Evidence Tab: File Evidence

File evidence is simply a file that is found on a computer. It may simply be the name of the file, or the information found within the file (such as with ISO-compliant software identification [SWID] tags). File evidence may be used when installer evidence is not strong enough to sufficiently identify the installed application, and may be combined with installer evidence to improve the chance of recognition.

For automatic recognition of applications from the Application Recognition Library, the following properties of file evidence are used. Keep in mind that these properties may use wild-cards to generalize the recognition:

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File name (or Name in some listings)

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Version

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Company

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Description

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Size (where this value is non-blank in the matching rule)

Note:File size is rarely used for file recognition, and the Application Recognition Library normally records it only for file recognition on UNIX-like platforms where other properties may be insufficient.

Available Actions

For File evidence, the following actions are available on this page:

Evidence Tab: File Evidence Actions
Action	Description
Examine details of the linked evidence	Select an item from the list of linked evidence, and click Open. Alternatively, use Ctrl-click (or your browser's alternative) on the hyperlinked evidence name to open the evidence properties in a new browser tab.
Add more evidence	Optionally type some of the evidence name in the search field, and click Search. A list of matching evidence is displayed. Select the appropriate item from the search results (check that it is not already Assigned to a different application), and click Add evidence.
Remove added evidence	You can only remove evidence that was previously linked within your enterprise (either the application source is shown as Local , or it is Flexera (Extended) and the Added evidence column displays Yes). Select this item, and click Remove to remove the link between the evidence and the application record (the evidence still exists within your computing estate).

Evidence Tab: File Evidence Properties

The following list shows all the columns (listed alphabetically) available in the Installer evidence list. Some are displayed by default, and others are available in the column chooser (see Managing Columns in a Table).

Evidence Tab: File Evidence Properties

Property

Description

Added evidence

This column displays Yes if an operator manually linked the evidence with the application. No displays if the evidence is unchanged, as provided through Application Recognition Library.

This value is updated automatically when you link the evidence to the application.

Note:To disassociate the evidence record added by an operator from the application, select it, and click Remove. You cannot remove evidence records stored in Application Recognition Library (the ones with No displayed in the Added evidence column).

Assigned

Displays Yes when the evidence is matched to at least one application, and otherwise displays No. This assignment may have been done automatically through the Application Recognition Library rules, or manually by the operator.

This data is read-only.

Company

The name of the publisher as reported by the file evidence.

For manually-created evidence records, this field is editable in the General tab of the evidence properties.

Description

The file description either entered manually or reported during the inventory import.

For the manually-created records, this field is editable in the General tab of file evidence properties.

Ignored

Displays Yes when the file evidence is ignored for application recognition purposes, and No when the evidence may be used for application recognition. Ignored evidence remains linked to the application so that it does not clutter the list of unrecognized evidence.

Can be edited by choosing from the Ignored options (on the General tab of the evidence properties).

Language

The language specific to this evidence (if any).

For the manually-created records, this field is editable in the General tab of the file evidence properties.

Matches

Displays the number of times the file evidence is found in the new inventory.

Note:The same file evidence might be identified in multiple folders on a single system. A figure displayed in the Matches column may not reflect the number of installations of the software applications: the installation count is displayed in the Installed column on the Applications tab of the evidence properties. These figures may be different for the following reasons:

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Multiple items within the same inventory can match one evidence rule. For example, if the version in a rule is generalized as "1.%", then the evidence for releases 1.0, 1.1, and 1.2 all count as separate evidence matches; but they may all resolve to the same installed application (where they are found on a single computer).

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While some inventory tools count duplicate computer records as having separate instances of evidence, IT Asset Management automatically merges duplicate records, and so will only count the application once.

This data is read only.

Name

The name of the file evidence. The file evidence is derived from the executables and other common program files that are installed on the computer's hard disk. For example, on Windows devices this includes the .exe and .dll files; on UNIX platforms it includes all files with no file extension; and so on.

Tip:Clicking the hyperlink on the Name value opens the properties for that piece of file evidence. In those properties, selecting the Devices tab lists all the inventory devices where that file evidence has been reported in inventory.

This data is read-only.

Path

On Windows (where this value is not used for application recognition), this is the most common location in which this evidence was found on inventory devices. On UNIX, the value is returned along with the file name, and is included for application recognition (where the file evidence is so used).

For the manually-created records, this field is editable in the General tab of the file evidence properties. For evidence supplied through the Application Recognition Library, the file path is not editable.

Product name

The name of a product retrieved from the file evidence.

For the manually-created records, this field is editable in the General tab of the file evidence properties. Product names supplied by the Application Recognition Library are not editable.

Product version

The Product version specific to the application that includes the file evidence.

For the manually-created records, this field is editable in the General tab of the File Evidence Properties. For file evidence supplied through the Application Recognition Library, the Product version is not editable.

Recognition rule

Indicates how that the file evidence is used when determining whether the application is installed on a computer. File evidence may be:

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At least one—Any one of several pieces of file evidence so marked is sufficient for application recognition

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Not allowed—The presence if file evidence so marked actively prevents recognition of the application, over-ruling any other file evidence to the contrary

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Not for recognition—Has three effects:

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It prevents this file being used in any way for application recognition (commonly set when the application is recognized by installer evidence)

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It allows this file to be used for tracking application usage, where that is configured and the FlexNet inventory agent finds this file is executing

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It authorizes the clean-up of this file evidence from listings of Unrecognized Evidence.

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Required—All file evidence so marked must be present before the application is recognized.

Editable in the Applications tab of file evidence properties.

Size (bytes)

Indicates the size of the evidence file.

Tip:You can edit this on the General tab of the application properties when Local is displayed in the Source column (which means the application was added manually by an operator).

Source

Displays the origin of the file evidence, for example:

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Flexera—If the file evidence is included in Application Recognition Library (if this is the case, you cannot edit it).

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Flexera (Extended)—Shown when an operator added an additional application to the original record from the Application Recognition Library, or ignored it, or when an ARL evidence comes over the same existing local one. Nevertheless, this status is not refreshed.

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Local— Shown when an operator in your enterprise created the record for this application, or when the raw evidence doesn't match any existing evidence in the Application Recognition Library.

Version

The version recorded for the file evidence. This may be tracking the version of a linked application, or may be an independent file numbering version.

For the manually-created records, this field is editable in the General tab of the evidence properties. An evidence version retrieved from Application Recognition Library is not editable.

Note:Incorrectly editing a version may stop the inventory agent from recognizing the applications linked to the evidence. If you edit the version number, be sure to check the association with the application and ensure that the rule (or wildcards) still applies to the modified evidence.

Tip:While each piece of evidence should have a distinct version, you can link them to an application using the percent wildcard character (%). This represents zero or more characters. For example, the evidence versions reported for a single application on 3 different computers might be 10.1.123.0045, 10.1.126.0000, and 10.1.123.0048 (they might represent different service packs and hot-fixes). On the linked application, you can merge this evidence to a single rule for version 10.1.%. Then license calculations will link all three pieces of evidence to the same application.

Note:The period and a comma characters are counted as matching each other. There is no single wildcard character.