Demonstration Maintenance Organizations

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You can create a demonstration organization database by clicking Create Demonstration Organization in the Maintenance Organization window (see Your Maintenance Organization List). MainBoss opens a window where you can specify database information:

Database Server: The network location of the SQL Server through which you will access the database. For more information, see the Installation and Administration Guide.

If you click the accompanying "..." button, MainBoss displays a list of database servers that are known to your Windows system. There may be additional servers that you can use but that Windows doesn't currently know about. For more, see The Database Server List.

Database Name: The name you want SQL Server to give to the new database. This name must be different from the names of any other databases on the server. For example, you can't name every database "MainBoss". If you want to see what MainBoss databases already exist, click the "..." button at the end of the "Database Name" line. (For more, see The Database Name List.)

Organization Name: A name that you will use for this database. The value of "Organization Name" may contain spaces and other punctuation characters.

Make browsers smaller by not showing details for selected record by default: If you checkmark this box, MainBoss will automatically hide the details panel when displaying tables in this database. For more, see Hiding the Details for a Selected Record. Note that you can still ask MainBoss to display the details panel for a particular table by pressing the button for displaying details.

Preferred Mode: The default mode in which this database should be opened. If you do not specify a mode explicitly, the database will be opened in the given mode. For more on modes, see Your Maintenance Organization List.

OK: MainBoss attempts to create a new demonstration maintenance organization database with the name you specified. You must have appropriate permissions to create this database.

Cancel: Closes the window without creating a database.

When you create a new database in this way, the "Organization Name" that you specify becomes that database's default organization name. When other people use Add Existing Organization to add that database to their list, they'll automatically inherit this default name. However, users can then use Edit Organization to assign a different "Organization Name" to the database. If a user does this, the new name is considered that user's personal name for the database—a name for that single user's convenience. When a user changes a personal "Organization Name", it has no effect on other users; it doesn't change the name/address printed on requests, work orders and purchase orders, nor does it change the default "Organization Name" when users add the database to their list of known organizations.

When you create a demonstration database (by clicking Create Demonstration Organization), the database is created using license keys that only allow operation in demonstration mode. This mode places restrictions on various tables (e.g. you can only create a limited number of work orders and requests). However, the database is ready to go as soon as it's created. You can turn a demonstration organization into a fully usable database by replacing the demonstration license keys with full-usage license keys supplied by Thinkage Ltd. or your MainBoss dealer.

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