Ongoing maintenance

Update think-cell manually

As an administrator, if you want to manually update think-cell, you must disable all automatic updates from Microsoft for PowerPoint and Excel. If you enable automatic Office updates by Microsoft, you cannot disable automatic think-cell updates.

If you've disabled automatic Office updates from Microsoft or directed the Office updates to your own server, you can disable automatic think-cell updates via the UPDATES/updates.enabled configuration parameter (see Configuration parameters).

In this case, think-cell does not check whether an update is available when starting PowerPoint and Excel. You may also contact us and request to disable automatic updates via a setting on our server. In that case, the update check still occurs, but the reply always indicates that no update is available.

Note: As a result of an error, think-cell may inform the user that an update with a fix is already available and offer it on a web page (see Error reporting).

If think-cell’s automatic updates are disabled, you need to manually check think-cell compatibility with every update to PowerPoint and Excel. For an effective check, you need to do the following:

1. Start PowerPoint.
2. Insert a think-cell chart.
3. Wait for the internal datasheet to open, then change a value.
4. Confirm that the change appears in the chart.

If any of those steps fail, you need to take action. The current version of think-cell available from our website will usually be compatible with the Microsoft update you wish to deploy. Therefore, please repeat the test with the current think-cell version and plan for a deployment before or together with the Microsoft update.

Testing think-cell with every Microsoft update is not optional. It is a necessary part of your support for the think-cell users in your organization. Testing is not necessary if think-cell's automatic updates are enabled.

In any case, you should regularly deploy think-cell updates so that your users can benefit from the latest improvements. We recommend an update at least every few months.

Host think-cell updates on your own server

Updates are usually hosted on think-cell’s web server, but as an administrator, you can also host updates on your own intranet. To do so, you need a web server such as Apache or Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) that all think-cell users in your organization can access.

To host updates on your own server, you must disable automatic updates for Microsoft Office. If users receive automatic Office updates, think-cell will override your self-hosting configuration and download updates from the think-cell server.

On the web server that hosts your updates, you must store the following files:

• An XML file, typically named update.xml, that controls the update process. For a description and example of the update XML file structure, see Structure of the update XML file.
• One or more setup files—setup_think-cell_BUILD.exe (Windows) or setup_think-cell_BUILD.pkg (macOS)—supplied by think-cell.

After storing these files on the web server, add the URL of the update XML file—for example, https://example.com/update.xml—to your configuration parameters. To do so, proceed with the following instructions for Windows or macOS.

UPDATESURL=UPDATE_XML_URL

UPDATESURL=""

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.microsoft.office.plist com.think-cell.settings.updates -dict-add url -string UPDATE_XML_URL

<dict>
	<key>com.think-cell.settings.updates</key>
  	<dict>
  		<key>url</key>
    		<string>UPDATE_XML_URL</string>
	</dict>
</dict>

Structure of the update XML file

The update XML file must contain a list of scenarios, with each scenario consisting of a set of conditions and the corresponding URL of a setup file. The client will download and install the file from the first scenario whose conditions are met.

To specify the update range—that is, the range of build numbers that you want to update—use the m_eupdcondop and m_nCount elements. In m_eupdcondop, specify an equality or inequality in relation to the build number in m_nCount from the next line. In m_eupdcondop, for the val attribute, you can use the values in the following table.

The build number of the setup file must be outside the update range. If the setup file build number is inside the update range, think-cell will perpetually download and install this update.

If you self-host updates for both Windows and macOS, you need to maintain a separate update XML file with a distinct URL for each operating system.

The update conditions in the following examples specify that users with build numbers that are greater than or equal to 35400 and less than 35722 (Windows) or 35721 (macOS) receive the update.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
  <CUpdateInfo id="1">
    <m_vecupdscen length="1">
      <elem>
        <m_bstrFile val="https://example.com/setup_think-cell_35722.exe"/>
        <m_vecupdcond length="2">
          <elem>
            <version/>
            <m_eupdcondop val="1"/>
            <m_nCount val="35400"/>
          </elem>
          <elem>
            <version/>
            <m_eupdcondop val="-2"/>
            <m_nCount val="35722"/>
          </elem>
        </m_vecupdcond>
      </elem>
    </m_vecupdscen>
  </CUpdateInfo>
</root>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
  <CUpdateInfo id="1">
    <m_vecupdscen length="1">
      <elem>
        <m_bstrFile val="https://example.com/setup_think-cell_35721.pkg"/>
        <m_vecupdcond length="2">
          <elem>
            <version/>
            <m_eupdcondop val="1"/>
            <m_nCount val="35400"/>
          </elem>
          <elem>
            <version/>
            <m_eupdcondop val="-2"/>
            <m_nCount val="35721"/>
          </elem>
        </m_vecupdcond>
      </elem>
    </m_vecupdscen>
  </CUpdateInfo>
</root>

Example: User groups with different update conditions

You can use update XML files to specify different update conditions for different user groups. For example, you can deploy new think-cell builds to a small group of pilot users before you roll out new builds to the rest of your organization. To do so, for the pilot group, keep the default configuration so that pilot users automatically receive updates from think-cell's server. For the rest of your users, configure and maintain think-cell updates on your own server.

Notification about license key expiration

think-cell requires a license key. You can use think-cell up to and on the license key's expiration date.

The software will notify the user about the upcoming expiration on every start of PowerPoint or Excel if the expiration date is less than 14 days away.

The license key dialog is used to notify the user. If the license key has not yet expired, the message “The license key of this think-cell product will expire soon. You should enter a new license key” is shown with the expiration date. The user has the following choices:

• Enter a new license key and click OK.
• Select Cancel to dismiss the dialog.
• Select Uninstall to uninstall think-cell.

If the expiration date has already passed, the message “The license key of this think-cell product has expired. Please enter a new license key” appears, but clicking OK is only possible after a valid license key has been entered. If the user dismisses the dialog using Cancel, think-cell remains deactivated.

To prevent the license expiration dialog from appearing, please make sure to order and deploy a new license key more than 14 days before the expiration date. A new license key is always valid immediately and not only after the expiration date of the old license key. Therefore, you should deploy the new license key as soon as it is available.

Information sent over the internet

think-cell sends information over the internet—for example, when using the automatic update or displaying a list of new features when a new version is started for the first time. This information is required so that our servers can generate an appropriate response, and to help us improve the product based on statistical data:

• The five-digit build number, identifying the version of the software. The build number can also be found in the About dialog.
• The license key
• A randomly generated Globally Unique Identifier (GUID)
• Date and time
• Version numbers of the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office installations
• CPU info (32 bit or 64 bit, support for MMX or AVX)
• Update level (disabled/enabled/forced)
• Statistical information about feature usage

If error reports are enabled, additional information is sent as described in Error reporting.

Error reporting

At think-cell, we are committed to stability and robustness as key factors for the professional use of our software. When an error condition arises while you are using think-cell, the software automatically generates a report that helps us to understand the problem and fix it in the next release.

An updated version of think-cell that addresses the reported error may already be available at the time of the report. In this case, the update is installed automatically (see Automatic updates for details on the download and installation of updates). If think-cell updates are controlled manually (see Update think-cell manually), the update is offered for download in a browser window and can be manually installed.

An automatically created report contains the following information:

• The basic information listed in Information sent over the internet,
• An error code from the operating system, from PowerPoint or Excel, or from think-cell itself,
• The location in our source code (file name and line number) where the error occurred,
• A Microsoft Minidump, which is basically a stack trace along with environment information such as operating system version and loaded modules. Microsoft uses the same Minidump when they send error reports.

The error report is sent via HTTPS to the think-cell server. Of all the information transmitted, only the Minidump, essentially memory content, could potentially contain actual slide content fragments. But in its operation, think-cell never stores actual slide content. Storing text or images is completely left to PowerPoint. Therefore it is very unlikely that the Minidump of the memory used by think-cell contains any sensitive information.

Automatic error reporting can be enabled or disabled via a configuration parameter (see Configuration parameters).

Troubleshooting and critical errors

In case of critical errors, think-cell asks the user if they would like to file a support request.

These support requests can also be sent manually (see Troubleshooting). It is possible to change the default email address for support requests via a configuration parameter (see Configuration parameters).