OxBox Software...

[Pumaedition]

Lovingly I have been given some OxBox software to install on our system. I hate the stuff.

 

I have followed the guide they give, but alas, it still can't connect to the database on the client, despite me telling it where the installation path is. So i uninstall from the client....and stupidly click yes to uninstall the database, where it deletes it from the server (thought it couldn't connect to it...)

 

Anyways, I go to uninstall from the server, and it won't uninstall, throwing up a "UninstallutilLib.dll:Unknown Error"

 

Fine, I think...I'll try and install the OTHER piece of Oxbox software that was goven to me at the same time. Before I tell the client the apparent wrong database information again...can anyone give me exact details of what to put in, that actually works.

 

Everyone has the right permissions on the folder...yet it still fails to connect.

 

Please help a frustrated person!!

[Guest Guest]

This is what the config file should look like

 

 
   X:\Geography\oxbox\planning1\db
   true
 

[Sylv3r]

I can't help you with this one - but I agree the OxBox stuff is a right pain in the .....

[john]

Not had to remove it yet but took a full day to get the GCSE French Oxbox to work, pointed out that it took a full day of time whilst nothing else got fixed so was NOT impressed! Then lo and behold Spanish turned up the next month! At least that was slightly less painful but still was very cross as this department just short-cutted the system

[morganw]

I managed to get an OxBox title to run from a server a couple of weeks ago without using their dodgy installers on the server.

 

Do a server install on a workstation then move it to the server in a share. The config file in the root of the directory needs to be edited, do a find & replace to make sure the server path is set correctly - by default the share name the installer generates is half garbage anyway. This gets the resources to work.

 

Then use a program like text crawler to do a similar find and replace on all files labeled .lessonplan. On mine there were about 1500 occurances spread through about 80 files. This gets the lesson plans to work correctly.

 

Then I got a clean workstation and installed the client pointing at the share. I just copied the program folder from program files into a self extracting 7zip archive to silently deploy it.

 

This is from memory, i've got notes though, i'll check again tomorrow.

Their installer is a liability, I'll never run it on a production server.

[WithoutMotive]

Hate OxBox. It's horrible. Had an awful time installing it a few months ago.

[morganw]

Oxbox Science Works 2

 

Dependencies:

 

.Net framework 2.0

 

Install type:

 

Client / Server

 

Usernames / Passwords:

 

teacher / ********

 

Install instructions:

 

The installer makes a messy install so this is to work around the installer issues.

 

• Login to workstation, remove from domain, reboot…

• Login to workstation, rename workstation so the hostname matches the application server name, reboot…

• Insert install disc, run installer, allow .Net framework 2.0 to install if not present.

• Allow the initial installation to install to the local had disk.

• Do a server install onto the workstation, afterwards copy the install folder onto the application server.

• Check the metadata text file to see if the share location on the server is correctly listed, if it is different then use find/replace in notepad to correct all metadata entries.

• Reimage workstation…

• Insert install disc, run installer, allow .Net framework 2.0 to install if not present.

• Allow the initial installation to install to the local had disk (take note of this location).

• Run a client install, when prompted for the install location it is actually asking for the location of the server install, press browse and locate the folder that contains the content folder on the server. If share browsing is disabled type in the correct path.

• Test with the desktop shortcut to see if the program is working correctly.

• Create .7z archive of the local install folder (location that was noted), this is all that is required to run the application other than the .Net framework.

• Use the 7zip module ‘7zsd.sfx’ to create a silent self extractor.

• To fix the server paths in lessons, use a tool such as text crawler to replace the server string in all files that have the extension .lessonplan.

 

The start may be overkill but it worked so I'd do it again.

[sjatkn]

Lovingly I have been given some OxBox software to install on our system. I hate the stuff.

 

Strangely we have had little problem with OxBox. It installed properly according to the instruction, which as you know is a novelty with education software. I have seen problems when the path to the install was set to be the same as the path to the database. If you install it on the server using the path to the install being c:\program files\... you then get asked for the path to the database, this should then be to a share that all users can see and need not be c:\program files\....

 

The bit I did not like was the need to go to each workstation to install the client. I did discover a method of installing via GPO. What follows are as lifted from my installation instructions so will need tweaking for you.

 

"Copy CD1 to d:\apps_sdp\clic!

Remove content directory (saving 650MB)

** Copy FuseCore.config from a manual standalone installation into d:\apps_sdp\clic!\OxBox\Clic! - fa9\

 

Configured GPO 'Install Clic' to install via the distriubution share to install oxbox.msi.

 

Only change to FuseCore.config is

. becomes p:\oxbox\

 

Where p:\oxbox is the clients path to the installed database"

 

** I seem to remember for the other OxBox products we use that I did not copy the fusecore.config file from a workstation but simply edited the path in the distribution directory. I have also edited the MSI to stop it from adding start menu and desktop shortcuts.

[Pumaedition]

Yeah, I have got it working now. Pain in the ar$e though. Deployed it to clients as well, and they seem to work, which is a novelty. Did take me a whole day and a phonecall to their tech support (who knew what they were on about, so must have had plenty of calls before).

 

Before deploying to clients, I manually edited the fuseconfig.config file to point to the right directory and bingo! Who'da thunk it could work!

[tdk]

Anyone else think they should give instructions on how to install it via the msi? I think they don't want to give your average (technologically illiterate) user more than they need to worry about but for the rest of us a quick "this is the msi, edit this file so that it points to the right place" would be good enough.

[irsprint84]

I know just enough about programming from Uni but if they re usuing VS and .net its extremely easy to package! this software took ages to build and we found they were clueless to help

[tdk]

I know the thing uses .net in order for the client to talk to the server, but as for the actual database bit itself, it's all xml files and directories. I guess it means that there's less of a footprint on the server.

[irsprint84]

I dont mind about footprint if i can install it! Its software being more complicated than it needs to be and I dont just mean the installation

[mats]

What a steaming pile of carp this package is! I especially liked it when I tried using the CC3 installation mode on a client machine - maybe it would make something useful. Instead, it complains that it's not a cc3 server and then sits there with all the buttons greyed out. Slick, real slick!

 

Looking forward to more fun with this one. Ta for the instructions above everybody.

[mattianuk]

I just gave up and ave the 2 staff copies of the CD.