Ignition 8 and client launcher

Ignition
1

What are the developpement about a managable client launcher?

And how should we install the client for a multi-user computer? Do we need to install the client for all users?

Thank you

2

Recent (8.0.10+) versions of the launcher installers have the ability to install the client launchers for all users on Windows, which resolves a lot of the headaches; see the Download and Install section. This eliminates a lot of the headaches.

3

Multi-user client launcher install does simplify things a lot. Users can open different apps from the client launcher and create their own desktop shortcuts, if desired. Note you can’t just create the shortcuts for one user and then copy them to other users. And IIRC, each user will have to go through choosing the server and selecting apps in the client launcher.

4

So if I understand, there is no way to package an installer that will install the launcher, configure an application and put a shortcut for all users?

5

If you run the client launcher installer as an administrator, it should install for all users… then if you just copy the shortcut you create to the shared desktop folder, it should work for all users.

6

What @Kevin.Collins notes works to put a Vision Client Launcher shortcut on each user’s desktop. When I tried it, creating an app shortcut for one of the Vision apps within the Client Launcher and copying it to the shared desktop folder did not work. I didn’t spend any more time on it because this functionality wasn’t important to us, but I’d be interested if there is a way to create the app shortcuts once for everyone on the computer without going through selecting the server and adding apps in the Client Launcher within each profile.

7

Starting in 8.0.15 you will be able to specify the path to the launchers config.json file you wish to use (which can be configured with whatever apps you want). This arg can be included on a shortcut as well, meaning that you can do the following:

  1. Install the launcher for all users (if applicable and on windows, otherwise place it somewhere all users can access)
  2. Configure your applications as necessary (you can optionally lock this configuration in the config JSON if you don’t want users to be able to make changes)
  3. Create a shortcut and add the argument: config.json=/path/to/config.json (make sure all paths referenced in the shortcut link are absolute and the user can reach all locations)

Hope that helps,
Jonathan C

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8

Not directly no, I wanted the same functionality and do not use the native Inductive installer, but built my own installer using InnoScript. I then give this package to our corporate IT guys and they push it to hundreds of systems. If you read the docs, there are a lot of hooks and options to bundle and pre-configure the launcher, I just took it one step further and wrapped it in an installer. Right now, we add it to the Start Menu for all users with a link to the launcher and web links to Perspective apps.

Happy to share more details if you need it.

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9

I like this idea.
What did you put in the package exactly?

10

The package has the jre, visionclientlauncher.exe, json config files, and icons.

The installer installs for all users and uses a common config file for all users so apps are pre-configured in the launcher for anyone that logs in. It really doesn’t do much different than the Inductive installer beyond add in our custom config and use some different folder locations that our IT guys prefer.

image

; Ignition Client Launcher Installer
; Inno Setup Script

[Setup]
AppId=XXX
AppName=Ignition Launcher
AppVersion=8.0.14.0
OutputBaseFilename=Ignition Launcher 8.0.14.0
DefaultDirName={commonappdata}\Ignition Vision Client Launcher
DefaultGroupName=Ignition Applications
DisableProgramGroupPage=yes
Compression=lzma
SolidCompression=yes
DisableWelcomePage=True
UsePreviousAppDir=False
DisableDirPage=yes
ArchitecturesInstallIn64BitMode=x64
AlwaysShowDirOnReadyPage=True
OutputDir=installer


[Tasks]
Name: "desktopicon"; Description: "{cm:CreateDesktopIcon}"; GroupDescription: "{cm:AdditionalIcons}"; Flags: unchecked
Name: "default"; Description: "Default Configuration"; GroupDescription: "Config"; Flags: exclusive

[InstallDelete]

[Files]
; Ignition 8 Launcher Files
Source: "visionclientlauncher.exe"; DestDir: "{app}"; DestName: "visionclientlauncher.exe"; Flags: ignoreversion touch
Source: "jre\*"; DestDir: "{app}\jre"; Flags: ignoreversion createallsubdirs recursesubdirs
Source: "vision-client-launcher.json"; DestDir: "{app}\clientlauncher-data"; DestName: "vision-client-launcher.json"; Flags: ignoreversion touch; 

; Certificates
Source: "custom.cer"; DestDir: "{app}\clientlauncher-data\certificates"; DestName: "custom.cer"; Flags: ignoreversion

; Icon files
Source: "perspective.ico"; DestDir: "{app}"; DestName: "perspective.ico"; Flags: ignoreversion

[Icons]
Name: "{commonprograms}\Ignition\Ignition Vision Client Launcher"; Filename: "{app}\visionclientlauncher.exe"
Name: "{commondesktop}\Ignition Vision Client Launcher"; Filename: "{app}\visionclientlauncher.exe"; Tasks: desktopicon
Name: "{commonprograms}\Ignition\Ignition Web Applications"; Filename: "https://ignitiongateway/"; IconFilename: "{app}\perspective.ico"; 

[Dirs]
Name: "{app}\clientlauncher-data"; Permissions: authusers-modify
Name: "{app}\jre"; Permissions: authusers-modify
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