Customer Support Document
Version 5.0
Latest Revision 5th May 2017
Copyright© 2017
Nox Medical - All rights reserved
Contents
Overview
Storing Settings in Noxturnal
Different Access Modes of Noxturnal
Noxturnal in Administrator Mode
Settings Locations
Sharing Settings between Users on a Network
- Noxturnal Configuration in Administration Mode
- Define Central Location for Settings to be Shared
- Copy Configuration Databases to Network Location
- Point Noxturnal to the Shared Settings Location
- Export Settings and Configuration to Share with Other Workstations
Sharing Single User Settings with Roaming Profiles
Overview
This knowledge base article describes how the settings location system in Noxturnal works and how to centralize settings on a network. Another feature in Noxturnal is to manage default settings through an administration mode which is also covered in this article.
These features allow users to share settings amongst themselves and also to have an administrator (or lead tech) dictate general settings which are then used by everyone in the sleep clinic. These features also allow users that are moving between workstations to bring their settings with them between the different workstations, thereby ensuring a uniform working environment.
In order to get a full understanding of the way that these features work a good working knowledge in IT and network infrastructure is needed. Ideally, these instructions should be read jointly by an IT person in tandem with a Noxturnal expert.
Storing Settings in Noxturnal
Noxturnal allows the storing of a multitude of different settings. These can be anything like workspace layouts, colorings of trace views, analysis settings, report settings and many more. Through these settings, both users and sleep clinic managers can customize the inner workings of Noxturnal to fit their own wishes.
There are two different levels of settings in Noxturnal:
Noxturnal stores these settings in Configuration Databases. These are files that are initially stored locally on the computer which Noxturnal is set up on but the features explained in this document allow users to share these files amongst themselves.
Different Access Modes of Noxturnal
Before we can start sharing settings between different users we must understand the different Access Modes of Noxturnal and how they interact with the local computer’s administrator rights.
In order for Noxturnal to control access of its settings it offers three different levels of program access:
Noxturnal in Administrator Mode
To change default settings in Noxturnal you must run it in Administrator Mode as described above.
To make this possible you must have local computer administration rights (ask your IT dept.) and use the switch “/admin”.
- In the windows desktop locate the Noxturnal shortcut
- Copy and paste the shortcut, and then rename it to Noxturnal – Admin Mode
- Right click on the new shortcut and select Properties from the context menu. Append the admin switch to the end of the Target: text field... nal\Noxturnal.exe" /admin and select OK.
- To start Noxturnal in administration mode, right click on the Noxturnal – Admin Mode and select Run as Administrator
To verify that Noxturnal is in administration view the application name. It should state “(Admin Mode)”.
In “Admin Mode” all default settings / protocols appear like user settings / protocols but it is important to note that all changes here will be saved in the default settings *.ndb.
(Tools -> Settings ->Advanced).
Settings Locations
The user has an option to change where these configuration databases are stored for Noxturnal. The location settings can be accessed through the Tools->Settings dialog under the Advanced tab page.
In this screenshot you can see where the Default Settings and the User Settings are stored. These are the fields that you will need to modify in order to share settings between users.
In this screenshot you will see that some folders have names with a ‘%’ symbol in them. These folders are using environment variables from Windows to maintain the default Windows folder structure. In order to get a full understanding of these, please contact your local IT administrator (see also: http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-variables.html) as this is beyond the scope of this article.
You will also see two check boxes. They function as follows:
Apply changes for all users – If checked, this stores the settings locations for all users on the local machine. Each user that log onto this machine will use the settings locations specified. With this option ON all changed settings made by a Windows administrator will overwrite local user settings options. This option is greyed out if you are not the administrator on the local workstation.
Allow users to change locations – Check this option to allow users to make changes to their own locations. Un-check this option to only allow Windows administrators to edit the settings locations.
Reset to default – By selecting this option the settings locations are restored to the default values. This option is not available if “Allow users to change location” option is checked off
Sharing Settings between Users on a Network
After having understood the concepts of Settings Configuration Databases, Settings Locations, and Access Modes of Noxturnal you can start sharing settings between users on a network.
There are a number of steps that need to be completed in order to share the settings. They are:
- Run Noxturnal in Administrator Mode and configure the Noxturnal Working Environment and all Settings on one workstation. This configuration will function as the template for all the other workstations on the network.
- Define a central location on your network where the Default Settings will be stored. This would typically be a folder where all the workstations that will have Noxturnal installed upon can see. You might need help from your IT Administrator for this step.
- Copy all Configuration Databases from your local workstation to this centralized location. You can access the configuration databases by opening Tools->Options, and then select the Advanced There you will see an option for Default Settings. This will open the settings location in windows explorer.
- Go back to Noxturnal and make sure that your Settings Locations are pointing the Default Settings to this centralized location.
- Now you have completed your template for the setup and this can be copied between workstations by exporting the appropriate keys from the Windows Registry (you might need help from your IT Administrator for this).
- Take the file you just exported and copy to a flash drive or a central location.
- Import the file you just exported to all the other workstations where Noxturnal is installed to and you wish to share the centralized settings. You might need help from your IT Administrator for this.
- You will now have configured all Noxturnal installations to point to the same centralized settings.
Below is a detailed explanation of each step.
1. Noxturnal Configuration in Administration Mode
Make sure you run Noxturnal in the Administration Mode as described above. In this mode the following configurations can be changed:
- Report Templates
- Analysis Protocols
- Data Locations
- Sheet Layouts
- Tools Options (all settings except for settings Locations which are save to the local machine registry)
- Signal Types and Groups
- Event Types and Groups
- Signal and Event Mappings for all file formats
- Shortcut keys
- Network folder in Recording Library
In this way for example:
- Default analysis protocols can be changed or deleted (and appear all under “User”):
(Analysis -> Manage Protocols -> Manage Analysis).
- Also the download location can be changed here:
(Tools -> Settings -> Automation).
- And all changes made to settings can be locked (inclusive download location):
(Tools -> Settings -> Advanced -> Edit All Settings). When settings are locked, standard users cannot change these settings to their preferred ones.
This e.g. would lead to a local User not be able to change the download location as well as not being able to change to company name (in difference to Web site which is not locked):
(Tools -> Settings -> User & Company).
Make sure that all settings are set as you see fit before you start sharing between users.
2. Define Central Location for Settings to be Shared
Work with your IT Administrator to find a suitable network location where you can store the settings files that will be shared. An example is:
\\[server]\[path to settings]\ or more explicitly
\\zip\Flutningur\111ServerTestLocationSettings\CentralSettings\
You will probably need to create a folder at this location, for example named “CentralSettings”.
3. Copy Configuration Databases to Network Location
In case of using a network location as in our example the configuration databases (default settings) need to be copied once to the network location.
In Tools->Settings dialog under the Advanced tab page, the installation folder for the Default Settings can be found
The Noxturnal.[language].ndb files shall be copied from the local folder into the newly created folder located on the Network from step 2 above.
Copy all files except the license.lcx:
Paste all the files (except license.lcx) into your Network Location:
4. Point Noxturnal to the Shared Settings Location
After you have configured Noxturnal and copied the settings to your shared location you must direct Noxturnal to use the settings from this shared location.
- Open Noxturnal in Admin mode
- Browse to Tools -> Settings -> Advanced
- Change the Default Settings to your shared settings location from step 2 above. You do not have to change the other settings locations to share these settings.
- Check, “Apply Change for all Users”
- If you desire to forbid users to change their Settings Locations you must uncheck the “Allow users to change locations” check box.
5. Export Settings and Configuration to Share with Other Workstations
This step is necessary for the first time that you are installing Noxturnal on your network or setting up new workstations. When you have finished your initial setup with these steps you can easily modify central default settings by using the Admin Mode, running as local computer administrator on any of the workstations. Those changes would then propagate to the rest of the computers on your network.
To export on the workstation where you configured your main template for settings do the following:
In the registry editor (Start -> Run -> Regedit) you need to browse to "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Nox Medical\Noxturnal" if you are doing this for all users on the machine. Select the registry key on the left side, and then select File->Export.
Make sure that where is says "Selected Branch" is selected and the path is the one you need to export. Then give it a name, File name and select Save. Now you have the registry script file that you can use on any other machine that you want to share the settings with.
Take the file you just exported and copy to a flash drive or a central location.
Import/run the file you just exported to all the other workstations where Noxturnal is installed to and you wish to share the centralized settings. You might need help from your IT Administrator for this.
You will now have configured all Noxturnal installations to point to the same centralized settings.
Sharing Single User Settings with Roaming Profiles
It is possible for users to copy their settings with them as they move from computer to computer. For this to be possible your IT Administrator must have your Windows Domain set up to support Roaming Profiles. If your network is set up in such a manner you can use the instructions below to make it easy for your Noxturnal users to move between computers and always receive “their” settings.
Go to Tools -> Settings -> Advanced and change your User Settings location as follows.
- If the user settings should become roaming profiles %LOCALAPPDATA% needs to be changed into %APPDATA% (see also: http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-variables.html).
- If the user settings are to be stored on a network location change the user settings to: \\[server]\[path to settings]\%USERNAME%, by the network location example above; \\zip\Flutningur\111ServerTestLocationSettings\%USERNAME%
NOTE: The User Settings and the Default Settings cannot have the same location. By using the environment variable %USERNAME% each user setting is stored centrally on a server.
It is preferable to use the roaming profiles if applicable.
NOTE: All folders that are being referenced must already exist on the server. Noxturnal does not create these folders automatically.
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