[Q] I have an installer for my FileMaker based solution. I don't want my customer to erase their data base when they install an update for my solution. How can I do that?

• A possible strategy is to divide and rule:

  1	Use 2 packages: one for your Filemaker based solution and one for its data base.
  2	Add an InstallationCheck script to the data base package. This InstallationCheck script should return 64 if the data base already exists on disk, 0 otherwise.
  3	Group the 2 packages into a metapackage.

  This way, the first time your customer installs your solution, they will install both the solution and the default data base. When they install an update, they won't overwrite their data base with the default one. Please note, this solution is easy to handle if your packages can only be installed on the root volume and are not relocatable. It may get complex if these conditions are not met.

[Q] My application is installed through a package. I want to build an updater for this application. I've built a package that contains only the files that need to be updated. When I run this package, any file from my application not listed in the updater is deleted. How can I prevent this from happening?

• An updater package should not use the same identifier (CFBundleIdentifier) or name (1) as the package it's supposed to update. Otherwise your updater package will be considered by Installer.app as another version of your package and every file that is not in this package - but was in the previously installed version - will be removed from disk.