Digital Workshop

Here's a sample Opus web pub.
This part of a math pub was designed to give students some practice with the 12 times table. Original version was using drag and drop but got feedback saying some students were have trouble with this.
This early version is fairly basic (no scoring etc) while I decide whether web pubs work for me.
I'm experimenting with session variables to stop the pub working if it is running offsite.

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rearranging site at present so no link
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Paul

Hi Paul,

Here in the U.S., we don't teach math that far any more. We just give half the students calculators, and the other half is the control group (see how creative they can get). With recent budget cuts, we'll just need to give out a greater proportion of calculators.

Tried the link... authorization didn't go thru. Waited 2 minutes.
Using Firefox 2.

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Good luck with the server/control idea.
I can understand why you'd want that, just do not know what's possible to implement it. Will think on it for your other thread.
Cheers,
Larry

Hi Paul,

Interesting concept - the commutative law and inverse are difficult concepts for kids to grasp so anything that encourages them to understand these concepts is good news


Mack

Okay,

Having posted some information on how to fix the FF 2 / 3 issue in the previous post - realised that this wasn't the problem

It would appear (maybe somebody will confirm this) that although the ILM is running in FF it is using IEs cache!!

This means that the session set in FF is not the same one accessible to the ILM even though it is running in the same browser. You can work around this by setting the session_id before starting the session on EACH page.

This works fine with a fixed value, but clearly, you want each user accessing with a unique value - so perhaps using their IP address would also work?

Mack

The session id will accept an IP address with the period replaced.

<?php
//THIS GETS THE IP OF THE CLIENT - SOME SERVERS MIGHT NEED A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT VERSION
$string = @$REMOTE_ADDR;
//THIS REMOVES ALL NON-NUMERICAL CHARACTERS - REPLACING THEM WITH X
//IT THEN USES THIS AS THE SESSION ID
session_id(ereg_replace("[^0-9]", "X", $string));
//THIS STARTS THE SESSION
session_start();
//THIS SETS THE DATA IN THE SESSION THAT CAN THEN BE CALLED BY THE PLEXUS ILM
$_SESSION['ID'] = "FGHT3-ASFK4-45HHE-SAF45-SAFJ1-435JQ"; // store session data
?>

thus creating a unique session that will allow the other browsers to work.

Mack

Larry, Thanks for the feedback re Firefox, it's appreciated.
Mack, thanks for the nfo -- I expected these kind of things to happen once the pub left a controlled environment.
I've temporarily removed the session check until I understand the various browser quirks and digest the nfo Mack posted.
Server side scripting isn't one of my strong points

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cheers
Paul

Paul,

It may not be a FF issue.
I recently went through an Opus uninstall and reinstall... maybe I deleted the Plexus too. Not sure what I have... busy with other things.
Later.

It's not FF - it appears to be Opus. It's using the IE cache even when running under FF.

The PHP session therefore thinks that a different session is running hence the values return from the session won't match - like storing a variable in one DB and trying to find it in another!

Paul, this is a neat trick, much better than my previous video suggestion. I'm not sure how you set up the sessions as I called mine from outside of the root after editing the HTM but drop me an email if you want to bounce ideas.

Mack

OK Mack,
I've sent you an email re this.

Paul

rearranging site at present so no link.

Paul

Paul, Mack,

This may be way out in 'left field' or there may be some useful bits of info to be found. (for the original post topic: method for checking if pub on server )

I just came across this article while looking for something else.
Disconnected Client Architecture By Marc Clifton
How does the application determine if it is online or offline?
There are three places where an application determines that it is offline:
http://secure.codeproject.com/
Do this search there and find the titled article: SQLITE AND "column name" (seems cannot search it directly?)

or,
http://secure.codeproject.com/KB/cs/
search "disconnected client"

The discussion there is certainly over my head.
Cheers.

Thanks Larry,
I appreciate the info.

Paul

In FireFox 2.0.0.14 I get a black screen for about 30 seconds. Then begins the download of the plexus plugin.

This happens without any action of the user. The plugin installs itself without any request.
I think this is a very dubious behaviour. I know in advance that none of my customers would allows their users to install anything that comes in this way from the net.

Maybe it is possible to check if the plugin is already installed and the ask the user if she would allow this installation.

Some users and some security programs as well might think that this is a virus or something because it tries to install itself on the users machine.

T.

Paul, what an excellent game!
I have seen it without a glitch, using VISTA Ultimate and IE 7.0
Way to go boy!
Congratulations!

Hi Koala,
thanks for your kind words.

cheers
Paul