/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2017 The Qt Company Ltd.
** Contact: http://www.qt.io/licensing/
**
** This file is part of the Qt Installer Framework.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$
** Commercial License Usage
** Licensees holding valid commercial Qt licenses may use this file in
** accordance with the commercial license agreement provided with the
** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in
** a written agreement between you and The Qt Company. For licensing terms
** and conditions see http://www.qt.io/terms-conditions. For further
** information use the contact form at http://www.qt.io/contact-us.
**
** GNU Free Documentation License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free
** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of
** this file. Please review the following information to ensure
** the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 requirements
** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html.
** $QT_END_LICENSE$
**
****************************************************************************/

/*!
    \contentspage {index.html}{Qt Installer Framework}
    \previouspage index.html
    \page ifw-overview.html
    \nextpage ifw-getting-started.html

    \title Overview of Qt Installer Framework

    The Qt Installer Framework provides a set of tools and utilities to
    create installers once, and deploy them across all the supported desktop
    Qt platforms without rewriting the source code. The installers will have the
    native look and feel on the platform where they are run: Linux, Microsoft
    Windows, and OS X.

    The Qt Installer Framework tools generate installers with a set of pages
    that guide the users during the installation, update, or uninstallation
    process. You provide the installable content and specify information about
    it, such as the name of the product and the installer and the text for the
    license agreement.

    You can customize the installers by adding widgets to the predefined pages
    or by adding whole pages to provide users with additional options. You can
    create scripts to add operations to the installer.

    \section1 Choosing Installer Type

    You can provide end users with an \e offline or \e online installer, or
    both, depending on your use cases.

    \image ifw-overview.png

    Both installers install a \e {maintenance tool} that can later be used to
    add, update, and remove components. Offline installers contain all the
    installable components and do not require network connections during the
    installation. Online installers only install the maintenance tool that then
    downloads and installs components from an online repository on a web server.
    Therefore, the size of an online installer binary is smaller and its
    download time is shorter than that of an offline installer binary. The total
    time spent downloading and running an online installer might also be shorter
    than dowloading and running an offline installer if the end users do not
    install all the available components.

    End users can use the maintenance tool to install additional components from
    the server after the initial installation, as well as to receive automatic
    updates to content as soon as the updates are published on the server.
    However, this works for an offline installation only if you specify a
    repository address in the offline installer configuration or if end users
    specify the repository address themselves in the maintenance tool settings.

    Create an offline installer to enable users to directly download the
    installation package on a media for installation on a computer later. You
    can also distribute the installation package on a CD-ROM or USB stick, for
    example.

    Create an online installer to enable users to always install the latest
    versions of the content binaries.

    \section1 Promoting Updates

    Make online repositories available to promote updates to end users who
    install your product. The easiest way to provide an update is to recreate
    the repository and upload it to the web server. For large repositories, you
    can update only the changed components.

    \section1 Providing Content for Installers

    You can enable other content providers to add components to the installer
    as add-on components. The component providers must set up repositories that
    contain the installable components and deliver the URL that points to the
    repositories to end users. End users must then configure the URL in the
    installer. The add-on components are visible in the package manager.

*/
