Migrating local desktop client configuration files

There are a number of files associated with the FileHold Desktop Application (FDA) that are stored locally on client workstation including the current state cache for the user interface, files in transfer, manage import profiles, etc. If a user is moving to a new workstation, it may be desirable to copy some of these files to the new workstations to avoid manually recreating configuration on the new workstation. Local files for the FDA are stored in one of two places: the program data folder for shared inboxes and manage import profiles and the user's Windows home folder for all other files. The following are example paths for shared and individual configuration file locations.

C:\ProgramData\FileHold\FDA
C:\Users\JohnS.MyDomain\AppData\Roaming\FileHold\FDA

This article is intended for Windows workstation administrators.

Preparing the source workstation

Before moving files it is good practice to clear the inboxes, files in transfer, and working documents. These objects all likely have references to files on the source workstation that may not be valid for the destination. You need to do this for each Windows user that uses the workstation and each FileHold user used by a single Windows user.

1. In the old workstation, log into the FDA.
2. Check the inbox. Remove or send any files there.
3. Check the files in transfer. Wait for files to finish sending and clear all other files.
4. Check the working documents. Synchronize insuring no working documents remain on the old workstation.
5. Exit the FDA.

Some configuration is specific to a particular FileHold user even when theWindows user is the same. For example, an administrator will have their normal user login, but they may also have a test user login. Both those FileHold users will have their own configuration. Another example is where a scanning workstation is shared among many people. There is a generic Windows login, but each scanning operator has their own FileHold login. You can tell when there is more than one FileHold user configuration is stored for the Windows user when there is more than one GUID folder name in the Windows user folder. Each GUID folder is named for the FileHold user's GUID identifier. This identifier is the domain users GUID for domain users or a locally generated GUID for local users. A tool is available to list all user GUIDs. For example:

C:\Users\JohnS.MyDomain\AppData\Roaming\FileHold\FDA\3d57af3f-e550-4814-85fe-0329016c60ea

Preparing the destination workstation

1. Install the FDA as normal.
2. Copy the configuration files to the destination workstation matching the locations from the source workstation. Replace any default configuration files with the files from the source workstation as needed. If the Windows user folders have changed from the source to the destination, simply update the user portion of the destination path for the files. The important part is that the subfolder tree matches.
3. Log in to the FDA and confirm that the settings have been transferred as expected.

If some of the files are sourced in the ProgramData folder, make sure the destination folder has similar matching security settings. Objects like shared manage import profiles only work when users have correctly configured Windows permissions to the shared folder.

Understanding FDA configuration files

There are five different types of files used to store local FDA configuration. Regardless of the file extension, each file's contents is XML. If the FDA detects that any one of these files does not contain valid XML the user will be notified and the file will be cleared and reset to default. 

Filename	Purpose
options.dat	User interface last settings and related configuration including connection options. May contain user log in credentials if they have been saved in the connection options dialog.
wddb.dat	Working documents database. A list of all the working documents including their document id in FileHold and their local workstation path.
folders.dat	List of recent folders.
user.dat	Inbox contents, files in transfer, watched folder definitions, and list of manage import profile definitions and current statistics.
IMP-<manage-import-profile-name>.xml	A single manage import profile definition where <manage-import-profile-name> is the actual name of the import profile as found in the user.dat file.
settings.xml	FastFind settings.
view.dat	Undocked PDF/Image viewer windows state. Deprecated.

Administrators should consider making backups of the manage import profiles and watched folder configurations from local workstations.