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IT Services STANFORD DESKTOP TOOLS (SDT) XML EDITOR

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Overview Stanford Desktop Tools reads from a specially formatted XML file that defines what software is available for installation and upgrade. This file can be created or modified by using the SDT XML Editor.

Program Start When you start the SDT XML editor you are presented with an empty input form:


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Your choices are to create a new XML file (menu: File + New), edit an existing XML file (menu: File + Open), download an XML file from the web (menu: File + Download), and backup an existing XML file.

Since this is a pretty complicated program, this documentation will cover all of the program elements in detail, and then walk though a few example scenarios. When discussing the program details, we will use an actual Windows SDT XML file for all of the examples.


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Program window immediately after opening an existing XML file on a local drive


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SDT Program Elements In this section we will describe all of the user interface input elements that allow you to define the attributes that SDT will use to display the program to the user, and that it needs to successfully install or update the program.

Settings List

All of the programs that are currently defined in the SDT XML file will be displayed here. You can move from one program to another by selecting different items from this list. Once you have selected a program, the form will display all of the attributes associated with that program.

General Section Clicking on an item in the list will expand its property list sections and display the General Section.


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Program Boolean Attributes

These check boxes let you define a number of things about how the program will be displayed and installed.


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Recommended ‐ This identifies a program as important and that the user should be subscribed to it by default.

Require Admin ‐ If checked, the user may either need to enter an administrator user ID and password to install the program and/or elevate privileges on Vista.

Can Be Batched ‐ If this is checked, then the installs will be run in the background as a group. If it is unchecked, then each install is done individually (with individual authentication requests if "Require Admin" is checked) and may require user input. This feature has not yet been implemented. It is included for compatibility with future versions of SDT which will support batched installs.

Urgent ‐ If this is checked and the user needs to upgrade the program, the notification area

(Windows) or Dock (Mac) will display the urgent icon:

Upgrade Only ‐ If this is checked, the user will not see the program in the list of available programs in the SDT subscription list unless they have already installed the program.

Reboot ‐ This indicates that the machine must be rebooted after the program is installed or upgraded. If more than one application is installed (See "Can Be Batched" above), the user will receive a prompt to reboot the computer at the end of the installs if one or more of the applications installed require a reboot.

Shut Down SDT ‐ This will cause SDT to run the program installer, then immediately quit.

Adhoc ‐ This identifies an installer as an "adhoc installer" or “one time only installer”. Adhocs are different from other programs in that they only run once, and then are removed from the SDT user interface when they have run successfully.

WebAuth ‐ If checked, the user must be logged on to the Stanford Kerberos realm for the program to be installed. If the user is not logged on to Kerberos, they will be presented with a Kerberos login prompt (Windows requires that KFW be installed for this to happen) before the program is installed. This feature has not yet been implemented. It is included for compatibility with future versions of SDT.

Launch URL ‐ If this is unchecked, SDT will download the program installer and launch it when the user selects to install or upgrade the program. If it is checked, then the user is directed to a web page when they select to install or upgrade the program.

Self‐Update Method ‐ This check box is disabled and always checked. It is a legacy (pre‐SDT 2.0) setting and will be removed in later versions of the SDT XML Editor.

Description


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This is the text that will appear in the SDT "My Software Subscriptions" "Program Name" column:

Program Details

This is where you can enter the text that will be displayed in the SDT program help display box:

Program Help URL

Enter a URL here that will take the user to a web page that provides information about the program. The web page specified here will be loaded in the user's default web browser when the click on the "Click here to learn more about..." link. You can click on the "Launch" button to test the url.


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Dependencies Section

If the selected program requires that another program be installed and up‐to‐date, before the selected program is installed or updated, specify those programs in this section. Select a program from the "Current Apps" list and click on the "Add >>" button to add it as a dependency. It will then appear in the "Dependencies list.


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Installer Details Section

Current Version

Enter the program version that will be installed here. You can get the program version number from a program executable by clicking on the "Get From File..." button and browsing to the application binary (or bundle in OSX).

Installer URL

Enter the URL to the program installer (if "Launch URL" is unchecked) or the web page that the user will be directed to (if "Launch URL" is checked) when they choose to install or upgrade the program. You can click on the "Validate and Get Size" button to verify that the URL that you typed is correct.


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Installer Size (Bytes)

If "Launch URL" is unchecked, enter the size of the installer here. SDT will use this to determine if the file is successfully downloaded. It will download the file to a temporary directory, compare the size of the installer in the temporary directory with this number and if they are different, display an error message. If the sizes match, SDT will launch the installer.

Installer Parameters

If the installer requires command line parameters, enter those parameters here. Whenever possible, installers should run in silent mode. Most DSG installers support the /SuseiNoUI and /ReallySilent command line parameters to run a silent install.

Installer Success

Some installers will print either error or success messages to standard output at the end of the install process. If a successful install results in no output, leave this blank. If a successful install results in some text that is printed to standard output, place that text here. Note that the text entered here is not case sensitive, and does not need to be exact. For example, if you entered "Success" here and the installer printed "The install was successful" to standard output, SDT would see a match and act as if the install succeeded. However, be careful to be as specific as possible because some output text could be misinterpreted by SDT. For example if you specified "Success" here, and the installer printed "Not successful" to standard output, SDT would assume that the install succeeded because the text "success" appears in the text " Not successful ".


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Program Limits Section

Minimum OS Ver and Maximum OS Ver

If you want to limit the program settings to a specific version of Windows you can enter the range using these two input boxes. Examples:

Limit to all Windows versions up to XP:

Min OS Ver MaxOS Ver 5.9.999

Limit to all Windows versions to Vista:

Min OS Ver MaxOS Ver 6.0.0 6.9.999


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Limit to all Windows versions up to Vista and up:

Min OS Ver MaxOS Ver 6.0.0

Limit to all OSX versions to Tiger:

Min OS Ver MaxOS Ver 10.4.00 10.4.999

Leave these blank to apply to all operating systems.

Minimum SDT Ver and Maximum SDT Ver

If the installer requires a feature that only exists in a specific version of SDT, you can limit it to that version by entering SDT versions in these two text boxes.

Platform (Windows only)

You can limit the program to 32 bit systems, 64 bit systems, or allow it to be displayed in all platforms, by selecting "32 Bit", "64 Bit", or "All" from this dropdown box.


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Standard Location Tags

Upgrade Apps Section

If "Upgrade Only" is checked, you can enter one or more programs (Windows or Mac), or registry entries (Windows only) here. SDT will not display the program in the user interface unless one or more of the entries here is found on the user's computer. Multiple entries are separated by the pipe ("|") character. All Windows Registry entries are assumed to exist in the HKEY_LOCAL _MACHINE hive. Examples:

Look for HKLM\Software\TheCompany\TheProduct, HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\TheProduct, and C:\Program Files\TheCompany\TheProduct\TheProduct.exe:

Software\TheCompany\TheProduct|Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\TheProduct| %Applications% \TheCompany\TheProduct\TheProduct.exe

Note that "%Applications%" is used to refer to " C:\Program Files " to allow for paths that may be different to the active operating system. See the " " section for details.

The "Edit..." button displays a helper window that you can use to build the string that will appear here.


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Registry Version Keys Section (Windows only)

SDT will use this string (and the "MSI Version Registry Keys" field if it contains text) to determine the version of the program that is currently installed on the user's system. The text here is either three or four elements separated by the pipe ("|") character. The elements are:

Position in String Element 1 The registry hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, HKEY_CURRENT_USER,

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG, HKEY_DYN_DATA, HKEY_PERFORMANCE_DATA, or HKEY_USERS

2 The registry key (i.e. "SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion") 3 The Registry Item (i.e. " CommonFilesDir") 4 (optional) A File Name

Example #1 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\firefox.exe| Path|firefox.exe

In this example, SDT would look in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\firefox.exe registry path for a value called Path. If the value exists, SDT will read the contents, append "firefox.exe" to the path, and get the version number from the file.


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Example #2 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE|SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox|CurrentVersion

In this example, SDT would look in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Mozilla\Mozilla Firefox registry path for a value called "CurrentVersion". If the value exists, SDT will use its contents as the currently installed program version number.

Use the entry items to build the string:

MSI Product GUIDS Section

Enter the GUID or GUIDS (separated by the pipe character) for the MSI product keys of the installed application. SDT will search the HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall


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registry key for a sub‐key that is named the GUIDs specified here. It will read the “DisplayVersion” number from the key if it is found.

The "Edit..." button displays a helper window that you can use to build the string that will appear here.

Toolbar

The toolbar allows you to perform some common functions by clicking on the icons in the toolbar display.

Open Opens an XML file from disk.

Save Saves the settings to the XML file.

Add Adds a new program to the XML file. You must enter a new name (which must be unique) in the "Current Program" text box before clicking on Add.

Delete Deletes the current program from the XML file. You will be asked for confirmation before the program is deleted.

Comments Displays what comments will be added to the XML file when you save it. The SDT XML Editor tries to identify who made the changes )user, computer, etc) and writes that to the beginning of the XML file.


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Diffs

Each time an SDT XML file is uploaded to a channel, the SDT XML Editor saves a backup of the previous XML file in a directory under the selected channel's xml directory called "Backups". This is done so you can recover from a mistake, by restoring a previous version, and to provide an audit trail for all XML file changes. When you click on the Diffs toolbar icon, the SDT XML Editor gets a list of all of the backup XML files from the selected channel, and displays them in the window above. You can then select one or more files to compare from this window. If "Compare to Active File" check box is checked, you can select one file from the file list. The program will compare this file to the file that is currently active in that channel. If "Compare to Active File" check box is unchecked, you can select two files from the file list and the program will compare those. When the comparison is complete, both files will be displayed in a window where you can browse the differences:


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The differences will be highlighted in yellow. You can move from difference to difference, by clicking on the "<‐ Last Diff" and "Next Diff ‐>" buttons.

Exit Quits the program. If you have made changes that you have not saved, you will be asked for confirmation before the program ends.

Menu Items

File

Backup XML File in the <The Channel That you are Tuned to> Channel This will back up the XML file that is currently active in AFS for the channel that you are currently subscribed to. You must have OpenAFS installed and have write access to the AFS backup directory for this to work properly.

New Creates a new, empty SDT XML File.

Open Opens an existing XML file. This will display a standard file browser window that will let you navigate to select the file.


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Open Recent Quickly opens a file that has previously been opened (not downloaded).

Save Saves the current file.

Save As... Saves the current file with a new name, or to a new location.

Exit Quits the program.

Edit

Support Apps XML File... SDT uses a helper app (sdthelper.exe on Windows, and sdthelper on OSX) to perform authentication, privilege elevation (Vista), and batch installs. The location of that file, its size, and its version number are recorded in a file called esd_macsupport.xml for OSX and esd_pcsupport.xml for Windows. For SDT to work properly, this XML file must point to the latest helper file. Choosing this menu item will display a window that will allow you to change all of the helper properties:

You can use the "Validate and Get Size" button to make sure that you have entered the correct url and other details.

AFS Paths... View the channel paths as currently defined. See the toolbar item for more info.

All of the usual edit menu stuff All of the Edit menu functions that you are used to.

View

Current XML Comments View the comments from the currently loaded XML file.

Raw XML File... Open the currently loaded XML file in your default XML/Text editor.


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XML Diffs... View the differences between XML files. See the toolbar item for more info.

Standard Location Tags When specifying file paths in the SDT XML Editor, you can use variables to specify paths that may be different on different operating systems.

"%SYSTEM%" ‐ The System Directory. Mac Example: /Volumes/StartupVolume/System Windows Example: C:\Windows\System32

"%USER_PREFERENCES%" ‐ The User's preferences directory. Mac Example: /Users/UserName/Library/Preferences Windows Example: C:\Users\UserName\Application Data

"%SYSTEM_PREFERENCES%" ‐ The System Preferences directory. Mac Example: /Library/ Preferences Windows Example: C:\All Users\Application Data

"%USERPROFILE%" The logged on user's profile directory. Mac example: /Users/UserName Windows example: C:\Users\UserName

"%USERPROFILES%" ‐ The User Profile directory. Mac example: /Users Windows example: C:\Users

"%Installers%" ‐ SDT downloads the installers to this directory.

"%AppData%" The user Application Support folder (Mac Only). Example: /Users/UserName/Library/Application Support

"%Applications%" ‐ The directory that contains applications. Mac Example: /Volumes/StartupVolume/Applications Windows Example: C:\Program Files

"%Desktop%" ‐ The user's Desktop. Mac Example: /Users/UserName/Desktop Windows Example: C:\Users\UserName\Desktop

"%Temp%" ‐ The Temporary directory. Mac Example: /private/tmp/501 Windows Example: C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\ Local Settings\Temp

"%Volumes%" ‐ The Volumes directory (Mac only). Example: /Volumes