Central Management of Spark Client Configuration Settings?

Openfire Openfire Support
1

Hi.

Is there a way to manage the configuration settings of the Spark [Windows] desktop clients remotely from a central location?

For instance…

  1. force them all to have the ‘Group offline users’ option in the ‘Contacts’ menu unchecked

  2. automatically set ‘Chat’, ‘Login’, ‘File Transfer’, ‘Sounds’, ‘Appearance’ and ‘Notifications’ options in the ‘Preferences’ window

…etc

Thanks.

steven

2

:bump:
Sorry if this has already been discussed, but does anyone have any ideas in this area?

3

Hi Steven,

There is no built in way to do what you’re looking for. You could certainly build an Openfire/Spark plugin combo that would allow for such a thing but that would create its own set of challenges as I mentioned in a previous post here.

Cheers,

Ryan

4

Hi Ryan.
Thanks for the help. However, it seems like either I’m not understanding what that thread was about or you’re not understanding what I’m asking here in this thread.

I don’t see how it relates.

I wasn’t asking about any plugins.

Clarification?

5

Hi Steve,

Sorry if my previous post was not clear. To clarify:

  • There is no built-in way to do what you’re looking for.

  • It would be possible to develop a Openfire/Spark plugin combination that would allow you to do what you’re looking for.

  • Developing an Openfire/Spark plugin combination would only get you so far because you’d still have to manually deploy the Spark plugin to all of your users Spark installations.

I hope that makes sense.

-Ryan

6

Actually he understood you perfectly. You would need to pay or build yourself a set of plugins for spark and openfire, that will do this function. You would then need a way to distribute the spark plugin as there is no built in way for this to be done.

7

OK, cool.
Thanks, guys. So, is there a way to ‘capture’ the settings of a Spark installation after making the desired configuration changes, and then ‘import’ (or whatever) those settings into another installation of Spark elsewhere?

8

definitely. the settings are contained in the spark.properties file found in each user’s spark folder in their profile folder. You could use AD to push a config file via a login script. you can also use the login script to set the file to read only.

9

Hey, this just might work.
So, can I use wild cards in the ‘downloadDirectory=’ field?

There may be others, but that’s the only one I noticed right off the bat that might not work unless it can use wildcards, such as environment variables like %username%, etc.

Of course, I could just test it, but do you know off the top of your head?

10

smb wild cards are not supported

11

So, what to do with the ‘downloadDirectory=’ field then?

12

leave it blank. It will default to their spark settings folder.

13

Ok, cool.
That’ll work. Thanks.

One more thing…I don’t think it will be practical for me to maintain a read-only file within everyone’s user profile (which they are specifically supposed to have full-control of in order for Windows user profiles to operate optimally in all situations). So, then I guess I will just have to leave the logon script to replace that config file on every logon; just to make sure it’s always set the way I want it.

Other than offering to add this feature into the code of Openfire/Spark or create a plugin for me (), any other thoughts on this?

14

If you do not flag it as read only then yes just replace it at each login. the read only flag will prevent changes even during a session.

15

I tried it the way you suggested, but it defaults to the Spark installation folder…not wise.

So, I’m thinking of doing this in a logon script…

md “C:\Documents and Settings%username%\My_Spark”
(if it’s not there yet, it will create it…if it is, who cares)

md “C:\Documents and Settings%username%\My_Spark\File_Transfers”
(if it’s not there yet, it will create it…if it is, who cares)

copy /Y “\ServerName\Share\Folder\Folder\Spark\PropCfg%username%” “C:\Documents and Settings%username%\Spark\spark.properties”
(this will overwrite the props file at each logon)

I just tried it and it all works, but it means that I must maintain a bunch of config (spark.properties) files.

Any other ideas on how to get this done?

16

My default file does not even have a line for the downloads location.:

#Spark Settings
#Thu Jun 14 08:53:41 EDT 2007
tabsOnTop=true
checkForBeta=false
startOnStartup=true
lastUpdateCheck=1181825621357
defaultChatLengthTimeout=15
useSystemLookAndFeel=true
notifyOnOffline=false
offlineGroupVisible=true
idleTime=3
emoticonPack=Default
compressionOn=false
protocol=SOCKS
xmppPort=5222
sslEnabled=false
autoLoginEnabled=true
notifyOnOnline=false
chatNotificationOn=true
idleOn=true
spellCheckerEnabled=true
passwordSaved=false
resource=spark
startHidden=true
showHistory=false
toasterPopup=false
password=
username=
ssoEnabled=false
hostAndPort=false
server=server.domain.com
showEmptyGroups=false
contactListFontSize=11
buzzEnabled=true
xmppHost=
chatRoomFontSize=12
emoticonsEnabled=true
timeout=10
proxyEnabled=false
fileTransferTimeout=1
windowTakesFocus=false
debuggerEnabled=false
timeDisplayed=false

17

OK, cool.
Why are you mentioning that?

18

because mine defaults to the spark folder in each user’s profile when they run it the first time. since that line is not there it assume the default location.

19

It seems like on mine it defaults to the application installation folder (i.e. c:\program files\spark) instead of the user’s profile folder.

Are you sure about where yours defaults to (I know…stupid question coming from one like me)?

20

Positive. I used AD to install the app remotely on all computers (200+) and a sample of the systems shows they are using the profile folder.