Bug 80278

Summary: Simplify side-by-side installation of productivity and development/test versions
Product: LibreOffice Reporter: Matthias Basler <libreoffice>
Component: InstallationAssignee: Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME    
Severity: enhancement CC: bfo.bugmail, libreoffice, philipz85
Priority: medium    
Version: 4.3.0.1 rc   
Hardware: x86-64 (AMD64)   
OS: Windows (All)   
Whiteboard:
Crash report or crash signature: Regression By:

Description Matthias Basler 2014-06-20 09:59:44 UTC 
User story:
As a regular bug tester of LibreOffice I want a *quick and simple*, working way to install a second (or third) version of Libreoffice besides my normal (productive) installation in order to easily test the behaviour of several versions without having to fear about corrupting (or erasing) my normal installation.

Rationale:
I believe that if we make installing/uninstalling a LibO test version as easy and comfortable as installing a production version then this will lower the barrier for users to do bug testing and bug hunting.

Background:
Once in a while I post bugs and are asked to check if they already existed in older versions (are regressions) or a are maybe fixed in the latest beta versions. So far everytime I installed a version to test this it erased my previous version which I had to re-install after the tests were finished. This is annoying.

Today I tested the server installation as described on https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel#Windows.
I first tried the "Server GUI Setup 4.0.2", but it would show an error and abort when trying to install the files of LibO 4.3.0.1 (RC1).
Then I followed the manual installation. This worked until the point when trying to start the application. It complains it cannot find the Visual C++ Runtime DLLs although they are present in C:\Windows\System32 and the documentation claims they should be put exactly there. So this didn't work either.

I have now almost 1h wasted for nothing. This is perfect for putting off possible engaged testers.

I therefore propose the following:

1. The normal windows installer UI should get an option to perform a "side-by-side" (or "self-contained") installation not touching any already installed instance of LibO or OOo.
2. This option should be offered to the user either
  - if the installer detects another installed version on the machine or
  - if the installer was started with a certain command line parameter or
  - always. I leave this up to you.
3. The installer should then install LibO just as conveniently as with a normal install. It should configure LibO to store the preferences within the installation directory (as the server installation does), It should also create the usual links in the start menu *besides* the existing links. (The user might specify separate path in start menu for the.)
4. During such "side-by-side" installation the installer might ask the user to change the file type associations to the new installation (so .odf or .doc files open with the new instance), but this should be *disabled by default* because usually the productive installation is supposed to work like it did before, including being responsible for opening documents by default.
5. There should be no need to copy Windows DLLs from one place to another!
6. The installation should create an entry in the list of installed applications under Windows in order to remove the installation just like any other application.

Do I ask for too much?


----
Tested on Win7 HP 64 Bit.
Comment 1 bfoman (inactive) 2014-06-20 17:26:07 UTC 
(In reply to comment #0)
> Do I ask for too much?

Check this tool out:
http://flosmind.wordpress.com/libreoffice-server-install-gui/
Comment 2 Matthias Basler 2014-06-20 18:57:47 UTC 
> Check this tool out:
> http://flosmind.wordpress.com/libreoffice-server-install-gui/

So there is a new version on some other page which is not linked to from the LibreOffice wiki. Instead their page links to
http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/libreoffice-server-installation-gui
which contains a nice red warning saying "This product has not had a release in over 1 year and may no longer be maintained. " and only version 2.0.2 is available there, which failed for me as I noted earlier.

Looks like the wiki should be updated to point to the URL you gave above.

I' m going to test the new version.
But still, I'd prefer to have it integrated into the main installer.
Comment 3 Yousuf Philips (jay) (retired) 2014-06-23 03:18:43 UTC 
(In reply to comment #0)
> Today I tested the server installation as described on
> https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel#Windows.
> I first tried the "Server GUI Setup 4.0.2", but it would show an error and
> abort when trying to install the files of LibO 4.3.0.1 (RC1).
> Then I followed the manual installation. This worked until the point when
> trying to start the application. It complains it cannot find the Visual C++
> Runtime DLLs although they are present in C:\Windows\System32 and the
> documentation claims they should be put exactly there. So this didn't work
> either.

If you look in the folder that you extracted to, there will be a Win folder in it, and inside that, there is a System folder in it. Move the files in that folder to C:\Windows\System32 and it will launch fine.

(In reply to comment #2)
> So there is a new version on some other page which is not linked to from the
> LibreOffice wiki. Instead their page links to
> http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center/libreoffice-server-
> installation-gui
> which contains a nice red warning saying "This product has not had a release
> in over 1 year and may no longer be maintained. " and only version 2.0.2 is
> available there, which failed for me as I noted earlier.
> 
> Looks like the wiki should be updated to point to the URL you gave above.

The link found on the extension page still links to the latest version, even thought the extension page information hasnt been update.

> I' m going to test the new version.
> But still, I'd prefer to have it integrated into the main installer.

I would as well but i highly doubt that would ever happen.