Pre-configuring the Client

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You can pre-configure the Pigeon Client at installation using a configuration INI file. If used, the configuration INI file must be located in the same directory as your Pigeon4Setup.exe file.

The default name for the configuration file is Client.ini. If this file exists when you launch the Pigeon4Setup.exe, the information contained in it will be used to pre-configure the Pigeon Client during the installation.

You may use another name for the configuration INI file. In this case, you will need to launch the Pigeon4Setup.exe file with an optional /INI:<iniFileName> parameter (see the next section for command line parameters). That way, you can create as many configuration files as you need to deploy your Pigeon Clients company-wide.

In the table that follows, a complete list of parameters are presented as well as the default values only if the information does not exist in the file or if the file itself does not exist. All these parameters may after be changed through the Pigeon Client's Options menu.

[Section]
Item	Values	Default value
[General]
RemoteHost	Name or IP address of the Pigeon Server's machine
RemotePort	TCP Port number to use to connect to the Pigeon Server	3100
FontName	Name of the font	Arial
FontSize	Size of the font	12
FontBold	0 - 1 (0 = not bold, 1 = bold)	0
FontItalic	0 - 1 (0 = not italic, 1 = italic)	0
ShowShadow	0 - 1 (0 = no shadow, 1 = shadow)	1
[Sounds]
AlertType	0 - 2 (0 = no sound, 1 = beep, 2 = wave file)	1
AlertWave	<Wave filename>
WarningType	0 - 2 (0 = no sound, 1 = beep, 2 = wave file)	1
WarningWave	<Wave filename>
MessageType	0 - 2 (0 = no sound, 1 = beep, 2 = wave file)	0
MessageWave	<Wave filename>
[Window]
Vertical	0 - 1 (0 = top, 1 = bottom)	0
Horizontal	0 - 2 (0 = left, 1 = center, 2 = right)	0
[Groups]
Name of the group	Global or Local

INI Configuration elements
[General]
RemoteHost : Write the name or the IP address of the machine for the Pigeon Server you wish to connect to.
RemotePort : Write the TCP port number you wish to use to connect to the Pigeon Server. Should be the same port number defined in the Pigeon Server configuration Window.
[Sounds]
When a message is posted to a client for the first time, an audible voice message may be heard. This voice message is configurable for each of the three (3) types of message. Each type of message accepts a 0 value (no audible message), 1 (a beep from the machine) or 2 (a WAVE file with the extension .wav). Once the client has been installed, some audible files are available in the directory <installation directory>\media. The parameters are:
AlertType: Indicates an audible alert. The possible values are from 0 to 2.
AlertWave: Indicates an audible file to use when AlertType=2.
WarningType: Indicates an audible warning. The values are from 0 to 2.
WarningWave: Indicates an audible file to use when WarningType=2.
MessageType: Indicates an audible message. The values are from 0 to 2.
MessageWave: Indicates the audible file to use when MessageType=2.
All of these parameters are modifiable by the user in their Options window, tab Sounds. Note that there are no settings for the Alarm level for which a continuous alarm sound will be heard.
[Window]
These parameters allow the definition of the initial position of the posting window:
Vertical: Defines the vertical position of the posting window. The possible values are 0 (the window will be positioned at the top of the screen), or 1 (the window will be positioned at the bottom of the screen).
Horizontal: Defines the horizontal position of the posted message window. The possible values are 0 (to the left of the screen), 1 (in the center of the screen) or 2 (to the right of the screen).
The posted message window is always about the height of a Windows title bar depending of the selected font size, and half the width of the screen.
The users may modify these parameters in the Options window, tab Positions. In addition, the displace the posted message by a dragging and dropping. If the posted message window is outside or partly outside of the visible portion of the screen, the window will automatically be moved back to the inside of the screen at the next posting cycle.
[Groups]
You may add predefined Pigeon Groups for which the client will belong to. It simply means to add them in the group=Global format so that all users of the machine that have Pigeon Client is installed, will be part of the group. Or you can add them to group=Local so that only the current user may take part. For example your section [Groups] may contain the following lines:
Sales=Global
Sales Manager=Local
Thus, all of the users of the machine will be part of the Sales group but only the person currently using the machine during the time of the installation will be part of the Sales Manager group.

These groups are used by the Pigeon Communication System only and are apart of the Domain groups.
The users may add/modify these values in their Options window under the Groups tab (if Options have been enabled by the Admin).

Notes:   1.   The section headers ([General], [Sounds] , [Windows] and [Groups]) are required.      2.   If no Pigeon Server respond for the specified RemoteHost and/or RemotePort, the Pigeon Client will broadcast a request to get a valid host and port number to use.