LessonStart - Installation Guide

Please take a couple of minutes to read these notes before installing LessonStart. This will save you time and allow you to choose the best installation method for your situation.

On this page

Current version

Make sure you have the current version of the CD(s). There is one CD for each module you have purchased. They are presented in a DVD style case. The current version of LessonStart is version 1.0

Licensing, Internet use, installation

LessonStart is available to install or to use over the Internet. The Internet version looks and operates the same as the installed version.

There are two types of license for LessonStart. The Internet only licence allows you to use the product off the Internet. The CD and Internet licence allows you to install it to your computer or server, as well as use it off the Internet.

For Internet access to LessonStart, see www.careersoft.co.uk/LessonStart.

To use LessonStart from the Internet or installed to your computer or network, you will need the Authorisation Code and other details that came with your purchase letter. This letter also shows you which version you are licensed for.

Installing on just this computer

To install LessonStart just to this computer, choose the Use it from this computer only option on the Network Mode page during the install, and go with the default choices for the rest of the install.

Run setup from the install folder of the CD to get started.

To install LessonStart you need to be logged on with an account that has Administrator rights. Once the program is installed, you do not need any special rights to run it.

Installing on your network

We intend that you should find LessonStart easy to install on your network. It pays to read through these notes first to save time and hassle later.

Please note that this is the recommended way of installing for all compatible network types, including all types of Windows networks, Citrix, RM Community Connect etc (see the additional help pages for specific installation notes for various network types, including RM).

The network install for LessonStart is different to the network install for many other products.

  • Nothing needs installing to the client machines
    (LessonStart uses Flash™ Player, which is found on 98% of all browsers. If your client machines do not have Flash Player installed, you will need to install it – see the browser requirements notes)
  • You do not need to visit any of the client machines
  • The program files are not installed to mapped drives or UNC shares

Deployment principle

LessonStart contains a lightweight engine that makes interactive HTML pages on-the-fly, and shows them to the user as required without saving them on disk. For a stand-alone installation, the html page-maker and the browser are on the same machine. For a straightforward network install, the page-maker and browser can be on separate computers, so the page-maker runs as a service on your 'server' (can be any Windows 2000, 2003 or XP machine), and then your clients point their browser (typically Microsoft Internet Explorer) at the server to view the pages. The connection is effected using standard HTTP over your TCP network, like your clients do for viewing external web sites.

The engine only does pages for LessonStart (and some other Careersoft products if installed), and does not require or interact with any web server on the same machine. You may have used other 'browser-ware' products based on this principle already, ranging from web interfaces for network printers, to sophisticated information management packages.

You can install the product to each client machine individually instead if you wish, but this will require visiting each machine to install the product. It is not possible to run the program by sharing the exe off a mapped drive or UNC share.

The installer installs the program and the ancillary components that the program uses, including the .Net framework.

Installation

  1. Choose a suitable computer to install to. This should be connected to your network and running at all times that users might want to connect to it. The operating system for the server part has to be Microsoft Windows 2000 or later, including Windows XP and Windows 2003 Server (clients can be any operating system that supports a suitable browser, including Windows 98 and later). The network connectivity components in LessonStart will only work on networks with standard private IP ranges according to RFC1597, i.e. 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x to 172.31.x.x, and 192.168.x.x. (if your network runs on some other non-standard IP range, contact support@careersoft.co.uk for advice).
  2. Run the installer by double-clicking setup in the install folder of the CD (there is also a Windows installer msi file on the CD, but using this directly could mean that you miss out on some important updates to your system files, so is not recommended). Note also that setup must run on the target computer – you can't run it on one computer to install to another. The installer must run as a Privileged user (Administrative rights). Once installed, users need no special rights to use the product.
  3. Choose the "Allow others to connect to it" option from the Network Mode page during the installation.
  4. Choose to install to a local drive. The destination folder for the installation must be a local drive on the machine that you are installing on. Mapped drives on other computers, and any UNC paths (like \\computername ) will not work. The installation folder should not be visible on a share – remember that LessonStart makes its information visible as HTML pages over HTTP, not as files off a file share.
  5. Note the URL for connecting to LessonStart. A box containing this information pops up during the network install (this information is also visible from the Careersoft Network Components item in your Control Panel). You should note these details for use by your client computers for connecting to LessonStart. The box showing these links also allows you to try these out in your browser, and this can also be a good opportunity to register the program by entering the Establishment Name and Authorisation Code supplied in your subscription letter.
  6. Provide a way for your client computers to find LessonStart. This could be by putting a Favorites link in their browser (perhaps by using Group Policy in Active Directory), or by putting a URL shortcut on their Desktop or Start menu (like you might do with a shortcut to an exe file), or by putting a hyperlink on your intranet. See Publishing your links for details.

Browser requirements

LessonStart is optimised for use with Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 5 and higher. It has also been tested with Firefox, Netscape versions 7 and higher, and Mozilla version 1.4 and higher. The clients can be any operating system that supports a suitable browser, including Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows 98.

LessonStart makes use of Flash Player for its interactivity. You browser needs to be enabled with Flash Player version 5 or later to play the Flash content. When you view LessonStart in your browser, it will check for Flash Player. In most cases (over 98% of browsers have Flash capabilities) you should be able to view the active Flash content right away. In a minority of cases you may need to install the player, or enable plugins or ActiveX before you can use Flash-enabled web pages. You can visit www.careersoft.co.uk/go/FlashPlayer to see if your browser supports Flash, and for details on how to download and enable it.

The latest version of Flash Player is available from macromedia.com. You can also find copies of the Flash Player installer on the CD. Note that even after downloading and installing Flash Player, you may need to tick some boxes in the browser settings before it can use Flash. See www.careersoft.co.uk/go/FlashPlayer for details.

What's on the CD?

  • install folder. This folder contains the main installer program, setup.exe
  • Beneath this folder are the folders for required Windows components, including dotnet for the Microsoft .Net Framework. Normally you do not need to bother with these items separately, because by running setup.exe your system is updated with these components automatically as part of the install process (you get prompted first).
  • supporting application installers. In this folder are sub folders for Flash Player.

Where to go for further information

Please visit Publishing on various network types for information about using LessonStart with specific network types, including Windows Active Directory, RM CC3, Citrix and Novell, and notes about troubleshooting your LessonStart application.

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Page date 14/02/08