Introduction to Deploying Smart Documents [Office 2003 SDK Documentation]

A completed smart document may involve many different types of files, as well as changes to the registry to connect these components to Microsoft® Office applications. For example, the tutorials included in this SDK include a smart document dynamic-link library (DLL), a Microsoft Word XML document fragment, two image files, the associated XML schema, and an XHTML Help file. The following sections provide information about how you can deploy the files for your smart documents across your organization.

Based on the nature of your deployment, you may choose to deploy your smart document by using any of the following methods.

XML expansion packs

Microsoft Office 2003 provides a new zero-touch deployment mechanism called XML expansion packs. You can associate documents and XML namespaces with a single XML expansion pack file, which contains the deployment information needed to set up the smart document components automatically when a document is loaded into the host application. After you create an XML expansion pack file, you can use it to silently update the client smart document components as required at predetermined intervals. For more information about using an XML expansion pack to deploy smart documents, see Introduction to XML Expansion Packs.

XML expansion pack collections

You can also build XML expansion pack manifest collections, which allow Office 2003 client applications to point to a single shared location to locate all available XML expansion packs. If the XML expansion pack collection file is kept up to date, any document without an XML expansion pack explicitly attached can still find and download the XML expansion pack that should be used with that file.

In many cases, an XML expansion pack will be both attached to a document and referenced by an XML expansion pack collection file, ensuring that the host application finds the smart document components when the document is loaded. For more information about XML expansion pack collections, see Introduction to XML Expansion Pack Collections.

Manual deployment

If the automatic functionality of an XML expansion pack is not appropriate for your deployment, you can create a custom installation package to install the smart document component files and set up the necessary registry information on the user's computer. The result will be the same as if the components were installed by using an XML expansion pack, but your smart document cannot be automatically updated. For more information, see Deploying Smart Documents Without Using an XML Expansion Pack.

Other deployment strategies

Depending on the deployment method you choose and whether you used managed or unmanaged code to create your smart document, you may want to explore additional deployment options, which are discussed in Introduction to Smart Document Deployment Strategies.