Application Distribution Options
When distributing applications you can choose to provide each client with a complete Uniface installation and deploy the required application objects and files, or you can identify and package a subset of Uniface with the application.
How you distribute your applications depends on the application itself and the environment in which you plan to deploy. For example, is the application designed for stand-alone operation or for client/server deployment? Or is it intended for Web deployment?
Application Only
One option for distributing and running Uniface applications is to ensure that each client has a Uniface installation and to deploy the appropriate application objects and files.
A runtime license ensures that only runtime functionality of Uniface is available on the client. This simplifies the distribution of the application, but has the following disadvantages:
- There are two applications that need be installed and maintained—Uniface and your application
- More disk space is required—Additional space is occupied by parts of Uniface that are perhaps not required for the application
Uniface Subset
Another distribution option is to identify the subset of Uniface that is actually required, and package it with the files of your application. In this case, you have to determine which libraries, executables, and Uniface files are required, and ensure that appropriate registry information is written.
Creating the distribution set thus requires more thought, but results in a single installation for each client and reduces the disk space required. Deploying an application requires the runtime executable and the libraries for all supported drivers. This includes database and network drivers, GUI drivers, and widget libraries. Depending on the application, it can also include some files from the USYS directory, such as Print Model forms.
For example, when deploying on Microsoft Windows, the required files include the runtime executable, uniface.exe and appropriate DLLs.
