IzPack is an installers generator for the Java platform. IzPack project produces lightweight installers that can be run on any operating system where a Java virtual machine is available.

Depending on the operating system, it can be launched by a double-click or a simple 'java -jar installer.jar' on a shell. The most common use is to distribute applications for the Java platform, but you can also use it for other kinds of projects.

The main benefit of IzPack is that it provides a clean and unique way of distributing a project to users using different operating systems.

A big care has been put in making IzPack as small as possible in order to reduce the weight of IzPack itself in the final installer archive. Also, IzPack has been designed around modularity and flexibility.

As a consequence, you are able to specify how your installer should be by selecting the panels that you want to show to the final user. Sometimes there are even several panels for the same usage so that you can pick the one that suits the best your needs.

If ever you don't find your way through the available panels, you can still develop your own ones with the nice and easy IzPack API. There's even an embedded XML parser !

Here are some key features of "IzPack":

· XML-based installer descriptors
· Uses the maximum Jar archives compression level
· Jakarta Ant integration
· Great flexibility and modularity, it is very easy to extend IzPack
· No native code is required, but you can extend IzPack with native code
· Shortcuts creation system
· Flexible and powerful user input panel
· Automatic uninstaller creation
· Easy localization with XML langpacks: 16 langpacks are provided by default
· Variable substitution system
· OS-specific scripts interaction

What's New in This Release: [ read full changelog ]

New features:

· Hidden attribute on pack
· AntActionListener cannot reference an internal build script
· Check for duplicated IDs
· Create Shortcuts based on conditions
· Submission of BSF Scripting Feature
· HTMLHelloPanel and variable parsing
· Validators for packs
· introduce console support for izPack installation
· Implement "jar" attribute for "panel" element