Gummy Bear continues its forward motion toward release. A complete Sueetie one-stop shop, Gummy Bear will contain most of what you see at http://sueetie.org in a single ZIP. Marketplace, blog, forums, media gallery and wiki. Great apps all. The demo site will be online at http://gummybear.sueetie.org hopefully by the end of the week.
The Gummy Bear install process originally consisted of .config file tweaks, a series of Sql scripts, application-specific setup wizards, then some final steps like configuring email settings. I know about the very cool Microsoft Web Platform Installer and how it would seem to auto-magically take care of all of those things, but with Sueetie we’re talking about installing a unified website comprised of 5 different apps – 6 if you include the framework itself. Given those numbers I think I’ll continue the old fashioned way and investigate the Web Platform Installer as I am able after Gummy Bear is released.
Back to Present Day. I’ve said all along that Sueetie is a Developer’s Game and not for casual communiteers who want one-click and go. That doesn’t mean things have to be hard, and it’s my mission with the Gummy Bear install to make the process as pain-free and speedy as possible.
With the installation steps down cold I considered how to consolidate these pieces and yet get Gummy Bear out the door as soon as possible. I decided on a web page that walks you through the setup process. Here it is. The screenpic is too small to view in detail on purpose because I want to rework and simplify it more.
At left top is a graphic of how the site looks in IIS listing the folders that need to be set as IIS applications. Below that is a list of the .config files where the connection string needs to be updated.
At top right are the installation steps that execute SQL script or walk through the application setup wizards of YetAnotherForum.NET and Gallery Server Pro which have sweet setup wizards out of the box. When the YAF and GSP wizards complete they link directly back to the Gummy Bear install page, so it will be hard to get lost.
The bottom half of the right-side column lists mostly optional setup configuration items. I’ll probably reduce the info quotient on these and provide details on the Sueetie Wiki. The Gummy Bear install needs to be wham, bam, thank you ma’am.
One other example of Gummy Bear installation simplicity is that the install process kicks in automatically when you go to the site and the install was not yet performed. Jaben Cargman does this with YetAnotherForum.NET and I’ve always loved that, so it inspired me to implement the same slickness with Sueetie. You’ll go to http://yourgummybearsite for the first time and instead of encountering some ugly error you’ll see the install page.
We’re getting closer on Gummy Bear. I still need to upgrade ScrewTurn Wiki to 3.0 RTW. I’m shooting to have that in the bag yet this week. I should also put more time on documentation before I put a ZIP out there and start ringing the dinner bell. The Gummy Bear documentation area on the Sueetie Wiki is at the moment little more than a placemarker. I did create a group of Gummy Bear Support Forums, so that’s something.
Oh, I also have to setup the Gummy Bear demo site at http://gummybear.sueetie.org. Fortunately, now that we’ve got this cool Gummy Bear Install page, that task will be a snap.