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Connect to a data store

After creating a new data store, you must connect it to the Data Store Administration Tool. Alternatively, you can connect to an existing data store if you have one.

To connect to data store:

  1. Launch the Data Store Administration Tool.
  2. In the Create/Connect group, you will see the current status of the data store. Click Attach.

  3. The Data Store Connection Wizard displays. Select a connection type. Click Next.

  4. Based on your previous selection, complete the following:

    • If you are using an existing connection file (.cwc), enter the location of the .cwc file.
    • If you are connecting to an xBase store, enter the location of the existing xBase data store (.cws file).
    • If you are connecting to a SQL store, enter all SQL connection information.

    Click Next.

  5. Click Finish to proceed with the connection.

You have connected to the data store. The Status field now displays that the data store is online.

Notes:

  • Ensure that you configure your SQL server to accept remote connections, or else users may experience difficulty connecting to the store. To enable remote connections, run the SQL Server Configuration Manager tool, then in SQL Server Network Configuration | Protocols for your SQL Instance, enable TCP/IP.
  • Users do not need to install SQL Server or SQL Express to connect to a SQL-based data store. The user should have access to the folder where the connection file resides.
  • When opening Working Papers, it may take some time to connect to a large shared store. We suggest waiting until the data store's status reads Online before attempting further actions, otherwise the connection may fail.

Connect to a data store from the Windows registry

Your organization may want to push registry keys to each user to connect them to a data store, rather than the traditional connection method. We recommend copying the registry settings from the administrator of the data store to push to your users.

To copy registry settings from an administrator:

  1. Launch the Data Store Administration Tool. Ensure that a data store is attached.
  2. Launch the Windows Registry Editor.
  3. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CaseWare International\Data Store\Shared Store\.
  4. Right-click on the Shared Store folder and click Export.
  5. Save the .reg file to a safe location.

You can now push the .reg file to your users to connect them to the data store.

Data store registry settings

The initialization of a data store is primarily controlled by the following registry key and its children:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CaseWare International\Data Store

The personal data store and data store settings are saved in the following registry keys, respectively:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CaseWare International\Data Store\Personal Store
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CaseWare International\Data Store\Shared Store

Each registry type can have the following values:

Type Registry values Description
Personal data store Class Constant. Must have the value {ea56dd50-b33d-460c-9326-78da507e4f11}
COM Class {a55fcf6b-3982-475b-86ad-8ca1e955e9c9}
Description Personal Data Store
Parameters

The parameters used to create the data store. Typically this will be:

C:\Users\<user account name>\AppData\Local\CaseWare
Data store (xBase) PATH Path to the data store not including the "Data Store\" part
StorageType 2 (xBase)
Data store (SQL) Database Name Name of the data store database on the SQL server
Password Encrypted password to the SQL store
Product Type Type of SQL server
Server Name Name of SQL server
StorageType 1 (SQL)
Use Windows Authentication

0 - use SQL authentication

1- use Windows authentication
User Id Encrypted SQL user ID

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