Howto run WPI from a network share

[Doc Symbiosis]

I edited my first post, made a few changes to the wpi.cmd, especially system-language-independent, and made a, I hope easy to understand, step by step description.

[athomsen]

I really do not understand this entire topic. Why not just enter the network path as the command. No complicated addtions needed.

EDIT: BTW network paths were fixed in 4.1

Edited September 15, 2005 by athomsen

[Krim]

Can you explain your method of connecting to/installing from a network share as i am new to WPI and this was the only clear explanation of running WPI from a network share.

The benefits of this i see are:

a) You map to a network path where wpi is located. It does not necessarily have to be the same server or directory as your software installs are located. This is good if you want to restrict who has access to wpi and software install folders.

B) WPI handles the connection to the software installer share.

c) WPI does not have a hardcoded mapped drive location. You use the variable %SWPATH%

If your method does all of the above i apolgise as my knowledge is still small on these topics but ive learnt alot from my research on the net and from these forums!

A guide for noobies explaining the different network share installation methods would be great i think!

[Krim]

Thanks for updating the psot Doc.

Maybe edit the title to remove 3.6 as you have stated in the post it has been tested on 3.6 and 4.3.5

People might not look at it as 3.6 is an older WPI version.

I will try the new code out tonight and report back on my success

Love your work !

[athomsen]

Here is the cmd file I use. All it really does is map a drive.

@ECHO OFF

REM Map network drive since we can't use UNC paths
net use X: \\server\share /persistent:no

REM Determine the WPI startup path. 
REM if wpi should run off the cd the replace %~dp0 with %cdrom%.
set wpipath=X:\WPI_4.3.5

REM Hide this command window.
%wpipath%\Tools\cmdow.exe @ /hid

REM Special registry tweak needed.
regedit /s "%wpipath%\common\wpi.reg

REM Make WPI directory the current directory.
for /f "delims=: tokens=1" %%i in ("%wpipath%") do %%i:
cd "%wpipath%"

REM Start WPI and wait for its end
start /wait %windir%\system32\mshta.exe "%CD%\wpi.hta"

exit

:end

Then when you enter the path to in the command textbox in the config wizard you can use \\server\share\somthingelse\anotherthing\me.exe. So, now you can spread your files out over a billion servers WPI won't care.

This meets all of your requirements and does not require any mods to WPI.

[Krim]

Nice solution.

As i said im still new to this and Doc's guide was the only real guide in how to get WPI to work from a network share.

I am still not sure how you are kicking of WPI?

Do you do a start->run to where WPI is located and run it from there ?

[rtK]

Just a small addition:

I've been using wpi over network for some time, the method is simple , a cmd script similar to athomsen's which maps network drive and calls wpi.hta.

A small tweak was added to generate.js , that is we change drive type constant to that of network drives (3).

wpiscripts/generate.js

function GetCDRomDriveLetters()
{
	position = "generate.js";
	var li, en;
	li = new Array();
	en = new Enumerator(fso.Drives);
	for (; !en.atEnd(); en.moveNext())
	{
   ite = en.item();
   if (ite.DriveType == 3)	{
    li[li.length++]=(ite.DriveLetter + ":");
   }
	}
	return li;
}

[Doc Symbiosis]

That's the point. I don't want to connect the network path with a fixed drive letter.

[Krim]

Question:

Since we are running WPI from a network share and the WPI files are stored on the server.

Can 2+ people be using the same WPI folder/files at the same time or will this cause problems.

[Kelsenellenelvian]

There really shouldn't be a problem with that.