New Tool: XenApp Publishing Extensions 2.0 for App-V

The XenApp Publishing Extensions 2.0 are two tools that enable easy publication of applications to your XenApp 4.5 or 5.0 farm.

Once you have deployed App-V virtual applications to your XenApp 4.5 and 5.0 Farms, you will want to publish the shortcuts to users. This can be a slow and tedious process  for App-V virtual applications when using the XenApp Management Console, requiring you to reference sfttray, the OSD name, and then locate the correct icon file. The tools in this Publishing Extensions package are designed to help make this publishing task a little easier to perform. These tools work with any style of App-V distribution, including the full App-V Management Server, SCCM, and “Stand Alone Client” (especially when using my App-V Deploy and Publish Tools).  The XenApp Publishing Extensions 2.0 contains two tools.

The first tool, CitrixXenAppPe, is an updated version of the original version posted by Shannon Ma, who worked for Citrix at tht time.  This tool supports the easy publishing to the farm using an existing shortcut to the application on a server.  Version 2.0 of this tool fixes an issue with publishing from shortcuts that are App-V virtual application shortcuts, an issue that caused the Citrix Published App to have a “black box” for an icon.  A video demo using version 1.0 of the tool exists, and operation remains unchanged in version 2.0 (but now works for shortcuts to App-V virtual applications).

The second tool, Citrix.XenApp.PublishFromAppV, is a new alternative publishing tool that only works with App-V virtual applications.   This tool supports the easy publishing to the farm using the information already stored in the App-V client.  This tool is started from the start menu, and the interface is just like the shortcut tool, except that it will enumerate the App-V applications present on the server and allow you to select which are to be published.  This supports bulk publishing of the App-V virtual applications.

Both of these tools work with XenApp 4.5 and 5.0, but not 6.0 due to changes in the Citrix SDKs.  When working with App-V, the tools support App-V deployments using App-V 4.1 through at least 4.6, no matter how the App-V apps were deployed (using the App-V Management Server, SCCM, or stand-alone client).

Because this updates an existing Citrix tool, I worked with Citrix to be able to distribute the updated and new tools through the Citrix Developer Network “Code Share” program.  These tools are available from this link:  https://community.citrix.com/display/xa/Citrix+XenApp+Publishing+Extensions+2.0

By Tim Mangan

Tim is a Microsoft MVP, and a Citrix CTP Fellow. He is an expert in App-V and MSIX.

8 comments

  1. I’m trying to install this tool on Server 2008 R1 x64 with XenApp 5.0 R01and the msi says “Citrix XenApp Publishing Extension can only be installed on a XenApp 4.5, 5.0, or 6.0 server. Please re-run this setup on a supported system.”

    I have retried after installing the mfcom sdk and I still have the same problem. I also have .net 3.5 sp1, and the citrix offline plugin 6.0.2 installed on this XenApp server. I’m not sure what else could be missing.

    1. Assuming mfcom is there, this is probably an x64 issue with the installer. I will be looking at that code in the next few weeks with an eye towards XA6, but I’ll see about that installer issue. Stay tuned…

  2. Hi, Tim. This tool crashes on me (GUI just disappears) when I try to bring up the ‘Add User’ dialog using right-click to publish, and also at the same place using the App-V only publishing tool. This happens on two seperate servers, both 64-bit Win2008 R1 with XenApp 5. I really want to use this tool for our XA5 farm – any suggestions?

    PS – bought your App-V Client book – it’s great! Hoping to attend or send someone on your sequencing Master Class as well. Nice talking with you at BriForum in Chicago.

    Bryan

    1. I would guess that you need a pre-req. Probably DotNet 3.5SP1.

      As for training on App-V, we still have an opening in Indiana next week (need to book NOW!) and plenty of room for Boston in December.

    2. Thanks, Tim – I’ll give it a try. I’m the guy from Vancouver who will probably go to Kevin’s class in Calgary, or get him to come out here for a class if we have enough people. I’m working with Rod Kruetzfeld from Microsoft Calgary on some App-V PoC stuff and he knows and works with Kevin. Small world, I guess. Love it!

  3. Nice work Tim! Just tried to find you on Twitter w/o much luck. It should be fairly easy to get the tool to work on XenApp 6.0. Back when I wrote it, I abstracted all of the app publishing logic into one class. You can write a new version of it with all of the PowerShell goodness in XenApp 6.0.

    1. Yeah, I don’t tweet. Must be why I don’t do powershell yet either! That will probably happen this year and I’ll make a version for XenApp 6. Of course I not only need to learn powershell but the power shell commands that replace mfcom. Should be fun!

      Thanks, Shannon, for the original version. It was an easy base to start from.

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