Auditing ShopBot use?

[matt_bernhardt]

I'm wondering if there is a way to turn on logging or auditing of the ShopBot3 software? I'm wanting to keep metrics of how many students use our machine / what problems they have / etc, and since I'm not always in the room I can't trust that the students themselves will sign a log book, etc.

[mitch_prest]

I think your best solution may be to have the students log in and out of the computer under their own names.. that would tell you who and how long .. etc

[ljdm]

Easier said than done - I had grown men who couldn't/wouldn't sign in, etc...... Has to be even harder to get kids to follow the rules.

[matt_bernhardt]

We've already got individual accounts/logins - which I do watch. What I don't get from that, however, is information on what the student did once they logged on (i.e. they ran 3 SBP files with no errors, or they ran one file a dozen times and had problems each time).

[myxpykalix]

I have a vague recollection of this, so i can't tell you where to search but i recall an independant little thumbprint scanner that attached to a computer and allowed it to run or only start certain applications associated with that users thumbprint. I wish i could be less vague but my memory isn't what it used to be. I do recall it wasn't so expensive that it was impractical, I just never needed it since i'm the only one who uses my computers.

Maybe search "recognition hardware, software or thumbprint scanner"?

[dana_swift]

Matt- most of what you want is already being done for you, you will find your info in the file:

C:\Program Files\ShopBot\ShopBot 3\Bin\sbsys.log

That tells how things went, how long it was run etc. Its just a text file, so open it with any text editor.

Unfortunately it does NOT include the log in name of the current user. Perhaps that is something shopbot could add to a future version. That would make it do all of what you wanted!

Hope that helps

D

[rcnewcomb]

How about having the student ID be part of the file name, i.e. : Project1_rn12416.sbp

They only get credit if they run their own file.

[matt_bernhardt]

Dana, that's a godsend - and exactly what I was looking for. I can collate events here to the login names/times I'm already tracking and figure out who did what. Thank you!

[bill.young]

Hi Matt,

As Dana says, that info is available in the sbsys log file, but you have to make sure that data is being written to the log by looking in the "Values/Display" menu [VD] and making sure that "Write System Log" is set to Write (1).

There's a project in the ShopBot Labs section of the ShopBot website called the "Odometer" that reads the log data and creates simple reports. It's currently pretty rudimentary...just something to let you know how long the tool has been running and what files it's run...and this version only reports on files that are run in Cut mode, but any thoughts on making it more useful would be appreciated.

http://www.shopbottools.com/LabFiles/odometer.htm

Bill