sharepoint package setup

Question

i am new to sharepoint. i have a sharepoint application. i have to create a package setup (install shield kind of thing) that can deploy the sharepoint solution on the client machine. in my application we have .dll,.ascx,.xml etc files available. i think i have to deploy the dlls,ascx, xml files.

Can any body help me on this? how shloud i go forward and is there any tool available which i can use for this?

is it possible with VS2005? VS2005 provides a setup and deploy feature. can we use that for sharepoint? if yes can any body help me how to do it?

thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Try and have a look at http://www.codeplex.com/sharepointinstaller. It is a free tool offering a user friendly install/upgrade/uninstall of SharePoint solutions.

Answer 2

The first thing you need to understand is Solution Packages. They are the unit of deployment in SharePoint.

Creating a Solution Package in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0

However, Solution Packages are meant to be deployed by SharePoint Administrators. They don't have a user friendly installation process.

If you want something more like an installer, you can look at the SharePoint Solution Installer CodePlex project.