Web Package Tasks - Tips & Tricks

The information in this article applies to Prism Deploy 16.0 and above.

Prism Deploy has always been able to deploy Packages from a web address. With Prism 16.0, we’ve improved this capability in two ways:

• There is now a Web Package Task wizard to help you create the correct syntax for the Task.
• The credentials you specify to access the Web Package (if necessary) are more secure. Once the Task is created, the password is hidden in the Console and encrypted in the channel database. It is not exposed in the client log file.

One of the most common ways that Prism Deploy customers use Package Tasks is to stage the payload for subsequent Tasks locally on the target PCs. For example, when installing large and/or complex software, Prism administrators manually create a Package that contains the scripts, setup files, folders and other source files necessary for the software installation. They deploy the staging Package and then follow up with a separate Task (MSI, Command or Script Task) to kick off the installation using the locally-staged files. With Web Package Tasks, Prism administrators have another option for supporting off-network PCs.

Here are some tips for getting the right URL syntax for Prism's Web Package Tasks.

Internet-facing web server: The syntax would look like this https://server.domain.com/WebPackages/SomePackage.pwc (or http://).

When deploying from cloud storage sites such as Dropbox or OneDrive, there are some extra steps for getting a correctly formatted URL to use in the Web Package Task.

Dropbox: By default, files shared through Dropbox URLs are for viewing, not for download. A typical Dropbox URL looks like this: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lpbb6enj3jzp38p/Small.PWC?dl=0. To convert the URL to a downloadable one, simply replace the 0 at the end to 1 (…dl=1).

OneDrive: OneDrive URLs also need to be changed before being used for Web Package Tasks. By default, OneDrive URLs are shortened. They first need to be expanded, then converted into a direct download URL. To illustrate, here’s an original (shortened) OneDrive URL to a Prism Package: