AppLoad

AppLoad.Exe - (c) Daniel Stricharz 1999

AppLoad is simple tool acting as an elevator to launch URLs, 
files or directories either by drive letter or by UNC syntax through NAL.

The main idea behind the tool is to help you distribute http links, 
which is not possible with the current version of ZENworks/NAL 
without specifying the executable of the user's browser. Because 
there may be situations, where a user installed different web browsers 
on the computer, you can use AppLoad to launch the default browser as 
specified in the registry database of Windows 95 and Windows NT systems.

Besides URLs you can distribute all kinds of other files, e.g. 
PDF documents, that will be launched with the associated application 
on the user's computer. Or just use AppLoad to open specific directories.

You could also use AppLoad to launch documents from the login script, e.g.
"@\\myserver\sys\public\appload.exe \\myserver\sys\public\importan.txt".
This could come handy in the case, that you need to draw attention to some 
corporate information for example. In the case you've already built a web 
page, simple load appload with the web page provided as a command line.

Usage and syntax:
Copy appload.exe to a place accessible by your users, e.g. sys:\public 
and make sure read and filescan rights are given to the file.

Appload will accept only one parameter at the command line:

appload.exe {URL,file,path,UNC}

Examples:

appload http://www.novell.com
appload news://forums.novell.com
appload mailto:nobody@nobody.xyz
appload c:\autoexec.bat
appload z:\win32
appload \\myserver\sys\public

Using Appload in Nal:
- Create a simple application object in Netware Administrator. 
- Specify the <Object Name:> (this will be the name of the application 
  as presented to the user), e.g. "Click here to send email to Mr Nobody".
- Add the path and executable's name in the <Path to executable:>, e.g.
  "\\myserver\sys\public\appload.exe" (without quotes).
- Check the <Display details after creation> box and press the OK button.
- In the Application Object's property page choose the Environment page.
- Add a command line, containing the URL/file/UNC/path that you want to
  distribute, e.g. "mailto:nobody@nobody.xyz" (without quotes).
- Press the OK button

Well, that's all.

If you didn't specify a command line parameter, AppLoad will 
display the root directory of the system drive using Explorer.

If a non-existant or misspelled file or directory was given, 
AppLoad will not give an error message.

Appload will terminate immediatly after calling and interpreting 
the command line.

If you have comments, please send email to 
Daniel Stricharz at dstricharz@jura.uni-wuerzburg.de.