BdE and multiple user

[DamsHK]

Hye,
I'm currently developing an aplication using paradox 9 and BdE v5.01. This application is multiple user and will be run in two different ways:
- The first one is a usual client-server with a BdE running on each computer and the Tables, forms and report on the network. I’ve got no problem for this one, since each users has one machine and is running his owned BdE.
-The second way is concerning people who want to use paradox from home. In order to improve the rapidity of the queries, I have to use a terminal server with paradox and BdE installed on it. The users can connect to this server and run the BdE from this machine (as same as pcanywhere). The problem is that I have three group of users and for each group the configuration of the BdE is different.
So, is it possible to run from a same machine two BdE with different configuration ? And if so, how can I do it ?
Thanks in advance for your response,
DamsHK

 

[Langley]

You can launch multiple instances of Paradox on the same machine as long as the Private Directories are different for each instance. The Private Directory can be set in the command line, and the each user can have a specific link on his/her desktop. The command line argument is -p followed by a path like: f:\username\private\. It has to be a drive letter path, not UNC.

We did something similar with Citrix with no problems.

Mac

"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't"

langley_mckelvy@cd4.co.harris.tx.us

 

[footpad]

DamsHK,

You may also wish to look at Paradox's -o command line switch, which lets you start Paradox with a different BDE configuration file.

The idea would be to have different Paradox shortcuts for each configuration, each loading a different CFG file as needed.

For more information about Paradox's command-line switches, please see

http://techtricks.com/paradox/cmdline.php,

which describes all the available command-line options.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[DamsHK]

Hello,
Thanks for your tips that made me think of a solution which seems to work although and I didn't have time to really test it.
Because the problem was that on one machine, it's only possible to launch ONE BDE configuration file at a time. You can launch several paradox but once one is launched, you can't change the BdE configuration.
What I did is, each time there's a new user which access the terminal server (on which Paradox is running), he opens a new session and as the data are situated on another server, I just change the mapping for each user.
Example:
In the BDE, the Path of the allias DATA is P:/.
For one user when he opens the session, a script map the P:/ with the adress 100.200.20.3/Program/DATA1 and for another user P:/ would be mapped with 100.200.20.3/Program/DATA2.

Do you think it's a bit too risky???

Thank you for your help,
Damien

 

[footpad]

Damien,

That would work, but wouldn't it be better to simply copy a customized BDE.CFG to the user's Documents directory on the terminal services server and then modify the Paradox shortcut to load BDE.CFG from that directory?

The mapping should work, but it seems like it would be a bear to maintain over time.

Hope this helps...

-- Lance

 

[DamsHK]

Thanks for your help Lance,
I thought of something like that, but the problem is that when a user logs in the terminal servers and starts Paradox with its configuration file, other users can't lanch another session of Paradox using another .cfg file. First this message appears:
"Paradox errorifferent configuration already in use. Use it instead of the specified file? "
If you click on "No", the second message appears:
"ERROR Could not initialise the BDE: Cannot initialize with a different configuration file"

Isn't it normal?

Thanks,
Damien

 

[footpad]

Damien,

Hm. No, it's not normal.

Let me see if I can find a way to play with this directly and offer some more educated ideas.

-- Lance

 

[DamsHK]

Footpad,
When you say it's not normal, that mean that it should work but there's a problem with my configuration?
Thanks for your help,
Damien

 

[Langley]

It sounds like your drive mapping is wrong, you do not have permission to access the directory containing the IDAPI.CFG file, or the path in your link does not really point to the IDAPI.cfg file.

Mac

"There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't"

langley_mckelvy@cd4.co.harris.tx.us