User Prompting Overview

User Prompting enables you to automate the collection of data from Client users and from system files on Client PCs. It uses a four stage process:

Create the Prompt File Prompt files are created and edited in the User Prompt Editor. Prompts can be used to collect any user-related information, such as location, department, cost code, telephone number. They can also be used to collect system variables from Client PCs without user intervention. To minimize data entry and consistency problems, user-entered replies can be limited to specific formats, lengths and cases or to a selection from a pre-defined pick list.

By default, Vector AM includes a standard prompt file that is distributed to Clients as part of the Client kit. You can update the file as part of the Customize options in the Site Creation Wizard.

Distribute the Prompt File When the Prompt file is complete, distribute it to Client PCs using the Get User Data operation. This copies the Prompt file to the offline areas of the selected Client PCs.

Collect the Information When the Client is next activated, it checks the offline area for an updated Prompt file. If it finds a new Prompt file, the prompts are displayed to the Client user or used to collect information from the Client PC. The completed file is then copied to the Client's offline area.

Save the Information The new information is saved to the Site database when an Update Hardware Inventory operation is next run against the Clients PCs.

User Prompt data is held in the Site database in Client Properties, and can be used to create dynamic groups. To display a Client's properties, select a group to which the Client belongs, right-click the Client in the Client view and choose Properties from the shortcut menu,

Related Topics

Collecting Variables from Client PCs

Enabling and Disabling User Prompting

Modifying User Prompt Files

Distributing User Prompt Questions