Database Preferences

The Database Preferences form sets global defaults for several system and network settings. Once you have specified your typical needs, Collect! will do as you have requested until you change the settings. Please confer with your network technician to correctly enter required paths and other information in the fields of this form.

Some of the settings you can preselect are:

- Database to work with by default
- Path to Log file
- Path to Global file access
- Path to Letter templates
- Email Server address
- Maximum Web Host users allowed
- Maximum Web Host packet size
- Auto log out after
- Client Timeout

Database Preferences

When you change settings in this form and select the OK button, Collect! saves the information in a file named collect.cfg. This is located in the Collect\bin folder. There are a number of system setup forms which also write to this file to store system wide options and settings.

Database

Enter the name of the database to open. This is the name of the database folder. Typically, you would enter MASTERDB, DEMODB or PROSDB here. The database you enter in this field will be displayed as the Database To Open in the Welcome To Collect! screen. The database must exist and must be a registered device.

MASTERDB is your working database. This is where you enter all of your live data. DEMODB is used to experiment and try the system out. We highly recommend that you use this function to familiarize yourself fully with Collect!. This where you will find numerous examples and samples of many of Collect!'s features. PROSDB is used to enter information on clients you may be trying to obtain. This information will be helpful storing the contacts and steps you have taken to attract this new client.

Log Path

This is the location of the Log Files folder where Collect! stores and writes to the Collect! Application Log. By default, Collect! expects to find the Log Files folder in Collect\bin, but you can specify a different path here. Select the FOLDER icon to navigate to a folder of your choice.

Enter a fully qualified path name to the location of your "Log Files" folder. If left blank, activity for all users will be logged to the Collect\Log Files folder of your Server, UNLESS you are using the Collect! Client installation.

If your users signing into Collect! from a Client, you will need to set the Log Path here, and each Windows user needs write permissions on the folder, too. If you do not set a path, each user writes to their own local CollectClient\bin folder.

To configure your Client installs to log to your Server's "Collect\Log Files" folder, enter "\\Server\Collect\bin" using the Server Name and Share Name your Server is using to share its Collect! folder. Or, you can direct Collect! to log to any other network share, such as "\\Server\MessageLogShare." If the share is on a separate spindle, performance is improved.

Global File Access Path

This is the path collect uses to store and find external files attached to contacts, transactions and attachments. Many external files must be opened by third party applications and therefore must be accessible by the client machine. The global file access path provides a central location for these files to be stored. When you select a file to attach, it will be copied to the path specified in this field. Select the FOLDER icon to navigate to a folder of your choice.

If no path is defined, Collect\bin\global is the default location. If you define a path the location will be {path}\global.

If you are signing into Collect! from a Client, you will need to set the Global File Access Path, and each Windows user needs write permissions on the folder, too. If you do not set a path, each user writes to their local bin\global folder.

Collect!! will also look for the styles folder in the path you specify.

If no path is defined, Collect\bin is the default location for the styles folder. If you define a path, the location of the styles folder will be {path}\styles. Also, the "// external file" command used with RTF reports will look here for the *.rtf file. RTF reports use the "// external file" redirect to point to an *.rtf document in the styles folder.

RTF Letter Template Path

Enter the location of your letter template files in this field. This should allow the user to import, fetch, print and edit RTF reports from any machine, as long as they have access to the share. The user can also apply file level security to the files, for example making some templates read only. Select the FOLDER icon to navigate to a folder of your choice.

RTF Letter Path

The path you enter here will be where your reports will be saved when printed. You can also set up Read and Create permissions on printing reports to prevent users from printing a report and then editing the saved copy. Select the FOLDER icon to navigate to a folder of your choice.

Email Server Address

This is the actual IP address of your SMTP mail server. Collect! talks to this address when you have enabled SMTP for your operators. By default, Collect! uses MAPI instead.

Authentication must be handled by your Windows operating system, not by Collect!. If you are authorized to send and receive email, then you can send it through Collect!.

SQL Login

Enter an SQL administrator username when using SQL Login instead of Windows Authentication to connect to the database.

Please refer to the help topic How to Network Collect! for more information.

SQL Password

Enter an SQL administrator password when using SQL Login instead of Windows Authentication to connect to the database.

Please refer to the help topic How to Network Collect! for more information.

Maximum Web Host Users

Enter the maximum number of authenticated users you want to be allowed to log into Web Host. This is the default startup number. You can override this number from the Web Host dialog.

If you leave this field blank, Collect! defaults to the maximum users allowed by your Web Host user licenses.The maximum number you can enter may be found in the License Information screen.

Web Host Session Mem Kb

Web Host uses Heap Memory for input and output packets. Enter a value in this field to set how much memory you want these packets to use, ONLY IF you need to process large files that Collect!'s defaults cannot handle. The default value 80 KB will be used if this field is left blank and this should be sufficient for all normal needs.

When Web Host is sent a packet that is too large for the value specified in this field, Web Host will "beep" and write to the Application Log. That might indicate an instance where you would want to consider increasing the packet size allowed.

Example:

"Web Host is not currently configured to handle more than ### bytes of data.
Packet size ###.
Please configure in Database Preferences."

Auto Log Out After

Enter a number of minutes here if you want Collect! to automatically log the user out of the system and close Collect! on the user's machine after an extended period of inactivity.

The setting you enter here has no effect on an instance of Web Host or the Scheduler. To shut either of them down at a precise time, you must use the command line argument /T.

Auto Log Out After is a global setting. If you need different values for individual workstations or for different Collect! databases being used, you can use the Command Line Startup Option, /x{mm}, in the Collect! shortcuts for particular Collect! instances. That setting will override the value set here in Database Preferences, but only for the particular instance of Collect!.

Column Encryption Enabled

Switch this ON to indicate that Columns have been Encrypted in the Database. Please refer to the help document How to Encrypt a Database Column for more information.

Ignore Operator Security Setting

Switch this ON to disable account access control. This will completely disable Operator settings for Security, Strict, Locked out by default, and Client # in the Operator Security form. It will be as if all these switches are turned OFF.

WARNING: This is a MASTER SWITCH effectively disabling security for everybody. Naturally this should only be accessible by an administrator for troubleshooting purposes.

AUTOMATE CLIENT UPDATE (CVSYNC)

Switch this ON to automatically update Collect! client installations when they first sign on after a patch. The client installation will automatically pull the files from the Server installation.

OK

Selecting this button will save any changes you have made and return you to the previous form.

Cancel

Selecting this button will ignore any changes you have made and return you to the previous form.

Help

Press this button for help on the Database Preferences form and links to related topics.