Installing MainBoss on Other Computers

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Once you have set up MainBoss on one computer, and are sure that it is working correctly with SQL Server, you can set up MainBoss on other computers (if you wish).

A MainBoss license dictates the number of people who may be authorized to use MainBoss. More specifically, it dictates the number of users who may be entered in the Users table (Administration | Users). Your license does not affect the number of computers where the software may be installed; therefore, you may install MainBoss on any number of computers within your organization.

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To install MainBoss manually on any computer, follow the steps given on the web page where you obtained the MainBoss software. Once you've done so, each person who uses MainBoss on that computer must set up his or her options for connecting with the MainBoss database. The alternative is to use ClickOnce deployment, as described in ClickOnce Deployment.

Important: MainBoss options are set up for each individual user. This means that each user must login and set up a connection to the MainBoss database. The process is easy, but the MainBoss Administrator must tell every user the "Database Server" and "Database Name" needed for the connection. Alternatively, you can have each user log in and then the administrator takes over to set up the database connection.

To set up MainBoss so that it can access an existing maintenance organization:

  1. A MainBoss user should login to the computer under his/her usual login name.
  2. Start MainBoss on the new machine. It will display a window asking you to specify the maintenance organization:

    MainBoss
  3. Click Add Existing Organization. This opens a window like this:

    MainBoss
  4. Set "Database Server" and "Database Name" to the same values specified when the database was created—see Creating a Maintenance Organization. The easiest way to set these fields is to click the "..." buttons associated with each field. These display lists of appropriate values. However, under some conditions (related to firewall settings), the "..." lists may not supply the values you want; in that case, you must type in the values by hand.
  5. If you specify "Database Name" using the "..." button, MainBoss will fill in "Organization Name" with the company name specified in the database (from Administration | Company Information). If you wish, you can change "Organization Name" to your own private name for the organization; this will not affect any other users. (You might change the "Organization Name" if you have a number of organizations you must keep track of, and you want to make sure their names are distinctive.)
  6. Click OK. MainBoss will add the database name to the list.
  7. Click Start to start MainBoss using the selected database.

Once you have set up this computer to access the maintenance organization, you don't have to do it again.

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