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Sharing a Session with Another User

Imagine that you have just received a call from a colleague who wants to collaborate with you on a project. The peer-to-peer session sharing feature in Reflection X makes this easy.

To share a session in standalone mode, both users need to run the standalone X Manager on their computers.

Configure a second computer to test session sharing

  1. Run the installation on a second computer.

  2. Install using defaults. This installs the standalone X Manager, which is all you need for this test.

To set up your shared session

  1. Start X Manager on your first computer (the one on which you created the first test session).

  2. Under X Clients, double-click to start the client (or select a client, then click ).

  3. After the session is established, make some changes in the client window. For example, if you've launched an xterm, enter a command, such as ls, in the terminal window.

  4. Return to the Reflection X Manager window. Under Session Definitions, select the running session, which is identified with this icon:

  5. In the Session Status area on the right-hand side of the X Manager window, under Connection URL, click Share. This shares the session and generates a unique connection URL.

  6. For this walkthrough, select Allow users to take control of session.

  7. Click Copy URL to copy the connection URL to the clipboard.

  8. Paste the URL into an email message and send this to the user with whom you wish to share the session.

Other users can now join and control your session using the procedures described next. The session remains available until you shut down the session or until you choose Unshare to stop sharing the current session and disconnect external users that joined it.

To join the session as the second user

  1. Start X Manager on your second computer.

  2. Click the double-arrowed Join button from the toolbar or select Action > Join.

    This opens the Join Session dialog box.

  3. Paste in the connection URL you created in the previous exercise and click OK.

The session window opens on this computer with the started application visible. The second user can now view everything in the first user's session. Because you configured the session with Allow users to take control of session selected, the second user can take control of the shared session. Here's how:

To take control of the shared session as the second user

  1. Under Joined Sessions in the left navigation pane, find the name of your joined session and right-click the session name.

  2. Select Take Control. You now have control of the keyboard and mouse in the shared session.

  3. The session owner, or any other allowed user, can regain control by doing the same thing: right-click the session name, and then select Take Control.