EditLive! Auto-Installation Feature

Ephox, November 2001

Summary

The EditLive! auto-installation feature allows users to have EditLive! seamlessly installed when running a page containing EditLive!, rather than them having to physically download and install EditLive! themselves.  This greatly simplifies the process for the end user.  This article contains the following information:

• What is the auto-installation feature?
• Implementing the auto-installation feature
• Upgrade your users' EditLive! using auto-installation
• Troubleshooting auto-installation errors

More Information

What is the auto-installation feature?

The auto-installation feature of EditLive! allows users to have EditLive! seamlessly installed or upgraded when running a page containing EditLive!, rather than them having to physically download and install EditLive! themselves.  This greatly simplifies the process for the end user.

The auto-installation procedure takes advantage of CAB files for Microsoft Internet Explorer and JAR files for Netscape Navigator.  All of the necessary files for this are included in the editlive folder, which is installed on your machine as part of the Ephox EditLive! 4.0 Development Kit.

To see how this auto-installation feature works simply view any of our online EditLive! demonstrations.  If you do not have EditLive! 4.0 installed, or if you have an earlier version of EditLive! on your machine, the auto-installation feature will seamlessly download and install it for you.

Implementing the auto-installation feature

In order for your pages to use the auto-installation feature you will need to have all of the EditLive! installation files copied to your server.  These are installed as part of the Ephox EditLive! 4.0 Development Kit.

1.  Download the Ephox EditLive! 4.0 Development Kit from here.
2.  Install the Ephox EditLive! 4.0 Development Kit.
3.  Upload the editlive folder that is installed with the EditLive! Development Kit to your Web server.
4.  Ensure that in your pages that contain EditLive! set the DownloadDirectory property to reference the editlive folder. 

To set the DownloadDirectory property simply configure the global variable, setDownloadDirectory, to where the EditLive! installation files (the "editlive" folder) can be found on your server.  This is done at the beginning of the SCRIPT block where the EditLive! object is instantiated.

...
<SCRIPT language="JavaScript1.2">
<!--

/*** Configure global variables ***/
EditLiveGlobal.setDownloadDirectory("/ephoxeditlive/editlive");

var editLive1 = new EditLive("Plugin1", 600, 350);
//-->
</SCRIPT>
...

5.  Ensure that in the HEAD section of your page, the EditLive! 4.0 Script files, editLive4.js and editLive4.vbs,  are referenced.  Please note, these script files are included in the editlive folder.

Upgrade your users' EditLive! using auto-installation

When a new version of EditLive! is released, to upgrade your end users simply upload the latest EditLive! installation files to your Web server,  following the steps outlined in the "Implementing the auto-installation feature" section above.  When your end users visit your EditLive! page/s, it will be discovered that a newer version is available, and will automatically download the newer version of EditLive! on to the end user's machine.

Troubleshooting auto-installation errors

Check your browser security settings

The Internet Explorer security settings cannot be set to High.  Also, some Custom Level settings may also cause errors.  These security settings can be checked by:

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Internet Options.
3. Click the Security tab.

If you have a Custom level of security set, the following options need to be set to "Enable" or "Prompt":

• Download signed ActiveX controls
• Run ActiveX controls and plugins
• Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting

Check you do not have an old version of EditLive! running in another window.

If EditLive! is running in another window, the main component files will be locked, meaning that they can not be overwritten.  This will cause problems if you are trying to upgrade your version of EditLive!.  To unlock the files so that they can be upgraded, close any browser windows that are running EditLive! except for the window that is downloading the latest version.

Check the EditLive! DownloadDirectory property is set correctly

Within your EditLive! pages, set the EditLive! DownloadDirectory property to ensure that the EditLive! installation files are accessible.  This property needs to reference where the EditLive! installation files are stored on the Web server. These are all of the files installed in the editlive folder when the Ephox EditLive! 4.0 Development Kit is installed. This reference may be relative or absolute. For more information regarding the EditLive! Global variables, please see the relevant reference page.

Ensure that you have Administrator Privileges on your Windows 2000/XP machine

If you are running Windows 2000/XP you will need Administrator privileges for your local machine to be able to install EditLive!.  If you do not have these privileges, EditLive! may not install correctly on your machine.  You will need to speak to your System Administrator on whether they can give you these privileges, or install EditLive! for you.

Once EditLive! has been installed, Administrator privileges are no longer needed.

Try installing EditLive! 4.0 using the standalone install

Included in the Ephox EditLive! 4.0 Development Kit is a standalone EditLive! installer. This will have been installed with the Development Kit in the folder standalone.  Trying running the editlivesetup.exe file contained in this folder and reloading the EditLive! pages.

If all this fails

When the EditLive! download fails, it may create an error log file. To view this files you will need to download and install the Microsoft Code Download Error Log Viewer Tool from the Microsoft Web site.  Once you have downloaded this file you will need to:

1. Double-click on it to run it.  This will ask you to unzip the files contained.  Unzip the files to a specified directly
2. Browse to the directory you specified and double-click on the file cdllogvw.exe.
3. This will present you with a list of class IDs that have failed to install. Choose the class-ID of EditLive! 4.0, which is DA511858-B44C-439E-A0EA-704ED20035E7, and click View Log.
4. This will open the Log in the Web browser. Send what appears in this log to Technical Support along with your operating system, and Web browser and version.