The Creative Suite 4 Deployment Toolkit is an efficient, easy-to-use, and reliable application that configures Adobe Creative Suite 4's installers for
silent deployment. Its Adobe AIR-based (Adobe Integrated Runtime) interface allows you to create a remotely deployable install package without laboriously hand-editing configuration files.
Purpose: Provide definitions for terms and explanations for concepts and situations common to installing, updating, and
licensing Adobe Creative Suites software products.
Contents:
Explains what it means to buy and install Adobe Creative Suites software, from versions CS4 and up.
Defines terms used throughout all documents that cover various aspects of this larger activity.
Defines the main terms deployment and provisioning. Defines other terms related to these two main areas.
Explains how deploying and provisioning are distinct concepts that can be identified as distinct entities in an
architecture and implemented as separate software modules, while remaining inextricably entwined in actual
practice.
Deployment and Provisioning Concepts (PDF, 137k)
Purpose: Enable enterprise administrators to deploy Adobe Creative Suite 4 products, using CS4 deployment packages,
with little to no help from Adobe support.
Contents: Defines the assumed deployment framework and describes the overall deployment process.
Describes Adobe CS4 deployment packages and the advantages of using the CS4 deployment toolkit.
Describes the deployment planning process, referring to accompanying worksheets.
Describes possible deployment configurations, and the requirements and issues for each configuration.
Explains how to use ARD on the Mac and SMS on WIndows to deploy CS4 deployment packages.
Gives solutions or workarounds to common problems and situations, and discuss challenges and issues that arise
during enterprise deployment.
We will mention the CS4 Serialization Toolkit when it becomes available.
Enterprise Deployment Guide (PDF, 507k)
Purpose: Enables enterprise administrators to create CS4 deployment packages for silent installations without needing
help from Adobe support.
Contents: Explains in detail what packages contain and how to create them with the toolkit.
Includes screen shots of the toolkit interface.
Includes reference information about shared and supporting component and toolkit error messages.
Gives system requirements for the toolkit and tells you how to obtain it.
Enterprise Deployment Toolkit Guide (PDF, 1.5M)
Purpose: Provide in-depth information about how the Adobe installers, deployment packages, and related tools and files
work. This information augments that given in the Deployment Toolkit Guide and the Deployment Guide. Using
this information, you could hand assemble the equivalent of a deployment package.
Contents: Gives reference information about deployment packages, including contents of package XML files and the
operation of and command line arguments for the package programs.
Gives reference information, including command line arguments, for the Setup program.
GIves information necessary to implement a deployment package by hand without use of the toolkit.
Reference information about the Serialization Toolkit.
Enterprise Deployment Reference (PDF, 98k)
Purpose: Serve as a learning tool, planning tool, and communication vehicle for CS4 product deployment.
Contents:
If you’ve been creating Photoshop panels or developing with PatchPanel or Switchboard, you’ll appreciate Scope Skins. Scope skins (for Flexbuilder 3) were created to skin Adobe Flex apps to provide the same UI as a native Creative Suite panel. This was done with little impact to the functionality of the standard Flex 3 components.
To use these skins:
<mx:Style source=”scope_skins.css”>” and recompile. Now you’ll see the same components, but with the standard Flex UITo use these skins in your own projects:
<mx:Style source=”scope_skins.css”>” in your main source fileNote that the scope skins attempts to leave the API untouched, and for this reason, these skins use only the built in styles and properties of the components. The components are not extended in any way. As a result, DropDown, ComboBox, TextInput and TextArea are not skinned.
Note: These components are provided for use ONLY with projects that will be used with Adobe Creative Suite.
Share your deployment knowledge and see what other professionals are doing to support volume deployment and management of Creative Suite products.
Latest Creative Suite blog posts:
http://blogs.adobe.com/OOBE/
Latest Creative Suite forums:
http://forums.adobe.com/community/creativesuites