Getting to Know the Program Interface
When you start EMCO MSI Package Builder the first time, you can see the main screen of the program and the Repackage Installation wizard displayed at the top of it. The main goal of the program is installation repackaging, so the wizard is designed to guide you through the repackaging process. In the wizard, you can select the required repackaging method, choose the installations to be repackaged, configure the deployment package settings, etc. In the next chapter, you will learn how to select the right repackaging method in the wizard and you will see how to use the wizard in practice in the following chapters.
When the Repackage Installation wizard is closed and no installation projects are opened, you can see the starting main program screen Pic 1. The program has a Ribbon user interface, so the Ribbon menu is displayed at the top of the screen providing you with access to the main actions of the program. Different types of the actions are located on different Ribbon tabs, so you can switch them, if required. Additional Ribbon tabs are displayed automatically when specific elements are selected and provide you access to the contextual actions.
Under the Ribbon, you can see opened projects on the left and the main area on the right. When you start the program, the Projects view is empty and the main area displays a list of the recent projects and the main actions of the program. You can click the main actions to initiate the corresponding repackaging wizards. You can open the Repackage Installation wizard to access all repackaging options by clicking Repackage Installation on the Ribbon.
If you have completed repackaging or opened previously created installation projects, you can see the current projects in the Projects view. You can have more than one project opened to be able to copy data between the projects. A project consists of different types of resources. If you select a project node in the Projects view, you can see and edit the project settings. If you select, for example, the File System node, you can review and modify files and folders in an installation project using the file system editor Pic 2. There are different editors for managing different types of resources, so you need to select the required item in the Projects tree to review and modify its content using the corresponding editor.
At the bottom of the main screen, you can see the Log and Operations views. The Log view reports status information for deployment packages generation and other operations. You can use this view to find error messages and troubleshooting information in case of a problem. The Operations view displays the currently running operations and allows you to manage them.
You can learn more about the available views and editors in the Program Interface Overview chapter where you can find detailed explanations of features provided by every view.