My OperaPortable software
Wednesday, October 25, 2006 9:17:42 PM
User's software has:
1. Program files (or web resource)
2. User data
3. User preferences (settings)
Every SW must provide a well documented process of moving user data and user settings (with and without user data) from one installation of this SW to another, or to archive file to be able recover data.
The principle is dead simple: use of SW is connected with data creation. This data is owned by the user, not SW developer. So, user must be provided with friendly interface to fetch his data and move it easily, at least, to another box with the same SW installed.
For example, Opera's email client is dumb enough to hate it while moving on the new PC. In contrary, Thunderbird tells you how to migrate.
The best solution is to pack the whole SW with all relevant data and to unpack it on the another system. Of course, setup of the new environment must be done automatically with possibility to control and track the process.
It must look just like a migration algorythm with DO and UNDO infinitely repeatable operations.
1. Program files (or web resource)
2. User data
3. User preferences (settings)
Every SW must provide a well documented process of moving user data and user settings (with and without user data) from one installation of this SW to another, or to archive file to be able recover data.
The principle is dead simple: use of SW is connected with data creation. This data is owned by the user, not SW developer. So, user must be provided with friendly interface to fetch his data and move it easily, at least, to another box with the same SW installed.
For example, Opera's email client is dumb enough to hate it while moving on the new PC. In contrary, Thunderbird tells you how to migrate.
The best solution is to pack the whole SW with all relevant data and to unpack it on the another system. Of course, setup of the new environment must be done automatically with possibility to control and track the process.
It must look just like a migration algorythm with DO and UNDO infinitely repeatable operations.
