Oct 30, 2013
Creative Cloud Packager 1.3 is live
Great news, Creative Cloud Packager 1.3 is now live.
We are genuinely excited about this release. Not that CCP 1.2 was not exciting, actually who am I kidding it was important in that it had some bug fixes but that’s not exciting is it ? Though maybe I am being presumptuous and their are people out there who just love a good bug fix. CCP 1.3 on the other hand brings some pretty exciting features and just to keep those aforementioned people happy we also have some bug fixes.
Here are the new features in CCP 1.3
- Support for archived versions of Products
- Support for Native application Installers (Edge Code, Edge Reflow, Scout, Gaming SDK)
- Support for Proxy Auto Configuration (PAC) files
- RUM support for Feature Bearing updates
- New Shortcut locations
- New IT Tools Un-installer
- Build information in Product UI
Let’s start with
Support for archived versions: The Creative Cloud gives you access to the latest and greatest Adobe products but also access to previous or archived versions of products which is a very important aspect to many peoples workflows. CCP 1.3 now allows you to package the latest and greatest but also archived versions of applications beginning with CS6 era applications. They can be packaged together or separately depending on what your requirement is.
Support for Native application installers: In the past you would need to download separately from Adobe’s licensing website any applications that were native installers. In this release those applications are now downloaded directly from CCP.
Support for Proxy Auto Configuration (PAC) files: CCP will now honor PAC files that are used to provide proxy information.
RUM support for Feature Bearing Updates: This was a big one, you can now install FB updates by invoking RUM or by going to the “Help” menu of the product itself, this was not previously possible for Creative Cloud Enterprise customers.
As promised there are some important bug fixes in this release. Some customers where having issues with imaging when non Creative Cloud products where included in the image, this should now be fixed. Customers using AUSST where experiencing an intermittent issue whereby downloads where timing out. We have now updated the version of AUSST carried in the CCP 1.3 download and also on Devnet to resolve these issues.
What do you need to do to get this amazing new release you ask ? Why just re-launch CCP and you will be prompted to self update.
For more information on this release please visit the Creative Cloud Packager help page
Finally a special thank you to all the participants who helped test out the Pre Release version. Your input as always is incredibly valuable.
Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enterprise IT Tools
Karl Gibson
Senior Product Manager | Creative Cloud for Business
Follow @@adobe_ITToolkitVisit Karl Gibson on LinkedIn
Let’s say that I’ve already deployed some Creative Cloud Enterprises packages built using a previous version of Creative Cloud Packager, and I’ve been using RUM to update my installations (pointing to an internally-hosted Adobe Update Server), and feature-bearing upgrades weren’t installing on the clients. How do I get the clients to take advantage of the improvements in CCP? Is there an update to RemoteUpdateManager that I can deploy to the clients so the feature-bearing updates can be installed? Do I need to repackage and deploy the whole kit? Do I just update my Adobe Update Server to make sure it’s current and it will then update any CCP/RUM components to take advantage of the CCP1.3 updates?
Appreciate your efforts in making CC easier to deploy in an enterprise environment!
Hi Mike,
You just need to push out an update of any description to those clients. As part of the update the client will get the latest version of AAM which contains the fix.
Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enterprise IT Tools
Very nice. That is most helpful. I did notice the updated RUM and AAUST tools in the CCP utilities folder. Should I choose to be a bit more proactive, I should still be able to package and push out RUM to my clients using Casper and still take advantage of the fixes, correct?
Thanks for your quick reply!
Mike Hendrickson
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, The University of Iowa
Mike,
The fix is not in RUM or AUSST itself so changing these tools will not cause the FB updates to be applied. Every time you create a package with CCP it downloads the latest version of AAM and adds it to the package. This is why you are only required to create a package with CCP 1.3 that contains any update as it will also apply the version of AAM with the fix. That said CCP does carry a later version of AUSST that fix’s some bugs so if you are having issues with AUSST then perhaps that is something you should look in to. If everything is fine then you are all set once you create the update package with CCP 1.3.
Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enterprise IT Tools
Hello. I have just started using CCP 1.3 however; it seem like it’s not able to recognize my proxy PAC file. The only way I am able to login and download applications, is by disconnecting from the corporate network and use an external connection. I thought CCP 1.3 was supposed to resolve the proxy/PAC issue? Is anyone else having this problem?
Hello,
Can you confirm that the information given in support thread http://forums.adobe.com/message/5798803 about CCP 1.3 having broken the imaging support once again is correct?
Although I’m not entirely sure that you properly fixed it in the first place since we are still forced to run APTEE on a number of computers after imaging and those CS6 packages were made with AAMEE 3.1 which was supposed to have been able to handle imaging correctly.
If CCP 1.3 is affected, are you going to fix the problem or is post-deployment APTEEing a permanent ‘solution’?
If CCP 1.3 is affected and you will fix it, when will the new version be approximately released?
Have you ever seriously considered partnering with DRM companies such as Flexera or Safenet?
Your experiments in the field seem constantly to lead to people being unable to even start the programs and in the long run that cannot be good for business. There’s nothing wrong with protecting your intellectual property and nothing wrong with re-inventing the wheel either. But now, unfortunately, what you have invented is a square and the ride for IT pros is accordingly bumpy.
Hi ,
Yes CCP 1.3 resolves the issue where Acrobat is included in a CCP package that then gets imaged or cloned and the licensing breaks.Any new images created with CCP 1.3 and rolled out in this way will not have the problem.
We are of course conscious of the fact that the imaging workflow has again been affected like it was in the AAMEE 3.0 timeframe which was then resolved in AAMEE 3.1 it is certainly not the desired outcome especially at the time of year when education are getting ready for a new semester. The team will be doing all it can to try and ensure it does not happen again.
Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enterprise IT Tools
I’m afraid I have to say as Carol says in the Little Britain comedy series: “the computer says no”.
If Creative Cloud products are deployed as a part of an OS image and the packages are created with CCP for Windows 1.3, the activation still breaks.
Detailed information can be found on this thread I started: forums.adobe.com/message/5884543
Hi,
Can you please provide the log files (kagibson@adobe.com) for the clients that are affected ? I have also replied to your forum post requesting the same.
Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enterprise IT Tools
Dumb question, but where do you download it?
There are no links here: http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/packager.html
Or here: http://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/packager/ccp-readme.html
Or here: http://www.adobe.com/downloads.html?promoid=KAWQL
Or here: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates.html
Hi Ben,
CCP can be downloaded either from the Team admin portal if you are a team customer or from Adobe Licensing Website if you are an enterprise customer. CCP is not on a public facing website.
Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enterprise IT Tools
Unfortunately there’s no way for IT folks to get access to the tool or media for testing.
Don
Don,
Your internal manager for the Licensing Website (assuming you are an Enterprise customer) can give you access to this as long as you have an AdobeID. When we purchased the Creative Cloud our manager gave access to the few people that were going to be responsible for using CCP to build the packages for distribution.
Granted the LWS interface and performance is really horrible especially for a company that creates web design tools, so you if you do get access you may have wished you didn’t! 🙂
Shane
Hi,
Is there any way to create single Creative Clous for Teams. package with multiple languages? At this moment we’ll have to create three packages for three languages.
It would be nice feature to create real multi language package.
But nice tool for IT after all.
Kimmo
Hi Kimmo,
There is no option to do this at the moment. The issue is really around size in that for a multi language package you would need to include each version in your package. Taking for example a Package which contains all of the CC applications and then adding multiple locales the package size would be quite large.
Cheers
Karl Gibson | Product Manager | Enterprise IT Tools
Hi,
Could there be in future versions, some kind of language packer, which packs only languages.
Best could be that CC install package could be language neutral.
This could help to reduce install size and ease install for different language sets and choises like Microsoft does with Office.
Regards
Kimmo
Why is it assumed CCP would not be useful for a site with individual CC users?
Its rather frustrating to get this application if you happen to buy all your Adobe software through a reseller. I have no idea why you made it so difficult to download :(.
Feature requests:
* Approval list. That is, let us create “branches” of updates – e.g. a “UAT” branch that we can point our test group at that’s separate from what normal users get.
e.g.: I’m from the IT group. My computer is pointed at the UAT xml file, and once a month or every now and then, I run the AUSST update and pull in the newest updates. But they’re not automatically live. Instead, I approve them for the UAT branch only. This means my computer gets the updates immediately, a week or two before everyone else. If no problems are found, I approve them for the “Prod” branch/xml, which is where everyone else’s computer is pointed. Enterprise doesn’t like just pushing out untested updates. See also: wdas reposado (Google it)
Problems:
* OMG, please learn the difference between “there”, “they’re” and “their”:
“Though maybe I am being presumptuous and their are people out there who just love a good bug fix.”
From: http://blogs.adobe.com/oobe/2012/06/the-many-uses-of-rum.html :
“Users are not Admins on there own machine, which means updates will fail.”
“We have already seen this tool being used to great effect and with people implementing it into there update schedule and having it execute automatically with designated frequency.”
* And “were” and “where”:
“Some customers where having issues with imaging when non Creative Cloud products where included in the image, this should now be fixed. Customers using AUSST where experiencing an intermittent issue whereby downloads where timing out.”