14.4 Updating the Filr Desktop Application

You can update the Filr desktop application on users’ workstations by updating the application on the Filr server or on a separate web server. You can also distribute the application using the .msi file in conjunction with client management software such as Novell ZENworks. However, there are certain dependencies that are not installed by default when using the .msi file. These are described in the following sections:

14.4.1 Understanding Missing Dependencies Related to Updating the Filr Desktop Application by Using the MSI File

If you use the .msi file to distribute the Filr desktop application to user workstations (by using client management software such as Novell ZENworks), you need to install the following items to each user workstation, independent of the Filr software:

  • Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 (Applies to 64-bit Windows and Mac workstations.)

    You can download Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 from the Microsoft .NET Downloads page.

  • Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package (Applies to all workstations)

    You can download the redistributable package from the Microsoft Download Center.

14.4.2 Updating the Filr Desktop Application on the Filr Server or on a Separate Web Server

If you have configured your Filr system to deploy the Filr desktop application (as described in Section 14.2, Enabling Desktop Application Access for Users), or if you have configured a separate web server to deploy the Filr desktop application (as described in Section 14.3, Configuring a Separate Web Server to Deploy the Filr Desktop Application), you can replace the Filr desktop application download files on the Filr back end so that users are prompted to update the Filr desktop application on their individual workstations.

The files to use for updating the Filr desktop application are the same for all versions of Windows.

To download the Filr desktop application:

  1. Before downloading the new version of the Filr desktop application, you need to preserve your existing Filr desktop installation. This will allow you to roll back to the older version if the need arises.

    To preserve your existing installation of the Filr desktop application, rename the existing directory on the server so that the old files are not overwritten when the new version is downloaded:

    1. Change to the directory where the files are being stored. For example:

      cd /opt/novell/filr/apache-tomcat/webapps/desktopapp/

      This is the default location if the Filr desktop application is installed on the Filr server.

    2. Rename the novellfilr directory to novellfilr.bak. For example:

      mv novellfilr novellfilr.bak

    3. (Optional) If you need to roll back to the older version of the Filr desktop application, you can do so by deleting the new novellfilr directory and renaming the novellfilr.bak directory to novellfilr.

  2. Download and extract the NovellFilrAutoUpdate.tgz file onto your Filr server or separate web server.

    tar xvzf NovellFilrAutoUpdate.tgz

    You can download the NovellFilrAutoUpdate.tgz file from the Novell Downloads site.

    If you are installing onto the Filr server, download and extract this file to the opt/novell/filr/apache-tomcat/webapps/desktopapp/ directory.

    cd /opt/novell/filr/apache-tomcat/webapps/desktopapp

    This compressed file contains all of the files required for updating the Filr desktop application.

  3. Run the following commands on the extracted directory to appropriately modify the file permissions:

    chown -R wwwrun:www novellfilr/

    chmod -R g-w novellfilr/

    chmod -R o-rwx novellfilr/