Question

I’m trying to use IzPack to install my program and I’d like to add Desktop Shortcuts to the installer, here is the documentation/instructions from the IzPack website.

http://izpack.org/documentation/desktop-shortcuts.html

However, the below XML files, when compiled, only create a blank screen in the installer that hangs when you try to click “Next” to go past it. Here’s what the screen looks like when running on Windows 7 – 64 bit.

Here is my install.xml and shortcutSpec.xml files.

install.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" standalone="yes" ?>

<installation version="1.0">

<!-- The info section. -->

<info>
    <appname>Application Name</appname>
    <appversion>1.0</appversion>
    <url>http://www.example.com/</url>
    <javaversion>1.6</javaversion>
    <run-privileged condition="izpack.macinstall|izpack.windowsinstall.vista|izpack.windowsinstall.7"/>
</info>

<!-- The gui preferences indication. -->

<guiprefs width="640" height="480" resizable="yes"/>

<!-- The locale section. -->

<locale>
    <langpack iso3="eng"/>
</locale>

 <!-- The resources section. -->

<resources>
    <res id="LicencePanel.licence" src="licence.txt"/>
    <res id="InfoPanel.info" src="readme.txt"/>
    <res id="shortcutSpec.xml" src="shortcutSpec.xml"/>
</resources>
<native type="izpack" name="ShellLink.dll"/>

<!-- The panels section. -->

<panels>
    <panel classname="HelloPanel"/>
    <panel classname="InfoPanel"/>
    <panel classname="LicencePanel"/>
    <panel classname="TargetPanel"/>
    <panel classname="ShortcutPanel"/>
    <panel classname="PacksPanel"/>
    <panel classname="InstallPanel"/>
    <panel classname="SimpleFinishPanel"/>
</panels>

<native type="izpack" name="ShellLink.dll"/>

<!-- The packs section. -->

<packs>
    <pack name="Program and Dependencies" required="yes">
        <description>Program, libraries and other dependencies</description>
        <file src="ExecutableJar.jar" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/> 
        <file src="lib" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/> 
        <file src="save" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/> 
        <file src="HelpContents.chm" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>
        <file src="icon.png" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>   
        <file src="application.ini" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>     
        <file src="readme.txt" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>
        <file src="licence.txt" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>
        <file src="autorun-win.bat" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>
    </pack>
    <pack name="Samples" required="no">
        <description>Word Document Samples</description>
        <file src="samples" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>
    </pack>
    <pack name="Templates" required="no">
        <description>Word Document Templates</description>
        <file src="templates" targetdir="$INSTALL_PATH"/>
    </pack>
</packs>

And the shortcutSpec.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?>

<shortcuts>
    <skipIfNotSupported/>
    <programGroup defaultName="AppGroupName" location="applications"/>
    <shortcut
        name="Application - Startup"
        target="$INSTALL_PATH\autorun-win.bat"
        workingDirectory="$INSTALL_PATH"
        programGroup="no"
        desktop="yes"
        applications="yes"
        startMenu="yes"
        startup="yes"/>
</shortcuts>

Additional Notes:

1. I am getting zero compilation errors.

2. Without the shortcut stuff added, the installer works fine.

3. My program is an executable jar, to run it automatically I’ve created a batch script in Windows named autorun-win.bat, which is the what the desktop shortcut should be linked to.

EDIT:

I have tried this import as well as the 32-bit flavor. Neither had any effect on the above results. Any more contributions would be greatly appreciated.

<native type="izpack" name="ShellLink_x64.dll" />

Answer 1

Shortcut creation depends on the native support lib ShellLink.dll which only supports 32 bit systems. For 64-Bit windows you must add the following entry as well to support both flavors:

  <native type="izpack" name="ShellLink_x64.dll" />