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Ziata
Customer Support -- Tech Note #001
Title: Using In/Out with Separate Companies
Subtitle: n/a
Applies to: Ziata: E-MSG!®: In/Out
Last updated: Sunday February 20, 2005.
SUMMARY
In a shared office environment, there may be many separate
businesses that share a receptionist. Thus, the receptionist needs to track all
people, but the companies are separate, so, except for in/out data, all database and
security must be separately retained. This can be done. (The E-MSG! module was
developed in this environment.)
Note: This procedure should be
performed only by the Administrator of the network. It affects all users on the
network and has extreme operational consequences if not performed correctly.
Mistakes arising from this procedure will not be supported by Zegarelli International,
because corrections would be in the nature of consulting.
PROCEDURE
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Important note: The information below is accurate; however, in the latest release of Ziata, we automated this process to make it
easy. If you have any version dated later than May 1, 1998 (Help-About),
you can do this from the New Configuration dialog box (shown immediately after
the Profile, eg. Server v. Workstation install), or do the
following: 1) exit Ziata; 2) delete Ziata.ini from the windows root directory; 3)
re-run Ziata; 4) enter the NCD in
the New Installation dialog; 5) go to the Advanced tab of New Installation dialog and
identify the shared Directory for the In/Out files and check the In/Out checkbox (also,
read the instructions on that tab). That's it, you would not need to the the
following.
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Manual Revision:
All separate companies MUST use the same
directory for the network control file (*.net file), so all such companies must have
access to at least one common directory with appropriate access. (If
all separate companies are on the same network, and share an e-mail post-office, then the
post-office network directory might be a good location.) Watch the exclamation
points in the names when typing directories.
We have implemented the following very successfully:
Let's say four companies sharing office space share a MAPI
Post Office on the network at UNC \\pghserver1\wgpo$. Two of the companies have their own
receptionist, but both receptionists need to keep track of all individuals in the office.
Each of the four companies runs Ziata separately for their own companies, with separate
licenses/user accounts for their own employees.
Because of the common receptionist, though, they need to
share the inOut log. They don't want to share general databases, however, because of the
confidentiality issues and three of the companies would have to abide by the password
administration of someone in another company. Big picture: get everyone to use the
same Network Control Directory, and move the in/out database files to a common network
drive, and edit each user's .ini file.
Following is the solution we used in development:
- No one can be using the databases! Log EVERYONE out of
Ziata
- Since all companies already have access and read/write
access to \\pghserver1\wgpo$ for the post office, we created subdirectories called: \\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata and \\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata\inOut.
- We manually copied the database files from our current
InOut directory (usually [network drive]\Ziata\InOut) to \\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata!\InOut.
- We used \\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata as the Network Control Directory, and
\\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata\InOut as
the directory for the InOut files. Thus, we needed to edit Ziata.INI in the Windows95 root directory on each workstation.
Usually, you can click the Start, Run, c:\windows\Ziata.ini, hit enter will open the .ini file in the Notepad.
In the .ini file, you will note two lines in the [Directories] section called
"emsgInOutDirectory" and "networkControlDirectory." After the
"=" sign, change the path to the new directory.
E.g. if the line was:
NetworkControlDirectory=L:\Data\Ziata!\, you would change to:
NetworkControlDirectory=\\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata\
EMSGInOutDirectory=L:\Data\Ziata\InOut,
you would change to:
EMSGInOutDirectory=\\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata\inOut\.
Remember, what we are using as "\\pghserver1\wgpo$" is merely sample data;
you would replace that information with the path to any drive fully shared on your
network.
Save the .ini file.
- Everyone using the network must edit their .ini file!
- The first time anyone runs in/out, they must Apply each user
to initialize the common database. I.e., since the in/out databases you
copied only contained the users of the company whose database was copied, the additional
users need to be created in the common database. No big deal, when you hit Apply,
the system will create the user if it doesn't already exist.
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Ziata Solutions, LLC All rights
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Revised: February 20, 2005.
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