Creating Shared Applications

To create new shared applications, or to migrate PGC applications to SMS 2.0 shared applications, you should be familiar with SMS shared application terms and concepts.

An installation script is a series of actions expressed as command-line statements that are executed as a group to set up an application. When you install your shared application, generally you must use a client installation script to prepare clients to remotely run the application. The client installation script does the following:

A software distribution program that runs the client’s installation script is called a configuration command line. The installation package must also include a program, called a run command line, that runs the application from the distribution point.

The client installation script and the run command line are distributed as software distribution programs within the installation package. They are sometimes called client programs.

While the client always requires an installation script, the server does not. The application image does not need an installation script or software distribution program; you simply copy the application image to the package source directory on the site server. Software distribution then replicates it to each distribution point assigned to the package as part of the package source files. Clients run the application from that location.

Installation scripts for the server usually contain modifications to be applied to the application image after you copy it to the distribution point. For example, if server names or other information are hard-coded into the application image, you can distribute a script to modify them for the particular distribution point and instruct SMS to run them as part of the installation package. Scripts to modify the application image are called server programs or server installation scripts.

In order to create a shared application you must: