Firefox Deployment Kit

Prerequisites

Before even starting the project I have to know what I'm getting into, where to start, and who I should talk to should when I have problems.

1. Project Plan - This needs to be done before anything else. In this document I will plan my deliverables and set my goals. I also plan to incorporate a personal schedule so I know when I should be working on the project, and others will be able to contact me easily.

2. Research - I have to figure out early where the deployment kit stands as of now. Has there been work done on it? and if so, where I can learn about it.

3. Collaboration - By talking to developers who are already working on the project I should be able to get some idea of what has already been built and what I have to do to finish this project.

Links

This section contains links relevant to the project.

• http://benjamin.smedbergs.us/release-repackager/

• http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9056780&pageNumber=1

• http://vocamus.net/dave/?p=93

• http://bertenshaw.blogspot.com/ - A link to my Blog which discusses my experience and documents my progress

• http://www.kaply.com/weblog/2008/01/03/firefox-enterprise-newsgroup/

• http://wiki.mozilla.org/Enterprise

• http://www.frontmotion.com/

Documentation of Research

January 15th - I have found a script/program called FrontMotion that seems to be open source. I havn't been able to test it out as of yet but I plan to tomorrow. This script doesn't support Vista.

January 16th - This evening I plan on finishing my project plan and upload it to the wiki. I am also going to take a stab at building the FrontMotion script and testing it in a work environment. For more information on FrontMotion click here http://www.frontmotion.com/Firefox/fmfirefox.htm

January 17th - I've started researching IEAK so that I can get an idea of how an Admin kit works. See IEAK Documentation

January 18th - I tried installing CCK today. I was able to get it as an add-on but was unsuccessful making my first build. I expect that it has something to do with me running Windows Vista at home. The make file needs to have a ZIP program in the PATH and although I had one there, it still didn't work. I am aiming to have a build by the 22nd of Jan.

Jan 20th - Today I spend sometime setting up a small 'coroporate' like network at home. Working at a computer store allows me access to many older computers and I've been able to set up Server 03 on a test box here at home. I expect that after I set up some client machines I will be able to start testing the firefox build kit (CCK). I also am going to document the set up process.

Jan 22nd - After setting up my Server 03 environment I needed a client to test with. I have set up a client server environment and re-familiarized myself with active directory and group permissions.

Jan 24th - I've done some research on pushing an install through active directory. With Microsoft's Server 2003 it is possible to push an install to clients using group policy and a .msi file. Since most Firefox installers are .exe I had to do some looking for a .msi file. I was able to find one from a company called FrontMotion. They develop .msi files for the very reason of pushing them through AD (active directory).

Project Goals

By the end of this semester I hope to have a program that can deploy Firefox over a network or work environment. My build will include all the add-ons that I personally like as well as being fully customized for a work environment (ie. setting default homepage).