Deploy your Desktop Widget

Install the Desktop Widget across your network using a Microsoft System Installer (MSI) file.

Before you begin

You need admin access to do this. About roles

This article follows on from creating your Desktop Widget Stream. Here you will deploy the Desktop Widget across your network using a Microsoft System Installer (MSI) file.

Ombea will provide you with an MSI file that you can use for system-wide installation. If you have not received this, please contact your Ombea Account Manager.

The Desktop Widget application is installed per user, not per machine. During installation, it will be automatically registered for automatic startup every time the user logs in to Windows.

Get your WEBSITE_ID and WIDGET_ID

Before you start, you will need to know your WEBSITE_ID and WIDGET_ID.

Click on Touchpoints from the left-hand menu.
Navigate through your folder structure until you find your Desktop Widget touchpoint. We will have already created this for you.
Select the Desktop Widget touchpoint and click Edit.
On the Installation pane, under the heading "Add this snippet to your website", you will see some Javascript code.
Your WEBSITE_ID is shown in the call to the init function. For example, if you see window.oiwidgets.init("123456",u) then your WEBSITE_ID is 123456.
Copy and paste this WEBSITE_ID somewhere safe, or make a note of it.
Click Next to reach the Touchpoints pane.
Under the heading "Online Touchpoints", you will find your Desktop Widget touchpoint. Click the pencil icon to edit this.
In the pop-up, under the heading "Copy and paste the following JS call whenever you want the widget to show.", you will see some Javascript code.
Your WIDGET_ID is shown in the call to the show function. For example, if you see window.oiwidgets.show('654321') then your WIDGET_ID is 654321.
Copy and paste this WIDGET_ID somewhere safe, or make a note of it.

MSI Installation

The MSI file requires a number of public properties to be defined, either before or during installation.

You can define values for MSI file public properties by either:

Specifying them as arguments to msiexec during MSI installation (supported by administration tools such as SCCM):

msiexec /i MSI_FILE_NAME PROPERTY_A=VALUE_A PROPERTY_B=VALUE_B

Creating a MSI transform file (MST) and then specifying the transform file during MSI installation. This is supported by administration tools such as SCCM as well as installation via a GPO (Group Policy Object).

MSI Public Properties

The value of the following public MSI properties will be written into the settings.ini file which is automatically created in the application directory during installation.

Property	Required	Description	Default
WEBSITE_ID	Yes	The ID of the "Website" where the Desktop Widget is located.	—
WIDGET_ID	Yes	The ID of the Online Touchpoint for the Widget.	—
TIME	No	The earliest time of day that the widget can be shown. Further restrictions are defined in the Stream.	`00:00`
DAYS	No	The days of the week when the widget can be shown.	`mon,tue,wed,thu,fri,sat,sun`
MONTHS	No	The months of the year when the widget can be shown.	`jan,feb,mar,apr,may,jun,jul,aug,sep,oct,nov,dec`
OCCURRENCE	No	Show the widget on the first, last, or all occurrences in the month of the weekdays specified in DAYS.	`all`
SETTINGS_FILE_PATH	No	Location of the `settings.ini` file. See below for details.	`./settings.ini`

Tip:

For example, you may want to only show the widget on the first day of every month, or the last Tuesday of every month. If you would like to show the widget whenever the criteria are met, simply specify all for OCCURRENCE.

Custom settings.ini

A settings.ini file is automatically created in the application directory with its properties defined via the MSI public properties. If you want to be able to change application settings without reinstalling, you can specify a custom location for the settings.ini file using SETTINGS_FILE_PATH.

The value can be:

An absolute file path, e.g. h:\ombea\desktop-widget\settings.ini
A URL, e.g. https://www.acme.com/desktop-widget/settings.ini
A relative file path (relative to the application installation directory), e.g. ..\ombea\desktop-widget\config\settings.ini

For example, you may want to put the settings.ini file on a shared network drive, or host it on a web server for your corporate intranet.

[config]
website_id=600f3e4a96e50bc7c12c4fb9
widget_id=600f3e5196e50bc7c12c4fba
time=10:00
days=mon,thu,fri
months=aug,sep,oct,nov,dec
occurrence=all

[config]
website_id=600f3e4a96e50bc7c12c4fb9
widget_id=600f3e5196e50bc7c12c4fba
time=15:00
days=mon
months=aug,sep
occurrence=first

MSI Installation Examples

In the examples below, 123456 and 654321 refer to your WEBSITE_ID and WIDGET_ID respectively.

msiexec /i "Ombea Desktop Widget Setup.msi" WEBSITE_ID=123456 WIDGET_ID=654321

msiexec /i "Ombea Desktop Widget Setup.msi" WEBSITE_ID=123456 WIDGET_ID=654321 TIME=10:00

Widget appears after 10:00 on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays during August–December.

msiexec /i "Ombea Desktop Widget Setup.msi" WEBSITE_ID=123456 WIDGET_ID=654321 MONTHS=aug,sep,oct,nov,dec DAYS=mon,thu,fri TIME=10:00

Widget appears after 15:00 on the first Monday during August and September.

msiexec /i "Ombea Desktop Widget Setup.msi" WEBSITE_ID=123456 WIDGET_ID=654321 MONTHS=aug,sep DAYS=mon TIME=15:00 OCCURRENCE=first

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