System requirements for Scribe Personal Edition

Supported OS: Windows 98, NT, 2000, XP, Red Hat Linux v9.

Supported databases: MS SQL Server 2000, Oracle, Sybase, Mimer, McKoi, Daffodil, MySQL

Hardware: minimum of 256 Mb RAM. Processor speed: the more, the merrier.

Getting going with the new installation

1. Run install.exe program (Windows) or install.bin script (Linux). This will install SCRIBE into the designated directory. The installer can also install the Java Virtual Machine (VM) libraries, if your environment does not have Java. If your computer already has Java 1.4.1 from Sun Microsystems installed, you can use it instead of loading one through the installer. Otherwise (if you do not have Java, or your version of Java is other than 1.4.1, or if you do not know what Java is and whether or not it is installed on your computer) you should let the installer install Java for SCRIBE:

2. Create SCRIBE icon on the desktop (Windows only):

3. Start SCRIBE. The Demo Mode Request panel will appear:

If you choose running Scribe in Demo mode, the following limitations will apply:

• report pages show "DEMO" watermark printed across the page
• updates to the database tables (insert, update or delete rows) done through Process procedures, are rolled back

You can request a fully-enabled 30-day license. In this case the following window will apper:

Please note that the only required item is your e-mail address. The rest of the information is optional, but we do appreciate your telling us who you are, and how you discovered Scribe.

Enter the info and submit the request. The demo license key will be generated automatically and e-mailed to you; this license is valid for 30 days. Once you receive the key, proceed with step 4.

4. Start SCRIBE again. The license panel will appear:

Copy and paste the license key into the Site License panel, replacing the temporary key.

SCRIBE is installed with demo reports configured to run against the demo Northwind database hosted by McKoi. If you intend to run the demo reports, make sure McKoi database engine is running on the same host before selecting any of the Launchpad entries. If you need to connect to some other database, or point SCRIBE to some other database host/port, select Launch > DB Connection... menu item, and set up the connection; use F1 key for help.

Troubleshooting

SCRIBE creates an error log where the program activity and errors are logged. The log is saved in error.log file in the installation directory. When problems occur, this file should be mailed to us. Note that the error log is cleared when a new SCRIBE session starts. So, if a problem occurs and you decide to send us the error log file, do so before starting SCRIBE again.

Needless to say, a clear and detailed description of the problem (along with the error log) will go a long way towards the resolution of the problem. We always fix bugs. If the problem is reproducible (step-by-step description always helps), we fix it quickly.

Usual niceties

Thank you for giving SCRIBE a try. We are always eager to hear your feedback. Patting us on the back is welcome (we love it), but pointing out our failures is a lot more important - so please, do not hesitate.

SCRIBE Development Team.