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Roaming Profiles Implementation for SoftGrid-I

In traditional Windows Roaming Profile (WRP) user profile specific files are stored on a network location and are accessible to a user from any machine. However the problem of maintaining the application settings still remains unresolved in the traditional environment as all applications are installed on the local system and the settings specific to them are also maintained on the local system which can’t be made a part of the user profile e.g. Application settings in HKCU registry etc.   

 This challenge is addressed in Softgrid by maintaining Softrgid Application Profiles. In this topic I will discuss how softgrid helps in implementing a true roaming profile

In order to keep track of all the user specific application settings, the SoftGrid platform creates a SoftGrid User Profile for each SoftGrid user. This profile is saved under %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\SoftGrid Client. In case of a WRP the above location will be re-directed to a network location. The Softgrid profile maintains a repository of all the user specific settings for every application available to the user along with other information. These settings are maintained on per-application-per-user basis.

Softgrid Application Profile maintains following information:
a.             Application Settings: The most important information that is stored in SoftGrid profile is the settings specific to each application. These settings are maintained in the file UsrVol_sftfs_v1.pkg under the folder for the respective package. Every time an application is launched it picks up its setting from this file.
b.            SoftGrid usage history: The usage of each application is tracked and maintained in a file named sfthistory.dat.
c.            User Information: The information regarding each user’s identity is maintained in the file named userinfo.dat.
d.            Shortcut information: All the applications that are available to the user are provided through shortcuts in various locations like Desktop, Start Menu, etc. The file shortcut_ex.dat maintains the details of all the shortcuts that are to be published to the user and their locations.
 

As the SoftGrid profile is a part of the user profile and is maintained on the shared location hence, when the user logs on and uses and application, the softgrid virtual environment reads all the settings for that application from the UsrVol_sftfs_v1.pkg file. Therefore irrespective of the machine the user logs on from, as opposed to the traditional system, all the applications along with user settings and files are carried to every location, thus implementing a "true Roaming Profile".

Posted by Vivek Bhatt on February 26, 2007 3:54 AM |

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Comments

Great feature! Something similar to FLEX framework already being used.

Posted by: Shrirang Chhatre | February 28, 2007 5:52 AM

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