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/ - A company that has developed a .msi install file for pushing through AD

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). To read more about this, read my Jan 25th build statement.

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).