Migrating to the new desktop application


This tutorial discusses the new desktop application and how you can migrate to it from an existing browser plugin or DreamFactory Professional application setup.

 

DreamFactory Player

The DreamFactory Player, available from http://www.dreamfactory.com/force.com, has been updated to extend our 32 bit implementation to 64 bit support. The 64 bit player gives us an expanded address space and upgraded memory management. Translation: Faster processing that can handle larger snapshots and projects.

 

Installation

To install the new player, please follow these instructions:

  1. Go to http://www.dreamfactory.com/force.com and scroll down to the DreamFactory Player section. This section give you multiple options to let you choose an appropriate player for you.
  2. Click on an appropriate option and choose to save the file, if requested.
  3. Double click the saved file and follow the installation instructions. At the end of the installation, click the Close button to close the installation wizard.

 

Launching SnapShot

To launch the new application, simply launch the DreamFactory64 (or DreamFactory32, depending on what you installed) application. In Windows, this is available by going to Start > All Programs > DreamFactory > DreamFactory64. On Apple Macintosh, you would go to Applications > DreamFactory64.  This brings up the DreamFactory Player.

 

Login to salesforce

 

 

You will need to authenticate yourself by entering your salesforce Org's username and password. You might need your security token placed at the end of the Password field in case your IP address has not been whitelisted in your salesforce Org. If the Org that is being targeted is a sandbox, please check the Sandbox field. If you prefer to save your username and/ or password, you can use the optional Remember checkbox next to the username and password fields respectively.

 

Just in case your Org uses custom domains (and login.salesforce.com is disabled for you), please use the Advanced checkbox to open a dialog to enter your Custom Domain URL. You also have the capability to enter your Custom Sandbox URL.

 

Click the Login button to authenticate yourself with salesforce and open the Application Selector dialog.

 

Select SnapShot application

 

 Once you log into salesforce, the Player displays all the DreamFactory products that are installed. Please note that you may not have a license to all these applications. Choose the application that you want to work with - in this case, please select SnapShot from the Starting Point dropdown menu. This opens the SnapShot application and remembers your choice. So, the next time you open the Player and login, it will automatically display the last used application (SnapShot in our case). If there has been an update to the SnapShot application, the Player will also download the update automatically so you will always be working on the latest version.

 

Note:
The desktop application checks for Read access to the SnapShot Pushes and SnapShot Items objects in your Org. This is used to detect that SnapShot package is installed in your Org. In case you do not find SnapShot as an dropdown item, please check for at least Read access to these objects - SnapShot Pushes and SnapShot Items.

Just in case these objects are not installed in the Org where you have a SnapShot license, then you can obtain them by installing the Administrator Session Reports for SnapShot package from the AppExchange.

 

If you are opening SnapShot through the Player for the first time, you might not see the snapshots (metadata backups) you have created in this machine. Please refer to the Migrate existing snapshots to the new Player section of this page to walk you through copying the current snapshots to this environment. This will be a one-time process and need not be repeated.

 

Migrating existing snapshots to the new Player

This section deals with migrating the existing snapshots (metadata backups) that you have created in this machine to the current Player. This process is a one-time process and need not be repeated.

 

If you had used SnapShot using the browser plugin, here are the paths to your snapshot directory:

On Windows: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\LocalLow\DreamFactory\downloads\www.dreamfactory.net\sforce\snapshot    (where <username> is your username)

On Mac: ~/Documents/DreamFactory/downloads/www.dreamfactory.net/sforce/snapshot

 

In this folder, you will find two folders named profiles and storage. These folders are where your snapshots (metadata backups) are stored.

 

In the new Player setup, the snapshot directory has been changed a bit. The default directory for snapshot is:

On Windows: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\DreamFactory\downloads\www.dreamfactory.net\codebase\utilities    (where <username> is your username)

On Mac: ~/Documents/DreamFactory/downloads/www.dreamfactory.net/codebase/utilities

 

Please copy or merge your profiles and storage folders from your existing installation to this new codebase/utilities location. This will be the base path for all future product updates.

 

Once this copy/ merge is executed successfully, please reopen your SnapShot application through the new Player and you will see all your previous snapshot and continue working - except with a lot more robust and much better performing application.

 

Support Information

Just in case, you need our help with something or just need someone to talk you through this installation, please feel free to contact one of us. You can get all the options for contact us here: http://www.dreamfactory.com/developers/support 

 

Good luck with your salesforce administration efforts.