Some Explanations In Regards to Snapins Requested.

[AngryScientist]

Server

• FOG Version: 1.3.0 RC-21
• OS: CentOS 7

Client

• Service Version: 0.11.5
• OS: Windows 7

Description

Been all over the Wiki, and for the life of me I am unable to locate the answers to the following questions:

• What is the difference between the two “Snapin Type” choices? Normal Snapin & Snapin Pack are the two choices.
• Why is the EXE option for Snapin Template absent when Normal Snapin is selected?
• How do Snapin Pack File and Snapin File differ?
• Why does the Snapin Command text box appear to use the Snapin File as an argument to the Snapin Pack File which must be manually specified as the default option is [FOG_SNAPIN_PATH]\MyFile.exe

These questions were brought about when I generated a “SFX” silent printer installer EXE to deploy network printers while the Printer Management issues are worked out in another thread.

Thanks in advance guys!

[Joe Schmitt]

Some clarifications:

Snapins
A snapin is simply a way to get the client to run an executable. So why is there no EXE template? Well on windows .exe can simply be executed as is without a helper program. So no snapin fields have to be set. Imagine snapins like this:

• Open a CMD prompt
• How do you want to perform your action? Is it an EXE? If so you just type MyProgram.exe and it runs. Want to run a batch script? You’d type something like cmd.exe /c MyScript.cmd. The bottom Snapin Command shows the end result of your snapin configuration

Snapin Packs
Now snapins are pretty limited, but that’s what legacy FOG was built with so we kept it for compatibility. In your post you say I generated a “SFX” silent printer installer that’s a work-a-round that snapins forced onto people. And when the new client introduced Linux and Mac support things like the SFX work-a-round were no longer viable as it’s Windows only.

So we came up with a concept being being able to “pack” up multiple files and deploy them using the pre-built snapin system (ergo “Snapin Pack”). I’ll admit we don’t have the best documentation when it comes to things like Snapins and Snapin Packs but it’s community driven documentation. Where people think it lacks, they add to the documentation.

@Wayne-Workman has done an awesome job providing almost all of the snapin pack documentation we have (https://wiki.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php?title=SnapinPacks).

The basic idea: zip up a bunch of files you need, and provide 1 runnable file/script in that zip to handle everything (e.g. a batch script to move all of your printer driver files in place).