BrightAuthor Configurator

12 min

This page / section pertains to BrightAuthor Classic, our legacy app. BrightSign Author is our latest app for managing content and players.

Development of BrightAuthor Classic has largely ceased and the app will eventually be deprecated and replaced with BrightSign Author.

The BrightAuthor Configurator provides an easy way to edit the installation executable file for BrightAuthor. After you use this tool, you will be able to distribute copies of BrightAuthor that point to BrightSign Network Enterprise Edition URLs of your choosing. This technical note will also show you how to provide a link to your custom BrightAuthor installer on the BSNEE WebUI. Refer to the end of this document for the limitations of this tool.

Use the Configurator

You will find the BrightAuthorConfigurator.exe file in the .zip archive that you downloaded:

Extract BrightAuthorConfigurator.exe file from the .zip archive.
Open the file. You will see a window containing several fields.

Basic Configuration

If you used standard domain names for BSNEE services during the BSNEE installation process, you should perform Basic Configuration:

BrightAuthor Installer File: Locate and select the BrightAuthor installer executable file (.msi) you wish to configure. Alternatively, you can locate the BrightAuthor installer in Windows Explorer and drag it into the configurator file.
Basic Configuration: Enter the Base Domain Name that was used in the BSNEE installer. The domain names of BSNEE nodes will be generated automatically using the base domain name.
Target BSNEE Version: Select the version of the BSNEE instance that BrightAuthor will be configured connect to. This value defaults to the latest BSNEE version.

Note that the Basic Configuration field is only enabled if a supported BrightAuthor installer file has been supplied.

Once you've completed Basic Configuration, click Next to proceed to the Connectivity Validation step.

Advanced Configuration

If you used custom domain names for BSNEE services during the BSNEE installation process, or if the “CN” attribute of the certificate installed for the BSNEE Web Services node differs from the BSNEE Web Services domain name (FQDN), you will need to perform the Advanced Configuration steps:

Locate and select the BrightAuthor Installer File you wish to configure. Alternatively, you can locate the BrightAuthor installer in Windows Explorer and drag it into the configurator window.
Check the Use Advanced Configuration box.
Select the Windows Server version that the BSNEE instance is running (either 2008 / 2008 R2 or 2012 / 2012 R2).
Specify the Protocol used for each node (HTTP or HTTPS).
Specify the Domain name and Port of each node. Ensure that the same names and port numbers were used during the BSNEE installation process.
Set the WS-* Endpoint DNS Identity (CN) to a value that matches the “CN” attribute of the certificate. If the certificate has multiple Subject Alternative Names, specify the last name in the list.
- If you’re using a self-signed certificate for the BSNEE Web Services node (for testing purposes), check Disable Validation to allow BrightAuthor to bypass certificate validation/revocation checks when calling API methods.
- Note that the Web Services node must use HTTP for BrightAuthor file uploads. As a result, if you are using custom HTTP/HTTPS ports and you specify an HTTPS port for the Web Services node, you must enter an HTTP port as well. This condition does not apply to the Device Handlers and Storage nodes. BrightAuthor will use standard HTTP/HTTPS ports if the Port fields are left blank
If desired, enter the Default Time Server for BrightAuthor. Check the Use BSN Cloud box if you wish to use the default BrightSign Network time server.
Click Next to proceed to the Connectivity Validation step.

Connectivity Validation

This optional step allows you to test that all information was entered into the BrightAuthor Configurator correctly. It also allows you to determine whether BrightAuthor will be able to connect to the BSNEE instance in your particular network environment.

Click Setup Proxy... if the Configurator will be connecting to the BSNEE instance through a proxy server.

Check the Use Proxy box to configure the proxy settings.
Enter the IP address of the proxy server into the Host field.
Enter the port number of the proxy server into the Port field.
Check the Requires Authentication box if the proxy server requires you to enter credentials. Enter your Username and Password.
Click OK when finished configuring the proxy connection.
Click Validate Connectivity. The configurator will attempt to communicate with all relevant BSNEE endpoints and report whether each attempt was a success or failure using standard HTTP status codes.
Click Dump Log to retrieve a log of error messages.

Output Package

Select the Output Package of the BrightAuthor installer package:

CAB SFX executable: This package is built using Windows IExpress technology. It supports the “unattended” installation mode for enterprise network deployment.
7-Zip SFX executable: This package is smaller than the CAB SFX executable. It should be used if Windows IExpress is unavailable or cannot be supported.
.ZIP with MSI package: This package contains an archive with an .msi and related files.

Create the Installer

Click the Save button and select a destination folder. The configured BrightAuthor installer will be created in the selected folder.

Before distributing the custom installer to end users, check the generated executable by using it to install BrightAuthor on your PC.

Error Messages

The BrightAuthor Configurator may return the following messages during the setup process:

No valid BrightAuthor Installer found or version is unsupported. – The Installer package specified in the BrightAuthor Installer Path field is not supported.

Base Domain Name cannot be empty. – The Base Domain Name field is empty and the Save button is clicked.

Application Services domain name cannot be empty. – The Application Services Domain Name field is empty and the Save button is clicked.

Device Handlers domain name cannot be empty. – The Device Handlers Domain Name field is empty and the Save button is clicked.

Storage domain name cannot be empty. – The Storage Domain Name field is empty and the Save button is clicked.

Error: Unsupported BrightAuthor Installer. – An error occurs during the BrightAuthor extraction process.

An unknown error occurred while creating 7-Zip package. – An error occurs during creation of 7-Zip package (before it is an SFX executable).

Distribute BrightAuthor Installers via the WebUI

You can easily distribute your new custom BrightAuthor installer to end users through the BSNEE WebUI. After completing the steps below, there will be an additional section labeled “Download BrightAuthor Link” on the settings page of the WebUI of your BrightSign Network.

Copy the custom BrightAuthor installer to your BrightSign Network Enterprise Edition persistent storage. The following is a common file path (yours may be different): C:\BSNEE\Storage\Persistent\ba\BrightAuthor.3.x.x.x.setup.exe. You have now created a download link to the custom installer. For example, if the URL of your storage server is http://storage.mydomain.com/, then the download link will be http://storage.mydomain.com/ba/BrightAuthor.3.x.x.x. setup.exe.
Go to your website location and open the settings.aspx file with a text or script editor (Notepad, TextEdit, or a similar program). The following is a common location (yours may be different): C:\inetpub\wwwroot\BSNEEWebSite
Search for the </asp:LoginView> tag (located on or around line 218). Add the following HTML markup below the </asp:LoginView> tag as shown below. This code uses an example file path to the BrightAuthor installation in the storage. This link will be different in your case. To determine the correct link, refer to Step 1.

<div class="panel x4">
	<div class="panelContent">
		<h4>Resources</h4>
		<ul class="notificationOptions">
			<li>
				<a href="http://storage.mydomain.com/ba/BrightAuthor.msi">Download BrightAutor</a>
			</li>
		</ul>
	</div>
</div>

4. Check the download link on the BrightSign Network WebUI to make sure it works. End users will now be able to download the custom installer from the WebUI.

Command-Line Switches for BrightAuthor Packages

Configured executable BrightAuthor packages have command-line switches that can assist in deploying packages over an enterprise network or performing “unattended” setup (i.e. BrightAuthor is installed with default settings automatically without prompting the user).

CAB SFX executable
/Q – Unattended install
/Q:A – Administrative install (extract only)
/? – Help
7-Zip SFX executable
/Q – Unattended install
/A – Administrative install (extract only)