Distribution process overview

Stage 1: General package creation steps

In general the process to create a wordframe integra package can be divided into the following steps:

  1. Create the package folder - all files of the package, should be situated in one folder, which will be later submitted to the packaging tool
  2. Create the mandatory "repository" folder and "wfpack.info" file - these two elements are mandatory for each integra package as they are needed by the Wordframe Integra packaging tool or the install program. The "repository" folder will be zipped by the packaging tool to repository.zip in ordered to be signed later with the wfpack.info file.
  3. Keep the specific file and folder structure in the repository folder, according to each of the package types - the different package types, require different package contents. As an example the UI package needs to have a layout and skin definition file in the repository folder, named uipack.xml.
  4. Run the Wordframe Integra packaging tool and browse the package folder
  5. Hit the "Create package" button

Stage 2: Make the package available

There are two alternatives for making a software package available for a certain WordFrame Integra installation:

  • software repository - if you upload the software packages on a software repository, that is in the list of the synchronized ones by the selected installation, the software package will become automatically available on the next automatic synchronization. Any given 24 hour period, the system will synchronize its available software packages list with all the software repositories. This process can be also triggered manually
  • Manually upload the package - If a package is not present in the package list, you can upload a software package in the platform's local repository. Review the the local software repositories section for further information. All packages that are uploaded locally are immediatelly available for the system.

Stage 3: Software delivery process

The standard package distribution process includes the following steps:

  1. the developer uploads the software packages on a global repository or the local repository for an installation
  2. the system automatically synchronizes its software collection with the subscribed repositories once each 24 hours
  3. the user browses the software manager
  4. the user marks packages for install, update or uninstall ("no action" is the default selected action of all the packages in the repository)
  5. the system calculates and resolves all dependencies and generates the list of packages that need to be installed, uninstalled or updated, for the scheduled actions to be possible. Produces an error message, if a dependency could not be satisfied.
  6. the system checks the signature of all packages that are scheduled and warns the user for failed or signatures not being present
  7. the system automatically downloads all the packages from the repositories
  8. the system applies the software packages changes on all frontend cluster members, shutdowns and restarts the web applications in the process. This action requires the wordframe-agent windows service to be present and running on each frontend web server.

Stage 3b: Automatically update the software

One of the main benefits of WordFrame Integra is the ability to support huge number of websites with an automatic software updates. This is done by creating a software update schedule in each of the installations you need to be auto-updated..