deployment - Application setup

Question

Is it possible to install third-party application alongside my application on my own application setup?

Let's say I were to sell some of my application, and in order to run my application on client's computer I would also need to run PostgreSQL. Is it possible to install it beside my application in my setup?

I am such rookie on that subject and don't really know where to start.

(I should mention that I am particularly interested on deploying Windows applications)

Answer 1

All commercial software will feature ways to help you achieve this as a built-in feature. Essentially you wrap it all in a setup.exe launcher / bootstrapper / downloader and this executable will install your prerequisite components before your own install is run, if they need to be installed.

Please see these answers for some further information on deployment tools and their features:

• How to create windows installer
• Simple List View of Deployment Tools
• What installation product to use? InstallShield, WiX, Wise, Advanced Installer, etc

The open source WiX toolkit features a component called Burn to create such setup.exe launchers / downloaders / bootstrappers. Writing WiX XML markup code is necessary to use this Burn feature. Commercial tools Installshield and Advanced Installer provide GUI to build such setup.exe files.