Description
Personal User Files (PUF) is a term which you use for the files unique to both a specific game and specific user. This feature allows you to specify what you wish to copy back and forth from the clients, and which application the files are related to. The files are then copied when a user starts the specific application, and when the applications end, the updated files are copied back to the server.
Take a look at our screencast about How to create Personal User Files
https://vimeo.com/channels/smartlaunch/30360322
Step 1: Getting Started
Start by bringing up the Smartlaunch server window from the system tray by simply clicking the orange Smartlaunch icon. The server should by default be locked, press the Unlock button and enter the administrator username and password.
After the server is unlocked, press the Settings and when the window comes up, click open the Application Managementsection and select the Personal User Files option.
When the Personal User Files option, from the menu, is selected, a list of all the available PUFs is shown, on the right side. Click the Add button to create your own Personal User File setup.
Start by filling in a name describing the files being saved. For instance, if you are saving the configuration file for Unreal Tournament 2004, the name could be Unreal Tournament 2004. Then you need to specify whether you want the PUFs to be transfered On-demand or At user login. If you choose On-demand, you will be able to select the specific PUF under the game setup, which isn’t possible if you select At user login. Selecting At User Login will automatically copy the PUF when the user login and not when the game is launched. It is often more efficient to choose On Demand as it saves bandwidth. Similar as creating a License Setup, you get to choose if you want to save files and directories from the application folders, or if you want save keys and folders from the windows registry.
Selecting the Files/Directories option, you will also have to specify the path to the folder, you want to save from, plus which type of files you want to include and which to exclude. The “*” sign means everything, so if you just put a “*” the include field, it means that you want to select all files in the directory. Similarly, “*.cfg” means that you only want to copy files, that has the extension “cfg”.
For example, if you want to save all the files in the directory you specified in the directory textbox, except those files ending with exe, the include files textbox should read “*”, and the exclude files textbox should read “*.exe”. Finally, choose if you want to include all the subfolders or just save files from the folder you specified by checking the include subfolders checkbox.
If you choose to save Registry keys, you will only have to specify the path to the folder in the Registry you want to save and end it with a “*” to include everything.
Click OK to submit all the information; you should now see the name of the Personal User File you just created in the Personal User Files list. All that is left now is adding this Personal User File to your game. Select Applications from the menu, choose your game from the tree menu on the right side and click the Edit.
In the list of PUFs, you can see a button to the right, called PUF directory, and when clicking this, a dialog will open, and you will be able to specify where you want Smartlaunch to save the PUFs.
When you have created a new PUF, you will be reminded to assign the newly created PUF to an application, or else the files will be never be copied. This reminder can be turned of, if you do not wish to be reminded every time you create a new PUF.
If no path is specified, Smartlaunch will per default use “..\data\users\” as the path to where, PUFs will be saved. It is possible to specify a path yourself pressing the “…” button, or by typing in a path yourself – if you manually type a path that does not exist, you will have to choose another path, or else you cannot leave this window…
Here is a list of the Windows environment variables that you can use for the PUF:
%SystemDirectory%”
The System directory. (e.g. C:\Windows\system32)
%ProgramFiles%
The program files directory. (e.g. C:\Program Files)
%MyDocuments%
The My Documents folder. (e.g. C:\Users\Edwin\Documents)
%ApplicationData%
The directory that serves as a common repository for application-specific data for the current roaming user. (e.g. C:\Users\Edwin\AppData\Roaming)
%LocalApplicationData%
The directory that serves as a common repository for application-specific data that is used by the current, non-roaming user. (e.g. C:\Users\Edwin\AppData\Local)
%SmartlaunchDirectory%
Location of the Smartlaunch executable. (e.g. C:\Program Files\Smartlaunch 4.6\Client)
%AllUsersApplicationData%
The directory that serves as a common repository for application-specific data that is used by all users. (e.g. C:\ProgramData)
Step 2: Activating the PUF setup
In order to activate the PUF, for the specific application, click the “Applications” item in the settings window, select the application and click “Edit”.
Now select the PUF and Licensing tab in the top of the popup window, and click the checkbox next to the name of the Personal User File you created previously. Click the OK button to submit your changes. You have now successfully setup, and activated, your own Personal User File.
Step 3: Creating default PUF’s
Default PUF files are used when a new customers tries the game for the first time. Instead of getting the configurations, save games, documents etc. from the last user logged into the machine he is sitting at, you can setup a default PUF zip file, for your newly create PUF setup. When the user then starts the game for the first time, he will then automatically receive this default setup. Usually these default PUF zip files are almost empty, only containing the default configurations setup. The easiest way to create a new default PUF zip file is by following these steps:
- Create a new user in the Smartlaunch Administrator.
- Login with the user to a client computer.
- Launch the game which you are creating a default PUF for.
- Now setup the game as you would like it to be for new users logging in. For instance click the “Reset configuration/setup” button in the game (if available) and set the player name to for instance “Unknown” or “Player” or “MyCafe Player”.
- Now close the game, and logout at the Smartlaunch Client computer. How to Create Personal User Files Page 6 of 6
- The PUF for the game will now be copied to the Server computer, and placed in the following file: ..\Server\Data\Users\<username>\PUF\<pufname>.zip
- You can open now open this zip file, and make sure everything is setup as it should.
- Finally copy the <pufname>.zip file to this folder: ..\Server\Data\Files\PersonalUserFiles\
You have now successfully created the default PUF setup. You can test this new setup, by creating a new user account in the Smartlaunch Administrator, and then login on a client computer. This new user should then have the configurations you specified previously for the other user.
Screencast
Please see the screen cast about Introduction to Personal User Files below. It is also available in Youtube.
Another screen cast about Personal User Files, please check it below or in Youtube.
If you have any questions please contact [email protected]
When the Personal User Files option, from the menu, is selected, a list of all the available
PUFs is shown, on the right side. Click the Add button to create your own Personal User File
setup.
