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Cardbox |
Client Edition ("Cardbox Client")
If you are publishing data that you have created using Cardbox, it makes sense to do so in the original Cardbox database format. Your customers will have all the searching facilities of Cardbox at their disposal, and you can control what access they have to the data that you supply.
If they don't already own a copy of Cardbox, your customers can still open your databases. All they need to do is install the Cardbox Client, which is available free of charge.
The Cardbox Client is the successor to the Electronic Publishing Version ("EPV") in earlier versions of Cardbox for Windows.
Publishing databases on CDROM
To publish a Cardbox database on CDROM, copy your database files to the CDROM and include a copy of the Cardbox installer, which you can download here. Your customers run the installer to set up the Cardbox Client on their computers and then they will be able to access your data - either on the CDROM or by copying the database files onto their hard disk, whichever they prefer.
For databases on CDROM or on a hard disk, access using the Cardbox Client is read-only: users can search the database, view the data in different formats, and export or print the data, but they cannot add new records or make changes. If you have the Professional Edition of Cardbox then you can set up user profiles to control what use is made of your data: for example, you can allow viewing but prevent printing.
If you don't want to make people run the Cardbox installer then you can set up a folder on the CDROM containing the Cardbox program files, and your users can run the program directly from there: contact Cardbox support for details of how to organise this.
Publishing databases on the Internet
To publish a Cardbox database on the Internet, set up a Cardbox Server on a computer that is connected to the Internet and place the database on it. Give your customers a link to the Cardbox Client download page. Once they have downloaded and set up the Cardbox Client, your customers can use it to access your database.
For databases on a Cardbox Server, access using the Cardbox Client can be read-only or read/write: you can decide this yourself, and you can set up user profiles to give finer control over what data can be seen and by whom. For example, you could make your database invisible except to authorised users. You could also charge a subscription for access: Help Point 585 describes how to do this (to view a Help Point, open Cardbox and use the command Help > Help Points).
Licensing
The same installer is used for the Client Edition and for other editions of Cardbox. The difference comes during the setup process, when the installer asks for a serial number and signature: if it's installed without a serial number, Cardbox runs as the Client Edition.
You are allowed to distribute the installer but you are not allowed to distribute any serial numbers, signatures, or licence codes that we give you: to do this would be a breach of your licence agreement.
Comparison of features
| Professional Edition | Home Edition | Client Edition | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Licensing | Each copy is licensed for one computer only. | Freely installable, no licence required. | |
| On its own | Full read/write access. Can set up advanced features (user profiles, validators, etc) and use them. | Full read/write access up to 10,000 records; read-only access beyond that. Can use advanced features but not set them up. | Read-only access. |
| Connected to a network | Full read/write access: doesn't use up a licence on the server. | Read-only or read/write access, depending on server licensing: uses up one licence on the server. | |
| Customisation (keyboard, macros, etc) | Yes. | No; but can use customised features if they were set up by the Professional Edition. | |
- Read-only access means that you can open a database and view, search, browse, and print records but you cannot add, edit, or delete records; make changes to formats; or create a new database.
- Read/write access lets you do everything, including creating and modifying records, formats, and databases.
All three editions are able to open databases on a Cardbox server using encrypted links across a LAN, a WAN or the Internet. In this mode, they all have identical capabilities: full read/write access to these databases, access to all the advanced features such as user profiles, validators, and encryption, and a limit of 16,000,000 records per database.
Compatibility among the different editions
Any database created by one edition of Cardbox can be used by all the others. If the Professional Edition creates a database of more than 10,000 records, the Home Edition will still be able to open it, but only in a read-only mode. If the Professional Edition sets up validators or encryption or user profiles, the Home Edition will be able to use them but will not be able to change the way they are set up.