Step One: Build an Installation Archive.

Note: These instructions describe how to build on a Linux type platform only. Windows instructions will be added ASAP.

I will start off by saying, the installation archive is just a tarball of your program. Most of you probably already know what to do. If not, here are some instructions.

If you try to execute a fresh install of Atlantis Installer, it should throw up an error saying it cannot find install.tar.

The easiest way is to start a terminal, and `cd` to the root of your program. You should already have the program organized to how you want it installed inside this directory. That means, if you want to install to a path directory like /usr, then inside this directory you should have your binaries in a bin dir, libraries in a lib dir, and so on.

While sitting in the terminal in your release directory, execute `tar -cf ../install.tar *`. If you do not ../ the tar command, you end up building a recurisve archive and that is usless. You can tell tar to create the install.tar anywhere as long as it is not inside your release directory.

`cd` to the directory where you installed Atlantis Installer, and `cp` the install.tar into the data directory. Now if you execute the setup.php Atlantis Installer should start and it would install your program. However, you probably want the installer to look how you want, and for it to talk about your program. Continue on to Step Two.

Step Two: Configure Atlantis.

Inside the data folder, in the Atlantis Installer, there is a file called configure.php. Open this in your favourite text editor and edit the vaules according to your program.

• PROGRAM_NAME: The name of your program.
• PROGRAM_VERSION: The version of your program you are installing.
• INSTALL_LOG: This path is relative to the directory the users chooses for install. It defines the place to create a log of installled files for uninstallation later. (note: Atlantis does not uninstall, yet)
• INSTALL_OUTPUT_LOG: This path is relative to the directory the users chooses for install. It defines the place to create a log of the installer output, which is also what spams into the scrolling text area during installation.
• INSTALL_GRAPHIC: This path is relative to the setup.php installer. It defines the header graphic of the installer.
• INSTALL_ARCHIVE: This path is relative to the setup.php installer. It defines the install archive.
• INSTALL_ICON: This path is relative to the setup.php installer. It defines the icon for window managers to use.
• DEFAULT_PATH_WINDOWS: Where you suggest the user should install when on a Windows platform.
• DEFAULT_PATH_LINUX: Where you suggest the user should install when on a Linux platform.
• IMAGE_*: Paths are relative to the setup.php installer. They define various images like on the buttons.
• SCRIPT_STAGE3_INIT: This path is relative to the setup.php installer. It defines a script that you could customize to perform various tasks before the actual installation happens. Note, Atlantis Installer already checks the directories the user chose to install into, and created anything needed.
• SCRIPT_STAGE3_COMPLETE: This path is relative to the setup.php installer. It defines the script that you could customize to perform various tasks after installation is complete. Handy for things like, chmoding.

Step Three: Custom Tasks.

documentation pending.

Step Four: Building Your Final Package.

So now you have built an installation archive, and fully customized Atlantis to look and say what you want. Only thing left is to build an archive of your choice (zip, gz, whatever) of the entire installer.

Assuming you are in a terminal, sitting inside the installer root, I would suggest something like this...

• cd ../
• mv myprogram myprogram-version
• tar -cvjf myprogram-version.tar.bz2 myprogram-version

And now you have an easy installer packed up nice for distribution.