Now enrolling pilot practices on Open Dental. Pilots use OperatoryView free.Contact us
Join the waitlistAccount

Home / Notes for your IT company

OperatoryView: notes for your IT company

A dental practice you look after is setting up OperatoryView, the live board and in-office messaging for its PCs. This page lists what it installs, what it needs from the network, and where its data lives.

Download as PDF

What gets installed

  • The server: a Windows service named OperatoryView, installed to C:\Program Files\OperatoryView, on 64-bit Windows. Put it on the computer that runs the Open Dental server if you can. It must stay on: keep it from sleeping and give it a DHCP reservation.
  • The office app: OperatoryView App, installed for all users to C:\Program Files\OperatoryView App, on each PC that shows the Board: the front desk, each operatory and the admin PC.
  • On a fresh install, the server installer warns when the computer does not look like the Open Dental server (no eConnector, MySQL or MariaDB service). It offers Cancel, or continuing anyway.
  • Both installers are digitally signed.

Windows administrator approval

  • The server asks once, when it is installed. Its updates install themselves as SYSTEM through a scheduled task, outside office hours, with no prompt.
  • The Server Manager runs as administrator, so it asks each time it is opened.
  • The office app asks when it is installed and at every update. On a PC where staff are standard users, an administrator approves each update.

Firewall rules the installers add

  • All three are inbound allow rules, for every network profile, tied to OperatoryView's own program. No outbound rules are added.
  • OperatoryView Board, on the server: TCP 5001, local subnet only. Office PCs on another subnet, such as a routed VLAN or a VPN, need a rule you add.
  • OperatoryView Discovery, on the server: UDP 5353 (mDNS), local subnet only.
  • OperatoryView App discovery, on each office PC: UDP 5353 (mDNS), local subnet only.

Network

  • Office PCs reach the server over HTTPS on port 5001, at the practice's own name under ov.operatoryview.com, with a publicly trusted certificate for that one name. Its private key is made on the server and never leaves it. TLS 1.2 or later. An IP address will not work.
  • That name points to the server's private address. If your router blocks DNS answers that point to a private address (DNS rebinding protection), allow ov.operatoryview.com, or add a hosts-file line on each PC, such as 192.168.1.20 yourname.ov.operatoryview.com. A hosts line needs the DHCP reservation.
  • Open Dental's API service sends live updates to the server on port 5001, over the office network.
  • Outbound, HTTPS on port 443 only. The server reaches operatoryview.com (license, certificate, updates), api.operatoryview.com (the AI features and report emails) and api.opendental.com (Open Dental). Office PCs reach operatoryview.com for app updates.
  • OperatoryView has no proxy setting, and a proxy that intercepts HTTPS shows as an error when the server connects to Open Dental.

Open Dental

  • OperatoryView reads Open Dental through its official API and the practice's eConnector, with a key the practice adds in Open Dental. It is read-only.
  • The one thing it writes is its own API subscriptions: registrations that send Open Dental's live updates to this server. Uninstalling the server removes them.
  • The one-time eConnector step is done in Open Dental, run as administrator. Setup checks for that and waits until it is.

Where the data lives

  • On the server, in an encrypted database (SQLCipher, AES-256), with its key sealed to that computer by Windows DPAPI. The data folder is open only to SYSTEM and Administrators, and the service runs as LocalSystem.
  • Nightly encrypted backups on the server's own disk, 7 daily and 4 weekly by default, with an optional second copy to another local drive or a USB stick. Network shares are refused. A backup opens on another computer only with the practice's recovery key.
  • Patient details read from Open Dental are kept in that encrypted database and stay in the office, except for a question someone asks the AI assistant: it goes, with what it needs to answer, to OperatoryView's own AI service on Amazon Web Services, under a Business Associate Agreement. Report emails carry practice totals only.
  • The practice signs a Business Associate Agreement with OperatoryView.

Uninstalling

  • The server removes its service, its firewall rules, its scheduled update tasks and its program files. It asks whether to delete its data too, unchecked by default: the database, its key, the backups and the settings, in C:\Program Files\OperatoryView\app\data. A silent uninstall always keeps the data. Delete that folder when the computer is retired.
  • The office app removes its firewall rule and its downloaded updates, and asks whether to delete its pairing with the server.

Questions: support@operatoryview.com. We reply within one business day.