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CD-ROM distribution
From Qedoc
Qedoc Quiz Player on a CD-ROM accompanied by modules which they have created themselves.
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Installing the Player together with your modules
The aim of this section is to tell you how to get all the right files from the CD-ROM onto the hard drive of one of your end users, without them having to do anything technical. The assumption here is that you are creating a CD-ROM for Windows installation. From the end-user perspective it looks like this:
- Receive CD-ROM
- Insert CD-ROM into computer
- Follow onscreen instructions
- Start Player (automatically or from desktop icon)
- Find modules nicely displayed in loading menu
How do you set all this up?
The Qedoc Quiz Player
The Player is distributed by Qedoc as an installable executable file inside a ZIP file. The filename has the pattern qedoc_qp_XXX where "XXX" is the version number without dots (e.g. 200 for version 2.0.0). You should open the ZIP file and extract the EXE file. Do not run the EXE file - simply copy it onto your CD-ROM as is. When launched, this EXE file will start an installation programme which installs the Player onto the end user's computer. But don't launch it yourself. Just copy it onto the CD-ROM.
Creating your installer
General idea
The general concept is that you create an installer which then, as part of its installation, calls the Qedoc EXE file and spawns a separate installation process. Altogether, your installation consists of:
- External call to install Qedoc Quiz Player.
- Installation of module files in the right place so that the Qedoc Quiz Player can find them.
Your installation could do these in the order 2-1, but the order 1-2 is advised.
What kind of installer?
This really depends on your technical abilities and financial resources. The cheap and dirty end of the spectrum is to create your own batch files for a self-programmed installation. The batch files really only need to call the EXE file and then copy the modules over to the hard drive. If this is beyond you, you could spend up to a thousand dollars on a commercial installation programme, which would do the same thing, perhaps with a more exciting interface, and perhaps with an even steeper learning curve. You could also employ a techie to do this for you, but Qedoc does not have the resources to help here.
Readers who are familiar with batch files might like to post examples here for others to copy.
Putting the modules into your installation
The modules consist of ZIP files. Do not attempt to unzip them. Do not rename them. If using a batch installation, you'll probably be copying them onto the CD-ROM raw. If using a commercial installer, the commercial installer will wrap them into an executable (most likely) and you'll need to copy something else onto the CD-ROM.
The critical issue is where the modules end up after the installation. They should end up here (assuming default paths are always used):
c:/programme files/qedoc/player/modplay/
The "programme files" segment can vary in name, depending on the language of the operating system. For example, in US English it is called "program files".
Non-Windows users
For the time being, non-Windows users should use the web-launched version of the Qedoc Quiz Player available on this site. This is currently the only version which works with Mac or Linux.
