[wpkg-users] /sendStatus command not working

[Rainer Meier]

Hi Peter,

On 05.02.2010 01:34, Peter Gough wrote:
> I just wondered if you couid confirm what your users see on the screen
> when the workstation is shutting down. I've never been able to get
> anything to display apart from the alternating status messages despite
> trying to set this up as you have described.
> 
> I've got this set in the Client's WPKG parameters:
> 
> /synchronize /nonotify /quiet
> 
> I've got the WPKG user interface dialog box unticked and I've set
> sendStatus value in the config.xml file on my server to 'true'.
> 
> Any thoughts?

First a few words for better understanding. WPKG is split into a "Server" and a
"Client" Part. The Server-Part is implemented in wpkg.js. Well, actually it's
not a real server but rather a script executed on the client. The Client part is
"WPKG Client" which just executes wpkg.js depending on your settings. WPKG
Client is optional and you might also invoke wpkg.js using any other method.
However WPKG Client offers a couple of nice features like running wpkg.js at
startup/shutdown or blocking user input during wpkg.js execution.

Such features need to be implemented on a quite low level in the operating
system. Currently logon delay only works on Windows prior to Vista. The logon
delay feature allows you to display messages (alternating) to the user.

It was intended to extend this static message display into a dynamic status
update shown to the user. However there are a couple of technical limitations.
First of all wpkg.js will have to communicate with WPKG client in order to
update the status displayed to the user. Remember: wpkg.js executes the job and
WPKG client prevents user input and displays messages.
Unfortunately IPC technologies are quite limited from WSH/JScript. So for the
moment wpkg.js only supports writing the status updates to STDOUT if /sendStatus
is enabled (or sendStatus within config.xml is switched on).

Honestly I am not fully sure if WPKG Client already supports reading from STDIN
and showing these messages to the user. Personally I prefer not to block users
and run WPKG silently in the background. Another reason for me is that
logon/shutdown delay is not something easily achievable by standard API and as
Vista shows it might be even blocked/prevented by the OS. I am using /sendStatus
usually when I run WPKG from a memory-stick to update offline nodes. So I can
see the progress of package installation within the console window.

So please note that config.xml controls behavior or wpkg.js but sendStatus will
only make wpkg.js to print status information to the console. If this
information is picked up and displayed to the user depends on the method used to
run wpkg.js (console, client application which picks up the output).

br,
Rainer