Transana-MU Setup Instructions

Setup Instructions for Client Computers

Once you've got the network server up and running, you need the following information to run Transana 2.3-MU and connect to the servers:

• A username and password
• The DSN or IP address of the computer running MySQL
• The name(s) of the database(s) for your project(s).
• The DSN or IP address of the computer running the Transana Message Server.
• The path to the common Video Storage folder.

Please note that all computers accessing the same database must enter the MySQL computer information in the same way, and must use the same Transana Message Server. They do NOT need to connect to the same common video storage folder, but subfolders within each separate video storage folder must be named and arranged identically.

1. Install Transana 2.3-MU.

2. Start Transana 2.3-MU. You will see the following screen:

Enter your Username, password, the DSN or IP address of your MySQL Server, and the name of your project database.

3. If this is the first time you've used Transana 2.3-MU, you will see this message next:

Click the "Yes" button to specify your Transana Message Server. You will see this screen:

Enter the DSN or IP address of your Transana Message Server.

4. You need to configure your Video Root Directory before you will be able to connect to the project videos. If you haven't yet closed the Transana Settings dialog box, click the "Directories" tab. If you alreadly closed it, go to the "Options" menu and select "Program Settings". You will see the following screen:

Under "Video Root Directory", browse to the common Video Storage folder.

We recommend also setting the "Waveform Directory" to a common waveforms folder so that each video only needs to go through waveform extraction once for everyone on the team to share.

Also, on Windows we recommend mapping a network drive to the common Video folder if it is on another server, rather than using machine-qualified path names. We find that mapping drive V: to "\\VideoServer\ProjectDirectory" produces faster connections to videos than specifying "\\VideoServer\ProjectDirectory" in the Video Root directory.

Troubleshooting Hints

• Due to differences in the way they work, you cannot combine Transana 2.3-MU with Transana 2.2x-MU or earlier on the same project. Everyone in the project must upgrade their copies of Transana at the same time. Please note that if you upgrade your Transana Message Server, users of older Transana-MU versions should be automatically informed that they need to upgrade when they try to access the data.
  
  
• All Transana-MU copies must refer to the MySQL server in the same way. You cannot mix DSN and IP addresses, or the Transana Message Server will not recognize the different copies as being connected to the same database. If you are running Transana-MU on your MySQL server, you cannot refer to it as "localhost", as Transana will not recognize that it is the same MySQL instance that outside users are connecting to.
  
  
• All systems using the same database must connect to the same instance of the Transana Message Server, and must refer to it the same way. You cannot mix IP address and DSN references. If you are running Transana-MU on your Transana Message Server, you cannot refer to it as "localhost", as Transana will not recognize that it is the same Transana Message Server instance that outside users are connecting to.
  
  
• If you are trying to connect from outside your network, the server must be accessible by IP. If you can't ping it, you won't be able to connect to it.
  
  
• If you are connecting from outside your network, make sure that ports 3306 (MySQL) and 17595 (Transana Message Server) are accessible through the firewall.
  
  
• If you are connecting from outside the network where the video is stored, you must have a local copy of the video. Streaming video from a Web Server will not work with Transana.
  
  
• Each separate network connecting to the same Transana data set must have a local video repository that is organized in the same way. Transana uses the "Video Root Directory" setting to locate the local video repository, but all video repositories must look identical to Transana from that point.