Scratch
archived forums
#1 2013-03-06 06:20:05
- RuthSanders
- New Scratcher
- Registered: 2013-03-06
- Posts: 2
Problems saving projects
Hi, I have started using Scratch at school and my pupils are great making the games and they save them. However, when they log off, the game is clearly not saved because in future lessons when they log on it just simply isn't there! Can anyone help????
Offline
#2 2013-03-06 06:25:36
Re: Problems saving projects
Where are the games saved? if you are saving to the Scratch Projects folder then it might be that its saved in a virtual folder. If this is the case then beneath the folder location in the window there should be an option marked Compatibility Files which you can click to show them. There may be other ways to get them to show if you are working on an earlier version of Windows than windows 7.
Offline
#3 2013-03-06 06:30:14
- RuthSanders
- New Scratcher
- Registered: 2013-03-06
- Posts: 2
Re: Problems saving projects
I am working on windows 7. I have installed the program to the network. I go through the normal saving procedures but the game is just saved in the cache memory..
Offline
#4 2013-03-06 06:40:28
- Paddle2See
- Scratch Team
- Registered: 2007-10-27
- Posts: 1000+
Re: Problems saving projects
Perhaps your school computers are being wiped clean every night? I have heard of schools doing this to keep the computers standardized for maintenance. I suggest you discuss it with your IT folks and see what they can tell you.
Offline
#5 2013-03-06 06:43:27
Re: Problems saving projects
Aha, found something. One moment.
Technical Support in some schools have objected to installing Scratch for security reasons.
The root of the objection seems to be that the default installation allows the
pupils to see / browse the local drive. Whilst approaches to pc and network security
differ amongst schools this situation is clearly unsatisfactory.
Scratch uses its own file save/browse/open dialogue etc rather than the Windows
dialogue boxes. This means you cannot implement security through Windows Group Policies which would be the traditional approach in most schools using windows
networks.
However Scratch have a solution. When you try to save in Scratch there are several
options in the dialogue box on the left (Computer / Home / Desktop / Examples / My Projects. If I remember right the default installation sets the project to save to My Scratch Projects. It creates this folder on the Desktop. Depending on how you have your pupil users setup, this can be a problem as the desktop settings are part of their profile. If you use a mandatory profile, the settings will be lost on log-off. Furthermore, because the Desktop setting directs you to the local drive pupils have the ability to see this drive.
The solution is twofold: to make the default save location the pupils Home
folder and to hide drives that aren’t required.
This is done by modifying the Scratch.ini file to set both Home drive and Visible
drives to the network drive you use for users home folders (in their Active
Directory accounts). In our case we map this to Drive H: so our modified ini file looks like this (see last two lines).
When pupils save it defaults to their Scratch Projects folder created in their home folder. If they click Computer they cannot navigate anywhere. If they select Home it is their Home folder and they can navigate within it. If they try to save to Samples they get a Save Failed. They can Select and save to the Desktop but as this isn’t visible they wont see their file appear there. In short, provided they don’t click around they will save in the right place. If they do click around they can’t see anything because the other drives are hidden. Hope this makes sense. If it doesn’t to you – give it to your IT Support team who hopefully can make the necessary alterations. They can also check this thread on the Scratch forums:
http://scratch.mit.edu/forums/viewtopic.php?id=194&p=2
Edited for readability.
Last edited by Smozzick (2013-03-06 07:02:40)
Offline