ParaView/Distributing Server Configuration Files

Motivation

Server configuration (PVSC) files are used to simply connecting to remote servers. The configuration XMLs can be used to hide all the complexities dealing with firewalls, setting up ssh tunnels, launching jobs using PBS or other job scheduler. However, with ParaView versions 3.12 and earlier, there is no easy way of sharing configuration files, besides manually passing them around. With ParaView 3.14, it is now possible for site maintainers to distribute PVSC files by putting them on a web-server. Users can simply add the URL to the list of locations to fetch the PVSC files from. ParaView will provide the user with a list of available configurations that the user can then choose import locally.

User Interface

To fetch the pvsc files from a remote server, go to the Server Connect dialog, accessible from File | Connect menu.

Figure 1 Server Connect Dialog

Click on the Fetch Servers button (new in v3.14). ParaView will access existing URLs to obtain the list of configurations, if any and list them on the Fetch Server Configurations page.

Figure 2 Fetch Server Configuration Page

To change the list of URLs that are accessed to fetch these configurations, click on the Edit Sources button.

Figure 3 Edit Server Configuration Sources