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
- Shared (Multi User) or Exclusive (Single User) database access
- 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

Please refer to Database Preferences Basics for steps to access this form.

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 cv11\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 MASTER, DEMO or PROS 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.

MASTER is your working database. This is where you enter all of your live data. DEMO 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. PROS 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

Enter a fully qualified path name here. In a typical network installation, you might use \\Server\MessageLogShare, and if that 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.

If no path is defined, cv11\bin\global is the default location. If you define a path the location will be \global.

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.

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.

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!.

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.

Client Timeout

Enter a number of minutes here if you want Collect! to disconnect sessions from the server when a network interruption has caused a machine to lose connection with the server. Ordinarily, Collect! listens for machines connected to the server. If it does not receive a "signal" within the number of minutes you enter here, the server will log the user out. This prevents "stale" user logins from staying active.

If this field is left blank, the Client Timeout feature is not activated and clients will not be logged out of the server.

Although this feature was designed to help you recover from network disconnects with minimum inconvenience to your other users, it is NOT a substitute for a solid network. If you have repeated disconnect issues, please troubleshoot your network!

This setting works with a "Keep Alive" function setting built into the Collect! program. Ordinarily, the client machine sends a "Keep Alive" signal every 20 seconds. If no "Keep Alive" signal is received by the server within the number of minutes you specify, then the user will be logged out. We recommend 3 to 5 minutes for the Client Timeout.

Lock Timeout

This setting enables you to change the default 2 second lock timeout to a user defined value. A longer Lock Timeout increases the chance that your lock request will be granted, but may result in a longer period of "waiting for lock request."

The value in this field will take effect when you log in or reload your collect.cfg. Setting a negative value, a 0, or leaving the field blank, results in using the default 2 second lock timeout.

Sign On Exclusive

Exclusive means that only one person can access a database at any one time.

If another User tries to open the database they will be stopped and a message will inform them the files are in use already. Exclusive operation is faster than Shared because the significant logic required for file and record sharing is avoided.

Sign On Shared

Shared means that many people can simultaneously access the database. Use this when you are operating Collect! on a network and you want others to access the database at the same time you are.

For help on network setup please refer to the help topic, Network Setup.

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.

Performance Variables

Two new settings enable you to Batch and Lock intervals. These affect the overall performance of your Collect! system. You can speed up the batch process or you can ensure that you are not slowing down other operators who may be using Collect! at the same time.

Batch Interval

This number sets the number of records retrieved at any given time. Increasing the number speeds up the process but it may adversely affect other operators who may be using the system at the same time. Decreasing the number slows down the batch process. Default is 500 records.

Lock Interval

This number sets the number of milliseconds records are locked for at any given time. A high number slows down the system for other operators but speeds up the batch process. A low number enables other operators to continue working at a reasonable pace, but slows down the batch process. Default is 100 milliseconds.

For best overall performance, specify nothing. To increase the performance of batch processes, increase the number at the expense of slowing down everyone else.

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.

See Also

- System Administration Topics
- Database Preferences Basics - Introduction/Accessing