Packaging Adobe Rapid Release Updates With CCP or AAMEE

Recently I was presented with an Adobe Rapid Release update and requested to install it on a handful of computers.  Adobe’s Rapid Release program provides access to betas and hotfixes for Adobe products (as opposed to a rapid release schedule such as Firefox’s).  Rapid Release installers:

• Are newer than the current public release
• Are not publicly available
• May never be released to the public
• Are not visible in Adobe update feeds and therefore are not retrievable with Adobe Application Manager Enterprise Edition (AAMEE), Creative Cloud Packager (CCP), or aamporter

The Rapid Release update was provided on a dmg in a double-clickable “AdobePatchInstaller.app” format, which doesn’t play well with software distribution systems.  Since the Rapid Release update isn’t available through any of the normal channels, I reached out to Adobe_ITToolkit via Twitter and asked what I could do with the update.  The response was:

If it is an update to an existing major version it should work via the Offline media workflow.

The “Offline Media” workflow is generally intended for situations where bandwidth is limited, but in this case it can be used to package updates that would otherwise not be available.  The procedure to package the update:

For AAMEE

• Disconnect the computer where AAMEE is installed from the Internet (see note following step 15 on page 34, which explains that preference will always be given to updates from the Internet)
• Open AAMEE
• Click “New Update Package”
• Give the package a name and a location to be saved
• The check for updates will fail (“The update server is not responding”)–click “Continue”
• Click “Add Update”
• Navigate to the update dmg and click “Open”
• Proceed normally with packaging the update

For CCP

• Open CCP
• Navigate to the point where “Applications & Updates” are offered (there’s so many different workflows to reach this point I doubt I can cover them all)
• Click “Add Offline Media”
• Click the folder icon to browse for the update dmg
• Navigate to the parent folder for the update dmg and click “Open” (No, the dmg is not directly selectable. No, I don’t know why)
• Click “Extract”
• Confirm the desired update appears in the lower portion of the “Add Offline Media” window and is checked
• Click “Done”
• Confirm the desired update appears in the “Applications & Updates” list and is checked (note this may require clicking “Show archived versions”)
• Proceed normally with packaging the update

Then import the AAMEE/CCP pkg into your favorite software distribution system and install.

Thanks to the folks behind the Adobe_ITToolkit Twitter account for pointing me in the right direction.

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