Installation guide

Neither the client nor the server have any installers, instead they can simply be copied to a computer running a supported OS and run.  They do, however, have some dependencies which must be met.

 

Client software

Due to some of the .NET libraries being used, a minimum OS version  of XP is required.  In addition .NET 4 (which will be provided automatically by a launcher program) is necessary as it contains the libraries used by the software.

The eventual goal is to have the client software set-up to be run off a CD with an autorun pointing to the launcher.  However, this is a long way off right now.  There are also configuration files planned for allowing the setting up of the software to tell it information such as the name/address of the server.  This will likely be implemented in a nearby release, however for now the only way to configure the software is to manually alter the source-code and build it yourself.

Server software

Like with the client, .NET 4 is required for the server software to run.  However, there are no server OS-specific features in use in the software  so any version of Windows can be used as a server.  The eventual plan is to include a Linux build of the server software to accommodate those who can't afford to setup a dedicated Windows server.

In addition, there is the added requirement of having a DBMS installed (either on the same server or on a separate server).  Currently SQL Server and MySQL server are supported, although only MySQL (Community Edition) has been tested.

Like the client software, there are no configuration files currently implemented so altering the source-code is required to tell the software the log-in credentials of the chosen DBMS.