installCore

InstallCore
Founded 2010
Website www.installcore.com

installCore is an installation and content distribution platform, including a software development kit (SDK) for Windows and Mac OS X.[1] The program allows those using it for distribution to include monetization by advertisements, charging for installation, etc.; some of the products using the platform have been rated potentially unwanted program (PUP) or potentially unwanted application (PUA), by anti-malware product vendors.[2] The platform was primarily designed for efficient web based deployment of various type of application software. As of August 2012 installCore was managing 100 million installations every month,[3] offering services for paid, unpaid and free software (using the SDK version).[4] installCore is a product of ironSource which is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel with offices in San Francisco, CA in the United States and Beijing, China,[5]

History

The installCore team introduced the first version of the SDK at the beginning of 2011 [6] 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, support for the different windows versions and web forms support; it also enabled 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:[7]

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 pre-designed templates and a customization tool to create a WYSIWYG design.

Monetization features

The program has features supporting generation of revenue for users by advertising, charging for program installation, etc.

  • Full Windows API support, including full file system and registry access, loading and execution of dynamic link libraries and executing files.
  • Ad server technology, named FlowAutomator, to support optional 3rd party products during installations
  • Client side profiling algorithms, including data of previous downloads.
  • Full Html UI support including JQuery, Zepto.js and CSS 4.0
  • Optional Pay-per-install (PPI) monetization component.

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.[8]

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 hits new high with 100 million monthly installs
  4. ↑ "installCore Introduces Super Targeting for Freemium-Model Desktop Applications". PRWeb. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  5. ↑ Xiang, Tracey (Jun 6, 2014). "Israeli Application Distribution Service ironSource Set up Office in China to Help the Chinese Go Global". technode.
  6. ↑ InstallCore SDK documentation
  7. ↑ installCore Features
  8. ↑ List of languages supported in Windows 2000
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