Customizing the Software Scanning Information of Vendors and Products

The software information of the same vendor may sometimes have different vendor names or product names. For example, if the software scan data contains information of more than one product for the same vendor, and if the vendor name differs, the inventory display windows will display the software information under different vendor names.

By default, the software information is displayed for each unique vendor name in the Inventory Query window, Inventory Summary window, and the Inventory reports. If the vendor or product names differ, you can merge the software information.You can also prevent the display of specific vendors and products in the inventory windows. You customize these settings in the Software Rules file. The scanners read the file during the scanning process for displaying the vendor or product name as specified in the file.

The contents of the Software Rules file are as follows:

[vendor]

scanned_vendor_name_reported_by_scanner= vendor_display_name_you_specify

scanned_vendor_name_reported_by_scanner= vendor_display_name_you_specify

[product]

scanned_product_name_reported_by_scanner= product_display_name_you_specify

scanned_product_name_reported_by_scanner= product_display_name_you_specify

To customize the vendor and product names for display:

1. Open the SWRULES.INI file in a text editor.

   The SWRULES.INI file is a text file located in \PUBLIC\ZENWORKS on the inventory server.

2. To modify the vendor name, specify the details for scanned_vendor_name_reported_by_scanner and the vendor_display_name_you_specify.

   For example, to display the software vendor information for Novell, Novell Inc., Novell Corp, and Novell Inc as Novell Inc., edit the following section:

   [vendor]

   Novell=Novell Inc.

   NOVELL INC=Novell Inc.

   NOVELL CORP=Novell Inc.

   NOVELL Inc=Novell Inc.

3. To modify the product name, specify the Scanned Product Name and the Product Display Name.

   For example, to display the product information: Novell NetWare (TM) Operating System, Novell NetWare^®, Novell NetWare (R) Operating System as Novell NetWare^®, edit the following section.

   [product]

   Novell NetWare (TM) Operating System=Novell NetWare®

   Novell NetWare=Novell NetWare®

   Novell NetWare (R) Operating System=Novell NetWare®

4. To specify that the scanned information for a product or vendor should not be reported by the scanners, add the following entry in the file:

   [vendor]

   others=null

You should follow these rules while editing the SWRULES.INI file:

• Ensure that blank lines do not exist between the sections of the file.
• The file should end with a Carriage Return.
• Ensure that spaces and symbols in the scanned_vendor_name_reported_by_the_scanner and scanned_product_name_reported_by_the_vendor do not exist. The scanners compare the scanned_vendor_name_reported_by_the_scanner and the scanned_product_name_reported_by_the_scanner with the scanned data that they collect. Ensure that names that you use are not case-sensitive.

If you specify incorrect entries in the file, the entries preceding the incorrect entry will be used and the other entries will be ignored.