Deploying standard viewer settings

By default, the configuration settings (font paths, pen widths, default view, and so on) that are used by the viewer are modified and stored on each user's computer. This gives users much flexibility to configure the viewer for their own preferences. However, many of the settings should typically be the same for all users, such as font paths. Meridian provides a feature for updating client computers that can be used to deploy standard viewer settings. The feature can be used similar to how client computers can be automatically upgraded as described in Upgrading Meridian client computers automatically.

When a Meridian client computer starts, the program AMUpdateU.exe runs and reads the file AMUpdate.ini, if found on the Meridian server. The file does not exist by default. For each item found in AMUpdate.ini, the program looks for a corresponding registry value in the following key on the client computer to determine if the item has been installed already or if the installation failed.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\Update

Note    By default, AMUpdateU.exe first looks for AMUpdate.ini in the location specified by the SharedFolder registry value described in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cyco\AutoManager Meridian\CurrentVersion\Server. If that location does not exist, AMUpdateU.exe then looks for the file on the server where the vault resides that was last opened.

If the item is new or failed, its corresponding command line is executed to update the client computer. The command line that is executed should create or update the DWORD value named ExitCode in the preceding registry key and set it to 0, indicating success. The next time that the client computer is started, AMUpdateU.exe will find the ExitCode value and not run the same command line. If the value is missing or is set to a value greater than 0, AMUpdateU.exe interprets the value as failure of the command line and executes it again, for example, in case the user did not have sufficient privileges or an intermediate error occurred.

To deploy standard viewer settings:

1. In Meridian running on any client computer, configure the viewer settings that you want to deploy as standard settings. The viewer settings are stored in the file C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\Cyco\AutoManager View Control2\avx.ini.
2. Copy the settings files to the Meridian extensions folder on the server. By default, this folder is located at C:\BC-Meridian Extensions.
3. In the Meridian extensions folder on the Meridian application server, create a batch file to copy the settings files to the client computers as in the following example:

COPY avx.ini C:\Users\%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Cyco\AutoManager View Control2

4. In the Meridian extensions folder on the Meridian application server, edit the text file named AMUpdate.ini. If the file does not exist already, create it with your favorite text editor.
5. Add a line to the file similar to the following in the AutoManager Meridian section. If you are creating the file anew, add the section name as shown in the example:

[AutoManager Meridian]
ViewerSettingsUpdate=<BatchFileName>

Where <BatchFileName> is the name of the batch file that you created. The name on the left side of the expression can be anything that you want.

Notes

• For the process to succeed, the client computer’s user must have privileges to copy the file and to modify the computer’s registry. For example, it must be a member of the computer’s Administrators group. If this does not comply with your security policy, consider providing the users the privilege on a temporary basis or deploying the file using a different program.
• Additional viewer settings are stored in the Windows registry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cyco\AutoManager View Control2. To deploy these settings, the batch file that you create can add the settings to the client computer registry using Registry Editor and an export of a preconfigured registry key.