Promisser Software - Anyone know where I can get it from?

[Sam_Brown]

Need to install some software call Promisser on about 20 laptops before an exam next week. Only problem is the previous reigme here hasn't kept it in an obvious place and I can't find it!

Any one know where I can find it? Where it's available from the develoeprs website etc etc?

Thanks in advance,

sam

[HallX]

@Sam_Brown

The only Promissor software I know about is part of the Edexcel ALAN testing software. If this is the case you would be better off calling them on 0870 240 9819 and quoting the centre number. This number should be available from your exam officer who should also be able to tell you what exams are booked for next week.

Hope this makes sense.

Paul

[daedalus]

If you mean the exam software for City and Guilds stuff, you can download this from www.catglobal.com You will need your prommisor login details to get to it thought.

I am not in the office at the moment else I would give you their support number to call. If no one has given you this by the time I get in later this afternoon I will post it here for you.

All the best

[Gerry]

daedalus is correct, and here's their tech support number: 0845 241 0070

[Sam_Brown]

Right.

Managed to find a share on one of our servers with the "administrator" (what a stupid name for the client sofware) installation file.

Now I get an error message of "5209: Cannot load SitePreference.DLL".

Joy. Looks like that tech support number is going to come in handy after all.

[daedalus]

The "5209: Cannot load SitePreference.DLL" message means that the client app can't connect to the shared area with the exam and candidate data on it. Have you got the ESM server package running somewhere? Where is it puting the downloaded data?

In our system we have an "esm_shared_data" share from one of our servers that the clients connect to. The old Promissor app used to complain about not enough disk space, this new jobby throws the error you have reported if this data area cannot be located.

We use this package extensively both on site and remotely using laptops. Let me know if you are still stuck.

Cheers.

[Sam_Brown]

You're correct.

We have a shared folder on one of our servers called ESM_TEST_CENTRE which contains three folders... Candidates, TestDefinition, Updates.

How do I point the Administrator program to the share?

---
EDIT

Noticed when trying to install asks for a data directory. Should this be the share?

[daedalus]

Yup your quite correct, during the client install you need to point it at the shared area for the data files.

Good luck.

[Sam_Brown]

That's what I get for going "next next next" instead of reding the damn instructions properly!

Thanks.

[JJonas]

If you have not done anything with this at all it is highly likely that the server side software will need an upgrade, and as a result of this upgrade you will also need to update the software on the clients. Once the sever side upgrade is complete the updated client tools should be in the Upgrades folder in ESM_TEST_CENTRE. The version number on my client tools is 15.0.0.543

What happens when you run ESM Server startup which should be on the desktop of the server with the ESM_TEST_CENTRE share?

[Linfit]

Good luck with this, it is an awful piece of software. When you get it working, it will inevitably break when you have to do an upgrade.
You can ring the helpdesk and get them to schedule a 'test' exam to check all is working and I would suggest you do this before any live tests.

We used it extensively for ALAN tests for three years and it gave us more problems that virtually any other piece of software - fortunately given up on ALAN now, they
have moved over to functional skills; back to pen and paper.

[JJonas]

Yes well worth scheduling a test exam. Other problems I can recall having with it - make sure an up to date version of Flash is installed. And I think I had to give students permission to write to the promissor folder on the local machine.

[nicholab]

You need to make sure the software is up to date. The tech support is very good.

[daedalus]

Just one other note.. If the system decided it is going to update the Administrator app on the client when a user has just logged in to take an exam (which it can do!!) the user must have admin rights or else the update fails and they just sit in a loop!! Or alternatively you can login to every machine (60 desktops and 25 laptops here!) to make sure the update happens ok.

Once you get used to its little 'design features' it does work reasonably well, tech support have always been helpful, and the odd funny during an update is quickly cured. It's just a pita when it hjappens as 25 C&G candidates login to take an exam.

Good luck