Feed
 

any D.C.C employees - help with DES

Avatar Thomas Maude
Firstly if your not an employee of Dorset County Council please excuse my ramblings as I'm not quite sure what the technical specifications of our new computer system is .. I'm hoping and praying that I'm not the only one in our mac family that has been subjected to using the new computer system called DES.

I'm trying to access it from home which should be possible but because DES is a PC based operation it asks for me to update my version of java when I try to login through the Remote Access Portal

(https://webuser.dorsetcc.gov.uk/preauth/login.cgi)

I've updated it today - and reading the many links attached to Jave RE for windows I set off to find the the equivalent of java RE for mac

I downloaded open office for mac which said it had jave RE in it and was featured on the java site but that didn't stop the error message on the log in portal. I'm using safari mostly though have tried all the other usual browsers.

When I access the system at work on the PC it logs in fine the home page there says it is SAP Weaver ( whatever that means )

Very simply my question is are there any other DCC employees/ managers who are either having the same problems accessing from home with a mac ? and secondly has anyone managed to crack it yet ?

hope I haven't confused you all .. but tis a tricky one for sure ..

Here is what it says about the java RE for windows in the help menu at the bottom of the page

"Java RE
The reason for downloading this component is to allow your home PC to create a secure connection with the DCC network. In addition to our security standards it is a requirement of the Government's code of connection. While we could make access easier, we need to strike a balance between security and usability. We've heard that installing this application has taken some people more than 20 minutes, but it is reliant on home broadband speed, specification of the PC and the connection (other members of the household streaming or downloading media). It hasn't taken everyone 20 minutes to download! "

Tom

Re: any D.C.C employees - help with DES

Avatar Terry Willis
This looks to be a compatibility issue, the system is not recognizing Apple's own version of JAVA. I suggest you speak to DCC Tech Support and pose them the question.

Interestingly they have Apple references at the bottom of this page: [Linl]http://www1.dorsetforyou.com/DorsetWebUser/webuserpracticalities.html[/Link]

Re: any D.C.C employees - help with DES

Avatar Thomas Maude
Thanks for looking terry .. I've followed all the links for the apple preferences at the bottom which eventually takes you to the apple downloads page.
I installed the latest java from the December 3rd 2009 update for 10.6 ..

Interestingly after accessing the log in window for DES with the google chrome browser it gives the number of the java it is looking for and can't find which is (Build: 1.6.0_01)

I'm just wondering if my java is to much up to date ? as the december update is number 1.6.0_17.
any thoughts on this would be welcome as out IT guys at work are lets say they are very busy with pc's right now

I feel that we've already made some progress ... if anyone can help with explaining the java numbers thing and how I could ( simply ) step back to the number they are looking for I would be grateful
Many Thanks
Tom

Re: any D.C.C employees - help with DES

Avatar Eleanor Spenceley
Looking at the source code behind the login page the developer is checking for a very specific (and out of date) version of Java namely:

var requiredJRE = '1.6.0_01';

Anything checking with a _** upgrade is simply too rigid since these version changes are generally minor bug fixes which do not affect how Java behaves overall. Developers should check against the Java version being 1.6 or 1.6.0 at the most.

Check out http://www.javatester.org/version.html

If the developers of this code do not have a _very_ valid reason to check for such a specific release version, this looks to be a case of just bad programming.


Martin

Re: any D.C.C employees - help with DES

Avatar Thomas Maude
Thanks for the info Martin I'll look into it tomorrow closely. The system that has been introducing is indeed an old clunky system from years ago which the whole of DCC is currently drowning under ( it has just been introduced this month) and has had managers tearing whatever hair they have left out in lumps.

I was hoping that if at least I could access it from home I could try and make sense of it through trial and error and familiarise myself with it so this java code is very important to try and get for me. I would have given up by now normally especially as it means working with an out of date un-user friendly system but ALL of my future work depends on trying to use this system one way or another.

Thanks for all your help so far I do appreciate it very much
Tom
 
Feed