Creating an XML File to Load

In this topic:

Manage Computers

You can create your own XML file similar to the NetConfig.xml provided with Spector 360 and use it to populate the Manage Computers computer list (see Loading a Computer List).

The Control Center uses the NetConfig.xml file to store the list of computers. Each computer that you have added appears in this file next to a <computer> tag. The Control adds a <data> tag to hold information it has received from communication with the computer: operating system, OS version, system root.

You must have Microsoft’s msxml3.dll in your System32 directory. This should not be a problem, since it installs with Internet Explorer 5 (IE5) or greater, Windows 2000, and XP Pro installations.

Sample NetConfig XML

The following is an example NetConfig.xml file. If you create a text file containing simple tags like these, the Control Center will add the necessary <data> tags.

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

</computer>

</computer>

</computer>

</domain>

</group>

</domain>

</group>

</resources>

XML Format

NetConfig.xml uses the following XML elements to specify computers on the network to discover and display in the Control Center. The file defines each group, the domain within the group, and computers within the domain. The "name" attribute is required for each group, domain, and computer tag or the tag will be ignored.

The first line is the XML processing instruction and must be present for the XML parser (msxml3.dll) to recognize the file contents:
<?xml version="1.0" ?>
Resources: The <resources> </resources> tags contain all the file contents. XML requires a top-level tag.
Group: The group tag is required and specifies the group to which computer(s) are assigned. The group tag may have the same name attribute as the domain tag. The group encloses a domain(s) and its computers.
<group name="name" >
<domain name="name" >
<computer name="computer">
</computer>
</domain>
</goup>
Domain: The domain tag specifies the network domain name. The domain name must exactly match (case insensitive) the network domain name. If the <domain> tag set does not contain any <computer> tags—then all computers within that domain will be discovered and tracked.
Computer: (optional) The computer tag specifies the Windows computer name. If a <computer> tag exists, it must reside within a <domain> tag. If a <computer> tag exists within a specified domain, then all computers NOT specified under that <domain> tag would NOT be discovered and tracked.

The computer name must exactly match the Windows computer name:
<computer name="PETE">

A wildcard character * (asterisk) can be used as either a prefix or a suffix to the name to reduce the number of computer entries in the file. For example, <computer name=JOHN*> will discover and track all computers with names starting with JOHN in the domain (JOHNB, JOHND, JOHNJ). The tag <computer name=*XP> will discover and track all computers with names ending in XP (JOHN_XP, MARYXP, TESTXP). A computer tag cannot contain a prefix and a suffix wildcard in the same name attribute or it will be ignored.