ToyBase

Did you know that you can run ToyBase and other Microsoft Windows software directly on your Mac?  Apple provide a product called Bootcamp  with Snow Leopard and describe the process in this article.  I use a product called VMWare Fusion which does the same job and allows you to run Windows applications side-by-side with Macintosh applications.

You will need a Microsoft Windows installation CD and a Microsoft Windows licence in order to install Windows on either of those products.  See their website for details on how to get everything installed.

Here is a picture of ToyBase running on a Mac (click to zoom):

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.

Your ToyBase generated website allows you to add as many extra pages as you want.  Your new pages appear across the top of the screen:

In this example there are two extra pages: Map and About.

To create a new page, login to your website and choose Page then Add New as shown below:

The editing instructions are exactly the same as for news posts.  The features of Pages are described in this article.

ToyBase normally refers to items in the stock database as ‘Toys’ as it’s heritage was database for Toy Libraries. The original toy libraries also loaned other items of equipment such as wheelchairs, but to the database everything was a Toy.

In version 7.0.90 of ToyBase the vocabulary can be switched so that the words Toy and Toys becomes Item and Items, making the wording of the screens more suited to a Leisure Library. You can make the change in the Tools…Options menu:

Remember to hit the Save button after making the change.

If you are using ToyBase v6, follow the instructions in the User Guide:

If you have a logo for your organisation then scan it as a PNG or JPEG image and save it as logo.png or logo.jpg. Place the file in the folder:

C:\Program Files\Toy Library Database\My Toy Library\

The logo will appear on the welcome screen,

If you are using ToyBase v7 the location of the logo has changed but the instructions are out-of-date – the image must be a .png file and it’s location is now:

    C:\Program Files\devstopfix.net\ToyBase7\Images\toybase(smaller).png

Replace this file with your logo file.