Adobe CS 3 Packaging

Over the last couple of days there has been an ongoing Juice discussion about packaging Adobe CS3 applications. This particular application is a difficult one to capture in a layer or with Wise Package Studio. I was able to create a package and wanted to share the steps I took with the community.

Follow these tips completely without changing the order. Changing the order will give a lot of noise inside your package.

First, start a new project in Wise Package Studio 7.

Here is how to silently install Adobe CS3 Applications, i.e., Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash and Dreamwever. It is tested on these apps, but should work for all CS3 apps since they all follow the same method of installation.

It's better to build a package for each application in the suite. In the end you will have about 7 or 8 packages (if you want to package the whole suite).

1. The directory structure and name of the original CD or DVD is important. If you copy the installation files into a different folder name, then you MUST amend the setup.xml file that resides in the payloads folder. Open setup.xml using notepad, and inside between the <Payload> and </Payload> limiters, you find entries like <Payload folder="AdobeALMAnchorServiceAll">Adobe CS3</Payload>. Here, Adobe CS3 is the folder name where setup.exe resides. Change Adobe CS3 to your current folder name. Not doing this will give you error code 4, since setup will not be able to find the installation files.
2. Next, in the payloads folders, select the main application folder. If it is Photoshop, it should be AdobePhotoshop10en_US_volume. If it is Dreamweaver, it will be AdobeDreamweaver9en_US. Inside, select the file that ends with ....proxy.xml. If is is Photoshop, it should be AdobePhotoshop10en_US_volume.proxy.xml. Edit this file with notepad. Use the find function to find <Requires> entry in the xml file, and delete all the entries between <Requires> and </Requires>, including <Requires> and </Requires> limiters. Doing this will allow you to select which components you want to install.
3. Now, from the setup root folder where setup.exe resides, from a command prompt, type: setup.exe --record=1
4. This will perform a record of the installation without actually installing the apps. From here, you can also select which of the options you want installed. Some options are critical, so if the apps do not run after installation, you have to come back to this step and re-enable the option.
5. After the recording of the installation is completed, go to the Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Installations folder. Inside are 2 xml files, one for installation and another for removal. Rename them install.xml and uninstall.xml respectively. Copy them to your setup folder.
6. Now, create application.xml.override file inside the application payload folder. The entry should be
   

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <Configuration>
     <Payload>
       <Data key="Serial" protected="0">1XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX</Data>
       <Data key="Registration">Suppress</Data>
       <Data key="EULA">Suppress</Data>
       <Data key="Updates">Suppress</Data>
     </Payload>
   </Configuration>
   
   

7. Create a snapshot of the current session.
8. Finally, you can now silently install the apps with the command:
   

   setup.exe --mode=silent --deploymentFile=D:\Photoshop\install.xml
   
   

9. Note that you must have the absolute directory path for the install.xml. It will give error code 4 or 5 is you do not.

   Now you have installed Adobe completely. Following this guide will prevent you from receiving the error in Wise. Most of the software is not captured, because you only need it for the actual install.

10. If you still encounter errors, you should first have a look at the installation log that resides in Program Files/Common Files/Adobe/Installations folder. Search for "ERROR" and it will usually give an indication of the error that has occurred.

Be aware that this disables the ability for you to auto repair your application. Adobe CS3 is simply too big to get this done.

I hope this will solve all of your problems.
And I appreciate your comments, enhancements or improvements on this process.

Regards
Erikw