Overview

Experiences saved to cloud storage using Intuiface's publishing capability can be converted into a self-installer for Windows PCs. This self-installer will download and install the latest version of Player, then download and run the latest version of the experience.

Self-installers are a great way to share experiences with colleagues and clients who don't need explicit access to Composer or Player. It is also an easy install method if you don't want to use remote deployment and can always count on a live network connection.

This ability to create a Windows self-installer is available to all paid Platform plans (Essential, Premier, Enterprise). However, a Player license must be available for the feature to work.

NOTE:

• Offline use is not possible; Internet connectivity is required.  For offline use, a licensed, stand-alone Player is required.
• Does not eliminate the use of Player. Player will be installed "behind the scenes" if not already present.

Creating a Windows self-installer for an Intuiface Experience

NOTE: The experience must first be published using Composer before creating a self-installer.

Open the experience Details panel in the Share and Deploy console

To create the Windows self-installer, 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.
   
   
   
   OR

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

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

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

Generate the self-installer webpage

The self-installer is creating by loading a custom URL in a web browser.

In the experience's information panel, select the "Windows Self-in" 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.)

Forward the URL

Send this URL to anyone you wish to view this experience on a Windows PC

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

Licensing

A Player license will be consumed whenever an experience is opened using the Windows self-installer. If no license is available, sharing cannot occur.

Licenses are automatically returned when the shared experience is closed.

You cannot limit who can use the self-installer, so be careful when sharing your experience.

NOTE: For security reasons, licenses used by the Windows self-installer will have a different license key (a string of letters and numbers) than the original license on which it is based.

Working with secondary accounts

If you have a primary account with secondary accounts, you can generate the self-installer for experiences published by secondary accounts by selecting that secondary account from the dropdown list at the top of the Experiences view.

Consider selecting the secondary account in that dropdown as equivalent to logging in as the secondary account.

What User Sees When Loading the URL

After the URL is entered, a small executable named after the 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 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'.

Running the Self-Installer After Its Initial Run

• Double-click the executable downloaded when the original URL was entered. Using the example above, double-click the file davinci.exe.
• A check is made to see if a new version of Player is available. If one is available, it is downloaded and installed.
• A check is then made to see if the experience owner has published a new version of the experience. 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.
• The experience is run.

How To Disable the Self-Installer

You can disable the self-installer at any time. This will prevent future launches of the experience. 

1. Open the information panel for an experience in the Share & Deploy 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 on Windows.

Additional Notes

• Players licensed by the self-installer
  • 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
• When using the self-installer, all experience files are downloaded onto the Windows PC to be read by the Player. The .ifx file of the experience is encrypted and cannot be opened in Composer. The media files remain accessible but are hidden in a system folder.