Silent install and configuration of client

[Geert Bellekens]

@Geert,

I just tried again.
When an ssks server is specified in the ini file, no matter if you change it in the interface, when you restart EA it gets back the one from ini file.

That makes sense.
If you change the license server in the GUI, it get written to the registry.
And since the ini has preference over the registry, the registry entry gets ignored.

Geert

[Uffe]

When an ssks server is specified in the ini file, no matter if you change it in the interface, when you restart EA it gets back the one from ini file.

That's what it's supposed to do. If the file exists, it reads it and its settings override what might be in the registry.
(Says the guy who learned about this mechanism literally five minutes ago.    )

So to change anything you have to modify the file that you've installed on all users' machines.

[Geert Bellekens]

If you put a file with the name ea.ini in EA's program files folder, you can use that to set a number of things such as the license server details.

Really? I had no idea. 
I was looking in the deployment white paper, where there is of course no mention of this mechanism.

But it has been around since at least 13.0 as I can now see, although I'd still classify it as a hack. Officially supported, but a hack.
And it's not "zero configuration" if you have to create a configuration file and add it to your installation. 

I would definitely not call it "zero configuration", but for my use case (remote desktop setup) is was a practical way of setting thing up for everyone.

Geert

[Uffe]

Put another way, ea.ini allows you to control certain settings so the user can't change them.

But if you want to provide some initial settings and then allow users to change them, ea.ini doesn't work.

[Eve]

And it's not "zero configuration" if you have to create a configuration file and add it to your installation. 

Zero configuration for each client, when run from a shared folder.

Put another way, ea.ini allows you to control certain settings so the user can't change them.

But if you want to provide some initial settings and then allow users to change them, ea.ini doesn't work.

There's an example of how to do that in the help.

https://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/15.1/product_information/zero_config_support.html

Defaults can be configured by placing them after a registry key of the form "INIFILE_VERSION"=dword:00000043; these will only be executed when the existing value for this user is not the same value as the one in the file

first time this example is run it checks out an Ultimate key, but allows the user to request a different key on subsequent logins.

Code: [Select]

"JET4"=dword:00000001
 "SKT"=dword:00000001
 "SSKSAddress"="ssks://licenseserver"
 "SSKSPassword"=""
 "INIFILE_VERSION"=dword:00000043
 "AutoCheckoutEx"=hex:1a,00,00,00

[Typia]

Hi Eve,
thanks for your reply.
We already use the ini file in our sccm deployment.
Problem is that users still have to input the activation key on install, which confuses them because in previous version they didn't have to make it.
It's impacting because we have to set up a wide communication to give them the activation key, and obviously we receive mails from users who don't read communications ..

And it's not "zero configuration" if you have to create a configuration file and add it to your installation. 

Zero configuration for each client, when run from a shared folder.

Put another way, ea.ini allows you to control certain settings so the user can't change them.

But if you want to provide some initial settings and then allow users to change them, ea.ini doesn't work.

There's an example of how to do that in the help.

https://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/15.1/product_information/zero_config_support.html

Defaults can be configured by placing them after a registry key of the form "INIFILE_VERSION"=dword:00000043; these will only be executed when the existing value for this user is not the same value as the one in the file

first time this example is run it checks out an Ultimate key, but allows the user to request a different key on subsequent logins.

Code: [Select]

"JET4"=dword:00000001
 "SKT"=dword:00000001
 "SSKSAddress"="ssks://licenseserver"
 "SSKSPassword"=""
 "INIFILE_VERSION"=dword:00000043
 "AutoCheckoutEx"=hex:1a,00,00,00