Launcher Technical Details. Details of how Market Insight is used with the MI V3 Launcher

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Morgan Glenn
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1 Details of how Market Insight is used with the MI V3 Launcher

2 MI V3 Launcher Overview MI V3 Launcher is the technology used to run Market Insight in most Enterprise installations. Launcher provides the ability to download and run the most up to date version of MI V3 without any further installation required on the user s computer. Launcher can also be tailored to match any specific product branding, allowing desktop shortcuts icons and product names to be modified. MI V3 Launcher is typically used in the following setting. User s Network Discoverer Client Computer Firewall / Proxy Internet Firewall Host Network Load Balancer Web Server(s) The installer file for MI V3 Launcher is held on the Web Server(s). Zip files containing all the files that make up the MI V3 installation are also stored on the Web Server(s) along with the Discoverer.exe.config settings file. The user accesses MI V3 by first downloading the MI V3 Launcher. The user then installs Launcher on their computer which will then automatically run it. A shortcut will also be placed on the desktop and in the Start -> Programs menu so that Launcher can be run on subsequent occasions. When Launcher runs it connects back to the Web Server(s) on the Host Network and finds the MI V3 zip files. If Launcher finds that the zip files on the Web Server(s) are newer than any ones it has previously downloaded it will download them and then run them to Launch MI V3. If the MI V3 zip files on the Web Server(s) are not newer 2

3 than previously downloaded versions Launcher will NOT download the file, instead running the up to date copies it already has. This means that when Launcher is run for the first time it will typically take a few minutes to download the MI V3 zip files before running them. On subsequent runs, it will not need to re-download these files and so will start MI V3 much more quickly. It should be noted that Launcher will always require access to the Web Server(s) as it will need to check the timestamp of the zip files even when they don t need to be downloaded. Launcher is also capable of downloading files through firewalls and proxies on the user s network. If a username and password is required to connect out to the Internet then Launcher will prompt the user. Detailed Process Once Launcher has been installed, it goes through the following steps when it is run. Note: In all examples in this document it will be assumed that the web server URL is and the MI V3 zip files are stored at the URL These examples assume a secure (HTTPS) web server, but the process is very similar for unsecured (HTTP) URLs. For more information on how to install MI V3 on the Web Server, see section 9 of the FastStats Technical Guide. 1) Launcher.exe starts. 2) It reads the proxy information from the user s settings (these are the settings visible from within Internet Explorer). 3) It then goes to open the URL This involves opening a TCP connection on port 443 to the machine and sending an encrypted request for SmartAssembly.xml (as this is done using the secure https protocol). SmartAssembly.xml is a configuration file used to tell Launcher what zip files it needs to download. 4) should then respond using the same connection and send back the contents of the file (again encrypted). 5) Launcher uses this information to then identify what other files it needs (i.e. all the Apteco.*.dlls held in the AptecoAssemblies.zip file) and will go back to to download them as they are required by MI V3 6) Launcher downloads the Discoverer.exe.config file that Discoverer.exe needs to run (again using HTTPS TCP port 443). 7) Then Launcher downloads Discoverer.exe (held in 3

4 8) Launcher then requests certain permissions that Discoverer.exe will need. 9) Launcher then runs Discoverer.exe. This causes the MI V3 splash screen to display. 10) As Discoverer.exe needs other DLLs it asks Launcher to download them. These are all downloaded whilst the splash screen is displayed. 11) Discoverer.exe shows the main window and login screen. From this point on Launcher.exe has finished its work as all the required resources should now have been downloaded. Launcher will, however, download various XML settings files as required by MI V3. These are re-downloaded each time MI V3 is run. Files Required By MI V3 To reiterate, every time that Launcher runs, it checks to see if it has an up to date version of MI V3 downloaded. If it has got an up to date version it simply runs it and doesn t download any further files. If it doesn t have an up to date version (because this is the first time Launcher has run or because the version on has been updated) it will download various zip files. Depending on the configuration in the SmartAssembly.xml file at these zip files will be downloaded to: Data\Apteco\Discoverer\LauncherCacheZipFiles Where %USERPROFILE% will be either: C:\Documents and Settings\<username> on Windows 2000 or XP C:\Users\<username> on Windows Vista. These files are then unzipped into: Data\Apteco\Discoverer\LauncherCache As of the April 2008 release (version ) the file sizes for each of the files download are shown below. 4

5 File Zipped Size (MB) Unzipped Size (MB) ActiproAssemblies.zip AptecoAssemblies.zip ComponentOneAssemblies.zip DataDynamicsAssemblies.zip Discoverer.exe.zip InfragisticsAssemblies.zip NevronAssemblies.zip TOTAL Once MI V3 is running it will also download various settings files, Microsoft Office templates and image files when it needs them. The total size of all settings files required is about 30 KB, the Office template files (required when using the Transfer To Excel/Word/Powerpoint functions) take up about 850 KB (if all of them are used which is unlikely) and the images (branded images in the Help -> About box and in the side panels of the wizards, etc.) take up about 550 KB. When they are used, the Office templates are stored on disk at: Data\Apteco\Discoverer\<systemname> The other files are loaded straight into memory. MI V3 will also download and cache picklists for cacheable (usually non-virtual) selector variables. These are transferred and stored in a zipped file and can vary in size. However, for example, the size of the zipped file for a picklist with approximately 12,000 codes in the demonstration Hols2007 database is 69 KB. These files are downloaded when the variable is used for the first time and stored in the directory: Data\Apteco\Discoverer\<systemname>\<systemdate> Note the fact that the system date is used in this file path; MI V3 will only download these files the first time the variable is used after a system rebuild. Even if MI V3 is closed and reopened it can use the cached file from disk rather than download it again. Troubleshooting Sometimes MI V3 Launcher will not be able to download and launch MI V3 successfully first time. There are various reasons for this, most commonly to do with the user s network setup or local computer security privileges. The following lists some common issues to be aware of. Note that Launcher writes a log file when it runs. This can sometimes provide information to help in diagnosing a problem. The log file is written to the directory: 5

$Data\Apteco\Launcher The filename is of the format launcher-pid-xxxx.log, where XXXX is the Windows process ID of the running Launcher.exe.$

6 Data\Apteco\Launcher The filename is of the format launcher-pid-xxxx.log, where XXXX is the Windows process ID of the running Launcher.exe. This ID can be found using Windows Task Manager, but it is often easiest to find the appropriate log file by viewing the directory in Windows Explorer and ordering the files by the Date Modified. If Launcher can t be installed correctly, check that the user has the appropriate security permissions on their computer. Launcher needs to be installed with administrative permissions. If Launcher starts but then displays an error message it is probably because it can t connect correctly to the host Web Server(s) to download MI V3. Check the following things. o Can the user that is running Launcher view the SmartAssembly.xml file in Internet Explorer? Get the user to browse to An XML document similar to the one shown below should be displayed: o Is the Launcher.exe process allowed to connect to the Internet? It is possible that some local firewall software may be blocking non-authorized processes from connecting to the network. o Does the firewall, proxy or content filter on the user s network allow the download of XML and zip files? Check with the system administrator responsible for the user s network that connections to the Web Server(s) are allowed and that downloads for XML and zip files will be permitted. 6

7 o Some content management software built into the user s network might scan zip files as they are downloaded. If this takes a long time to do then Launcher can time out and report an error. It may be required for the system administrator to add exceptions into the content management software so that zip files coming from the Web Server are not scanned in this way. Usually, information in the Launcher log file and/or information in the firewall, proxy server or content filter on the user s network will contain the details required to fix any problems. 7

Market Insight Launcher. Technical Details of the Market Insight Launcher Mechanism

Market Insight Launcher. Technical Details of the Market Insight Launcher Mechanism Launcher Technical Details of the Market Insight Launcher Mechanism Contents Contents... 2 Overview... 2 Summary Launch Process... 3 Installation... 4 Detailed Launch Process... 5 Version Control... 7