An application packager’s job is to consolidate all the files needed for a program to run and create an installer for end users. They must have programming experience and understand the software development cycle.
When a computer application is finalized and distributed, an end user can launch the program by clicking a single icon. During the development of this application, software engineers use many different resources that require highly technical processes to launch and test the program. An application packager’s job is to take the different components that make up a program and make it so that the end user can easily install and launch the application.
An application packager’s first task is to identify all the libraries and files that a program needs to run successfully. They can take the form of software libraries, database files, compiled source code files, and graphical components. Some of these files reside in the program directory, but other features such as database servers or system graphics engines need to be installed as separate software on the end user’s computer.
The application bundler gathers all files that don’t need to be installed as separate system software into a single folder. In the development process, programmers can call these features from anywhere on the workstation, but the final products need a consistent configuration. By condensing all files into a single directory, the application packager ensures that all of a program’s code contains the correct directory paths to access these resources.
After the application packager consolidates all the files a program needs to run, he or she prepares its own directory for the end user. This involves replacing default system icons with executable files by the graphic artists of the icons designed specifically for the program, and adding documentation files to the directory. Once these components are in place, the packager will need to set up an installer for the application.
An application packager uses software specifically designed to create and automate installation processes. This involves:
specifying which software components must be present on the system for the program to run
loading the necessary files to add this software in case it is missing from the system,
loading the directory containing all application files.
The last step is for the packager to test the installer on machines representative of what customers will be using to ensure the process works.
Application packagers require computer science and programming experience. They don’t write important parts of the program’s source code, but they still need to understand the software development cycle and how to edit source code. This is necessary to ensure that the source code accurately reflects the final file layout of the program directory.
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