Announcements
Attention for Customers without Multi-Factor Authentication or Single Sign-On - OTP Verification rolls out April 2025. Read all about it here.

Vault Server Login Toggle or Shortcut

mhoughton8FD54
Participant

Vault Server Login Toggle or Shortcut

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

I have a requirement to switch between two separate Vault servers. I need a way to quickly toggle between them. A shortcut or link of some sort would be a great way to achieve this and allow other members of a team to do the same.

0 Likes
Reply
Accepted solutions (2)
1,820 Views
26 Replies
Replies (26)

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

@mhoughton8FD54 

I moved your Idea post to the discussion forum since you already have the ability to do this.

In the upper right corner of the Thin Client, you can switch between vaults by selecting them from the drop-down.

You can also bookmark the Vault URL.

 

ihayesjr_0-1673281763026.png

 




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

@mhoughton8FD54 

Sorry I think you are talking about the thick client.

You can create desktop shortcuts with this format.

 

http://<servername>/AutodeskDM/Services/EntityDataCommandRequest.aspx?Vault=<vaultname>

 

Can you give that a try?




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

By the way, here are some steps.

  1. Create the URL as previously mentioned.
  2. Put the URL in a browser.
  3. The browser should create an acr file.
  4. Take the acr file on your desktop and rename.
  5. Double-click on it, and it should open the Vault client opening the vault in the URL.



Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

This need is for Vault Pro 2022 and higher, not thin client. The URL shortcut is not successful because it only populates the Server and Vault values, but does not select the appropriate Authentication. We have one server which requires "Windows Account" authentication and a customer server connection which requires "Autodesk ID" authentication. As far as I can tell, this solution does not yet exist.

0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

You are looking for this idea? Command line parameter for start up - Autodesk Community

 




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

Yes, that is a similar request, but we also need to be able to define authentication method. Solution can be a drop-down in Vault Pro client, URL or startup command line switch for a shortcut.

0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

You can add the authentication method to that idea.




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

GunnarNilsson
Collaborator
Collaborator
Accepted solution

Start the vault client, login to one of the vault servers and then close the vault client. Make a copy of %AppData%\Roaming\Autodesk\Autodesk Vault Professional 2023\ApplicationPreferences.xml.

 

Start the vault client, login to the other server and then close the vault client. Make a copy of the new %AppData%\Roaming\Autodesk\Autodesk Vault Professional 2023\ApplicationPreferences.xml.
Now you have two different xml files with different login info. Make two scripts that first copies the desired xml file to %AppData%\Roaming\Autodesk\Autodesk Vault Professional 2023\ApplicationPreferences.xml and then start the vault client. This should in theory work, but I haven't tested it out yet.

 

0 Likes

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

Gunnar, yes that works. Thanks. However, is there a way to apply a similar method to the Send as links function, which generates an ACR shortcut file? Can the authentication method somehow also be included in the ACR xml?

0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

@mhoughton8FD54 

No that is not going to work in the Send As Link function. We wouldn't want to send Vault login and password credentials via an email link. 




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

I'm not saying password is needed. Only the Authentication method: "Windows Account" or "Autodesk ID". Both of these methods do not require a password. But they need to be specified for proper login.

0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

It would be impossible to know which method to use for which users and/or vaults or servers.




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

@mhoughton8FD54 wrote:

This need is for Vault Pro 2022 and higher, not thin client. The URL shortcut is not successful because it only populates the Server and Vault values, but does not select the appropriate Authentication. We have one server which requires "Windows Account" authentication and a customer server connection which requires "Autodesk ID" authentication. As far as I can tell, this solution does not yet exist.


Why not have both servers enable both Windows Authentication and Autodesk ID methods to log into them? Then this link becomes unnecessary.




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

Vault already knows that detail and is storing it in the ApplicationPreferences.xml file. Are you saying that there is no way to modify the XML in an ACR to specify to use "Autodesk ID" as the authentication for the specified server?

 

The Server name and Vault Database name are already being passed in an ACR file.  

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ADM xmlns="http://schemas.autodesk.com/msd/plm/ExplorerAutomation/2004-11-01">
  <Server>[ServerName]</Server>
  <Vault>[VaultName]</Vault>
  <Operations>
    <Operation ObjectType="">
      <ObjectID>
      </ObjectID>
    </Operation>
  </Operations>
</ADM>

 

Can Authentication Type not be amended to add a line like is used in the Preferences file? For example, couldn't something like "<AuthenticationType>2</AuthenticationType>" be added to the resulting ACR?

0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

What you are asking is a feature that is specific to your environment. A user can be configured to use multiple Authentication methods for the same server based on their location. Why force the authentication method?

If the user has already logged into that server once before, there isn't a need to force a method through the links or URL.

 

For example, if a UserA is in the office and chooses to use Windows Authentication to log in.

However, when UserA is working from home, they must use the Autodesk ID authentication method to log into the server using Vault Gateway. 




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

@mhoughton8FD54 

I am still trying to understand the problem you are trying to solve with this solution. 

Is it that you don't want the user to select the authentication based on the server they log into, and it is selected automatically?




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

We have clients/customers that have control of the servers and require us to access them according to their requirements. Therefore, there is a requirement to be able to login with various combinations of server authentication. It seems to me that if Autodesk provides 3 different methods of authentication (Windows, Vault, Autodesk), that this method type should be included in any connection string link.

0 Likes

mhoughton8FD54
Participant
Participant

My problem is two-fold.

 

First, we have many users that need to bounce back and forth between various Vault servers with different authentication types. Each time they switch to a different Vault, they have to manually re-enter login details. This is confusing and cumbersome. We need either a Vault instance drop-down, like that is present in the Thin client, or a way to create a shortcut that can be used to quickly enter a specific Vault server.

 

Secondly, to be able to even use the Send as link function, the end user must already be logged into the corresponding Vault in order to use the ACR file to open to it. This is not helpful if they are logged into a different Vault server, with different authentication type.

0 Likes

ihayesjr
Community Manager
Community Manager

@mhoughton8FD54 

The user doesn't need to be logged into Vault to use the link. When they click on the link, it will start the Vault client. Once the user logs into that server and Vault, it will take the user directly to the object the link came from.

 

If the thick client remembered the last authentication type used for a specific server, would that solve the problem?

For example, every time the user gets to the login dialog and types in a server, the authentication method is selected automatically based on the last time the user successfully logged into that server. 

 

Having the authentication method in the Send as Link may not work depending on the person getting the link. As previously stated, the company may use Windows Authentication for all employees. Still, if they are collaborating with a third party, the third party may have to use the Vault Account or Autodesk ID method for access. If the link is sent based on the current user's login, the third party will attempt to log in using Windows Authentication and fail.




Irvin Hayes Jr
Sr. Product Manager
Autodesk, Inc.

Vault - Under the Hood Blog
0 Likes