[AWIPS #UFT-304908]: User saved data

> Hello,
> 
> I have an edex server that services the Linux lab at my university, and I 
> have a question about
> the way students' stuff saves. Currently students' procedures, displays, 
> procedures, etc. save
> to edex based on the computer that they used (e.g, 
> username@computer_name.missouri.edu). Our
> Linux lab works on a cluster system (similar to an NWS WFO) so all students 
> can log into every
> computer with the same account. At a WFO, despite several AWIPS machines in 
> the same cluster,
> all of the users' data saves under their username. Is there a configuration 
> in edex where I can
> specify that I want my students' stuff to save just based on username? When 
> we show all users
> to open procedures, it is getting quite crowded as students save things on 
> different computers.
>
> Hopefully this question made sense. Thank you for your time

Thank you for the question. Yes, our distribution of AWIPS is different from 
NWS in this 
functionality.  This change was made to our distribution in an effort to create 
a unique identifier
for each of our users.  Because our EDEX is open to the public, we have to 
accommodate a large 
number of user settings (unlike an NWS office that has a very specific user 
list), and at the time,
this was the solution implemented.
I'm not sure of an easy way of changing your EDEX functionality to better suit 
your use case,
unfortunately.
At this time, the best recommendation I can give, is to try and encourage 
students to always
use the same computer when they have the lab period.  I realize this can get 
more complicated
if it's an open lab and not during an assigned time with an assigned attendance 
list, because 
multiple students might want to use the computer at the same time.
The only other note that might be useful is the displays can be saved "locally" 
to a file 
instead of to the connected EDEX.  For displays specifically, students could 
save files and then
put those files in an accessible location for all machines (a shared mount if 
that exists in your
lab setup, online in a google drive, or some other accessible location), and 
then use that file
from whatever machine they happen to be working on, on that day.

This is something we could potentially look into changing in a future release, 
so thank you for
bringing it up, and I will reach out if we ever do implement a different 
functionality.

Sorry I don't have better news at this time.
Thank you for your understanding.


--Shay Carter

She/Her/Hers
AWIPS Software Engineer
UCAR - Unidata

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Ticket Details
===================
Ticket ID: UFT-304908
Department: Support AWIPS
Priority: Normal
Status: Open
===================
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