Calendar Administator
The purpose of this software is to manage the necessary files and system entries for a toolkit database.
These files fall into roughly three categories:
- The database which stores the site information and the the events
- A system DSN (Data Set Name) which allows the ASP code to access the database
- Several ASP files which are the entry points into the particular calendar
The basic functions in the program are to Add Database and Remove Database.
You can also use this tool to reset the administrator password as well.
Quick Overview
This utility is an important part of the setup and installation of the toolkit software.
After the ASP code has been properly installed, you must create the events database
to begin. The steps to do this are as follows:
If message boxes appear during the process, read them carefully. The first time
the program is run, it will want to create the directories
C:\InetPub\databases\community\ and
C:\InetPub\wwwroot\community\start\. You should press "OK" in answer to these prompts.
Directories
This program operates in three directories - in this section, we describe what should be found in each directory.
-
Path to the distribution mdb files - This directory is created as part of the installation process. Its typical value is
C:\Program Files\CalendarAdmin\. This directory contains many files but for the purposes of this tool, we only care about the file base.mdb. This is an Access file
with the "default" configuration for a database. During creation, a copy of this file
is placed in the production database path. If you want to change the defaults for all
new libraries, open this file in Access and carefully change the values.
-
Production Database Path - This dirctory is where an Access database will be stored for each separate database. The short name is used to form the file name. The typical value for this directory is C:\InetPub\databases\community\. It is VERY importanrt
that this directory be backed up. If you move your site to a new server, this MDB contains all the information (events, forums, and configuration) for your site. The first time you add a database this directory may need to be created.
-
ASP Library Path - This path is typically
C:\InetPub\wwwroot\community\start\. This needs to be in the web server space
for the rest of the ASP files for the community toolkit. The start directory
needs to be a subdirectory at the same level as the Admin and other directories.
The name start can be anything that you want, but then the URLs will also change.
DataSet Names
For the ASP code to "find" the Access databases, the system needs to have Data Set Names to link them up. You can look at the dataset names under
Start | Settings | Control Panel | ODBC32 . The Adinistration tool lists the current and new DSN's in a window so you can verify that the files operate properly.
DSNs used with the commmunity toolkit use the prefix ctk_ so you can readily identify them in the data set name list. Using ODBC32, you can look at the contents of these data set names. They really are just a link to the appropriate MDB file and an indication that these are access files.
Operation of Calendar Administrator
Other than a nifty graphical interface and some error checking, the operation of this program is actually pretty simple. The operations could be done manually without using the tool at all.
To create a database, the following steps are taken:
- Create the two destination directories if necessary
- Copy the base.mdb ino the database directory
- Create the System DSN
- Create the four .asp files, which point to the proper system DSN and link to the main
ASP code
- Open the new databse file and set the admin password
Deleting the database simply goes through and removes the files.
If you are having problems, take a look at the
notes for this product.