ConfigMgr Advanced Selection

Aug 14, 2017

When using Advanced extraction mode, you use the Advanced Selection page to select the applications and/or packages that you want to extract from the selected ConfigMgr site for loading into AppDNA.

Note: If the ConfigMgr site contains a very large number of packages or applications, this page takes some time to display them all. However, you can use the page, while this continues. When enough packages and/or applications have been displayed for your purposes, click Cancel to stop any more from being displayed.

The top part of the page has features that make it easy to select groups of packages and applications for loading into AppDNA. The details are as follows:

  • Selection – Select this option and then use the check boxes in this section to select or deselect all packages or applications that have been added, changed, or deleted, or that are unchanged since the last time the data was extracted. By default, the Not loaded / New and Modified check boxes are selected.
  • Batching – Select this option if you want to automatically select the topmost items that are visible on the current tab and deselect any other items. This is useful if you have a very large ConfigMgr deployment and you want to extract data in batches. (This means you need to run the wizard multiple times – once for each batch.) By default 100 items are selected but you can change this.
  • Searching & filtering – You can enter a text to search for in a specified column. For example, you could enter “Adobe” and select the Manufacturer column to retrieve all of the applications that are manufactured by Adobe. You can also select a range of dates to restrict the list to items added, modified, or deleted within a particular time period.
  • Group by – Use this drop-down list to group the items in the list by values in one of the columns. For example, if you select Manufacturer, all of the items that have the same manufacturer are grouped together.

The lower part of the page has tabs that list packages and applications. These have additional features that make it easy to sort and filter the lists. There is more information on these features below.

  • Packages – (Not shown if there are no packages.) This tab lists managed applications that are available for deployment through the ConfigMgr package and program deployment mechanism. This mechanism is available in all versions of ConfigMgr that are supported by AppDNA.
  • Applications – (Not shown if there are no applications.) This tab lists managed applications that are available for deployment through the ConfigMgr application model. This mechanism is new in ConfigMgr 2012.

Select the applications and packages that correspond to the managed applications that you want to load into or update in AppDNA, or whose status you want to be able to report on by division or department (for example). Citrix recommends that you select no more than a total of 2,000 applications and packages for extraction at the same time.

When you have selected the packages or applications (or both) that you want to extract, click Next. All items that are visible and selected will be extracted. Items that have been excluded from the list by a filter are ignored.

Note:

  • If both Packages and Applications tabs are present, all items that are visible and selected on both tabs will be extracted.
  • If you select a deleted application or package for extraction, when the extracted data is loaded into AppDNA, AppDNA removes the corresponding ConfigMgr data from the AppDNA database but retains the associated application if it has been imported into AppDNA.

Filtering the list

You can restrict the list to items that have specific values in one or more of the columns. This is particularly useful if you have a large ConfigMgr deployment, because it enables you to reduce the list to a more manageable size. Any items that are excluded from the list by a filter are ignored when you click Next.

  • Click in the text box under the header of the column that contains the values on which you want to filter the list. From the drop-down list, select the value that you want to filter on. Alternatively, type the value that you want to filter on in the text box. For example, you can restrict the list to items whose name begins with “A”.
  • If you want to restrict the list to items that do not match a value (or that start with a value, for example), click the A icon on the left of the text box. Then from the drop-down list, select the option you want to use (for example, Starts with or Does not contain).
  • To clear a filter, click the icon on the right side of the text box.
  • You can set filters on more than one column.

Sorting the list

You can sort the list on the data in any column:

  1. Click the column header to sort in ascending order of the values in that column.
  2. Click the column header again to sort in descending order.

Grouping by a column

You can group the items in the list by the data in any of the columns. For example, you can group items by manufacturer, status, or date of modification.

  • Drag the header of the column (for example, the Status header) to the Drag a column header here to group by that column bar. (Alternatively, select the heading from the Group by drop-down list.)
  • This groups the items by the values in that column. For example, when you group by the Status column, all of the items that have a status of New are grouped together.
  • Expand the groups to see the items inside.
  • Click the header of the column you are grouping the items by to reverse the sort order.
  • Drag the column header back to the header bar when you no longer want to group the items. You need to place the column header before or after another column header. Alternatively, from the Group by drop-down list, choose None.

Note: You can also reorder the columns by dragging the column headers.