There are several versions of Plesk for different operating systems, that is why Plesk supports several formats of installation packages of third-party applications. The basic formats of the installation package for Plesk for Unix are RPM packages and the executable shell-script. The main format for Plesk for Windows is a tar- archive. Of course, not every file of the listed types of files can be a correct installation package of an application for Plesk. Besides the listed requirements, the file should meet several other requirements connected with the name and internal structure. Later on, we'll call the packages that meet all the requirements as install-packages.

Let's list the main requirements for the install-package:

The name, version and the release of the install-package must coincide with the name, version and the release of the application packed inside of it. Thus, one install-package must contain only one application.

The internal structure of the files and directories of the application must correspond to the structure, described in the Repository chapter.

The package must definitely include the info.xml file containing the package info (a more detailed description of the info.xml file is given here).

In the RPM presentation the files for the repository must be located so that they could be unpacked in the necessary directories without additional movements.

The root directory of the repository must be indicated to the installation package as a prefix. For an RPM package this can be done with the help of the --prefix option in the rpm command line. Other types of packages must read the --prefix=< repository root directory > option in case of a self unpacked file, and in any case must contain functionality on the automatic identification of the repository directory.

Notes on the access permissions to the files and directories:

• After the package is installed in the repository, all files and directories must belong to the user root and the group root;
• The forms files, archives with main files and documentation must have -r--r--r-- (0444) access permissions; 
• Installation script must have a -r-xr-xr-x (0555) access permissions;
• Access permissions for directories must be -rwxr-xr-x (0755).

Note: For packages in the tar- format, all files and directories of the application must be located inside of the directory with the name that coincides with the name, version and the release of the application. For example, the localweather-2.0-1.tar package must have the following internal structure:

/localweather-2.0-1   /apps      httpdocs-files.tar   /docs      index.en.html  //locale standard for Plesk 7.1 and lower versions      index.en-US.html //locale standard for Plesk 7.5 and higher versions   /forms      installer-form-1.php      installer-handler-1.php      reconfigure-form-1.php      reconfigure-handler-1.php   /info      info.xml   /scripts      postinstall

Thus, after the install-package is installed in Plesk, the following hierarchy must be formed in the file system:

<plesk_root_dir>/var/cgitory/localweather-2.0-1    /apps       httpdocs-files.tar    /docs       index.en.html //locale standard for Plesk 7.1 and lower versions       index.en-US.html   //locale standard for Plesk 7.5 and higher versions    /forms       installer-form-1.php       installer-handler-1.php       reconfigure-form-1.php       reconfigure-handler-1.php    /info       info.xml    /scripts       postinstall

Here <plesk_root_dir> is the path in the file system to the directory with the installed Plesk system.