Using the Software Manager with the GUI (browser)🔗

Upon server startup, the Software Manager is controlled entirely from your browser.

Important

Closing the browser window does not terminate the server. Therefore, you can start an installation, close the browser window, and the Software Manager will continue to work in the background.

General aspects🔗

Tray icon🔗

When the Software Manager is running, an SOM icon is shown in the tray region of your operating system. This icon and its context menu allow you to open the frontend, or shutdown the Software Manager completely.

If any installed products can be updated, the icon changes in the following way:

– All products are up-to-date.

– At least one installed product can be updated.

Admin privileges🔗

When installing packages, the Software Manager may require admin privileges when installing packages, or when extracting files to a location where the user that started SOM does not have write permission.

For tasks that require admin privileges, the Software Manager will try to gain these privileges by using the respective functionality of the operating system, and it will drop these privileges as soon as they are no longer required.
On Windows systems, this will happen through the Windows User Account Control (UAC) and on Linux-based systems by using polkit.

Note

The Software Manager itself will never ask for any of your passwords for your local system. Instead, it uses the operating system’s capability to request elevated rights (polkit/UAC).

Whenever possible, actions that require admin privileges are marked in the frontend with the symbol.

To download products with the Software Manager, you need to log in with your “MVLogin” account. You can only log in via the web interface when the Software Manager is running on the same device you are using to access the web interface, or using the CLI.

To log in using the web interface, click the button MVLogin.
How to log in using the CLI is described in Command line usage.

You will also be redirected to the login when a download is started and you were not already logged in.
After the login, you need to give consent for retrieving user information and downloading MVTec products via the Software Manager.

Offline installations are not affected and can still be used without login, as well as installations of packages that have already been downloaded and are available in the local repository.

Available options🔗

The different pages that can be accessed via tabs in the header of each page are described in the following sections.

Installed 🔗

This page lists installed products. It includes products installed with the Software Manager as well as those installed with other MVTec installers. Depending on the current installation, additional buttons for the execution of applications may appear for each product.

Signifies available updates for the corresponding product.
When clicking the icon, the next screen allows you to choose between Quick update and Customize your update. To update all installed packages to their latest version, select Quick update.

Customize product installed with the Software Manager.
Using this pop-up menu, the installed product can be updated (if new packages are available) or uninstalled completely. Use the entry Manage packages to customize the installation, that is, add or remove individual packages.

When you select an installation, additional information for this installation is shown on the right side of the screen. The additional information consists of the selected profile for the installation, a toggle switch to activate the installation (Windows only), and installation-specific buttons to open the documentation or release notes of the product, for example.

Product Profile🔗

Profiles allow customization of the system environment for an installation to meet specific requirements.
The additional information section on the top right of the Installed page lets you switch between different profiles for an installation by a dropdown selection. The same dropdown selection also allows you to manage profiles for an installation by selecting the option Edit profile.

Each profile lets you change environment variables and associations between file extensions and executables of the product. Environment variables are further distinguished between product and profile variables.
As the name suggests, product variables are defined by the product itself (for example, HALCONROOT) and their value cannot be changed by a profile. However, you can choose to disable a product variable for a profile using the provided checkbox.

Profile variables can be set to arbitrary values. Use the button to add further user-defined defined variables.

Active Installations (Windows only)🔗

After installing a product, the Software Manager activates the installation by default by setting environment variables and by associating file extensions with executables of the product.
For each product (for example, HALCON), only one installation can be active at any given time. If you have multiple versions of the same product installed, you can still switch the active version by selecting the product on the Installed page, and activating it using the Active installation toggle switch in the additional information area on the top right.

Available 🔗

This page provides a list of available products from the configured product catalog.
It is the starting page if no products are installed by the Software Manager yet. Installed products move to the Installed page.

For each product, you can choose to install it just for the current user, or for all users on your system. The latter usually requires admin privileges, see Admin privileges for details.

The Software Manager also allows you to create custom installers for all listed products.

Custom Installers 🔗

Custom installers let you decide upon creation which packages should be part of the installer.
You can create a custom installer for every product found on the available product page. Each product contains a split button for installing the product and when expanding the button, you can select the option to create a custom installer.

Possible use cases for this feature are the creation of installers for archiving, or the creation of runtime installers, where you decide which packages should be part of the installer.

A custom installer is created as a ZIP archive, which can be used like any other Software Manager offline installers. It will contain the package archives you selected and the newest SOM version currently available. The Software Manager allows you to create custom installers for any target architecture for which the product is available.

Settings 🔗

The settings page provides options that are stored persistently.

To commit your changes, press Enter when the cursor is in a text field, or click Save changes.
Some options, like host name or port number, require the Software Manager to be restarted to take effect.

Server tab🔗

Host name: Specifies the host name SOM listens on for incoming connections.
The default value localhost will only accept local connections. Set this to the name of the computer SOM is running on to accept connections from other computers in your network.
The name will let the Software Manager listen on all the computer’s IP addresses (same as specifying 0.0.0.0). This can be undesired if the computer can be reached publicly. Alternatively, use a private IP address of the computer to prevent external access while still allowing internal access from other computers on the network.
Default: localhost
Port number: Specifies the port number the Software Manager is listening on.
To let the Software Manager select a free port automatically, enter 0.
Default: 8188
HTTP proxy: Specifies the address of an HTTP proxy.
Leave at the default (empty) value for a direct internet connection.

More Info

For more information, see also Connecting through an HTTP proxy.

Catalog tab🔗

Catalog: Specifies the location from where the product catalog is downloaded. When located in China (PRC), change this setting to speed up the download by using a cache proxy. Otherwise, keep the default.
Default: Global

Installations tab🔗

The entries are path names for various file locations used by the Software Manager.
Path names can contain environment variables, which always have to be prefixed with $. On Windows, use $PROGRAMFILES instead of %PROGRAMFILES%, for example.

Clicking on the folder button opens the corresponding directory in a file manager.

There are two versions for the location of program files and data files: One is for installations that are for the current user only, the other is for installations available for all users on the system.

Important

Do not change the installation targets after products have been installed.

Lock 🔗

This button locks the Software Manager frontend. After locking the frontend, no actions can be performed until it is unlocked again using an unlock token or password. For more information, see Security considerations.

Exit 🔗

This button shuts down the Software Manager web server. Any installations that are still in progress will be aborted.

If just the browser window is closed, the Software Manager keeps running in the background, and the session is still accessible by double-clicking MVTec Software Manager again.