Ben Hunter

Great doc

Very cool "add-on" application for BDD. Tired of having an unsorted application list? Go download the application referenced here. Side-note: Now that the BDD Source Code is on MS's site, I'm almost tempted to implement this natively.

Anyone have a clue to bring up the applications menu with checkboxes all ready checked for a few applications that are installed each time during a lite-touch scenario?

You can add pre-checked applications when you deploy the OS, you just have to add lines in the rule tab of the deployment point (or in the CustomSettings.ini)

Applications1={61a633df-353a-43e6-a1e3-8c1b582cdc45}

Applications2={e447e4db-a06e-46a9-8e3c-3b11abd31163}

Applications3={7b282d07-cee5-4d81-8ecd-f4db51564de4}

etc...

you can find the right part in the applications.xml file.

I use this to install groups of applications (with the dependency)

John

Thanks Ben! I have one more question though, actually its a request to change that bddsort.exe file. It seems to sort applications via "Name" and not "Full Name". We put the vendor as well as the application name in BDD and would like to sort by the Full Name field. Is there a way to contact the creator of this exe?

Ben, is there anyone to Sort by FullName instead of Name?

I've noticed that when you run this application, it strips all dependencies from all applications.  Is this intended?  It's kinda annoying...

Thank you so much Ben!

Paul, I was able to Sort by FullName and keep the Dependencies. I can tell you what you have add and change if you like?

Thanks,

Lou

Not a problem.  

**In the Applications.cs file I added a Private string where all the other private strings are:**

"private string dependencyField;"

**At the end of the File I added:**

   "/// <remarks/>

   [System.Xml.Serialization.XmlElementAttribute(Form = System.Xml.Schema.XmlSchemaForm.Unqualified)]

   public string Dependency

   {

       get

       {

           return this.dependencyField;

       }

       set

       {

           this.dependencyField = value;

       }

   }"

I then rebuilt bddsort with visual studio and used the new executable.

To change the Sort to FullName, open the Program.cs file and change "Name" to "FullName"

located in this part of the file:

"    #region IComparer<applicationsApplication> Members

           public int Compare(applicationsApplication x, applicationsApplication y)

           {

               return x.FullName.CompareTo(y.FullName);

           }

           #endregion"

Rebuild the bddsort with Visual studio.  The new .exe will be in the bin/Debug folder.

Thanks,

Lou

Any chance of sharing this renewed EXE?

I am not familiar with Visual Studio, but would like to sort the applications with Dependencies kept.

Sure I can... This one is sorted by FullName and keeps the Dependencies.  I will post it up when I get off work today.

Thanks,

Lou

That code you posted for the dependency tracking works great - however it only works when an application has a single dependency.  Is there a way to modify it to track multiple dependencies?  Unfortunately C# and XML aren't my forte.

Sorry, I did not test it with an application that has more than one dependency.  Most of our apps don't have more than 1 dependency.  I will work on it for you and try to get it to do multiple dependencies for each application.

Here is the new .exe to save a single dependency for each application that has one.

<a href="http://empirecitytech.com/downloads/bddsortDep.zip">Bddsort.exe</a>

In respose to Ken post asking if there was a way to have applications pre-checked off in the applications wizard.

I have found that if you use the databse functionality, and create a Role with applications added to that Role.

Make sure the role is being applied to the system you are deploying, and you will see that all of the applications added to that role will be checked off.

This works with multiple roles aswell.

Hope this is what you were looking for.

Dan

I've created an application similar to this but lets you specify your own order. More details are at http://blog.project84.net/2007/11/05/SortingApplicationsInBDD2007.aspx

Hi Ben

Is there any way you can hide certin applications from a particular Builds/Task Sequence? I thought you could do this in BDD 2007 but can't seem to work it out in MS Deployment 4.

thanks

Phil

By default the MDT Applications list is ordered by the way they were entered. Last one in equals last

Sorting Applications in BDD 2007

Sorting Applications in BDD 2007