CMIS on a new work station

[stevenlong1985]

Hey all,

I'm very much a N00B at CMIS, I have a vague Idea how it works, could anyone forward any help docs or something. Because I've installed a new PC for the admin side of the school and they need to connect to a C:\admin\faculity.CDB file to me that’s a local file, but say there are two other computers if one access the C:\admin\faculity.CDB file and adds to it the other PC could access the file and see the change by going to C:\admin\faculity.CDB file.

Which is very odd and baffles the hell out of me,

How do I get this new PC to see the changes?

Anyone can help would be great

 

Thanks in advance

 

Steven

[Diello]

The CDB file just contains the settings pointing to the CMIS database held on your SQL server. It holds no data.

[stevenlong1985]

is there a correct way of installing cmis on a new workstation?

[john]

I have the main program installed on a server and i just make a shortcut to the admin.exe executable on a workstaion. I then ensure that an ODBC source is setup to the SQL server and the table in the database and then open the admin.exe and then browse to the CBD file and open the database, login and it works

[Diello]

Yup - that way, when you perform an upgrade, you only have to do it once, not on every workstation

[ANiceEnglishman]

That's the way Serco advise you to do it. It's all in the system administrator's manual whch you can download from the support website.

[stevenlong1985]

Thanks all! yeh i had it right the first time, just staff moaning that its selecting the T:/admin not C:/admin but it all the same

[michael2k6]

Hi folks,

 

Just make sure that when you create a new shortcut you also set the 'startin' to point at the userss client files. The client files folder would usually contain the CDB and the DSN. You can get away with sharing the DSN and pointing the CDB at the DSN on the server if you wish. Every user need their own CDB file as the CDB file also stores the previous dataset the user logged into. If you're not careful you'll find the timetabler will log into next years dataset and the admin team will do a load of work in it before they realise, then it will have to be done again!

Also, when you give it a start in folder, into that folder CMIS will create an ini file (upon closing or clicking Options | Configuration | Save configuration). These need to be user specific otherwise you'll find staff changing settings and column setups and loosing them.

 

The most common way of doing this is to set up from scratch on one machine, pointing it at a folder called client files. Then copy that folder onto your server. You now have a starting point for every new machine. The client files can then be copied out to each new users home drive, and assuming the home drive is mapped as h:\, for example, the shortcut will always point to \\sercoserver\admin$\admin.exe and the startin will always point to h:\clientfiles. When you've done this once, it just becomes a copy and paste job for every new user. And, as Diello said, one upgrade then

 

Hope this helps!

 

Michael Sanderson

Technical Engineer

Serco Learning

[Diello]

Our normal admin staff don't have access to change datasets.

 

@michael2k6 - Apologies for hijacking the thread, but you could save me a call to support! Which SQL table are student alerts for ePortal stored in? We have a few "Unknown" entries we can get rid of for ex-students. Thanks.

[maniac]

I've found a neat way to setup the shortcut is to have the CDB file in the shortcut, e.g our cmis installation is opened from R:\ and the CDB file is on the users H:\ so if I point the shortcut to;

 

"R:\Admin\Admin.exe" then put "h:\clientfiles\database.CDB" immediatly after it (with a space inbetween) it opens the CDB file automatically and prompts for a username and password staight away without the user having to go file and open and select a CDB file. Seems to work well, not sure if Serco would recommend it thou??

 

Mike.

[john]

Sounds a great tip that, all our staff near enough use the exact same CBD file so may be worth giving that a go for ours

[NickBuckel]

I've found a neat way to setup the shortcut is to have the CDB file in the shortcut, e.g our cmis installation is opened from R:\ and the CDB file is on the users H:\ so if I point the shortcut to;

 

"R:\Admin\Admin.exe" then put "h:\clientfiles\database.CDB" immediatly after it (with a space inbetween) it opens the CDB file automatically and prompts for a username and password staight away without the user having to go file and open and select a CDB file. Seems to work well, not sure if Serco would recommend it thou??

 

Mike.

 

Hi,

 

We would definitely advise against this as opening the CDB file like this can cause inaccurate data to appear in reports. Its best to get people to use the most recently opened files list. If nothing appears in that list then you will need to check the permissions on the admin.ini or cmisadmin.ini file in the windows directory on the user's pc.

 

Regards,

 

Nick Buckel

Support Team Leader

Serco Learning

[BarriedaleNick]

I have been using the CDB file in the shortcut for ages and have never had any problems.. All it does is to call the program and load the CDB file. All my cdb files are local in teh c:\admin directory.. I really dont see how this could cause any problems

[michael2k6]

Hi guys,

 

Off the top of my head, i think that the alerts are stored in MLSINBOX. Like i said, that is off the top of my head, and i don't have a database on the machine i'm currently on. Have a look, if they're there, it should be obvious.

 

Although i'm affraid i can't say why it causes inaccurate data in reports (as i don't know) i would agree with Nick. Calling the cdb from the shortcut has been known to cause issues. It may of been an issue only with certain schools due to something specific about, for example, their network configuration.

However, as the answer seemed to be not calling the cdb file from the shortcut (has been perfect since) this is something we advise against. It is not part of a routine installation and so anything which differs from this can always be suspect when a problem arises. If you're confident it has worked at your site and always will, it is of course your choice as to whether you leave it like that. Should you have any issues which we believe may be linked to this, however, we'll ask you to change that.

If you have by this time setup 30 pc's to run like this it's quite a job to change it.

My point is, wandering from the standard install might cause you extra work in the future.

 

Furthermore, as when there is an issue the reports do still work, but are inaccurate, how can you be sure you've never had a problem?

 

Michael Sanderson

Technical Engineer

Serco Learning

 

 

The content of the above post are written soley by myself and do not in any way represent the views or opinion of my employer or those associated with.