ToyBase

Changes made in this version:

• The export toys to CSV and XML options in the Publish menu were broken and have been fixed
• Publish Catalogue now attempts to automatically detect your network proxy if you are on a protected network

To get the new version, open ToyBase and hit the Help…Check for updates menu or click download and re-enter your details.

Many people want to put their ToyBase data on a Network drive so that many people can use ToyBase at the same time.  This is now possible in version 7.0.95. The procedure for moving your data is described in this article and will probably need to be carried out by your I.T department.

Once completed, your setup will look like this:

You will have ToyBase installed as normal on your PC(s) and laptop(s). They will point to a folder on your network containing your database file and your images folder.

Each person will use a copy of ToyBase that is running on their computer.  The behaviour of ToyBase is unchanged:

• you cannot create two toys with the same number
• you cannot create two members with the same number
• you cannot book out the same toy to different members at the same time

There is one special case – ToyBase does not lock a Toy or Member record when you edit it. Therefore if two people on different computers attempt to edit the same record, whoever saves their changes last will win and their edit will remain. The edit of the first person to save will be lost without warning. I do not intend to change this behaviour in the short term unless there is a large demand for the change.

ToyBase 7.0.95 is mainly a housekeeping release but it contains some essential work that had to be done before I can get back to adding new features.

Changes:

• if you are running Windows Vista or Windows 7 then ToyBase will now attempt to put its database in the correct folder for your user and so Windows will never complain about the database being ‘read only’. See the linked article for more details
• your I.T. department can override ToyBase and tell it to store the data anywhere that they choose (for example on their network drive)
• as a New Year gift I have increased the number of records that can be created in the free demonstration from 200 to 500 active toys and members.  This should be more than enough for small organisations to use ToyBase for free and for larger organisations to thoroughly try the software before they commit to a purchase.
• optimised the Publish Catalogue to Website option so it only uploads images that have changed since the last publication
• if you attempt to create a toy but you don’t have any categories you will be directed to the Toys…Create Category menu instead
• I have added these currencies to the Tools…Options menu:

1. Australian Dollars
2. Euro
3. Indian Rupee
4. United States Dollars

Bug fixes:

• some people were not deleting the ‘import v6 data’ shortcut which was included for a quick upgrade and import of data from v6 to v7.  ToyBase now asks you to confirm that you want to import your old data.  I consider this a bug because it should not have been so easy for a user to re-import their old data.  The import icon has been moved from the desktop into the Start menu
• the folder icons were missing in the Tools…Backup menu – they are now put on your PC when you install ToyBase
• apostrophes can now be included in your Organisation Name of your Licence. I have had to remove some in the past but this has not been a problem for the last few versions of ToyBase
• when you click on links that take you to the toybase.net website, all the links now point to the new pages and not to the old site.  All the old links will continue to be redirected to the new pages and so you will not notice the transistion

The application icon has changed from a blue cube to a blue index card holder:

To get the new version, open ToyBase and hit the Help…Check for updates menu or click download.

When ToyBase is running on Windows 95, 98, Me or XP it stores your data in this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\toybase.net\ToyBase\home

This folder is not recommended to be used under Windows Vista or Windows 7. It will work if the PC is yours and your user account is an Administrator as you have complete access to your hard drive. However this may not be the case if you are using a PC supplied by your I.T. department. In this case ToyBase will store the data here:

\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\toybase.net\ToyBase\home

This change was made in ToyBase version 7.0.95.  If you installed an earlier version of ToyBase (e.g. 7.0.94) on Windows 7 then you will find the data in the old location above.  ToyBase will detect this and put a warning in the log.  If you choose to do so you can use Windows Explorer to move your data folder from the old to the new location.  Only do this if you are confident with Windows Explorer and how data is stored on your PC!  Or ask your I.T. department to do this for you.

If ToyBase running on Windows Vista or 7 should find both an old and new data folder then it will warn you with an error message in the log (and on the home screen) and use the new data folder.  You should choose one or the other and delete the unwanted copy. Then  take a look at the ToyBase log – it will tell you all the folders where ToyBase looked for your data and the choice that it made.

क्या आप भारत में एक खिलौना लाइब्रेरी चला?ToyBase सॉफ्टवेयर अब भारत में किया जा रहा है!

(this text was translated with Google Translate and has not been read by a native speaker so please excuse any errors!)