I’m writing a web application in Python, intended for use by teachers and pupils in a classroom. It’ll run from a hosted website, but I also want people to be able to download a self-contained application they can install locally if they want more performance or they simply won’t have an Internet connection available in the classroom.
The users aren’t going to be able to manage instructions like ‘first install Python, then install dependencies, download the .tar.gz archive and type these commands into the command line…’. I need to be able to create an all-in-one type installer that can potentially install Python, dependencies (Python-LDAP), some Python code, and register a Python-based web server as a Windows Service.
I’ve had a look through previous questions, but none quite seem relevant. I’m not concerned about the security of source code (my application will be open source, I’ll sell content to go with it), I just need non-technical Windows users to be able to download and use my application with no fuss.
My current thoughts are to use NSIS to create an installer that includes Python and Python-LDAP as MSIs, then registers my own simple Python-based web server as a Windows service and puts a shortcut in the start menu / on the desktop linking to http://localhost. Is this doable with NSIS – can NSIS check for currently installed copies of Python, for instance? Is there a better way of doing this – is there a handy framework available that lets me shove my code in a folder and bundle it up to make an installer?
Using NSIS is great (i use it too) but i would suggest using a ‘packager’ like pyinstaller (my personal fav, alternatives bb_freeze, py2exe) to create an exe before the using NSIS
The primary benefit you get by doing this is; Your download is smaller as you’re not bundling the whole Python Standard Lib and extra stuff your app wont need and you get an exe file to boot!