IHMC CmapTools & CmapServer Support Forum

It is common when students log into their accounts, open cmaptools they will find that the CmapServer they had added (in Places) is no longer there and the 4 default places that they had removed are back again. That is especially confusing when they don't know this and they go to open a "favorite" but since they aren't connected to the place in which that file/folder was located it just hangs... until they close it and call me over (or give up). My guess is that they log off the computer without first closing out all the Cmap windows, but I've not done this experiment. I've had this problem for years, actually on older versions they would have to re-register every time they logged on, this is no longer an issue, however.
cmaptools v. 6.02 on Ubuntu 14.04.
Thanks,
David

Is CmapTools configured to clean up all the profile information after it is closed? If so, that would be the case.

Have you considered switching to using the Cmap Cloud? This document explains how it could be configured for student use, both with CmapTools and CmapTools for the Cloud.

http://cmap.ihmc.us/docs/cmapcloud-in-a-lab

No, when I installed cmaptools I selected the option to save login info upon closing, or are you referring to something else?

I briefly reviewed the Switching to Cmap Cloud would be a major switch--I run 2 cmapservers at different organizations. Is there a comparison of the two services? Thanks so much for your efforts to keep this platform viable and progressing, 24 years?

Thanks,
David G

New school year, new 150 users and today, the second day of use of cmaptools, about 30% of users lost the customizations.

• Yesterday students launched cmaptools for the first time and filled in the new account info.

• They then removed the 4 "places" (the generic IHMC places) and added our cmapserver.

• And today when they opened cmaptools, went to 'places' the 4 generic IHMC servers were back, and our server was gone!

• Furthermore, several people logged out of their accounts and when they logged back in 10 minutes later, re-opened cmaptools again they were presented with the default set of places!

Which logs should I review?
Thanks,
David

Hi David,

These settings are saved in a file, that most likely is (a) not being save because of lack of permissions, or (b) is being reset, e.g in a computer lab that resets computers every night.

Tell us what OS they run so we can tell you where the files are located, and you can check whether why they are not being saved or removed.

Howdy,
We're using Ubuntu 16.04, I launched the install with 'sudo' choosing the "Advanced" install. I installed into IHMC_CmapTools (instead of the default, IHMC CmapTools) in usr/share/applications/. I left all the rest at the default settings I believe.
Thanks,
David

CmapTools stores a profile file where these settings are stored. The location is selected during installation a shown in the attached image. If the user does not have write permissions on the directory where the profiles are stored, then the information will not be kept between sessions. You need to check where the system you are using is storing the profiles.

I went to 2 example users, one who encountered SUCCESS and the other who lost settings repeatedly (who I'll call FAIL).

I first looked at their home folders, and the main difference I noticed was that SUCCESS had an ICEAuthority file. Seemed like permissions were the same.

Next I looked in the .cmaptools/ directory and noted they had the same files which had the same permissions. I then looked at their profile.xml files and except for things that seemed like they should have a different string of values, it seemed that their profiles were the same between the 2 users home files.

Finally I looked at their logs. I noticed that FAIL had more (had both a "cmaptools0.log and cmaptools0.log.1 and also had an extra log file, a total of 4 instead of SUCCESS that had a total of 2).

Then I compared (briefly) the contents of their first log file (from 9/27) from their initial use I figured. I noticed that much was the same--didn't check everything for sure--but did notice a few important differences. I copied/pasted 3 corresponding sections each from SUCCESS and FAIL (dividing the sections with: "...cut..."). You can find this comparison at: http://paste.ubuntu.com/25641699/

Thanks for you help, it will be great to get this solved!
David

So both users had the list of public servers in the profile.xml file? The one with FAIL should have had the (they were not removed) but the one with SUCCESS should have not (the file should have bee updated).

Going to start to use CmapTools in my classes in a week or so and am excited for this year--going to be give more explicit/slower intro to concept mapping. Am concerned about this issue as it has happened yearly. I know that I've got a specialized setup (using LTSP on Ubuntu 18.04 as well as pbis-open for AD authentication) though don't see how that would interfere with the process of storing preferences -- many apps do this.

I'm going to be more intentional this year. When I get to the Configuration pane when I install CmapTools v. 6.03 (or is there a linux beta version you suggest I try?) as shown in the screen shot shown above, I'm thinking of being explicit instead of accepting default. This is the path of a user's home folder:
/home/local/EDUCATION/<username>/
What should I type in the Profile field in that Configuration pane?

Thanks!
David