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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:

  1. No one can be using the databases!  Log EVERYONE out of Ziata
  2. 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.
  3. We manually copied the database files from our current InOut directory (usually [network drive]\Ziata\InOut) to \\pghserver1\wgpo$\Ziata!\InOut.
  4. We used \\pghserver1\wgpo$\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.
  5. Everyone using the network must edit their .ini file!
  6. 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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Revised: February 20, 2005.

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