Installation tools...suggestions? Pros/Cons?

Question

I am creating a suite of applications for a client and will need to package this for distribution across the web as well as on hard media (CD). Can anyone give me some ideas as to what utilities are out there for building installable packages that can handle database setup, JRE deployment, setting up properties/config files and the jar file?
Thanks,
Gil

Answer 1

NullSoft's installer package has worked very well for us. It is open source and free to use, and you program it with a script language (other apps have GUI's, etc... that seem like they save time at first, but eventually, someone has to be a darned expert in the app in order to get it to do anything).
The capabilities may not be quite as simple to use as you are looking for - JRE deployment is relatively easy, setting up properties files, etc... may be a little less straightforward, but definitely not outside the bounds of "reasonable-ness" (if that's even a word). Unlike other solutions, you are responsible for managing the dependencies (this can be a blessing, though). We use Eclipse to generate the appropriate JAR files into a central deployment location, then execute the installer build script to put together the final package.
A couple of other nice aspects: Because it is just processing a script, you can build the script based on parameters in an Ant build file, then execute the script as a final deployment step.
I would defintiely recommend that you use what they refer to as the "modern user interface" for your build files.
- K