Ken Irwin wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> I've got a homegrown piece of software that I'll be presenting at a 
> conference in a few weeks (to track title & call-number request 
> histories using III's InnReach module). I'm trying to package it up in 
> such a way that other users will be able to use the software too, and 
> I've never done this before.
>
> Is there any open-source or otherwise freely-available software to 
> handle the installation of a LAMP-type product:
>
> - displaying readme type information until everything's set up
> - creating databases
> - creating data tables (in this case, with a dynamic list of fields 
> depending on some user input)
> - loading up some pre-determined data into database tables
> - editing the config file variables
>
> I could make this up myself, but I wonder if someone has genericized 
> this process. (I'm particularly concerned about how to effectively 
> pre-load the data tables, not assuming the user has command-line mysql 
> access.)
>
> Any ideas?
Take a look at the Apache Ant project (jakarta.apache.org/ant).  I have 
been using it for several years to manage java web applications.  It 
should do everything that you want.  I am also using for managing Drupal 
installations with subsites.