Link File Extensions

[James Zukowski]

I noticed the manual page on Link File Extensions that may help us in future upgrades. We're in the process of a big upgrade from v13 (*nthost/*ntslave) to v17 (SimpleCS), with a server simultaneous upgrade. Having about 100 user PCs across the country, we'd like to minimize the manual intervention needed, at least in the future.

Has anyone used this feature? Does is work well for you? The page also mentions the WindX Connection Manager, with a link to usage instructions, but I don't see how to launch it. Pointers?

Thanks all!

[Devon Austen]

Check out the last section in the documentation you linked to "Invocation". It describes how to launch from a shortcut. If you want to launch it from a program or the command line you can just run the "launcher" program found in the WindX directory. You can also launch it from the IDE, expand the CLient/Server node and select" Launch Workstation"

[Mike King]

James,

There is a write up on the 'Link" files in the online documentation which can be found here.

Another similar solution is if your users are connecting via Simple Client Server or SSH is to provide them a web shortcut which would look something like this:

For Simple CS:
windx://server:scs/4093/program

Or for SSH:
windx://192.168.1.117:ssh/

You can create Windows shortcuts (.url files) for these and have them put it on their desktop.

More information on the windx: link can be found here.

[James Zukowski]

Devon:
Thanks for the clarification. I'm so used to only working with server-side programs, the fact that "launcher" was client-side only didn't click. I've got the Connection Manager running now, though I'm not yet sure how much it will do for us in the future.

Mike:
It's just taken a little time to wrap my head around some of the ways the process works. I've read through it multiple times, but until I actually saw it "in action", I wasn't getting it. With the Connection Manager "connection", I think we've got something that will keep us going.
The web shortcut sounds intriguing, but would require a LOT of additional work on our end to get the registries updated, etc. Going with a desktop shortcut to the .windx file looks like the quickest, easiest, and most direct route.

Thanks, all, for the help!

[Mike King]

James

You don't have to worry about the registry entries -- they get created automatically when a user installs WindX. 

So once they have installed WindX all they need is the URL.

[James Zukowski]

Got it.

Now... about pxplus.ini.

If I set up a .windx file, WindX looks for the pxplus.ini file in that directory, and will create it if it doesn't exist. However, once it actually determines which version of PxPlus to run, it doesn't look like it updates anything that may have been changed (window position, etc.), whether in the .windx file directory, or the ultimate pxplus.exe directory. When we set up a new client PC, we'll need to know where to drop our initial pxplus.ini file and know it will have any updates done properly.

Thanks!

[James Zukowski]

One other thing I'm noticing:

While PxPlus seems to read the pxplus.ini file from the location of the .windx file, icon specification is inconsistent. The shortcut to the .windx file specifies our logo .ico file, which is in the local *lib/bmp folder. That is what we see on the shortcut. It is also what is specified in the pxplus.ini file, which appears on the window caption. However, when we create a dialogue with opt="i", we're getting a PxPlus icon (attached) on the Windows taskbar instead of our logo. Dropping opt="i" puts the correct logo on the caption and the taskbar.

We want to be sure the correct icon shows up whether we include it on the caption or not. Don't want the users confused. Any suggestions/insights?

[James Zukowski]

Has anyone else seen this behavior with icons and .windx link files?