Saving on school network?

[starfluf]

hi guys. My ICT guys have just installed demo version on to our machines in music and we can't save on network? We can't save anything on the c drive. How can I get mu.lab to see our network area so kids can save their work there?
Thanks

[MuTools]

MuLab just listens to what Windows tells it.
If you can't save on the C drive, i think there is a permission issue in your security setup. I assume also other apps can't save to C then.

[starfluf]

Hi Jo. Our IT guys have locked down C drive to everybody, all staff use Network drive too (via My Computer). In terms of an educational environment setting Mu.lab needs to see network drives, as our other software can. We aren't allowed to use memory sticks either as we had a virus issue. If students can save on the network I can play them their work on the teacher PC and access their work to mark and give feedback. Why can't Mu.lab have an .ini or settings file, so that we can specify a save location? This seems to be how 99% of our software operates, a lot of which isn't typically educational, either. Without the facility for us to set the save location or accessing 'My Computer' in the save window, then at current I can't see how Mu.lab will able to be used by the majority of educational establishments, which is a huge missed opportunity. Sorry if this sounds negative, but I know this has great potential, especially in the economic climate we are faced in (schools struggling to buy in updates of cubase and the like), you could really exploit the education market.

[pljones]

MU.LAB doesn't need to be installed anywhere (it doesn't really "install" as such - you just dump it in a folder and run it).

MU.LAB has settings in ...\MULAB\User\Settings. If you don't see that folder, you're looking in the wrong place. In that folder can live a file called PreferredFilesAndFolders.Txt. One of the entries in that is "FavoriteFolder=/D:/Multimedia/MULAB" where "/D:/Multimedia/MULAB" is the location I keep my audio files here.

MU.LAB sees my network drives, too.

[starfluf]

MU.LAB doesn't need to be installed anywhere (it doesn't really "install" as such - you just dump it in a folder and run it).

MU.LAB has settings in ...\MULAB\User\Settings. If you don't see that folder, you're looking in the wrong place. In that folder can live a file called PreferredFilesAndFolders.Txt. One of the entries in that is "FavoriteFolder=/D:/Multimedia/MULAB" where "/D:/Multimedia/MULAB" is the location I keep my audio files here.

MU.LAB sees my network drives, too.

Hi pljones. Thanks for the instructions. We've just tried testing this. We opened PreferredFilesAndFolders.Txt and set the favourites folder to "FavouriteFolder=/C:/Users/Richard/Documents/MoodleFiles", then chose 'save session as' to this location. The problem is, it didn't save the session there. It actually appended the above path onto the end of my actual windows favorite path and saved it to "/C:/Users/Richard/Favorites/C/Users/Richard/Documents/MoodleFiles/".

Not quite what we were expecting. Any ideas? BTW, we're on Windows 7

[pljones]

Looks like you missed the ":".

[MuTools]

In terms of an educational environment setting Mu.lab needs to see network drives, as our other software can.

I don't know why there would be a difference between MuLab and other apps.
Maybe these folders are hidden?
In MuLab's file browser there is a "Filter" button at the right side, click that and enable "Show Hidden Files". Does that make a difference?

Why can't Mu.lab have an .ini or settings file, so that we can specify a save location?

So you want to be able to restrict saving to only one folder (and its subfolders)?

I'm not a network expert but shouldn't this be setup using Windows' permissions? I can't believe this should be setup for each app individually, that would be very inefficient and insecure imho.

Anyone here who is experienced in making such security setup?

I know this has great potential, especially in the economic climate we are faced in (schools struggling to buy in updates of cubase and the like), you could really exploit the education market.

I'm open to help where possible, but i think we should sort this out in a proper way.

Just 'quickly' adding a "Save Root Folder" or something like that in the MuLab preferences is not very secure as users could still save things elsewhere outside MuLab. Right?

Feel free to tell your IT guys to contact me about this, via email or here via the forum.

[starfluf]

Hi Jo

I'll copy the thread into an email and send to you and our ICT guys if that's of help?

Thanks

[MuTools]

Yes good idea, email well received

[MuTools]

MU.LAB has settings in ...\MULAB\User\Settings. In that folder can live a file called PreferredFilesAndFolders.Txt. One of the entries in that is "FavoriteFolder=/D:/Multimedia/MULAB" where "/D:/Multimedia/MULAB" is the location I keep my audio files here.

The favorite folders are a good thing to quickly go to one of your favorite folders.

You don't need to edit that text file for adding/removing favorite folders, it can be done using the "Favorites" button at the right side of the file browser.

Also note that adding a favorite folder does not restrict saving in other folders so i think it's not helping in what starfluf's is trying to achieve.

[starfluf]

Hi Jo
Any updates in response to this thread? Thanks

[MuTools]

Hi starfluf,

I don't know what updates you mean.
Last action in this thread is that you copied the problem to your ICT guys, i received the cc of that email, thanks again for that. I expected response from them, but never saw a follow up from their side. Up to date i don't know about a specific MuLab problem wrt network drives. Of course i'm still open to sort out any such possible problems.