Lower Cost Barcode Scanners

We’ve used the Motorola (Symbol) barcode scanners with great success.  However, one of our customers recently pointed out that there are less expensive alternatives.  For example, check out this model for about $30 bucks:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003OUQ174/ref=oh_o01_s00_i00_details

If you are OK with using the wired USB scanners, this is a good alternative.

Now someone just has to find a less expensive Bluetooth-enabled scanner…

Fix for Firefox 8.0.1 and Mosaic Vivarium Cage Side Assistant (CSA)

Despite the fantastic work of the Mozilla folks, it seems like every time a new Firefox version comes out something breaks.  Firefox 8 is no exception.

Users have reported problems with the Cage Side Assistant under Firefox 8 on both the Mac and the PC.  Two pieces of good news here:

• We did a quick test of Safari 5.1.2 on the Mac:  all of Mosaic Vivarium, including CSA, seems to work.  With Apple’s improvements, Safari now seems like a viable platform for using Mosaic Vivarium.
• We have a work-around for users of Firefox 8.0.1 (Mac and PC).

Here’s how to allow Cage Side Assistant to work properly under Firefox 8.  First, make sure you have the latest Silverlight 5.0.61118.0 installed by visiting this link:

http://www.microsoft.com/getsilverlight/get-started/install/default.aspx

That’s all you should need to do for the Mac.

15-Mar-2013, update from customers:  MacOS 10.6.8 seems to work fine with Silverlight 4 in Firefox, but if you update to MacOS 10.7.2 or higher, you’ll need to follow the instructions above to update Silverlight.

For the PC, put on your work gloves, because we’re going under the hood for this one.

1. Open Firefox 8, type “about:config” into the address bar, and press the button:
   
2. Type “ipc” in the filter box, then double-click on the “dom.ipc.plugins.enabled” entry until its value is “false”:
   
3. Close all Firefox 8 windows and restart Firefox 8.  CSA should now work normally.

What did we just do?  Firefox runs some plugins (like Flash and Silverlight) in a separate process.  The idea is that if the plugin fails, Firefox doesn’t crash.  Great idea if the plugin still works correctly…  If you are technically curious, some related information (pre-Firefox 8) may be found here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Plugin-container_and_out-of-process_plugins

Please login to your Mosaic Vivarium account and send us feedback if you are still having problems.

Tablet Computers for Mosaic Vivarium

Tablet computers are becoming useful alternatives to laptops for laboratory animal resources (LAR) data entry directly in the animal room.  We find that tablets and laptops provide the depth of functionality needed by husbandry staff.

To use Mosaic Vivarium, you’ll need a Windows 7 or 8 based tablet (not an Apple or Android based tablet at this time… stay tuned).  The Microsoft Surface Pro 2 or 3 are both good examples.

Get a Bluetooth Motorola (Symbol) LS 4278 scanner to go with this tablet

Simply plug your DYMO Turbo 450 into the USB slot when you’ve queued up a bunch of cage cards to print.

One concern with any consumer device in the LAR environment is durability.  Most of our customers have had good experience with consumer laptops, but we don’t yet have enough experience with the new tablets.  (How often are they dropped?)  In 2011 we tested a ruggedized tablet from MobileDemand.  The T7000 model has an integrated barcode scanner that is fast (laser, not camera based), as well as an optional add-on keyboard.  You can check out the videos at their web site.  The physical size is a 7” display (T7000 model) or 8.4” (T8700 model).

The MobileDemand tablets have a proven track record of durability and scanner-productivity in other industries.  They also have straps/harnesses for walking around with the computer without fear of dropping.  We found the MobileDemand computers quite usable in 2011 but have not researched recent offerings.

Avoiding the Pesky Internet Explorer File Download Blocker

If Internet Explore is blocking your cage card downloads, here are some settings you can check.  These screenshots are from Internet Explorer 9.

1. Locate the Tools menu, or the “Gear” button in the upper left:
   
2. Select Internet options:
   
3. Go to the Advanced tab and
   check “Notify when downloads complete” and
   uncheck “Do not save encrypted pages to disk:
   
   
4. You may also need to go to the Security tab and
   click Trusted Sites and
   click the Sites button and
   add Mosaic to the list:
   
   
5. Make sure your trusted sites enable file downloads.  Hit the Custom Level button and enable “Automatic prompting for file downloads”
   
6. Finally, restart your browser.  You should now be able to download without being blocked.

Preparing Your IIS Server for Future Mosaic Vivarium Updates

Background

This topic is for customers with Mosaic Vivarium installed on local servers.  Releases of Mosaic Vivarium after June 2011 will require the following features on your IIS server:

• .NET 4
• URL Rewrite Module 2.0

Please take a few minutes soon to make the preparations shown below.

Solution

The Microsoft .NET Framework 4 installer can be found here:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17851

The URL Rewrite Module 2.0 installer can be found here:

http://www.iis.net/download/URLRewrite

The installation takes a few minutes and does not require a server reboot.  Once completed, you will have a new Feature in your IIS Management Console:

We also anticipate using an ASP.NET v4.0 application pool in Integrated pipeline mode.  Instructions regarding this configuration change will accompany future updates.

How to Create the Mosaic Web Windows Event Log Source

Background

This topic is for customers with Mosaic installed on local servers.  Mosaic logs exceptions in the Windows Event Log using event source “Mosaic Web”. These events may be used to help diagnose certain configuration errors, such as an inability to send emails from the application.  This article describes how to create the Mosaic Web event source.

 

Solution

Get a command prompt running as an Administrator on the Mosaic web server. (On Windows Server 2008, run a command prompt as administrator by right-clicking and choosing “Run as Administrator.”)

Change directories to the “bin” directory of the Mosaic web.

Run the following command:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil vci.dll

Mosaic events may now be viewed in the Windows Event Viewer under the “Mosaic Web” source.

Using Mosaic with a Proxy Server

For customers with Mosaic installed on your servers, you may find that help topics or Mosaic alerts are not displayed.  This can be due to a misconfiguration of your “External Help Url” or your “Notification URL” or you may have a proxy server in place at your organization.

Solution

Under Administration | Maintenance –> Mosaic Settings, locate the “Mosaic Application Configuration” section.

If the “External Help Url” or “Notification URL” settings do not appear, click “add/remove settings” and add them by clicking their checkboxes.

The correct setting for “External Help Url” is:

http://www.virtualchemistry.com/MosaicHelp/MosaicHelpHandler.aspx

The correct setting for “Notification URL” is:

http://www.virtualchemistry.com/MosaicHelp/SaasAlerts/alerts.aspx

If Help and Alerts still do not work, your Mosaic server may communicate through a proxy server. You’ll need to obtain the address and port of your proxy server. Place an entry similar to the following into the <configuration/> element of the web.config file for your Mosaic web.

<system.net>
  <defaultProxy>
    <proxy
      proxyaddress=http://proxy.company.com:8080
      bypassonlocal="true"
    />
  </defaultProxy>
</system.net>

Recovering your “mosaic” password

The following topic applies to customers with Mosaic installed on your own servers

To recover access via “mosaic” you need to modify the vci.config.xml file (in the “config” folder) for the relevant Mosaic web.

Locate the "Vci.Mosaic.Authentication.Mode" key and make a note of the current value.

Then change the value to “Maintenance” as shown:

<add key="Vci.Mosaic.Authentication.Mode" value="Maintenance" />

You can now login from a browser on the server itself as “mosaic” with no password. You must be on the web server to do this.

Once logged in, change the “mosaic” password via the options link (upper right). You can also go to Administration | Security -> Personnel and right-click on the row for the “mosaic” user to set the password.

When you are done, restore your vci.config.xml to its original state.

Updating Mosaic

For customers with Mosaic installed on your own servers, there are four components of installing an update.

1. Update the Mosaic Database
2. Update the Mosaic Web
3. Update the Mosaic Metadata
4. Update the MosaicService

Step 1:  Update Mosaic Database

Step (1) is not always needed, but if it is, then we’ll tell you.

ORACLE Users

You will receive a file named similar to Update-YYYY-MMDD.zip which you’ll extract to a temporary location.  Then run Update.bat:

c:\temp> UPDATE MOSAIC/MOSAICPW@ORCL

Microsoft SQL Server Users

You will receive a file named similar to UpdateMsSql-YYYY-MMDD.zip which you’ll extract to a temporary location.  Then run Update.bat with the following usage:

UPDATE SCHEMA_NAME SCHEMA_USER PASSWORD SQLSERVER

The SCHEMA_NAME is always MOSAIC.  SCHEMA_USER and PASSWORD may vary according to your installation.

Example:
c:\temp> UPDATE MOSAIC MOSAIC MOSAIC MSDB

Step 2:  Update Mosaic Web

You will receive a file named similar to Mosaic-YYYY-MMDD.zip.  Simply extract the contents to a new directory and “point” your Mosaic IIS web application to this new directory.  Use the “Basic Setttings…” dialog in the IIS Manager.

Notes:

If you have custom authentication DLLs, copy them from your old “bin” directory to your new one.

If you have custom locations for your configurations and sandbox directories, copy the following block from your old web.config to the corresponding section of your new web.config

Step 3:  Update Mosaic Metadata

Login as the “mosaic” user.  Visit Administration | Maintenance –> Mosaic Maintenance.  Press the “(Re)load Application MetaXml” button with “Incremental” unchecked, and “Import Data” checked.

After this finishes, restart the web application using the IIS Manager.  Each Mosaic web application (test, production) should have its own application pool. Restart the appropriate application pool.

Step 4:  Update MosaicService

You will receive a file named similar to MosaicService-YYYY-MMDD.zip.  If this is your first installation of MosaicService, follow the instructions in “Install MosaicService.docx” which will be provided.

For updates to an existing MosaicService installation, follow these steps:

1. Rename your existing vci.config.xml file to vci.config.original to save your existing settings.
2. Stop the Mosaic Service.
3. Extract the provided .zip file containing new binaries over the existing binaries.
4. Edit the new vci.config.xml and bring back any customizations you have made from vci.config.original (usually SMTP settings).
5. Start the Mosaic Service.
6. Check the Application Event Log.

After these steps, you’ll need to restart your Mosaic web application as described in Step 3.

* ? X

What are those symbols on my breeding cage cards?

Have you printed any new breeding cards yet? These cards always show the parents associated with the original mating configuration. However, those parents may not always be in the cage.  For example, you may have moved one female to her own cage, and euthanized the male. To make this more clear, you will see a small column with a symbol on the left of the card where the parents are listed:

* means this parent is currently in this cage.
? means this parent has been moved to some other cage.
X means this parent is not alive.

New Receiving Cage Cards

We have three new cage card templates streamlined for receiving. Take a look at the examples below, and if any of them fit your needs, their names are "Receiving 1", "Receiving 2", and "Receiving 3" in Mosaic. Just choose them when creating your receiving cage cards.

These are optimized for the DYMO 30256 stock, landscape orientation.

We can also have investigator phone numbers on cage cards. If you want a customized cage card including phone numbers, different printer stock, different orientation, contact us through the Mosaic feedback link on your account.

Receiving 1

Receiving 2

Receiving 3

Browser Caches

Sometimes, after a Mosaic web site update, a page may not work properly or may even indicate an error. This is most often due to cached Javascript.  This can also affect the Cage Side Assistant.
The first thing to try is simple:  hold your Shift key and press the browser’s refresh button:

If that does not work, the following is known to work for IE and Chrome:
put your cursor in the URL address area and then press CNTL-F5.

If that does not work, follow these steps:

1. Close all browser windows
2. Open browser and login to Mosaic
3. Press the “logout” link
4. Close all browser windows (again)
5. Open browser and login to Mosaic

If none of the steps above worked or if you are interested in learning more about web browser caching, take a look at this excellent website:

http://www.refreshyourcache.com

Print Dialogs for Adobe Reader and DYMO Turbo 450

Printing Mosaic Vivarium cage card labels on the DYMO Turbo 450 requires specific settings to prevent unwanted clipping of the edges. All Vivarium templates (whether "landscape" or "portrait") are setup to print with Adobe Reader 9.3 or 9.4 print dialog in the standard "Portrait" mode with the following settings.

In particular, note:

Page Scaling is set to Fit to Printable Area.

Auto-Rotate and Center is checked.

If you press the "Properties" button, you'll see the second image where "Orientation" is set to "Portrait."

For more details on this topic, in Mosaic Vivarium on the Cage Cards worksheet, click the "Correct DYMO Printer Settings" link: