installCore

InstallCore Installation Platform
Developer(s) Iron Source Software Ltd.
Stable release 7.37 / July 1, 2014
Operating system Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X
Type Setup creator
License Shareware
Website www.installcore.com

installCore is an installation and content distribution platform, including an SDK (Software Development Kit) for Windows and Mac OS X.[1] Some of the applications using the platform have been rated adware and Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUP, also PUA), by anti-malware product vendors.[2][3] The platform was primarily designed for efficient web based deployment of various type of application software. installCore is currently managing 100 million installations every month,[4] offering services for paid, unpaid and free software (using the open source SDK version).[5] installCore is the core product of ironSource which is headquartered in Tel Aviv with offices in San Francisco, CA in the United States and Beijing, China,[6] and which is considered a major player in the specific Israeli software distribution industry known as Download Valley.[7][8]

History

The installCore team introduced the first version of the open source SDK at the beginning of 2011 [9] the SDK was a fork of the FoxTab installer and had only basic Installation features. The first version only include 3 files - system.js, application.js and packages.js which support over the web software packages delivery and basic system modifications. The second version introduced debug capabilities, transparent support for the different windows versions and web forms support it also enabled seamless integration of JQuery and CSS 2.1 for better UI design

Features

installCore development platform provides a software development kit (SDK) based on JavaScript and HTML/HTML 5.0. Installation project can be compiled into a windows executable file and used for the software installation and distribution. The platform supports the following features:[10]

JavaScript and HTML based user interface

Version 2.1 introduced a fully customizable design interface based on HTML, CSS and a JavaScript SDK.

<head>
	<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
	<!-- sdk - include here the minimum required scripts -->
	<script type="text/javascript" src="sdk/debug.js"></script>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="sdk/form.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
	<div id="irsoForm" irsoTransition="fade" irsoWidth="620" irsoHeight="400" 
	irsoBorderStyle="bsNone" irsoStayOnTop="true">
 
	<div id="main">
		<div id="topPanel" class="irsoDragHandle">
			<div id="closeIcon" onclick="closeWindow()"></div>
			<div id="TOP_TITLE" class="irsoDragHandle" style="display:none"></div>
			<div id="logo" class="irsoDragHandle">Hello World!</div>
		</div>
	</div>
</body>

Since installCore version 4.10 the SDK integrated 12 fully predesigned templates and a customization tool to create a WIZWIG design.

Optional Monetization Features

Compiler make script

The installCore compiler program HtmlUiMaker uses a make script, such as the following example, in order to compile a JavaScript and HTML skin into executable installation programs.

; Example Make script - Set Paramters
[APP_MAKER]
; App_Maker parameters used to create output EXE file
SKIN="\skin"
; Set installer icon
APP_ICON="\resources\installer.ico"  
RAW_EXE=Setup32.exe
COMPRESS=1
OUT_EXE=\release\%EXE_CODE%Setup_v%VI_FILE_VER%.exe

Generated installer

The generated installer is a Portable Executable which contains the installation script. The installer can be configured to function as full installer or a bootstrap installer. As the installation script is compiled, it cannot be obtained from the delivered executable without reverse-engineering the binary.

Multilingual support

As of version 3.1 of the official release installCore fully support both Unicode and RTL but depended on Windows 2000 with SP 4 as minimum requirement to accurately present the UI.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "ironSource's installCore launches Mac OS installer to offer comprehensive, cross-platform solution for developers". Software Developer Times. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
  2. ↑ Detailed Threat Analysis - Sophos, 8 Dec 2014
  3. ↑ InstallCore AVG detects this highly active Adware and its 518 known variants - AVG ThreatLabs, 14 Jan 2015
  4. ↑ installCore hits new high with 100 million monthly installs
  5. ↑ "installCore Introduces Super Targeting for Freemium-Model Desktop Applications". PRWeb. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  6. ↑ Xiang, Tracey (Jun 6, 2014). "Israeli Application Distribution Service ironSource Set up Office in China to Help the Chinese Go Global". technode.
  7. ↑ "Israeli IronSource Raises $85-100 Million From Ten Investors" Jewish Business News, Ilan Shavit, August 11, 2014
  8. ↑ "Hate Pop-Up Ads? Microsoft tries drawing line in the sand" Wall Street Journal, Orr Hirschauge, June 4, 2014
  9. ↑ InstallCore SDK documentation
  10. ↑ installCore Features
  11. ↑ List of languages supported in Windows 2000

External links