SoftGrid - Importing An Application How To

April 22, 2007

So now that you have successfully sequenced an application, now what the heck do you do with it? The very short answer is you import it. But what would be the point of this post if I didn't explain it? So to start I will cover the console and then walk through the process of getting the application to actually work for your clients.

The Console - A Brief Explanation

I am going to assume you can already connect to the console on your SoftGrid server and not cover that. On the left is the tree view with the details pane on the right, just like every other MMC, if you are using v4 or greater you will also get the actions pane on the far right because MMC 3 is a prerequisite. The left tree view has several containers explained below - briefly.

From the top…

Applications - This is where applications are stored when you publish them to users, if you don't see it here, your users won't see it. You can also change the properties of applications here.

File Type Associations - This is pretty self explanatory, applications that you import list their file associations here. This information is stored in the OSD file when you sequence and added this container as you import the applications. You can also add your own or alter them if you like, say for PDF files you want to associate FoxIt Reader instead of Acrobat, this is where you would make that change.

Packages - This is for versioning of applications, new to v4 also. If you upgrade a package it will display in here.

Application Licenses - This is for licensing compliance.

Server Groups - This is for organization of your servers, kind of like grouping DP's.

Provider Policies - You can set specific rules for the SG users, when they connect at log on they will check these rules and apply them. This is like Application Licenses, too deep for this article.

Account Authorities - This is where you would modify how users are authenticated as they connect, again too deep for this article.

SoftGrid Administrators - This reflects the group you specified during the server install, if you want to modify the SG admin group, here is where you should do it.

Reports - Much like SMS, these are reports for SG, unlike SMS, they use Crystal Reports.

Importing An Application

On your SG server you should have created an Content directory in the root of C. You should have also copied the folder that we saved to the desktop on our sequencing machine to that same directory. Assuming this is all true in the admin console right click on the Applications container and select Import Application. Now point to the sub-folder where you copied the sequenced application, in that folder select your project file (spjr). Because my application has more than one program I cannot modify the icon source or OSD path. The Description should be filled out, the enabled box checked, and the Server Group selected (Default Server Group). Once you click Next, no need to modify the shortcuts, you had plenty of chances to do this before, click Next. The next window is the Access Permissions window, click Add and then specify the group you want to have access to this application, I am going to use Domain Users, you should setup a Security Group prior for your application and name it to match your app, and then add groups to it, don't use Domain Users as it will be EVERYONE that has an account. After you have selected your group(s) click Next. We are now presented with a Summary window that lists the Packages properties that we are going to import, you should check these to make sure you have set everything correctly, at least until you become an expert and then you can skip it like you are used to.

To kick off the import click the Finish button.

General Information Shortcuts Summary

I created an Application Group called Adobe Reader 8 to keep my console nice and neat, I didn't cover this but I have every confidence you can figure it out if you need to do it.

Under the Packages container you should find a new package, if you view the properties of it you can see the version number, the relative path to the sft file, date added, and version GUID.

For all intents and purposes you have completed the importing of an application and all things in the world should be in alignment. You should verify that it is actually working by going to one of your SG clients, kick off a refresh, and then see the shortcuts, then launch the application as it gets downloaded into the cache for first launch (FB1).

In case you are not following along with your own SoftGrid test lab here is a shortened copy of the OSD file from sequencing Acrobat Reader 8 for your reference. You can see it is a simple, straight forward, XML file. Emphasis is mine to point out some of the areas you may want to familiarize yourself with. Note: The blog editor I use doesn't support formatting very well so the indentation is not compliant with XML format.

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?>

<SOFTPKG GUID="D55A2473-1D96-4319-BD48-CE488814F3DF" NAME="Adobe_Reader_8" VERSION="8.0.0.456">

<OS VALUE="Win2003Svr"/>

<OS VALUE="WinVista"/>

<OS VALUE="WinXP"/>

</VIRTUALENV>

</VM>

</IMPLEMENTATION>

<CLIENTVERSION VERSION="3.1.2.2"/>

</DEPENDENCY>

<SUITE NAME="Acrobat8"/>

<TITLE>Anthony Clendenen</TITLE>