InfoCentral4Wine -- a Relational Database & File Manager

Filemanagers, partitioning tools, etc.
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mikeslr
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InfoCentral4Wine -- a Relational Database & File Manager

#1 Post by mikeslr »

Edited: April 10, 2010

Hi All:

Below are links from which you can download InfoCentral4Wine. Note the name. You need to install Wine to run either pet. Loading a wine SFS wouldn't work. There are two versions: a .pet named infocentral4wine-.943, and a .pet named infocentral4wine-.94. Version ".943" can be used in Puppy Version 4.3, and Puplets based on it. Version ".94" has been tested and work in Puppies and Puplets versions 4.12 and 4.2, and may work in Puppies and Puplets based on prior versions. See next post. SFSes are no longer available. For an explanation, see next post. There is also a link from which you can download the "building blocks" with which you may be able to build either your own pet (for prior or later Puppies) or a combine InfoCentral-Wine SFS. See next post for explanation. Lastly, there's a Portable Infocentral which will work, but only as a relational database manager, with XP and some versions of wine. If after reading the following you decide that InfoCentral as a relational database manager may be useful, but that you have no need for its file management capabilities, try the Portable Version first since, as any portable, it can potentially be used with any operating system.

To use the .pet InfoCentral’s Object-related File management capabilities, after installation, you must run the infoc4sys script, located in the hidden .wine folder, about which more later. (And see next post). After running infoc4sys, a reboot is necessary.

The Links:
For use with Puppy 4.3 and Derivatives:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jajirmdmmum
MD5Sum=f28439bd360063000637af5f511c158c

For use with Puppies 4.12, 4.20, their derivatives, perhaps prior builds:
http://www.mediafire.com/?drzdrynd1mm
MD5Sum=7cd6e3853ddb961ebbb4710b3a458afd

InfoCentral Portable including documentation:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dlmgminy0un
MD5Sum=5627f810d6502179e9deb304ec5856bf

The Building Blocks with Instructions:
http://www.mediafire.com/?mzyjwkunj3u
MD5Sum=d3fce513d2eefe676e11edc696a2297a

InfoCentral was created as both a relational database, and an object-oriented file management system. Unlike an ordinary database where you are limited to defining fields in a record, InfoCentral gives you some flexibility in defining records, themselves, and great flexibility both in defining the fields within a record and how each record relates to any (or all) other records.

Why use a relational database? We live in a complex world. And regrettably, we all suffer memory lapses. InfoCentral is an information management system which doesn’t. Just to provide a slightly absurd example, assume you’re in middle management: it pays for your to know about your boss’s personal life. He’s been married three time, currently via civil union to Sam. He’s on friendly terms with his first wife, Joan. Not so much his second, Gloria. With Joan he had four children, Ted, Fred, Jed, and Glynis. But his favorite child is Claire, the daughter of his second wife, Gloria, by her previous marriage to William. Claire is a Junior at Rider College. Sam has two children, Rhona and Mona. Their birthdays are, respectively, June 14th and November 21st. Can you’re PIM keep track of each of the foregoing persons, their birthdays, anniversaries, up-coming-important-events, their important business and social contacts, and each member of the “family’s

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InfoCentral -- Considerations & problems in building

#2 Post by mikeslr »

As a relational database, InfoCentral is a great program for organizing all types of information. I have serious doubts regarding its utility as a file manager because of its dependence upon hard-links. It was created with the assumption that there would only be one operating system found at C:\. While the database indexes can be located anywhere on your computer, if you use more than one operating system (dual-boot) the paths from an index to the file it indexed will not be identical if your operating systems are not on the same partition. Similarly, moving your databases to a different location (something you may want to do when installing an up-grade or another OS) will also break the links. Despite those limitations, I have tried to preserve the file management capabilities because, while I do not expect to use them, others may find them of value despite the limitations. And, InfoCentral may soon be only a program of use under Linux. It will not run under Vista, and may only run under those more expensive versions of Windows7 which provide XP compatibility via a form of virtualware.

Note to "petmakers": The InfoCentral Pet I made under 4.31 could not be started via the Menu under Puppies based on Versions 4.12 or 4.2. Apparently, the 4.31 desktop file wasn't recognized as such, and had to be re-created, even though the re-created desktop file used the same arguments. Ergo, there are now two different pets.

SFSes, their potential, and problems with building them:
Like all SFSes, an InfoCentral SFS would have advantages over a pet. Not requiring installation, it would not use SAVE file space, and if you dual-boot different Puppies each can use the same SFS at least as a relational database. [Because InfoCentral File-management capability depends on the use of hard-links, that use is conditional: each Operating System must be on the same partition otherwise it may “see

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Partial solution to Wine not finding fonts

#3 Post by mikeslr »

I've been exploring Puppeee on an Asus 701SD. After installing green_dome's wine 1.1.43, I examined system.reg and discovered that the default fonts were in /usr/share/fonts. Earlier versions of wine looked for fonts in drive_c/windows/fonts, which is where the pets (and build instructions) placed those required by InfoCentral. I don't know in which version of wine the structural change occurred. Moving or copying the fonts from there to /usr/share/fonts resolved all but one of the "missing fonts" messages. Fixedsys.ttf is still reported as absent. However, I noticed that the message referred to it with a capital F, while the font, itself, was named with a fixedsys.ttf, with a small f. Renaming it did not solve the problem. Perhaps a reboot is necessary.

mikesLr

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jrb
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#4 Post by jrb »

Hi mikesir,
I am running wine-1.1.38 converted to and loaded as an SFS.

I downloaded and extracted the portable version, infocentral.tar.gz. It extracted to a folder called infocentral in my download folder.

Entering this folder I clicked ICWIN.EXE and received several font error messages and clicked through them. I then received an error message
The iBase file Z:\mnt\home\infocNew\Local\Standard.ica cannot be found
I moved the infocentral folder to /mnt/home/infocentral and renamed it to /mnt/home/infocNew. I then symlinked the TTF fonts in /mnt/home/infocNew/Fonts to /usr/share/fonts/default/TTF/ and all the fonts to /root/.wine/drive_c/windows/Fonts/.

Now when I click ICWIN.EXE I get a nice looking database for a Mr. John Doe. All I need to do now is learn how to use this. I'm not a database expert by any means but I am fluent in msaccess. :oops: This looks promising.

BTW, I should mention that I am running Quirky21 and my /mnt/home is ext3, although I doubt that makes a difference.

Thanks for this, J

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#5 Post by Peterm321 »

It was created with the assumption that there would only be one operating system found at C:\. While the database indexes can be located anywhere on your computer, if you use more than one operating system (dual-boot) the paths from an index to the file it indexed will not be identical if your operating systems are not on the same partition. Similarly, moving your databases to a different location (something you may want to do when installing an up-grade or another OS) will also break the links
I'm writing as someone who uses WINE (I actually have set the HOME directory for it on a tmpfs RAMDrive). I can state that WINE (unlike native Windows) reads ext2 type filesystems as it would a VFAT one.. The important difference however is that the Windows programs seem to be unaware of symlinks. It will open a symlink's destination seamlessly.

On my system, I have symlinked the /tmp/.wine/drive_c/windows/system32 directory to a directory on a VFAT partition.

This might be a solution to differing boot configurations as symlinks can be reassigned on the fly and are themselves very small files and that means little IO is involved.

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Thanks for the feedback

#6 Post by mikeslr »

Hi Peterm321 and jrb,

Thanks for the feedback.

@ Peterm321: I'm not sure I understood your suggestion completely. As I mentioned above, I'm just the packager and drew heavily on the work done by others. While I know wine has no problem with symlinks, I think InfoCentral running under wine employs wine's implementation of Explorer (with all XP Explorer's limitations) to carry out its file management functions.
There may another way to overcome the "hard-link problem," all of which are beyond my level of competence. For example, opening applications uses xdg, which might be extended to also open files other than the Templates located in LinuxProgramLinks. But unlike the open program routine which was written into InfoCentral as extensible via modification of WPICRUN.INI, the open file routine might require modification of the program's code. Under XP, that's possible as InfoCentral --like all WordPerfect programs circa 1998-/+ --was developed using a programming script which, at that time, was freely available. [As far as I know, the script doesn't run under wine, so modifications would have to be made under Windows, maybe 98Se or XP running in compatibility mode].

@jrb

Actually, the beauty of a relational database is that you don't have to learn much. You modify it to reflect how your mind works. Of course, there's always the problems of a programs capability and limitations. Hopefully, the ICManual.pdf and the first half of README.rtf --located in the Documents Folder within the same folder where you found ICWIN.EXE --will be of help.

If you find InfoCentral useful, consider it a partial repayment for the great debt we all owe you for your exceptional development of the ChoicePups and the sfs-linkers.

If you have the time, you might test the below modification. While it worked with the portable version, I can't be certain it would have had I not modified system.reg (as is the case on all my OSes). While I've expressed my doubts as the utility of using InfoCentral as a file manager in general, it might be useful if the portable version could create and open simple text files. Under the Tool section of InfoCentral's Menu is an item "Notepad" which opens a Notepad text editor. I guess it is the Notepad installed by wine as InfoCentral does not have its own. Use of that Notepad does not require modification of system.reg, with the potential for creating a OLE2 problem, since the installation of wine included the required classes. But files created by starting Notepad from the Tools menu are not indexed by InfoCentral. So, I did the following:

In the same folder where you found the InfoCentral executable, there's a file called WPICRUN.INI. Open it in a text editor.
Add the following:
To
[Templates]
Notepad=Notepad

Then, to the defined Templates add:
[Notepad]
Description=Notepad Document
ProgramName=notepad.exe
Extension=txt
InstanceName=Notepad
TransferMedium=Clipboard
MultipleInstances=Yes
FileType=Document
UseCommandLine=Yes

(You can cut & paste the above).

Save the changes, close the text editor and reboot.
Restart InfoCentral. On the Infopad tab, with the cursor on and highlighting an object, such as John Doe, Right-click and select Create Related File. In the top window, type something like Basic Memo (Notepad) and click New Type. Click Add. Responding to the question
"Would you like to initialize the newly created ...?" Click No. Under Windows Application, select "Notepad Document".
Under Connection Description, click "Document". Click Advanced and then click "Specify Location". Click Browse, and browse to
/root/drive_c/windows/ and click notepad.exe, then click OK. In the dialogue box which opens, you can click the browse button
pertaining to "Data File Folder" to select your default folder. Click OK, twice (3 times?) until the dialogue box for naming the document appears. Give the document a name and, if you want, a description. Click OK and then, to the question regarding creation of the file, click Yes. Type something, and then click File>Save. Close the file. There should now be an object on your Infopad tab window with the name you gave it, linked to the object you originally highlighted. Now, with the cursor on the notepad object you created, highlighting it, right-click and select open. If things worked, the notepad file you created should open. Let me know either way.

Thanks for trying InfoCentral.

If I get a chance, I'll repackage the pets, moving the required fonts to usr/share/fonts.

MikesLr

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jrb
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#7 Post by jrb »

Hi mikesir,
there's a file called WPICRUN.INI. Open it in a text editor. Add the following:
Done
highlighting an object, such as John Doe, Right-click and select Create Related File
Right-click didn't produce menu so I clicked create related object button.
In the top window, type something like Basic Memo (Notepad) and click New Type. Click Add. Responding to the question
"Would you like to initialize the newly created ...?" Click No. Under Windows Application, select "Notepad Document".
Under Connection Description, click "Document". Click Advanced and then click "Specify Location". Click Browse, and browse to
/root/drive_c/windows/ and click notepad.exe, then click OK. In the dialogue box which opens, you can click the browse button
pertaining to "Data File Folder" to select your default folder. Click OK, twice (3 times?) until the dialogue box for naming the document appears. Give the document a name and, if you want, a description.
At this point the following message appeared:
Before you can use this command you need to create a field called "File Tracking ID." Make it an Alpha/Numeric field with a length of 4.
I don't see any obvious place to do this.

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mikeslr
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Portable vs. Build Your Own Version

#8 Post by mikeslr »

@ jrb,

Thanks for running the experiment. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Ordinarily, the InfoCentral setup program installs to C:\ (or wine's drive_c:) and writes to the windows/wine's registry. Desiring to make "installation" of a portable version as painless as possible, I ran the InfoCentral setup program thru Portable Apps Creator, http://portableapps.com/node/9909. That enabled me to "install" it to a folder on a Flash Drive, without writing to the registry. That folder then can be copied anywhere and was used in the portable version that you downloaded. The process apparently looses some functionalities beyond those which wine, itself, is unable to perform.
The original InfoCentral setup program is contained in the Building Block's version. After running setup, adding the Notepad definition to WPICRUN.INI should (':roll:') enable the ability to call Notepad via "Create Related File" so that resulting files will be indexed.
Or maybe not.(':oops:')

Of course, anyone installing InfoCentral via its setup program one can still move/create databases anywhere on their computer.

Caution: Before trying that, back up wine's three registry files.

MikesLr

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