Overview

All experiences saved to a cloud storage account using Intuiface's publishing capability have an associated URL. This URL will - on Windows PCs, iPads, Android tablets, and Chrome OS devices - load a page enabling the download and execution of both its associated experience and, if not already present, Intuiface Player.

• Share-by-URL does not enable offline use, even if a paid license has been retained. Internet connectivity is required.  For offline use, a licensed, stand-alone Player is required.
• Share-by-URL does not work on Samsung SSP, LG WebOS smart displays or BrightSign.
  

This ability to share using a URL is available to all Intuiface users, even if only in possession of Composer Free.

The Player installed by the share-by-URL feature can be configured to download a paid license. However, no paid license is required.

NOTE: All Composer plans - Free, Essential, Premier, Enterprise - can be used to publish and share experiences using a URL.

Share an Intuiface Experience

NOTE: To share an experience. it must first be published using Composer.

Open the experience information panel in the Share and Deploy console

To share an experience, start by opening that experience's information panel on the Share and Deploy console by following any of the following three options:

1. Within Composer, locate the experience you wish to share in the Experiences panel and click the Manage icon.
   
   

2. With your experience opened in Composer, click the menu item File -> Manage this experience in the cloud.
   
   

3. Open the Share and Deploy console and then select the experience you wish to share in the Experiences panel.
   
   

You will now see an opened information panel for the selected experience.

Generate the sharing URL

In the experience's information panel, select the "Share with URL" tab and click the Create URL button.

You will now be presented with a URL.

(Feel free to use services like TinyURL to shorten the sharing URL. Shortened URLs will work just like the original.)

Licensing

At this time, decide whether anyone entering this URL should be entitled to use one of your paid Player licenses (assuming you have any available). Express your preference with the "Permit use" checkbox.

• If unchecked, every use of the URL will result in a watermarked version of the shared experience. This is equivalent to the use of a free Player.
• If checked then every use of the URL will attempt to access a paid Player license. Licenses will be consumed in the following order:
  • If Windows PC, perpetual Player for Windows. If not available then
  • If Windows PC, Annual, White Label. If not available, then
  • Annual, Standard. If not available, then
  • Month-to-Month.
  • If none are available, Player will run as the free version and a watermark will be displayed.

You cannot limit who can use the URL so be careful if you enable license access. If someone consumes a license and you want to retrieve it, follow these steps for releasing a Player license.

Forward the URL

Send this URL to anyone you wish to view this experience. The URL will work on the following Player-supported platforms:

• Windows
• iPad
• Android
• Chrome OS

Of course, all Intuiface minimum technical specs apply to the PCs/tablets used to download the shared experience.

Working with secondary accounts

If you have a primary account in possession of secondary accounts, you can generate the sharing URL for experiences published by secondary accounts by selecting that secondary account from the dropdown list at the top of the Experiences view.

Consider a selection of the secondary account in that dropdown to be equivalent to logging in as the secondary account.

What User Sees After Opening the URL

Windows PCs

After the URL is entered, a small executable named after the shared experience is downloaded. The user is then instructed to run the executable. This executable will check for the presence of Intuiface Player.

• If not present or if present but older than the required version, Player will be downloaded. Once downloaded it will be launched and the experience download process will be initiated automatically.
• If present and the correct version, Player will be opened and will automatically begin the experience download process.

In the following graphic, the shared experience was named 'Da Vinci' and thus the downloaded executable was named 'Da Vinci.exe'.

iPad, Android, Chrome OS

After the URL is entered, a check is made to sense the presence of Player.

• If not present or if present but older than the required version, the user is sent to the Intuiface Player page in the appropriate app store and instructed to install it. Once Player is installed, the user should reload the URL. This will cause Player to automatically launch and download the shared experience.
  Side Note: Intuiface - like any other third party software - is prevented from installing apps without user intervention. App installation must be done manually via the appropriate store.
• If present and the correct version, Player will be opened and will automatically begin the experience download process.

Running Shared Experiences After the Initial Install

• Windows PC
  1. Double-click the executable downloaded when the original URL was entered. Using the example above, double-click the file davinci.exe.
  2. A check is made to see if a new version of Player is available. If one is available, it is downloaded and installed.
  3. A check is then made to see if a new version of the experience has been published by the experience owner. If one is available, it is downloaded.
     • This check will only occur if an Internet connection is present. If not present, Player acts as if no new version of the experience exists.
  4. The experience is run.
• Tablets / Kiosks
  1. Load the URL.
  2. Player will check to see if a new version is available. If a new version of Player is available, a pop-up instructs the user to go to the appropriate app store and install the latest version. The URL should then be reloaded.
  3. Click the Play button on the webpage.
  4. Player checks to see if a new version of the experience has been published by the experience owner. If there is a newer version, it is downloaded.
  5. The experience is run.

How To Stop Sharing

At any time you can choose to disable the sharing URL for an experience.

1. Open the information panel for a shared experience in Management Console.
2. Click the Stop sharing button.
   
   • NOTE: Any license consumed via the URL sharing process will not be retrieved. You must formally release your shared licenses by following the steps here for Player for Windows and here for Player for Tablets and Player for Kiosks

Additional Notes

• To retrieve a license checked out by Player, making it available for use elsewhere, it must be released following the process described here for Player for Windows and here for Player for Tablets and Kiosks.
• Even if licensed, the Players installed for experiences shared via URL
  • will not be visible in the Share and Deploy console and thus not available for remote deployment
  • will still require Internet connectivity and thus cannot be used on offline devices
• Intuiface Analytics will only work with licensed Players (i.e. Players without limitations like a displayed Intuiface watermark). If the share-by-URL feature is used to deploy non-licensed Players, data point collection will not occur.
• We've tested and confirmed the ability to use the share-by-URL feature with experiences created using Composer 4.8 or later. It may work with older versions of Composer but this is untested and not officially supported.
• When using the Share via URL feature, all the files are downloaded on the local computer to be read by the Player. The .ifx file of the shared experience is encrypted and cannot be opened in Composer. The media files remain accessible but are hidden in a system folder.