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daniel_proulx  
#1 Posted : Friday, December 9, 2011 3:28:16 PM(UTC)
daniel_proulx

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 12/9/2011(UTC)
Posts: 5
Location: usa

Hello

I would like to set up manic time with SQL server to aggregate time across mulitple users.
Seems Server will provide this ability but trying to clarify some of the help pages I am reading.

I understand setting up the SQL server via the script.

Does each system need server installed and the data manually published?

Thanks for the help and a great tool
admin  
#2 Posted : Friday, December 9, 2011 4:32:42 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

You only need one server, then you need to set up connection to the server in each client. So you have to manually publish data in each client.

We will try to figure something out in the coming versions so that MT can be installed with some preset connection.
daniel_proulx  
#3 Posted : Friday, December 9, 2011 6:41:06 PM(UTC)
daniel_proulx

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 12/9/2011(UTC)
Posts: 5
Location: usa


So I Can run a SQL server, a Manic Time Server, and clients?


My Manictimeserver config on my MTserver would have a connect string to my sqlserver

Than from clients I add the MTserver?
admin  
#4 Posted : Friday, December 9, 2011 7:53:11 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

Yes, exactly like you described.

First start the server. When it is working, go to one of the clients and enter ip address of the server. Clients have no idea about sql server, for them the server is just a web server responding on some ip and by default on port 8080.

When the server is working you can also visit http://localhost:8080 url in browser. For now it is just a page listing timelines on the server, but you will see that it is running.
daniel_proulx  
#5 Posted : Friday, December 9, 2011 8:59:38 PM(UTC)
daniel_proulx

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 12/9/2011(UTC)
Posts: 5
Location: usa

The MT server would need IIS running?
admin  
#6 Posted : Saturday, December 10, 2011 9:01:34 AM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

No, doesn't need IIS.
daniel_proulx  
#7 Posted : Monday, December 12, 2011 3:50:18 PM(UTC)
daniel_proulx

Rank: Newbie

Joined: 12/9/2011(UTC)
Posts: 5
Location: usa

Thanks

It is running now.

How do I share tags between clients?
admin  
#8 Posted : Wednesday, December 14, 2011 11:28:07 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

Sorry, missed your post. You need to publish tag timeline.

Open timeline editor
http://www.manictime.com...p/v15/24/timeline-editor

Click Publish near Tag timeline
http://www.manictime.com...ng-timelines-from-server
BillB  
#9 Posted : Tuesday, April 3, 2012 2:52:24 PM(UTC)
BillB

Rank: Member

Joined: 5/25/2010(UTC)
Posts: 14
Location: UK

Hello Admin

Can you be a bit more explicit about what needs to be put into the Add Server dialog Url field, when trying to connect a user of ManicTime to a ManicTimeServer on another PC? I placed ManicTimeServer in C://Program Files on the "serving" PC - is that OK? Your instructions just say to "copy contents to some folder". Should MTS perhaps be running from a shared folder?
The MTServer is running and I can connect to it on the same PC, but not from client PC. There is a lot of presumption that your users know how to connect betweeen PCs!

Thanks

Bill
admin  
#10 Posted : Tuesday, April 3, 2012 3:25:24 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

I agree its not easy to set it up. We'll try to make it more simple to install in the next few versions (installer would go a long way ...)

I wouldn't put it in Program files, since that folder is protected for writes. It might work, but try putting it in some other folder like c:\ManicTimeServer or inside your documents folder...

To test the server I suggest just using the browser and navigate to
http://[your machine name]/

If it doesn't work, make sure it is not blocked by your firewall. These instructions are for Win7
1. Open start menu, type 'firewall'. Choose Windows firewall with advanced security
2. Right click Inbound rules, choose New rule
3. For rule type choose port and click next
4. Choose TCP and for specific port write 8080
5. Choose allow the connection
6. Leave all checked (you probably could disable some of those, but I'm not an expert in administration.)
7. For rule name type 'ManicTime Server'

With this you will allow connection to your computer on port 8080

On the other machine try connecting to it from a browser. Do you get a response?
BillB  
#11 Posted : Tuesday, April 3, 2012 4:33:23 PM(UTC)
BillB

Rank: Member

Joined: 5/25/2010(UTC)
Posts: 14
Location: UK

Thanks, will try and reply.
BillB  
#12 Posted : Tuesday, April 3, 2012 5:14:26 PM(UTC)
BillB

Rank: Member

Joined: 5/25/2010(UTC)
Posts: 14
Location: UK

Hmmm.


On 'server PC':
Added the firewall rule
Moved ManicTimeServer contents to C:\ManicTimeServer, stopped, unistalled, re-installed and re-started the ManicTimeServer at commandline
Set C:\ManicTimeServer folder to be Shared with Everyone, read-write
Can connect to Manictime in the Manage servers, Add server dialog.
Can open Manictime Server folder in browser using filepath \\[PCNAME]\ManicTimeServer


On 'client PC'
Cannot browse to \\[PCNAME]\ManicTimeServer but can browse to
file://///[PCNAME]/ManicTimeServer

Can't find any combination of address, back slash, forward slash etc which allows ManicTime to log on to the Server (Test connection always fails).

Suggestions?

Edited by user Tuesday, April 3, 2012 5:15:31 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

admin  
#13 Posted : Tuesday, April 3, 2012 7:52:36 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

There is only one address to try. Try this in the browser on the other computer (you can also try it on the one running the server)
http://[PCNAME]:8080/

It should ask you for a username and password. If it does, then it can connect to it.
If it doesn't:
How are the two computers connected? Is this a home network, connected through the same router or something else?

About share
Share is not necessary. Imagine that the server is just an app which listens for requests on port 8080.
Maybe this analogy will help. Imagine Google, they have a huge database, but the way you connect to it is through web browser, so http protocol port 80. You don't get a network share to their database, but rather your view of their database is through their website.
MT server works in the same way. It is just a normal web server listening for requests. When it gets a request it checks the database and returns some data. For example to get a list of timelines MT sends this request to the server
http://[PCNAME]:8080/timelines/

This returns the list of timelines. Then it sends other requests for all activities on a particular day....
jxt  
#14 Posted : Saturday, December 8, 2012 1:15:20 PM(UTC)
jxt

Rank: Advanced Member

Joined: 9/27/2011(UTC)
Posts: 89
Location: sf

Yesterday I decided to try MT Server so I can have my timelines from the PC and from notebook in one place. I encountered difficulties with the connection between the PC and the NB where is the server. I lost a few hours to figure what is the problem.

That is the solution:

Originally Posted by: admin Go to Quoted Post

If it doesn't work, make sure it is not blocked by your firewall. These instructions are for Win7
1. Open start menu, type 'firewall'. Choose Windows firewall with advanced security
2. Right click Inbound rules, choose New rule
3. For rule type choose port and click next
4. Choose TCP and for specific port write 8080
5. Choose allow the connection
6. Leave all checked (you probably could disable some of those, but I'm not an expert in administration.)
7. For rule name type 'ManicTime Server'

With this you will allow connection to your computer on port 8080


So... Please add this instructions in documentation at this page:
http://www.manictime.com.../36/how-to-set-up-server

And definitely you should add reference to this instructions here:
http://www.manictime.com...he-server-from-manictime

In my case I installed the server according to instructions but skipped the "you can open Command prompt with Administrator privileges and then run the following command:" part because I wanted just to test the server and didn't want to add something to the firewall that I don't know how to remove later. So i skipped that part and moved ahead with the installation. Everything was OK, I started to play with the server locally. After a day I tried to connect my PC but there was a problem with connection. At this moment I had completely forgotten about the skipped part. I tried to find solution in the help at this page:
http://www.manictime.com...he-server-from-manictime
(it's the most related to my problem with the connection). Then I spent a few hours to try to fix the problem, to read the docs and to search the forum. I found the solution here in this thread.
I know the command "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule..." that is already in the docs do the same but I suggest to add this (quoted) instructions to the docs because I know how to revert the changes if i follow this instruction. I'm not so familiar with CMD so I don't want to run some commands that I don't know how to revert later.

Edited by user Saturday, December 8, 2012 1:18:06 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

admin  
#15 Posted : Saturday, December 8, 2012 2:06:03 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

I updated both pages, hope its more clear now.

http://www.manictime.com.../36/how-to-set-up-server
http://www.manictime.com...he-server-from-manictime

Now that you have it running, if you have some time would you like to try the next version of the server? The difference is mostly in the server analytics and I'd really like some feedback on that.
The version really is beta, I mean more of a prototype then anything else. But it should be as stable as the current version since most of the work was done on statistics.
jxt  
#16 Posted : Saturday, December 8, 2012 2:53:00 PM(UTC)
jxt

Rank: Advanced Member

Joined: 9/27/2011(UTC)
Posts: 89
Location: sf

Thanks for the update of the Help.
Yes, of course I will test the new version and will provide feedback. How can I get it?
admin  
#17 Posted : Saturday, December 8, 2012 6:44:04 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

www.manictime.com/setup/...beta/manictimeserver.zip

How to upgrade is here
http://www.manictime.com...-server-to-newer-version

I'll go through the list you mentioned in another post, one quick comment though.
You don't need to create another user, in fact I'd say that is quite the opposite of our intent because now MT will track two users for you.

If you connect from another machine, just use the user on the machine where the server is running. So for example

MT is installed on the SERVER1

SERVER1\user

should allow you to connect from any machine to this machine. I guess its the same as remote desktop, when you connect to some machine you use credentials of that machine, not the machine you are using at the time.
admin  
#18 Posted : Saturday, December 8, 2012 7:10:30 PM(UTC)
admin

Rank: Administration

Joined: 4/13/2010(UTC)
Posts: 872

Forgot to mention, you should see analytics when you visit with the server, but I think the user needs to be mt server admin
jxt  
#19 Posted : Saturday, December 8, 2012 10:14:19 PM(UTC)
jxt

Rank: Advanced Member

Joined: 9/27/2011(UTC)
Posts: 89
Location: sf

Hi,
I've just upgraded. Unfortunately the Analytics tab is not working for me. Here is a screenshot what I see. I've played with all buttons and time ranges there but I can't see anything. Any suggestions?
I wonder why are you working on such features? You know better but isn't it easier to implement such analytics in MT interface and not to create web interface? I suggest not to spend much time on that but instead to improve MT Client interface and to allow such analytics based on shared timelines. Or maybe to create ManicTimeServerClient.exe and to use almost the same interface as this in ManicTimeClient.exe to display such analytics data.

Originally Posted by: admin Go to Quoted Post

I'll go through the list you mentioned in another post, one quick comment though.
You don't need to create another user, in fact I'd say that is quite the opposite of our intent because now MT will track two users for you.

If you connect from another machine, just use the user on the machine where the server is running. So for example

MT is installed on the SERVER1

SERVER1\user

should allow you to connect from any machine to this machine. I guess its the same as remote desktop, when you connect to some machine you use credentials of that machine, not the machine you are using at the time.

It's better to discuss that in the other thread but let me tell you why that is not good solution.
Consider the following use case. I and two my friends work on a project. We want to track our time spent on the project and to keep it in one place (in MT Server DB). Because we don't have separate machine to run MT Server we decide to use one of our own PCs. So if I will run the server on my own PC I have to give my user/password to my friends. I use only one user in Windows with admin privileges. So if I give them these user and pass I give them full access to my PC! That includes Remote desktop, remote access to all my files even they are not shared, ability to restart/shutdown my PC remotely... Also I give them an access to view all timelines and this way sharing of timelines is useless, because I give them the password for the Admin of MT Server and all of them can see and change everything. That's not acceptable! Even more - what will happen if I have a company with 20 employees and setup all instances of MT to use my username and later I decide to change my password? Then I'll have to change the password in all MT installs! What about if I want to use MT in company with 200 employees?
MT Server should not rely on Windows accounts. Using Windows accounts is not scalable. MT Server should work like... for example MySQL Server. It should have own users, own roles, own privileges and everything else related to user management.
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jxt  
#20 Posted : Saturday, December 8, 2012 10:40:19 PM(UTC)
jxt

Rank: Advanced Member

Joined: 9/27/2011(UTC)
Posts: 89
Location: sf

OK, it's working now... probably it needs some time after the installation to calculate the andalytics data. I'll play with it and will give you some feedback in a few days.
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