Create a new ADDPORTAL=url command-line switch on Desktop setup.exe

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01-18-2016 11:01 AM
Status: Open
JohnDye
Occasional Contributor III

Please add a Registry Key to Wow6432Node\ESRI\License<desktop-version> for setting Portal Connection Properties and implement a new command-line switch – ADDPORTAL=url – on the ArcGIS for Desktop setup.exe file to specify Portal Connection properties

I envision this operating similarly to the SEAT_PREFERENCE and SOFTWARE_CLASS switches available on the setup.exe file. Just as those switches simply write their values to the Esri License Registry (eg. Wow6432Node\ESRI\License10.3), the ADDPORTAL=url – switch could write one or more portal connections to the system registry. ArcGIS Desktop would then read those registry keys at inialization to determine which Portal Connections, if any, are available and possibly another to determine which connection is the active connection. One could still manage Portal Connections through the ArcGIS Administrator GUI if they found that easier and had Admin permissions to do so, but just as is the case with setting your SOFTWARE_CLASS or SEAT_PREFERENCE through the ArcGIS Administrator instead of the Registry, all ArcGIS Administrator would really be doing is modifying the appropriate registry keys by writing new keys for new connections, modifying existing keys for changes to existing connections and deleting keys for removed connections.

This Registry Key approach combined with the addition of the ADDPORTAL switch to ArcGIS for Desktop's setup.exe file would allow Administrators to establish Portal Connections for users during installation of ArcGIS for Desktop by calling the ADDPORTAL switch on the setup.exe. This would prevent our organization (and I expect many others) from being required to remote into a user's system to configure their Portal Connections after an automated install deployed over the network.