Job Management Partner 1/Remote Control Description and Operator's Guide

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4.2.1 Remote control of agents

On the controller, you can operate the agent's screen just as you would operate the local machine. Available operations include entering characters, and clicking or dragging with the mouse. Some procedures, e.g., executing shortcut keys, may require special operations. This subsection describes these special operation procedures.

Organization of this subsection
(1) Monitoring the Ctrl and Alt keys
(2) Pressing shortcut keys
(3) Pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys
(4) Shutting down the agent
(5) Rebooting the agent
(6) Transferring clipboard data

(1) Monitoring the Ctrl and Alt keys

When the remote control mode is shared, the agent side can also operate the agent machine. Operating the agent from both sides does not cause any problems. Remember, however, when the agent user is pressing the Ctrl or Alt key, a key stroke made from the controller may trigger an unintended function.

The status bar shows the state of the Ctrl and Alt keys on the agent machine, using the following icons. When the agent user presses the Ctrl key or the Alt key, the arrow in the icon representing that key faces down on the controller screen.

The figure below shows the state of the status bar when the Alt key is pressed on the agent machine.

Figure 4-14 Status bar when the Alt key is pressed on the agent machine

[Figure]

You can configure property settings to define whether to show these icons.

(2) Pressing shortcut keys

Pressing function keys (e.g., Print Screen) or shortcut keys (e.g., Alt + Tab) on the keyboard will execute the operation on the controller itself, not on the agent's screen called into the controller's display. To perform such operations on the agent machine, you need to send action key instructions.

Action keys are commands, registered with Remote Control Manager, to substitute for operations performed by function keys or shortcut keys. You can register your own keys in addition to the default action keys provided by Remote Control Manager. Execute registered action keys from the Remote Control window's key input bar.

For details on how to register and execute action keys, see 4.2.2 Registering and executing action keys.

You can also enable some keys to execute functions on the agent by opening the Properties dialog box, going to the Window page, and selecting the Sends input of the system key check box. For information about settings on the Window page, see 3.3.4 Window page.

(3) Pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys

You cannot press the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys for an agent directly from the keyboard. You can, however, choose Tools and then Send Ctrl+Alt+Del to perform an operation similar to pressing the Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys. The operations you can perform depend on the agent's operating system.

(4) Shutting down the agent

You can shut down an agent by operations at the controller. If the version of the controller and agent is 06-71 or later and the agent PC is equipped with a power-off functionality, you can issue a controller instruction to shut down and switch off the agent.

Perform the following steps:

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Shut Down.
    A message dialog box appears, asking you to confirm whether you want to shut down the agent.
    The following message dialog box is displayed if the version of the controller and agent is 06-71 or later:

    [Figure]

    Select the Turn the power off after shutdown check box if you want to switch off the agent after shutting it down. By default, this check box is not selected.
  2. Choose OK.
    The controller issues a shutdown instruction to the agent. Upon receipt of the instruction, the agent shuts down. If the Turn the power off after shutdown check box is selected, the agent will also switch off. However, note that the power to the agent may remain on if the agent PC is not equipped with a power-off software functionality.

(5) Rebooting the agent

You can reboot an agent from the controller. If Remote Control Agent is configured to start automatically, you should allow some time to pass before initiating a connection procedure to continue remote control operations.

Perform the following steps to reboot and reconnect the agent. For details on how to configure the agent to start Remote Control Agent automatically, see 3.4.1 Start options.

  1. From the Tools menu, choose Reboot.
    The Reconnection Interval dialog box appears.

    Figure 4-15 Reconnection Interval dialog box

    [Figure]

    Start to connect
    Select this check box to start the connection. If you select this check box, in the Start time box set the time (in minutes) until the connection.
    Do not connect
    Select this check box if you do not want to connect.
    You can set the default values for this dialog box when setting up properties.
  2. Select Start to connect, set the time for initiating the connection, and click OK.
    A message dialog box appears, asking you to confirm whether you want the controller to reboot the agent.
  3. Choose OK.
    The controller issues a reboot instruction to the agent. Upon receipt of the instruction, the agent reboots.
    The controller automatically initiates a connection procedure with the agent after the amount of time, specified in step 2, elapses.

(6) Transferring clipboard data

During remote control operations, the data cut or copied from a document on an agent will be stored in the clipboard of the agent machine, but cannot be pasted onto a document on the controller. Similarly, the data copied on the controller cannot be pasted onto a document on an agent.

To make this kind of pasting possible, you must transfer data between the agent's clipboard and controller's clipboard. This way, you can easily cut and paste data between documents on different machines without having to allocate a network drive. You can also configure property settings to automatically transfer clipboard data.

For details on the transmission of clipboard data, see 4.2.3 Transferring clipboard data.