I am creating a dynamic download task that will take parameters set in a registry key and then download and install an app based on the parameter set.
I am trying to implement the manifest method so that I can centrally control the list of apps and their respecitive properties (downlaod package reference, executable name, sha1 and size).
I think I actually have most of this working.
Now my issue is that I want to implement a download of the manifest, as opposed to retreving it as a prefetch item, in the same task. Is this possible? If so, how do I do this? When I tried it appeared that the task came back with an error stating that a download command could not be implemented with a prefetch block (I tired it before, inside and after the prefetch and it generates an error in all places).
I created the manifest with the list of packages that I want to be able to install.
I have created a job that will look for a registry value which provides the name of the package to install.
I then parse the file to match the package name and get the values requried to install the package.
The problem is … if my packages change on a regular basis then the sha1 and size are constantly changing and I ahve to manually go and change the job or get those values deployed to ALL client machines in order to be able to download the file and run the jobs.
SO … I want to use a download command and skip the sha1 and size requirement as it is on a controlled server.
OR … is there a way I can prefetch an item without having to provide those values for the manifest file?
Bigfix: It would be very helpful to have a documented and supportable means to handle both automatically manifesting dynamic files and the best way to do relevance substitution in a prefetch statement. The WinActions doc that probably should contain that info is from fall 2008.
Bonus points for the ability to automatically compress dynamic files while manifesting them …