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MVTec Software Manager – Release Notes

1.6.1

  • The somctl tool is now installed alongside installations managed by Software Manager on all platforms.
  • Several small UI improvements for the new guided installation feature.
  • Executables that are part of an installation for all users could not be started in the Software Manager frontend. This problem has been fixed.
  • Installing products that require the user to be logged in via the CLI failed even when the user was logged in. This problem has been fixed.
  • Installing products for all users could lead to failing installations due to the elevated installer crashing. This problem has been fixed.
  • Exiting an offline installer before the installation was done led to an inconsistent state of the frontend when the installer was started again. This problem has been fixed.

1.6.0

  • Software Manager now guides the user through performing an installation, offering an easy path with sensible default selections of packages.
  • When installing license files for products installed with the old installer, the license file was placed into the wrong directory. This problem has been fixed.
  • When modifying an installation the Software Manager now groups all steps together by their kind (e.g. downloading, extracting, deleting files, …​) instead of grouping them by the package they belong to. This fixes a problem, where trying to update an installation without being logged in could remove the installed packages without installing the new package versions.
  • SOM now allows to disable the creation of shortcuts in the windows start menu and on the desktop. For the CLI command install, this behavior can now be controlled with the new flag --disable-shortcut.
  • When packing a custom installer for a target architecture that differed from the os architecture, architecture specific packages could not be selected. This problem has been fixed.
  • After updating the Software Manager, a restart is required, but the newly installed version was not used after the restart. This problem has been fixed.
  • The Software Manager now resumes package downloads from where they left off, instead of restarting from the beginning after an unexpected interruption.
  • When packing a custom installer, the contained files did not have a modified date set. This problem has been fixed.
  • In rare conditions when the installation directory contains unicode characters the Software Manager was not able to create a Desktop Shortcut. This problem has been fixed.

1.5.1

  • When installing older HALCON versions on linux platforms, the .profile_halcon file was not generated by SOM 1.5.0. This problem has been fixed.

1.5.0

  • The Software Manager now allows to create custom offline installers from all products listed in the current catalog.
  • The new CLI commands 'login' and 'logout' now allow to log in/out with your MVLogin account using the CLI interface.
  • The CLI command 'install' now allows to install the default selection or also all packages for a product.
  • Offline installers no longer try to perform a login at MVLogin.
  • User profiles now store from which profile they were copied. If a product modifications adds or removes profile variables, the user profiles will now be kept in sync to the profile they were copied from.
  • When launching an executable of a product on Windows it was possible that an environment variable from the active installation was leaked into the started process. This problem has been fixed.
  • The CLI command 'list' also listed meta packages that contained no packages. This problem has been fixed.
  • After uninstalling a product the empty product folder was not removed. This problem has been fixed.
  • Opening additional content for a product where the path contains unicode characters failed. This problem has been fixed.
  • Desktop and start menu shortcuts created by SOM that pointed to targets or had icons where the path contained non-ascii characters were not created correctly. This problem has been fixed.
  • If on Windows the system-wide PATH variable contained ';;' HALCON installations reported having a misconfigured environment that could not be fixed. This problem has been fixed.
  • On windows SOM mixed '/' and '\' as separators in various paths. This problem has been fixed.

1.4.1

  • Uninstalling a product via the Windows Add/Remove Programs menu did not remove all shortcuts that were created by SOM. This problem has been fixed.
  • When more than one group of executables was shown on the profile modal, the selection of the groups were not independent of one another. This problem has been fixed.
  • Handling the PATH variable on Windows systems has been improved. SOM now handles conflicting values in user and system PATH differently.
  • When clicking outside the modal it won’t be closed. Pressing the escape key can now close an opened modal.
  • On small browser windows it could happen that not all available products were shown on the available tab. This problem has been fixed.
  • The settings dialog now rejects invalid repository paths.

1.4.0

  • Incorrect message "Modification was successful" was shown when trying to modify a registered product while not being logged in. This problem has been fixed.
  • Clearing a local repository in the settings now deletes all files except .catalog, .feed, .packages and .asc files.
  • Added missing documentation of Lock button on the frontend.
  • Files installed from tar.gz archives were not deleted when the package was removed. This problem has been fixed.
  • Removed the possibility of registering executables on Windows systems. The feature is replaced by the new profile functionality.
  • Added profiles to installations that let the user configure environment variables and file associations of installations.
  • Installations can now be set as active, to switch between different installed versions of a product.

1.3.1

  • Unlocking the frontend did not work on systems where the username contained spaces or other invalid characters. This problem has been fixed.
  • Due to a race condition the progress modal was not always closed after the modification of a product. This problem has been fixed.

1.3.0

  • SOM now also supports packages using tar.gz archives.
  • When updating an installation, the frontend now shows which packages will be updated on the package selection dialog.
  • The Logout button in the web UI now also performs a global logout from the MVLogin account.
  • Configuration values provided as options on the command line (e.g. --catalog for changing the catalog URL) now replace the corresponding value from the configuration file only temporarily. When SOM is restarted without the command line option, the old value from the configuration file will be used. Also, changing an option that was set by a command line flag in the Settings modal is no longer possible.
  • A new command som config was added that allows to display the current configuration, change individual values of the configuration or reset the whole configuration to the default values.
  • The INSTALL and INSTALL FOR ALL USERS buttons on the Available tab now show a different caption once a product has been installed, instead of only being disabled. Furthermore, when an installation can be updated, that is now also possible using the buttons on the Available tab.
  • By default, the frontend now needs to be unlocked, before it can send any commands or retrieve any information from the backend. The frontend can either be unlocked by tokens that the backend generates, or by a password that the user can set.
  • After installing a new SOM version, the frontend now prompts the user to restart the running SOM backend.
  • There is now a feedback button in the Web UI for sending feedback about the SOM to MVTec.
  • A new CLI command som version was added, that only prints the version information and then exits.
  • Fix a crash when hostname is misconfigured.
  • Configuration files located in the directory of the SOM executable now take precedence before the global configuration file.
  • Offline installers no longer use the global configuration file. Instead, they start with a default configuration and write to a local config file if any settings are changed.
  • When starting an executable of an installation done with an old NSIS installer, the HALCONEXAMPLES and HALCONIMAGES environment variables were not set correctly. This has been fixed.

1.2.3

  • The Settings modal now lists the cache size of the local repository and offers a button to remove all package data from the repository to save disk space.
  • The Console modal in the frontend now offers a button for exporting the log messages to a file.
  • While running, SOM now places an icon and menu in the notification area of the windows taskbar and any linux trays that follow the SystemNotifier/AppIndicator specification. The menu can be used to exit the running SOM session and to open the frontend. The icon will also signal if any installed products can be updated.
  • The frontend now checks if SOM is running as an offline installer. If that is the case,
    • a hint is shown on the Installed tab explaining the consequences
    • Changing the catalog URL in the settings or refreshing the catalog is prohibited
    • the Modify Packages and Update Packages actions are only available for the product that is part of the offline installer
    • as before, all installations can be uninstalled, regardless if they are part of the offline installer or not
  • The situations where SOM reuses an existing session have been restricted further. Now, SOM only reuses a session if the other SOM instance was started by the same user in the same mode (user or system) and has the same version. Both SOMs must also be an offline installer, or a normal SOM instance.

1.2.2

  • In rare cases, dependencies of packages were not resolved properly. This problem has been fixed.

1.2.1

  • Added a button for refreshing the catalog from server to the settings dialog.
  • HTML entities in the RSS feed are now displayed correctly.
  • After modifying a product finishes, the progress modal now displays if the modification was a success. In case of an error during the modification, the error is displayed in the modal instead of in a notification.
  • If SOM is started with an invalid hostname, an error message is now shown.
  • When starting a product executable on linux systems, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH was set incorrectly. This problem has been fixed.
  • Added a new action to installed products for opening the installation directory in the operating systems file browser.
  • In rare cases, installation hooks were not executed properly on Windows because spaces in the hook command were not escaped correctly. This problem has been fixed.

1.2

  • SOM now handles installing products for all users in a more intuitive way. It is no longer required to start SOM with elevated rights to install products for all users. Instead, SOM will request the required permissions only when necessary, and return them as soon as they are no longer needed. More information can be found in the new section [Admin rights] in the documentation.
  • The SOM frontend now displays which actions will require admin rights to perform.
  • When leaving the package selection dialog the current selection is now saved for as long as the current browser tab is kept open.
    The saved selection is automatically restored when the user opens the dialog again by clicking on Select Packages for a new installation or Modify Packages for an existing installation. When the user opens the package selection dialog via the Install or Update buttons, the selection is not restored.
  • An installation that was aborted because the user was not logged in can now be resumed after being redirected back to SOM by the identity provider.
  • The frontend now adapts to small screen sizes.
  • SOM now checks whether another instance is running on the same port. If the instance was started by the same user it reuses this session, otherwise a warning is shown that the port is used by another user and the session is not reused.

1.1.5

  • Updating a product using the bell icon led to only a random subset of packages selected for an update.
    This issue has been fixed.
  • Update of the identity provider
  • The documentation link in the frontend now opens the HTML version of the documentation.
  • SOM can now display EULA texts in HTML format.

1.1.4

  • External commands (install hooks, file explorer, product executables) are now started in the foreground on Windows.
  • The console log accessible in the frontend now shows all log entries.
  • The frontend now shows a warning when the SOM backend is running with elevated rights.
  • The frontend dialog showing the progress when installing or removing packages is now localized.

1.1.3

  • Environment variable changes are now broadcast to the system on Windows.
  • The date of the copyright notice of the frontend is now up-to-date.

1.1.2

  • SOM now installs all icons that are part of a product alongside the program files.
    This solves the problem that the icons of installed products could not be displayed when SOM was started as an offline installer.
  • Running SOM as an offline installer, now completely ignores the current catalog URL setting.
    When the catalog URL was last saved by an old offline installer where SOM version was smaller than 1.1, the catalog URL was set to a now invalid URL. This led to the problem that the offline installer could not install new products.
  • On Windows SOM now installs the correct version of the uninstaller somctl.exe automatically to the som.d folder.
    For previous SOM versions, the uninstaller had to be part of the product feed. This is no longer necessary.

1.1.1

  • Setting the HTTP proxy did not work as expected.
    The command line option -P/--proxy and the frontend setting "HTTP Proxy"did not have any effect. This has been fixed and the option now works as expected.
  • In system session mode SOM cached data in the local repository’s toplevel folder.
    This issue has been fixed.
  • The news display in the frontend was not localized.
    Also, when "All" was selected, no news was displayed when the frontend language was changed. Both these issues have been fixed.

1.0.0.2

  • Extend output from som list.
    The "list" command now lists the installation folder of each package. To make parsing the output easier, the fields are separated by tabs instead of spaces. The package description is no longer enclosed in parentheses.
  • Always install SOM as som via pop-up dialog.
    Renaming the SOM binary caused incomplete offline installations. This problem has been fixed.
  • Add package field Default (ApiVersion 1.3).
    The default package is installed using the button Install on the page "Available".
  • Fix package selection of meta packages with multiple versions.
    The automatic selection of meta packages produced inconsistent package selections in some cases. This problem has been fixed.
  • Add uploaded license files for HALCON as new files by default.
    SOM used to replace existing license files when a license file of the same name had been selected for upload. Now, license files are added as new files by default. If a license file with the same name already exists, an increasing number will be added to the target file. It is also possible to overwrite an existing license file by selecting its name in the upload form.

1.0.0.1

  • Fix installation issue when initially installing SOM from catalog.
    When running the downloaded SOM binary and installing SOM from the catalog instead of using the installation from the pop-up greeting, the installation would register the wrong path for the generated shortcuts.
  • Add command line option to force user mode.
  • Enable interactive acceptance of EULA from command line.
    Installing a product from the command line that requires the acceptance of an EULA is now possible by entering "I accept" interactively. Previously, the command always had to be repeated with an additional command line option "--accept string". This is still supported for non-interactive installations from the command line.

1.0.0.0

  • Get rid of the bootstrap installer.
    SOM now only consists of a single binary. It can be used without installing it at all. Upon startup, SOM will provide an installation button in case you wish to install it or upgrade an existing installation.
  • SOM as an offline installer.
    SOM can be bundled with additional products for offline installation. If SOM detects a repository directory next to it upon startup, it will serve this directory as http://localhost:8000/mirror (or whatever port it uses at startup). In addition, the catalog for this session will be switched to the mirrored repository. This way, the bundled product(s) can be installed without requiring an internet connection at all.
  • Detect running sessions with same username but different mode.
    Upon startup, SOM re-used a running session if the username matched regardless of the session mode. Now, SOM also compares the session mode (user/system), and will start a new session if a different mode is requested.
  • Respect configuration changes to the installation targets.
    When changing the installation target for programs/data in the settings page, SOM had to be restarted to actually use them. This problem has been fixed.
  • Create directories only if needed.
    SOM used to create configuration/installation directories upon the first start of the program.
  • Change handling of installed products from multiple catalogs.
    SOM used to distinguish products by their feed URL. Now, products are distinguished by their BaseDir, i.e., the base directory used for the installation. This way, products can be mirrored at multiple locations without conflict (provided that the feed actually specifies the same product).
  • Do not display installed products on page "Available".
  • Do not display products with no packages for current architecture on page "Available".
  • Always show progress bars on terminal (if available).
  • Document the different methods to uninstall SOM.
  • Move button to manage packages to a drop-down menu.
    Each installed product now features a drop-down menu ⋮ to customize the installation. The entries allow to manage the installed packages, update the product (see below), or uninstall it entirely.
  • Detect updates for installed packages.
    In previous versions, SOM used to download the catalog only when started for the first time. Further, updates had to be initiated manually by clicking "Refresh from server". Now, SOM fetches the catalog from the server automatically upon server startup unless "Keep catalog up-to-date"is deactivated in the settings. Potential updates for installed products are now indicated on the page "Installed". If updates are available, a bell icon appears next to the product name. Click this icon or the entry "Update" in the drop-down menu of the product.
  • Change package selection to an expandable tree.
    You can no longer switch between basic and meta packages. Instead, meta packages are displayed as nodes, which can be expanded to show the included base packages in case you wish to tweak the installation.
  • Allow feeds to include external packages.
    If a package description contains the field "PackagesURL", packages from the referenced file are included into the current feed.
  • Slight modifications to the output format in command line mode.
  • Removal of somctl.
    The auxiliary tool "somctl" has been removed. Its functionality has been integrated into SOM itself.
  • Add command line option "-A" to start SOM as Administrator on Windows.
  • Remove "base and "meta" commands.
    The command "list" now lists all packages of the given feed (-f string) by default.
  • Add optional terminal path for the command "cli" on Linux.
    By default, "som cli" starts an XTerm from /usr/local/xterm. To use a different terminal, add its path to the command:
som cli /usr/local/st
  • Require "MVTec Account" to download files.
    SOM now requires an "MVTec Account" for online installations. Downloaded files are associated with your login. Offline installations are not affected by this requirement. Once logged in, SOM stores a login token, so that your login is re-used in future sessions. If you want to install products from the command line, you have to log in from a browser session beforehand.
  • Display additional content for the selected product.
    The page "Installed" may display additional content for the selected product. Currently, this can be a link to the product documentation. The selected product is indicated by a slightly darker background color. To select another product, simply click on its background area.

0.9.2.1

  • Force default settings if SOM is not installed.

0.9.2.0

  • Extensions to the bootstrap installer.
    The bootstrap installer that installs SOM initially has been a mostly silent experience. It now features a minimalist graphical interface to provide a little more feedback of the installation process. It can also update older versions of SOM. The graphical interface can be suppressed with the command line option "-n". SOM can be uninstalled by providing the command line option "-u".
    If the file name of the bootstrap installer includes the string "offline", it expects a directory named repository next to the installer binary. The assumption is that this directory contains offline data for the installation of a certain product on machines with no internet access. The contents of this directory will be imported into the local repository, and SOM will be started so that the product can be installed. The offline installer will complain if it does not find the directory.
  • Changed CLI behavior if -f string is given without command.
    If a product is selected using the command line option -f string and none of the commands "base", "list", "install", "meta",or "remove" is given, som starts as usual, and opens the configuration page of the specified product. The old behavior (listing the meta and base packages) can be achieved using the command "list".

0.9.1.0

  • Initial public release of SOM.