1. OMNIXX to OPENFOX CONVERSION LESSONS LEARNED
Steve Ryckman, LASO &
PUBLIC SAFETY SYSTEMS SUPERVISOR
City of Plano

2. FOR YOUR NETWORK/IT STAFF……
New IP address: (txlets.dps.texas.gov)
New port needed: in addition to 80 & 443, openfox needs port 6200 opened.
If port 6200 is not open, you will be able to login to openfox once installed but you will not get a connection

3. Network READINESS
Once your network security team has added the new ip address and port numbers to their firewalls and routers, fire up your web browser from a machine that omnixx works on and try to access the following url’s:
&

4. Network READINESS
BAD GOOD

5. YOU are ready to start converting
Do not start the openfox installation on any of your machines until you’ve talked to dps and they are ready to move you.
Before you start moving, I recommend you have everyone change their password in omnixx since they wont be able to change them in openfox – that should help prevent password timeouts during the conversion process.

6. YOU are ready to start converting
Develop a migration plan for specific mnemonics on certain days and relay that information to dps. We notified those users a day or two ahead of time that at 9am on that day, their omnixx would stop working and had dps move those mnemonics automatically. Then we had the full day to get all the machines scheduled on that day moved over.

7. YOU are ready to start converting
We scheduled it out across three weeks and moved just one or two from each unit at a time so some were still on omnixx and some on openfox during the conversion.
We actually converted 82 mnemonics in 9 days.
We did some of the conversions on the weekend – dps was willing to do some on a Saturday.
We left our main mnemonic to be the last cut-over. We forwarded our mnemonic to another mnemonic just before beginning work on that machine and then removed the forward once openfox was OPERATIONAL there.

8. INSTALLING OPENFOX
Once the mnemonic on a machine has been cut-over and you are ready to convert it:
Login with a local administrator account on the pc.
Launch internet explorer and go to
Click “Launch the openfox desktop” on web page.

9. INSTALLING OPENFOX Click run or ok at the java security prompts.
After a few minutes you should get a message telling you that the software isn’t registered. Type in the registration code that dps sent you for that machine.

10. INSTALLING OPENFOX
You should then get the license agreement. Scroll down and click agree:
Next, You should get a registration confirmation message:

11. INSTALLING OPENFOX
After it finishes installing, it just exits. You can create an icon to the url like dps recommends but that only works well if internet explorer is the default browser on your machine. We found that creating a new shortcut on the public users desktop and we pointed it to run javaws directly with this url which works regardless of default browser:
javaws.exe

12. Running the first time
Double click the icon you created and openfox will launch and start initializing modules (takes longer the first time). Eventually you’ll end up with the login screen.

13. Running the first time
The current status shows in the title bar and connection status shows as green, yellow or red circle in lower right tray:

14. WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW……
Delete the omnixx icons from machines you’ve converted. Users will try to use it if you don’t!
Password resets and certifications are still done via omnixx and only work properly in internet explorer.

15. WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW……
If you use multiple computers for entry, change your ori to your ori that is monitored 24x7 or replies will go to each individual workstation and they may not be staffed at that time.
Opt in/Opt out is mandatory to select yes/no, does not default to no any longer.

16. WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW……
Query missing person form can not query based on name or transaction number alone any longer
Protective order screen the state id# field is really for the sid number:

17. WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW……
Inbox is user based. That means that if a new hit confirmation, administrative message, etc… comes in right as user is exiting openfox – it will stay in that users inbox until they login next time. Other personnel that login that machine wont see messages received while someone else was logged in. Options:
A. once you are finished converting, request shared inbox.
B. enable auto-print so new messages print even if in the process of logging of the workstation.
C. ensure users logoff and login quickly

18. WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW……
Multiple monitors. Use multiple monitors if possible if you are running other software besides openfox on the same computer. During connection retries and other operations, openfox will grab focus and not let you get to other applications behind openfox. By placing openfox on its own screen, it doesn’t block other application access.

19. WHAT ELSE SHOULD YOU KNOW……
Articles – search field via ctrl-f
Make sure you pick the correct entry by looking at the selected code value at the bottom. You can’t tell which is the government code or not otherwise

20. How to see connectivity LOGS……

21. Questions?