graphics and package/deployment 1

[StormbringerX]

Hi gang,

My company is about ready to begin the process of packaging and deployment of our software.

The software uses many types of graphics: .bmps, .cur, .ico, .avi, etc...

Currently all of these graphics are stored in separate folders below app.path. Meaning, the avi files are in app.path & "\graphics\video" The cursor files are in app.path & "\graphics\cursors" And so on.

My question to anyone and everyone is this:

Do you find it's better to keep things in separate directories (as we currently have it)? Or should all graphics be moved into the directory with the app? Or is a .res the way to go?

I want to keep the packaging as simple as possible, but at the same time I don't want to confuse the situation by mashing everything together in one place.

Any thoughts would be gratefully acknowledged.

Dave

 

[JeffTullin]

My 2 penneth - the way you're proposing is logical and maintainable.

Many installers (ie installshield) allow you to group items such as AVIs and BMPs together so that your users can do a Custom install.

It also allows you the flexibility (perhaps later) to have preferences in your app that allow people to use other places for the graphics.

So, your app looks to a registry setting for 'Graphics Location' and gets the graphics from (say) a humungous storage partition, instead of having the system partition full of support files.

'Everything in one folder' is simpler to deploy, but sensibly named folders feels a lot better..