Echo Electro Network How to Guide
Please read before you proceed with the installation of Echo Electro:
The installation instructions provided below are intended as general guidance and do not aim to provide detailed technical information. Some systems may not operate in exactly the same way, but the basic process remains the same. If in doubt, please consult your network administrator and/or technical support documentation.
All drive letters below are used as examples; drive letters on your system may vary. Ensure that all folders used for installing the software have sharing and permissions enabled (see 'installation overview' file in the ReadMe folder).
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Customer Digital Support Team
Telephone: 01865 888005
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Network Install
The HMC (Part 1, CD-ROM 1)
PLEASE READ BEFORE STARTING THE INSTALLATION
THIS IS A 2 PART INSTALLATION USING 2 SEPARATE DISKS. THE HMC (PART 1, CDROM 1) AND ALL PRODUCT CONTENT (PART 2, CDROM 2) MUST ALWAYS BE INSTALLED DIRECTLY AT THE SERVER IN THAT ORDER. THESE DISKS WILL NOT INSTALL ONTO A STANDALONE MACHINE e.g. A LAPTOP RUNNING WINDOWS XP. PLEASE ALLOW APPROX 100MB OF SERVER HARD DISK SPACE PER PRODUCT INSTALL.
Please make notes of the install and IIS locations as you progress through the installation.
CDROM 1 – The system disk - The installer is an Installshield Wizard so please follow the prompts. This is the install for the Harcourt Management Console hereafter know as the HMC (See "What is the HMC?" Section for more details).
CDROM 2 – The content disk - You will also have a second CDROM which holds the content files for the product you have purchased. That disk will need to be installed once part 1 of the process is completed.
These instructions and screen shots are based on a standard Windows 2003 server. Whilst you may not be using 2003 you can still use these instructions as a guide. Please see the "Minimum Requirements" section for more details.
When you have finished Part 1 - the HMC installation, you will need to move onto Part 2 - the content installation.
Part 1: Install HMC at the server
Step 1:
Insert the disk which should auto run. You will be presented with the Welcome screen. This will detect which Server OS you are using.
Simply click the "Next >" button to move to Step 2.
Step 2:
SQL Options:
You will see 3 options –
1. "Install & use a local MSDE Server"
2. "Look for SQL service to use"
3. "Specify SQL service to use".
"Install & use a local MSDE Server"
This will be the most common option. MSDE is the free distributable database engine SQL server from Microsoft. If you do NOT have a dedicated SQL server please choose this option.
This will automatically install MSDE to the server on which you are installing. You can nominate a location on the server hard disk. The default path is C:\program files\Microsoft SQL Server. We will assume that you will nominate the default path. We do not recommend or support an MSDE install to a network location. MSDE is a very small installation of only a few MBs.
"Look for SQL service to use"
This runs an app that looks for any existing SQL servers on your network. If you have a SQL server that you wish to browse to please select Option 1. The next screen will show a list of detected SQL servers. Simply check the SQL server you are happy to use and click the "Next >" button.
Now move on to Step 3.
"Specify SQL service to use"
If you already know your chosen SQL server name please select this option. The installer will ask you to type in the SQL server name. Simply type in the name of the SQL server you are happy to use and click the "Next >" button.
Now move on to Step 3.
Step 3:
Location of the Virtual Directories:
If you only have "Default Web Site" in IIS you will NOT see the following screen. If you do it is because the install has detected you have more than one possible location to place the HMC and Product virtual directories within IIS. e assume for the purposes of these instructions that you will select "Default Web Site"
Note for RM CC3 users: Community Connect 3 servers have a "Default Website" in IIS, but it is disabled by default. The installation should therefore be pointed at the "Intranet" website instead.
HMC Database: You can nominate a location on the server hard disk for the HMC database. The default path is C:\program files\Microsoft SQL Server
We recommend that you install the database to the same location you installed MSDE, or accept the default location if you choose Option 2 or 3. Again, it is less than a MB in size.
Step 4:
HMC website files: These are the files that make the HMC work. The default path is C:\program files\Harcourt Education but the eventual full path will be C:\Program Files\Harcourt Education\Elf_Solution. We recommend that you install the website files to the same location you installed MSDE and/or the database. These files are approx 5 MB in size.
Step 5:
Final step: Summary screen. Example based on the above:
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MDAC 2.7 will not be installed
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Website server Default Web Site
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MSDE will be installed locally
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MSDE Executables C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
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MSDE Database C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server
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HMC installed to C:\Program Files\Harcourt Education\Elf_Solution
"MDAC 2.7 will not be installed" - this simply means that the install has detected MDAC is already installed and it has "disabled" that part of the installer.
"Website server Default Web Site" - this is telling you that you nominated "default Web Site" as the location of the virtual directories the installer will create. This is a standard setting.
The other listings are just confirming the nominated paths in previous steps.
The install will now happen when you click "Next".
The first part of the installation is associated with the local MSDE installation (if this has been selected). As part of this process a Microsoft patch, SQLXML3.0, is required. This will be installed. The following screens will be seen:
At this point click "Next" to start the installation. You will be presented with a licence agreement which you simply need to accept. This is followed by a customer information screen, which can be left as is. Following this, the screen below will probably appear:
For the purposes of this installation this message can be ignored and "OK" pressed to carry on with the SQLXML installation.
Once the SQLXML installation is complete the install process will continue.
If you have chosen to use a SQL server elsewhere on your network, please ensure that the SQLXML 3.0 patch is applied to that if it has not already. At time of writing the patch could be downloaded for free from the following url:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=4023deea-f179-45de-b41d-84e4ff655a3b&displaylang=en
Part 2: Install product content at the server
Step 1:
Insert the Disk 2 which should auto run. You will be presented with the Welcome screen. This screen will advise you that it's adding content to the HMC.
Step 2:
Click "Next" then "Install" to begin - all content will then install to the nominated path of your HMC e.g. C:\program files. You cannot nominate a new install path. Assuming a default installation:
C:\Program Files\Harcourt Education\Elf_Solution\hmc\products\product GUIDE
Step 3:
Once the content has successfully copied across click "finish".
Part 3: Accessing the content on a client machine
At your server:
The HMC will appear under your Start > Programs > Harcourt Education > Harcourt Management Console.
The PRODUCT will appear under your Start > Programs > Heinemann > "product name".
There will also be an entry here entitled: Server information. This is exactly what it says - the recorded addresses of the home page of the HMC installation and the Product Content installation.
Example: http://server1/HMC/default.asp
Example: http://server1/Logo
You will not be able to use the PRODUCT until you have set up the HMC. If you try to do so you will see the message:
"This product is currently inactive. Please contact your system administrator".
The system administrator is the person who controls the HMC. Please now see the user manual on how to get started on the HMC.
The content can be reached on any client machine that can connect to the server on which it is installed by entering one of the server information URLs in an Internet browser. Students only need access to the PRODUCT CONTENT URL. Once you have tested it on a client and are happy it works simply create a shortcut, bookmark, Internet favourite to point to the home page.
A printable copy of these instructions can be downloaded here.
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RM CC3 Install
The HMC and the Product Content MUST be installed DIRECTLY on the server. IIS5/6 and the latest Windows 2000 / 2003 service pack, must also be installed. IIS is standard part of Windows 2000 / 2003 and is usually pre-installed on Community Connect 3 servers.
Follow the general network installation instructions. There is no need for an MSI as the entire install is done at the server.
Things to watch out for :
1. Do the install at a time of day when the server can be rebooted although, if the server has the latest service packs installed as above, it is unlikely that any reboots will be required. Do not ignore any requests for a reboot.
2. Client stations require the IE Flash plugin (version 7 recommended) before your product content is used (the HMC is server only and does not need Flash). The Flash plugin can be downloaded individually to each client machine or can be packaged and delivered to the clients.
3. Community Connect 3 servers have a "Default Website" in IIS, but it is disabled by default. The installation should therefore be pointed at the "Intranet" website instead.
Some CC3 servers have a rather unusual Anonymous user account of the form IUSR_24234562457 - i.e. a serial number. This can cause the permissions required for the HMC not to be added correctly. After installation please check the following folders and the "IUSR" account should have Full control.
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\Elf_Solution\bin
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\Elf_Solution\hmc
If it does not, then the IUSR_"serialnumber" account needs to be given full control permissions for these folders and the permissions set to inherit downwards to child objects. This is achieved via the "Advanced" option on the folder properties.
Downloading the Flash plugin to each client machine:
The Flash plugin needs to be loaded on all machines that will be running your product content. It is very important that the correct plugin is used as some versions of Flash enable Flash content to be displayed, but do not work correctly with IE.
It is recommended therefore that the following method is employed :
On a workstation:
1. On each client machine that will be displaying the product content log in as an administrator.
2. Navigate to the Macromedia web site. The exact URL you need is (at time of writing): http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer/. Install the free Flash plugin.
3. Once the plugin has been installed on a client machine then it is available for all users of that machine.
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How should my *.CSV file be formatted for importing into the HMC?
The CSV import feature will only work if the CSV file is formatted exactly as the HMC expects.
You can import the following information for each pupil:
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First name
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Last name
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Class
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Year
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Unique Pupil Number *
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Username *
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Password *
* You can also optionally import these fields.
The HMC will not accept a CSV file which contains ANY punctuation or spaces; so hyphenated names or names containing apostrophes will cause the import procedure to fail, as will spaces in any of the fields. The 'Year' field must be the academic year (I.e. 7, 8 or 9). Please do not include 'column headings'.
There is not a set limit to the number of pupils you can import at any one time, though it is advisable to keep the CSV file to limit of 100 or so users per file.
There are two sample CSV files attached to this FAQ (below). If you are having problems importing your CSV file, try importing one of the attached sample files, this will help ascertain whether there is an issue with permissions on your server or whether the formatting of you CSV is the cause of the error.
CSV Examples
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