Ok, first let me say that I run Spark and Openfire on my company network and it works perfectly. But, naturally when you deploy any application to users you run into unforseen problems, and this is what brought me to post today.
Problem 1
Users can close out of Spark completely. Is there any way to make it so that a user can’t close Spark? I have it set so that they will appear as away when they aren’t there, and I also have it set so that it starts when the user logs in but some users refuse to use Spark and will close it. I want to stop this from happening so that they are forced to be on so that others can message them.
Problem 2
I’m in an Active Direcotry setup and deployed my customized Spark build through AD. If I make changes to my customized Spark build how can I update what I have already deployed?
There is no way to make it that spark cannot be quit. You can however deploy a scheduled task that will start spark on a repeating schedule so if they do quit it, it will relaunch at a set interval. The use of sigle sign on with AD will allow you to autolaunch spark and autosignin.
As for the deployment issue if you use AD group policy you need only do a new software install. Spark will replace itself.
Thanks for the quick reply, just a couple of more questions to make sure I understand?
Ok, I already have Spark doing auto launch and single sign on - that works great, how do I make it so that if they close out the application it will restart?
So for the software install I just need to do a whole new policy and delete the old one and replace it with the new one and it will replace the old version when installed?
Since the Spark client doesn’t have a service controlling the runtime, when the user closes it- that’s it, it’s gone. Now, you can get creative with a tool called Auto IT, google search autoit script, and install this piece of software.
Auto IT will let you create a program, hidden from the user that performs the task you’re looking for:
check process list for spark.exe and if it is not found, run it via a command line
if you are interested, I could even throw together a quick little program in auto it, give you the source and you can change / compile to your liking.
for #2, if you are using active directory you can do one of 2 things, either write a logon script and apply it to the requested users. or create an msi and then deploy with group policy, and then update the msi and apply it with GP for updates. we do this right now. with certain msi software you can create msi files that are updateable, meaning if you change the version number and rebuild it will update an already installed package. works like a champ for us.