Taunton81 Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 Hi All We are in the process of setting up an additional SIMS.net database for another part of the school. We have in the past modified the connect.ini file to show a drop down list of all the different SIMS.net databases. Does anyone know if it possible to reference the database or a different connect.ini file within a shortcut? I would like to have 2 shortcuts, one for our main school database and a second for the additional one. Thanks Tom
GREED Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 We tried this about a year ago and couldn't get it working very well. Because the software only looks in one place for the connect.ini (assuming using a redirected one) we couldn't get anything special to alter the location it was pointing to, so became a manual job.
apeo Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 Maybe you could use bat files to run SIMS i.e. you have 1 that copies the main connect.ini file to the sims local directory and then runs sims, another that copies the other connect.ini file to the sims local directory and then runs sims. Basically the batch script does what you would have done manually.
GREED Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 We did go down that road, and not until some recent work did we figure out the big pitcure, but security was a big issue for us at that time. Having 2 databases is now not an issue for us so we have not persued it any further. However, we know that that would do the trick because we use a similar batch to enable auto upgrades of SIMS.
Popular Post Mcshammer_dj Posted November 30, 2009 Popular Post Posted November 30, 2009 This works for me Change the name to the correct name of the server you want to connect to. [sIMSConnection] ServerName=name1\sims2005 DatabaseName=sims ServerType=SIMSSQL DatabaseMode=OnLine [sIMSDatabases] FriendlyName0=name1 Server0=name1\sims2005 DatabaseName0=sims DatabaseMode0=Online FriendlyName1=name2 Server1=name2\sims2008 DatabaseName1=sims_sec DatabaseMode1=Online FriendlyName2=name3 Server2=name3\sims2005 DatabaseName2=sims_training DatabaseMode2=Online FriendlyName3=name4 Server3=name4\sims2008 DatabaseName3=sims DatabaseMode3=Online 7
GREED Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 And so you get... what? A drop down of SIMS servers/installations to choose from on login? Brilliant!
Mcshammer_dj Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 And so you get... what? A drop down of SIMS servers/installations to choose from on login? Brilliant! Thought that you would like that..... This works within a large domain as well to connect to different machines. The only problem can come with the versions of SIMS
superfletch Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 One more vote for the connect.ini with the friendly database names in. It has one other problem which is people not knowing which sims database they need to run. As long as that is clear then any workstation with SIMS .net (at the right version) should be capable of connecting to any SIMS database. The other option is creating separate connect.ini files on a network share for the local one to redirect to. Nowhere near as neat or nice.
GREED Posted November 30, 2009 Posted November 30, 2009 I guess you could include some form of pop up (batch) to indicate clearly which database you were about to open, with some friendly text, make it as obvious as possible!
DarkSithBob Posted January 11, 2010 Posted January 11, 2010 hi, is there any way to redirect to this type of file, for example if i copy the contents and modify it to my c:\program....\connect.ini file it works ok. however if i copy this connect.ini file to the s:\sims folder and create a c:\program....\connect.ini file to redirect to s:\sims, the drop down list fails and i can only login to the first DB listed!!! i have a requirement for a terminal server so i cannot rewrite files on the c:\ drive and the drop down list seems to have an issue with more than 10-12 entries. Thanks, Gav
Mcshammer_dj Posted January 11, 2010 Posted January 11, 2010 I haven't tested this on more that 10 but I don't think that there is a number limit on the connect.ini. HOwever I am not sure that it will really work in a terminal solution as it will write back the current database as it is used and muliple use will result in exsessive access to the connect.ini.
matt40k Posted January 11, 2010 Posted January 11, 2010 You can just add /CONNECT: with the path to a connect.ini.
Hecate Posted January 11, 2010 Posted January 11, 2010 I do it by redirecting the connect.ini to the connect.ini on the server. Different shortcuts run batch files which map the SIMS drive (S for us) to the required server and I also incorporate a message in the bat file to remind the user which database they ar econnecting to
Oops_my_bad Posted September 3, 2011 Posted September 3, 2011 Thanks for that. I've just tried modifying my connect.ini file with this however I'm not getting the drop-down box to select another database. Take it this doesn't work anymore with the current version of SIMS?
Oops_my_bad Posted September 5, 2011 Posted September 5, 2011 Hmm. I've copied n pasted that connect ini exactly as it is. WHat I have noticed is when I add the [sIMSDatabases] bit, the SIMS login box does increase in size slightly (as if the dropdown box should be there) but it isn't. I've tried changing the screen resolution as there was a similar issue a while back. This is on windows7 - is everyone else who is working on XP?
Oops_my_bad Posted September 5, 2011 Posted September 5, 2011 Ahh. I see it doesn't work if you put it in your central connect.ini file, but works if using it locally. Is there anyway this can be made to work if using your s:\sims\connect.ini file?
matt40k Posted September 5, 2011 Posted September 5, 2011 No. You generally don't want to use the multi select on FMS and personally, you don't want to use the redirect feature (SIMS or FMS).
localzuk Posted September 6, 2011 Posted September 6, 2011 (edited) Does this work if SIMS.net is on 2 different servers, with 2 different Document Servers etc...? ie. do we not need to mount the different S: drives? I'm guessing the drive is actually only used for the legacy apps and setups etc... now? Edited September 6, 2011 by localzuk
matt40k Posted September 6, 2011 Posted September 6, 2011 Document Server (DMS) is set in the database, so yes, just the legacy stuff that lives in S: that can be a problem, ie Nova-T
Mcshammer_dj Posted September 6, 2011 Posted September 6, 2011 Does this work if SIMS.net is on 2 different servers, with 2 different Document Servers etc...? ie. do we not need to mount the different S: drives? I'm guessing the drive is actually only used for the legacy apps and setups etc... now? This is only a connect.ini to allow access to SIMS. The access to the doc server is controlled from the sime once you access. I have this on my office machine to allow me to connect to all of the schools in my authority. The sims.ini stays the same and the version is collected from what ever the local machine is on. This means that if the different server are on different versions you may get the database at different versions message
Oops_my_bad Posted September 7, 2011 Posted September 7, 2011 No. You generally don't want to use the multi select on FMS and personally, you don't want to use the redirect feature (SIMS or FMS). SIMS, not FMS. Funny about the redirected connect.ini files - our SIMS clients all seem to have these as a default - even where SIMS has been freshly installed :/
Banjo Posted September 9, 2011 Posted September 9, 2011 Thanks for that. I've just tried modifying my connect.ini file with this however I'm not getting the drop-down box to select another database. Take it this doesn't work anymore with the current version of SIMS? You may have more than one connect.ini If you modded the network drive file, but the local connect.ini doesn't have a redirect then that's the issue. Check in the local programs files | sims folder for the connect.ini there
Pricey_2k Posted January 11, 2016 Posted January 11, 2016 This works perfectly thanks! Does anyone know if we can do the same for FMS? I tried the obvious, changing the data base name ect but no luck!
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