GeMS SWIFT FAQ

GeMS SWIFT is complete eLearning solution including GeMS (Learning Management System); SWIFT Platform, SWIFT Learning Environment (LE), SWIFT Tests and SWIFT Author (authoring tool). Automated emails can be set up to send to Learners and or administrators for notification of upcoming or overdue tasks.

For other related FAQs, see SWIFT Author FAQ, GeMS FAQ, and SWIFT LE FAQ.

Questions:

1. Where should I install GeMS SWIFT?
2. Is there any other software I require?
3. What operating systems are supported?
4. What TCP/IP port should I choose?
5. How much disk space should I have available on the installation drive?
6. Is anything else installed onto my system apart from GeMS SWIFT?
7. Should I backup any files on my system prior to installing GeMS SWIFT?
8. What is the next step after I have installed GeMS SWIFT?
9. What happens when I install over top of an older version of GeMS SWIFT?
10. What files are left if I decide to uninstall GeMS SWIFT?
11. What should I do to uninstall GeMS SWIFT?
12. I received a message saying I cannot uninstall GeMS SWIFT. What should I do?
13. What is the difference between the installation files swift.exe and GeMSwift.exe?
14. Is GeMS SWIFT available in any other languages?
15. When I first installed GeMS SWIFT, I was asked to create a username and a password. Unfortunately, I have forgotten them and I cannot publish my course. Is there anyway to retrieve them?

Answers:

1. Where should I install GeMS SWIFT?

Installing GeMS SWIFT to the default directory (C:\Program Files\Gemini Performance Solutions) is recommended, although you may install to any directory. Installing to network shares is not recommended as they may later become unavailable.

2. Is there any other software I require?

GeMS SWIFT does NOT require any third party software such as Microsoft IIS© or Apache©. The only thing required is that your computer has the TCP/IP protocol stack installed, otherwise nobody will be able to connect to your server. If you can access the Internet, have email, or are connected to a local area network, then the TCP/IP protocol stack is already installed.

It is also highly recommended that if you are editing courses in SWIFT Author you install Microsoft™ Internet Explorer© 5.0 or above to enable WYSIWYG editing.

3. What operating systems are supported?

Windows NT 4.0©, Windows 2000©, Windows XP©, Windows Vista©, and Windows 2003 Server©.

4. What TCP/IP port should I choose?

By default, GeMS SWIFT listens for incoming connection requests on ports 80 and 443 (80 for normal HTTP and 443 for SSL HTTP). Normally, you won't be prompted to choose ports during installation, however, if you already have a web server (such as Microsoft IIS© or Apache©), you will be prompted to choose different ports as no two applications can listen on the same port at the same time.

If you must select different ports for GeMS SWIFT, it is recommended you choose ports 8080 and 80443, although you may choose any port you desire. It is NOT a good idea to specify a port below 1000 as most of these are reserved for other services/applications. If you specify different ports, you MUST inform your learners so they can specify the port number in addition to the GeMS Server address when they connect from their browsers. Learners will specify an alternate port by adding a ":port number" after the GeMS Server name, e.g., ss.gemini.com:8080.

5. How much disk space should I have available on the installation drive?

The simple answer: You will need 50MB of disk space for the core system and 20MB per learner per course for the database.

A more detailed answer: There are three things that must be considered: a) The footprint of the GeMS SWIFT core environment (GeMS Administrator, GeMS Server, and SWIFT Author); b) the database used; and c) the type of learner tracking.

a) Core system: GeMS SWIFT has a relatively small footprint (approximately 15MB). The accompanying log files occupy another 2.5MB maximum (configurable via the GeMS Administrator). Therefore, 25MB is recommended as it allows a comfortable amount of space.

b) Database: GeMS SWIFT stores all learner and course data in an ODBC compliant database. If you use the default database that was automatically configured during installation (a Microsoft™ Access© database file via a DSN), make sure that the disk the server is installed to has the appropriate amount of space available based on the number of users and courses you will have (20MB per learner per course).

Note: The database (\db\swift.db) may be moved to any desired drive, but the DSN must be updated in Control Panel/Data Sources to reflect the new location. Ensure GeMS Server is not running during a DSN update.

If you are using a MS SQL Server, you do not need to account for the space required for individual learners, as the data is not stored locally. (GeMS SWIFT is ODBC compliant and has been tested with Microsoft™ Access©, and Microsoft™ SQL Server©).

c) Learner Tracking Type: By default, GeMS SWIFT is configured for non-exhaustive learner tracking. This means that the normal amount of data related to learners' access to courses, exams, third party content, logins, and logouts is stored. If you require the ability to recreate learners' individual sessions, you can enable exhaustive learner tracking; however, as this is a significant increase in the amount of data stored it requires considerably more disk space (approximately 5 times as much).

6. Is anything else installed onto my system apart from GeMS SWIFT?

The GeMS SWIFT installer looks for MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components©) and, if not found, you are asked if you would like to install it. MDAC© is used to enable Universal Data Access, which ensures that communication between GeMS SWIFT and the database can occur. The installer also checks to ensure that the system has either DCOM95 or DCOM98 and installs them if they are not present. These programs are required by MDAC©.

7. Should I backup any files on my system prior to installing GeMS SWIFT?

It is good practice to create a backup of copy of the system registry prior to installing any application, including GeMS SWIFT, on your system. GeMS SWIFT does write to the registry.

8. What is the next step after I have installed GeMS SWIFT?

GeMS Server is set to run as a service Windows. This service should start automatically, although you may have to manually start it by going to the Start Menu, to Settings, to Control Panel, to Administrative Tools, and then to Services. Once you have installed GeMS SWIFT, go to the Start Menu, to Programs, and to GeMS SWIFT to launch the product.

9. What happens when I install over top of an older version of GeMS SWIFT?

When you install to the default location, the software is automatically upgraded: the database is left intact and all other files as well as entries in the registry are replaced. If there are no existing registry entries, all files, including the database, are overwritten.

If an earlier version of GeMS SWIFT was installed in one place and the newer version is installed in a different location, the second installation will only overwrite the registry entries with newer data. This leaves one installation that the Operating System knows about (the second install) and one that still works but is unknown to the Operating System (the first install).

10. What files are left if I decide to uninstall GeMS SWIFT?

After uninstalling GeMS SWIFT, any files you created are still present. Look under the Details tab once the uninstall is complete to see the files and/or directories that remain on your system.

11. What should I do to uninstall GeMS SWIFT?

To uninstall GeMS SWIFT go to Start Menu, to Settings, and to the Control Panel. From the Control Panel, select Add and Remove Programs. Scroll through the displayed list until you see GeMS SWIFT, highlight it, and click on Add/Remove...

12. I received a message saying I cannot uninstall GeMS SWIFT. What should I do?

If this occurs it is best to try reinstalling the software and trying the uninstall again. You can also manually uninstall GeMS SWIFT by going to the directory where GeMS SWIFT was installed (/program files/Gemini Learning Systems) and deleting the files, however, this will only delete the directory and the files contained therein. Information in the registry remains, so you will still see GeMS SWIFT listed in the Start, Programs list. It is possible to manually delete the information from the registry, however, this should not be attempted unless you are comfortable dealing with Microsoft's© system files.

13. Is GeMS SWIFT available in any other languages?

At this time multi byte characters are not supported within the Authoring environment but you can create your international content externally using your favorite HTML authoring tool and link to it via the SWIFT Author for publishing and deployment.

14. When I first installed GeMS SWIFT, I was asked to create a username and a password. Unfortunately, I have forgotten them and I cannot publish my course. Is there anyway to retrieve them?

It is not possible to retrieve a forgotten username and password; however, you can uninstall and then reinstall GeMS SWIFT to create a new username and password. (See FAQ 11 for uninstall instructions.)