Using Removable Media

When you deploy your library content in an offline environment (using NXT Offline Publisher or NXT Solo) using removable media, you can allow your end users the option to access their content from CD/DVD or require them to install the content to a hard drive on their system. It is generally a good idea to allow your users to choose whether they install copies the content to their hard drive or leave it on the removable media.

The standard NXT Solo install accommodates both, users with limited hard drive space (leaving content on the CD/DVD), and users with more hard drive space that want faster access speeds and greater convenience to your content.

When you deploy offline, you must supply a MediaInfo.pid (product ID) file. The MediaInfo.pid file is an .ini format file that uniquely identifies the product on the media. The MediaInfo.pid must be unique for each library you publish and it must be placed in the root directory of the CD/DVD.

This is a sample MediaInfo.pid file.

[Media Info]
Version=0200
Media ID=2003USTaxLaw
Media Title=United States Tax Law (2003)

If your installation media has a MediaInfo.pid file in the root directory, then the install gives your users a choice to either leave the content collections (.nxt files) in their library on the CD/DVD or to copy them to the LocalLibraryPath on their hard drive. If a MediaInfo.pid file is not present in the root directory, then the install automatically copies the .nxt files to the LocalLibraryPath without giving the user a choice.

If your users choose to keep their content on the CD/DVD, they can still apply updates from an update server. Library Installer and NXT Solo are designed to correctly handle updates where the original content collections reside on removable media.

During a Solo install, the Library Installer adds media information from the MediaInfo.pid to each content collection entry in the Solo Site Definition File (.sdf). Each time NXT Solo starts, it scans the root directory of removable media drives for a MediaInfo.pid. If a MediaInfo.pid is found, Solo compares it with the .sdf. Any content collection entry with a media ID matching the media ID in the MediaInfo.pid is made available for use by the NXT Solo Server (CNServer.exe ). If the user removes the media, the NXT Solo Server marks the content collection as inaccessible.

Creating a MediaInfo.pid File

You can create a MediaInfo.pid using any text editor that saves the file in ANSI text format. The MediaInfo.pid file contains one section, Media Info, which contains three required settings:

Table 1. MediaInfo.pid file Settings
Item	Description
Version	Unique identifier ensuring that the file is an NXT product identifier file (PID). The value must be 0200.
Media ID	Specifies the ID for the media. You can make the ID any alphanumeric string and can include spaces. If you have a registered DOI for your product, you should use it as the media ID.
Media Title	Specifies the title for the media. This will usually match the library title.

Library Installer and Removable Media

Normally, the Solo install runs LibInst.Console for you. If you run LibInst.Console by itself, be aware that LibInst.Console behaves differently based on the presence of a MediaInfo.pid file.

If you run LibInst.Console install/update commands with the /sp option designating a removable media drive and MediaInfo.pid is present on the CD/DVD, LibInst.Console assumes you want to leave the content collections on the CD/DVD. If the MediaInfo.pid is not present, then LibInst.Console copies the content collections to the Library Path parameter.

You can alter this behavior by first copying the library files to the library path and then running LibInst.Console without the /sp option.