1 Overview
SoftwareCentral can display all types of applications as long as they are deployed with an install action to one collection. In the terms of SoftwareCentral we call this the “Install Collection”.
If an application does not have an install collection, it will not show up in SoftwareCentral.
The guide “Collection Structure” for detailed information on the collection structure used by SoftwareCentral.
Applications created outside of SoftwareCentral, must have the install collection added manually or via the “Mend Packages and Applications” interface, which automatically creates all the needed collections and deployments. See the guide “Mend Packages and Applications” for more information on how to mend an application.
2 What SoftwareCentral expects
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Deployment type | The application needs at least one deployment type, and must be deployed with the install action to one device collection. |
| Collections | One install and one uninstall collection for devices, and, for user-based deployment, one install and one uninstall collection for users – four collections in total. Each is deployed to once. |
| Location | The collections should sit under the SoftwareCentral root folders for applications (one root for device collections and one for user collections). A collection outside them is reported as not belonging to the SoftwareCentral root folder, and the application can be mended to avoid unintended deployments. |
| One deployment per collection | If several applications are deployed to the same collection, they are all installed together. See How does SoftwareCentral work?. |
Applications created with the Application Wizard or Create Multiple Applications get this structure automatically. Scheduled deployments add extra collections named SWCSchedule next to them; see Scheduling.
3 Best practice
- Keep one deployment per collection, with the install action, and keep the collections in the SoftwareCentral root folders.
- If an application is missing in SoftwareCentral, look for it in Mend Packages and Applications first: it lists every application found in ConfigMgr and says what is missing.
- Do not delete or rename the install and uninstall collections by hand; change the application from SoftwareCentral instead.