MOBILE Lab Client is used to connect to sessions being broadcasted by a MOBILE Lab Presenter. By connecting to a MOBILE session, a client grants the Presenter the ability to manipulate the contents of the client's session directory (via sync and send file requests) and execute scripts on the client's machine (via the execute option during a send file request).
Connecting to a Session
Connecting to a session with MOBILE Client is as easy as selecting the desired session from the "Session name" dropdown at the top of the window and clicking the "Start" button. While we use the term "connecting" to describe this action, it is not necessary for a Presenter to be actively broadcasting on that session (or, in fact, to have ever broadcasted that session). So, what really happens when a MOBILE Client "connects" to a session? Two things:
- A link to the session directory is created on the desktop. (session directories are found in
/opt/mobile/sessions) - The machine runnning MOBILE Client starts announcing that it would accept actions from a Presenter on that session.
Since sessions remain locally in the /opt/mobile/sessions directory, users can use MOBILE Client
to quickly access sessions from their desktop at any time, or access these files directly at any time
regardless of whether currectly running the application.
Disconnecting from a Session
Disconnecting from a session with MOBILE Client is just as easy: Just click the "Stop" button. As you likely suspect, this just reverses what occurs when the Client connects:
- The link to the session directory is removed from the desktop. (As stated above, the directory can still be found at
/opt/mobile/sessions) - The users machine ceases announcing its presence as a potential client on that session.