Using the installconfig.properties file

Omniscope installs an optional installconfig.properties file within the application installation folder, normally C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope on XP and Vista 32 bit. For Vista 64 bit the location is normally C:\Program Files (x86)\Visokio Omniscope

Corporate administrators may wish to use this file to tailor their rollout of Omniscope and to support a centralised Java VM. This file is used to re-direct Omniscope to use 64-bit Java installs, and to specify corporate font folders to be available to Omniscope users. This file may also be used to assist in diagnosing problems starting or using the software (see below).

File format

The installconfig.properties file contains plain text, editable by Notepad. Comments are prefixed with a space and # symbol. See the description of all available properties in the example file, below.

Example installconfig.properties file

# This is the installation configuration file.
# This is used to configure initial startup of the application.
#
# All properties are optional, and if defined, each line must not contain redundant whitespace
# To enable/disable a property, remove/add the # sign (# means comment)

# This is an optional manually-specified Java VM installation folder.
# It should contain bin\javaw.exe, and should be Java version 5+
# JVM_DIR=C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jdk1.5.0_14

# This is an optional manually-specified max memory cap for the Java VM, an integer specifying the
# megabytes to allow the JVM.  Must be at least 64.
# If unspecified, 75% of physical RAM will be used as the cap.
# MAX_MEMORY_MB=300

# Optional property specifying additional space-separated JVM options.  Default is blank.
# Example which enables "heap dump on out of memory", which generates files such as 
# "java_pid4972.hprof" in the program folder, for submitting to Visokio for analysis
# (requires Java 1.5.0_07+ or Java 6):
# ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

# Optional property which if true causes output to be redirected to
# "Visokio_output_log.txt" in My Documents
# LOG_TO_MY_DOCUMENTS=true

# Optional property which, if true, disables the default heap tuning parameters
# which at time of writing are -Xms64M -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=20 -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=30
# DISABLE_DEFAULT_HEAP_OPTIONS=true

Changing Java used by Omniscope

You can specify a specific version of Java to use with Omniscope by editing installconfig.properties file's JVM_DIR property. If you are using Vista or Windows 7 copy the installconfig.properties to the desktop. Now, open the file using notepad uncomment (by removing "#" at the start, and removing any leading spaces) JVM_DIR, and then specify the location of the Java, for example, if your Java is installed to. Once done, save the file and copy it back into Visokio installation directory.

Adding JVM arguments

For advanced users, Java and Omniscope can be customised using JVM arguments.  The installconfig.properties file's ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS property should be uncommented (by removing "#" at the start, and removing any leading spaces), and the arguments added after the "=" sign with spaces between them, as seen in the examples below. 

Specifying Corporate Fonts  

If you are running on Windows go to C:\Windows\Fonts and copy all the fonts you want to make available from Omniscope. Now on the user machine go to the Omniscope installation directory (typically C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope ) and open the installconfig.properties file in NotePad. Add a command line option to specify which fonts are available by uncommenting (removing the space & hash) at the front of the  #ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS line and add the following: -DinstalledFontLocation=c:\our_fonts (case sensitive) to the end of the line. The directory after the  '=' (in this case C:\our_fonts) specifies the location of the fonts that should be available in Omniscope.  Below is an example of how the modified installconfig.properties line would look:

ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -DinstalledFontLocation=c:\our_fonts

Note:it is important that to copy rather than delete your fonts from the C:\Windows\Fonts location. Also note that onlyTrue Type Fonts (with .TTF extension) files can be included.

Heap dump on out-of-memory

To enable this, ensure the ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS line is uncommented or edited to include the option "-XX+:HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError". For example:

ADDITIONAL_JVM_ARGS=-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError

This will cause a heap dump (*.hprof file) to be written to the install folder should you experience an out of memory situation. When this occurs, deliver this file to Visokio for diagnosis if you believe the error to be unwarranted. More information...

Further information

See Generating a class load log and Customising Omniscope memory allocation.