Deployment Manager - Deploying a project
Go Up to Deployment Manager
The Deployment Manager allows you to deploy your applications to virtually any machine running the Platform Assistant server and allows remote execution and debugging. You can use the Deployment Manager for any of the supported target platforms.
This topic describes the actual steps you have to follow to successfully deploy a project to a remote machine.
Note: Note that although your application can be deployed to multiple different platforms, the steps you have to follow are actually identical. The only main difference is how to setup the Platform Assistant server. For more information on this issue, please see PAServer, the Platform Assistant Server Application.
To deploy a project
- The Deployment Manager requires that you set up and use the Platform Assistant server, the remote application server, even if the deployment target is a Windows 32-bit system. If you have not already done so, configure the Platform Assistant server and your development environment as follows:
- Install the Platform Assistant server and have it running on the remote machine. The Platform Assistant server is used to acquire the files that your project needs to run on the target platform. See PAServer, the Platform Assistant Server Application.
- Make sure you have an existing connection profile for the platform where the Platform Assistant server is running. If you do not have a working connection profile, create a connection profile for the platform where the Platform Assistant server is running.
- In the Project Manager, right-click the required Target Platform and select Properties. In the Platform Properties dialog, choose a connection profile from the Profile drop-down list, and click OK to close the dialog and apply the changes. The IDE uses the assigned profile to connect to the remote machine.
- Now the Deployment Manager is ready to connect to the remote machine using the selected connection profile.
- Enable the connection using the Connect to Remote Machine command (
).
- Click the Reconcile button (
) to refresh the file list. The project is automatically rebuilt.
- Enable the connection using the Connect to Remote Machine command (
- Add your additional files that require deploying and configure them if necessary. For more information, see Deployment Manager - Adding files and Deployment Manager - Deleting files. By now, the file list should look as in the picture below, where a demonstration project, called Marshaling, is ready to be deployed.
- Click the Deploy button (
) on the toolbar of the Deployment Manager.
The deployment process should begin right away and your selected files are deployed to the specified platform. Note that the project must be compiled prior to deployment. Use the Reconcile button () or just compile your project. If the deployment is successful, the Messages View window shows several messages paclient command line for "<profilename>", finished by a Success message. All remote files are updated to their latest revision of the local files. Also the remote statuses are updated. By now, the Deployment Manager window should look as pictured below.
- Now you can run either with the debugger (F9) or without the debugger (Shift+Ctrl+F9). If you choose to execute the application with debugging, a command line console debugger window appears (called rmtdbg160.exe) and your application starts as it should, otherwise the remote debugger window is not shown.
For certain target platforms, the Deployment Manager adds an .rsm file (remote debug symbols file) to the list of ready-to-deploy files. The .rsm file is required only when running the project in debugging mode. By default, an .rsm file is generated when the selected target platform is 64-bit Windows, Mac OS X or iOS Simulator. To enable or disable the generation of an .rsm file, you can toggle the Include remote debug symbols option (on the Project > Options > Delphi Compiler > Linking page).
Note: The .rsm file is only required if you are planning to run the application in debugging mode. Otherwise, you can remove it from the list.
Additional Deployment Manager information
After you manage to configure the Deployment Manager for your project, a file with the deployproj extension and sharing the same name with your project, appears in the root directory where the source files for your project are. This file actually stores the Deployment Manager configuration for your project so if you close RAD Studio or the current project, the actual configuration is stored. In this way, every time you reopen your project that requires deployment, the configuration is restored and automatically updated as you add or remove ready-to-deploy files.