Using a Proxy

A proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary between computers seeking resources from other servers.  Typically these are used to add a layer of security to a network by screening what goes in and out of a network.

If your institution uses a proxy server and a FlowJo site license you will need to add the proxy settings to FlowJo so that your site license can be validated on start up.  When FlowJo is started initially, or anytime subsequently without an internet connection, a proxy setting screen will appear.

Screenshot_112915_043049_PM

Contact your IT department to find out your companies specific host name, what port should be used, and what your user name and password are.

It is also possible to access this proxy information window from with the FlowJo License Preferences:

If you are a network administrator
Setting up the proxy for all users can be done by creating / modifying a preference file, as FlowJo licensing variables are stored in the preferences file, and sharing this file with all users.  The preference file is located in:

  • PC – C:\Users\Your User Name\AppData\Roaming\FlowJo10
  • Mac – Users/Your User Name/Library/Preferences

The FlowJo preferences are an XML file called “FlowJo10.prefs”. To create a new preference file, you can start with this example stub, and fill it out with your specific information:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 <Prefs version="18.0" writeDefaults="0" authLevel="Full" >
  <License userEmail="your.email@company.com" >
   <ProxyConfig host="proxyname.company.com" port="8080" proxyuser="name" proxypassword="yourpassword"/>
 </License>
</Prefs>
If you open an existing preference file and modify it, you’ll need to add  <ProxyConfig /> object one line below, and indented one space relative to, the <License object,  following the format above.
If your group does not employ a proxy user or proxy password, these two elements can be removed from the <ProxyConfig object.

Automating proxy settings using environment variables
Starting with FlowJo version 10.0.7 site wide installation of a proxy can also be done with environment variables.  FlowJo will look at the environment variables:

  • FJSERIALNUMBER
  • FJPROXYPORT
  • FJPROXYHOST

If these variables have usable values, FlowJo will use them accordingly. This way if you can set these prior to FlowJo installation (and in case of FLS SN, after user-registration on FLS, ) you fly through all the network/licensing dialogs, which would otherwise sequentially come up for /first time/ clean /re / installs.