopefully)?
Just wanna add some details about Apple PackageMaker:
The PackageMaker seem to run 32-bit and won‘t run with Catalina.
It‘s also important to now that any installer you build with PM works fine with Catalina.
Using a virtual machine with Mojave solely to work with PM or using an old Mac for this purpose is a good option.
The resources I pointed to talk about creating pkg files. These are different than dmg files. You can create a dmg file using disk utilities.
Also keep in mind that pkg files are not the same today as they were in the days of PackageMaker. They use to be folders with a specific structure. They are now compressed and sometimes signed files. Both launch the installer application when opened.
Last but not least, @EfficientBizz points out a software that creates pkg files. There are numerous applications that do the same thing, including Xcode and the command line tools pkgbuild and productbuild.
You can even create the archive, its files and plist file yourself. Apple's developer web site has information on this.
Thanks everyone. Previously when FileMaker was installed with a .pkg, I simply zipped that with with the fmcert, assisted install.txt, and the license agreements. Clients would unzip the file, double click the pkg, be guided through installation, and that's it.
Now I want to use the drag and drop approach in the dmg- I like that they've moved away from the .pkg file, and I would not want to create my own pkg file. I just want the dmg to have my assisted install.txt. So I can just use disk utilities? There isn't some special signature or something with FileMaker's dmg?
If you include the fmcert in there, will the app see it when it opens for the first time? Or does it have to go in the downloads folder?
Edit: On second thought I have enough info where I should just be experimenting for myself, not asking more questions. I'll return when I fail or succeed!
There is no longer a Folder in the applications folder for filemaker - and therefore we can not install plugins for one specific version of fm - right?
I got more than one install of a version, ie one with, one without plugins,
The extensions folder is at the user level. The Applications Extensions folder has been "deprecated" or marked "legacy location" for some time now. I feel like vs 14, but I could be off on that.
Yes - but so, we can no longer have one version with and one without plugins... if a customer needs something special or a new version of a plugin is out, we will have one more install of fm..
That’s a serious issue for probably most of us developers who need several versions installed at once. I guess for versions up to 19 this won’t be an issue but it will be going forward as none of us are going to have all of our customers willing to be 100% up to date all the time as Claris would like us to do.
When I include my own Assisted Install.txt and/or .fmcert in a dmg that I create, neither are recognized/found when installing FileMaker 19. It installs ok, but without my custom install options. The .fmcert still has to be in the downloads folder or it installs in trial mode.
I'd really like to get that to work, though probably not enough to bother trying to create my own .pkg. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.
This is the one thing stopping me from rolling out v19 to a number of clients. It's such a pain to configure the FMP client to connect to a given server & file, the auto install options added in v18 made that so much easier - it's really frustrating they appear to have dropped the ball on this one...
Well after ready a few more posts on the community forums, it appears I'm not alone with having issues. The whole drag and drop assisted installs and license files onto the app bundle is simply broken. It's a big step backwards from FileMaker 18. All my competitors get clients started with a simple web site log in. I'm over here having people browsing for cert files and inputing fmp:// links into preference menus.
