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NVivo is a desktop application that lets users organize, analyze and visualize information—anything from PDFs and Word documents to videos, podcasts and database tables. Users can code to organize their material by topic and run queries to uncover trends and emerging themes. The visualization tools let them create charts or models to present and clarify their discoveries.
On its own, NVivo supports basic teamwork, allowing users to track and analyze changes to a project based on user profiles. Team members can also work on individual projects and then import them into a master project—but they cannot work on the same project at the same time. This is where NVivo Server can assist.
NVivo Server is a server-side application that manages NVivo projects in a centralized database repository—allowing users to work on the same project at the same time.
NVivo Server 9 (SP1 or later) can host projects in all NVivo 9 formats (NVivo 9.0, 9.2 and 9.2)—refer to Supporting connections from clients running different versions of NVivo for more information.
You can manage licenses and user access to server projects using the browser-based NVivo Server Manager.
You can also use other tools, such as SQL Server Management Studio, to manage backups, restores and other server ‘housekeeping’ tasks.
NVivo Server is designed to provide access to NVivo 9 projects via a Local Area Network (LAN) or via a virtualized desktop. If you want users to access server projects via an internet connection, you could use a 'thin client' software product, such as:
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection
Microsoft Remote Desktop Services
Citrix XenApp
Quest vWorkspace
NVivo Server 9 (SP1 or later) permits connections from any version of the NVivo 9 client software and can host projects in all NVivo 9 formats (NVivo 9.0, 9.1 and 9.2).
The NVivo client provides backward compatibility—if a later version of the NVivo client attempts to open a project in an earlier format (for example, the NVivo 9.1 client attempts to open an NVivo 9.0 project), the user is prompted to convert the project to the later format. The original project is not changed; instead a converted copy of the project is created on the server.
The NVivo client does not provide forward compatibility—the user cannot open a project with a later format (for example, the NVivo 9.0 client cannot open an NVivo 9.1 project).
All users, who are working together in a shared project, should be using the same version of the NVivo client.
In this example (below), the NVivo server is hosting projects in both NVivo 9.0 and 9.1 formats:
NVivo Server can help your organization to:
Streamline project management—users can store all NVivo projects in a central database repository on NVivo Server. You can monitor, maintain, backup and keep track of all projects in one secure location.
Promote collaboration—team members can work in the same project at the same time, and see each other's updates as they work. To speed things up, large sources such as datasets can be analyzed by multiple researchers at once.
Enhance security—role-based permissions cater for different levels of server access. Specified users (or groups) can create new projects while others can only view and edit existing projects. In individual projects, Project Owners can assign user roles to control access. Users access the server using authenticated Windows login credentials.
Work with small or large projects—NVivo Server projects, unlike standalone NVivo projects, can be larger than 4GB—project size is only limited by available storage capacity.
Setup and manage user access with the easy-to-use browser-based NVivo Server Manager.