Sharing and relocating the Test Designer Database

Summary
It is possible to have two or more users of the NetSupport School Test Designer using the same question database and resource files. This enables teachers to share exam questions and resources when creating questions or exams.

Details
To set up a shared resource and database path, follow the steps below:

1. Create a network shared folder to store the database and test resources. This folder must be accessible by all users that need to access the shared resources.
2. Open the NetSupport School Test Designer and log in using the default Admin username with admin as the password or your created username and password.
3. Select File | Options.
4. Highlight Resource Path and click Edit.
5. Note the location of the resource path, then use the Browse button to change this to the network shared folder created at step 1.
6. Click OK and Close, then exit the Test Designer.
7. Copy the “Help”, “Image”, “Sound” and “Video” folders from the location noted at step 5 to the shared folder created at step 1.
8. Copy the School.mdb file from the NetSupport School Tests folder (default “C:\Program Files (x86)\NetSupport\NetSupport School\Tests”) to the network shared folder created at step 1.

At each machine that will run the Test Designer and will access the shared resources and database, perform the following:

1. Click Start | Run to open the Run window.
2. Type in %systemdrive%\Windows\SysWow64\Odbcad32.exe and click OK. The ODBC Data Source Administrator window will be displayed.
3. Select the System DSN tab.
4. In the list of System Data Sources, select the data source named NSS_School_Database and click the Configure button.
5. Click the Select button to select a database, browse to the network shared folder, and select the School.mdb file.
6. Click OK, Apply and OK to save the change to the Data Source.

Note: There are some limitations of using the NetSupport School Test Designer in this configuration.

The Test Designer does not dynamically refresh from the database. Therefore, if a new question is created at one machine, it will not automatically appear in the list of questions on the other machines until the Test Designer is closed and reopened.

If the Resources dialog is open and a resource is added by a user at another workstation, these new resources will not be displayed until the dialog is closed and re-opened.