DAWIN Product Updates
For a small annual fee, you can receive a subscription to the
Product Updater and every time the company changes the order form we
will provide you with the latest order form via internet download.
(These instructions do not apply to DAPRO as product installation is automatic in DAPro) With a
subscription, downloads are accessed by going to the website and clicking on
'Support'. You must be logged into your account to access downloads. (If you are logged in,
you'll see 'Welcome (your name)' at the top of the window to the right) If you are not logged in,
click on Login to log into your account and then return to the support page. Downloads appear as
links to the left of the screen. You'll find both the link to the current product order form as well as a link to
the previous order form. The links will display the date of the product update. Click
on the link and when prompted, save the file to your desktop. The download itself will happen
relatively fast since the file size is less than 1 megabyte.
Installing the download
The download is a zipped file which includes 2 files inside, Prod_Up.msi and Setup.exe. Double click the downloaded zip file to open a window, listing both files. In this window, click on 'Extract All Files', located at the top-left of the window to decompress the files. When the files are extracted, they will open in another window which looks almost identical to the previous window but you will not have the 'Extract All Files' to the top. This let's you know that the files have been extracted. Double click on the Setup.exe file to launch the installation. By default, the installation will install to the c:\dawin directory (which has always been the default) It's important to install the update into the same directory as your initial program installation. If you changed the installation directory of your original install, you'll need to be sure to change the directory when installing updates as well. Otherwise just leave it at the default. You will be prompted with Installation Complete when the update has been installed.
Download and Installation for Virtual PC (XP Mode) or MAC Parallels running XP
If you are running Dawin from within a virtual environment (XP Mode or Parallels)
you may have trouble downloading the standard installation as it requires the .NET framework.
There is an alternate download which we've posted to bypass the required framework. The update
file that's needed by Dawin to run the updater has been compressed and is available to download
HERE
This file should be downloaded from within the virtual environment and saved to your desktop.
With the file saved, double click to open the file. In the window that opens, click on
'Extract All Files' located in the top left of the window. This will open the file in another window
displaying the single file prods.mdb. Click on the extracted prods.mdb file with your RIGHT hand
mouse button and select 'Copy' from the popup menu that appears. Then click 'Start' and then 'My Computer'
In your Computer window, double click on your Local Disk (C) drive. Finally, click on the Yellow Dawin
folder with your RIGHT hand mouse button and select 'Paste' to copy the file into your Dawin directory.
You'll be prompted letting you know that you'll be overwriting the file which is what you want to do.
Replacing the prods.mdb file already in your Dawin directory with the updated prods.mdb file extracted from the download.
Running the Updater
After installation, you run the Product Updater program. Exit the main Dawin
program before running the product updater! Click 'Start',
'Programs', 'Dawin' and 'Product Updater' to open the product update
program.
A window will appear identifying the time period the update
applies to. You will have the option to Begin Update or Exit.
Selecting Begin Update will bring up a prompt asking if you have
backed up your data base. If the answer is yes click Yes. If the
answer is no, click No, back up your database and begin again.
Customizing the Update
You will be prompted to make several selections. Follow the
instructions on the screen.
Your first choice will be to select between 'Standard'
descriptions and 'User' descriptions:
Standard descriptions will utilize descriptions provided with the
update. By selecting replace all descriptions, you will overwrite
any customized changes that you have made to the descriptions in
your database. i.e.) If you have changed the description of some
products, the products in your database would be changed back to the
original descriptions. By selecting only add new , then only new
products are added with the included descriptions.
As stated, utilizing User descriptions will do just that, update
the database based on the way you have customized your database.
i.e.) If you change the description of cleansers to be the specific
product, Creamy Cleanser, it will retain your original format when
it is put into the proper sequence of the order form.
Make your selection and hit O.K.
When selecting, Star old product and add new, you are choosing to
add the new items to your database and if a classic product is found
to utilize a similar description that product number will be
modified to begin with an * as the first character and both
products, part numbers, and inventory will be maintained in your
database. The come back of Bisque Ivory is a good example. i.e.) If
you have classic Bisque and new Bisque, both will be retained in the
database as separate. You will need to make sure you select the
proper item from your pop up window while creating an invoice in
order to reduce the proper inventory.
When selecting Utilize old product and update part number, you
are choosing to have the products combined into one part number and
inventory. Again utilizing the Bisque example, i.e.) you have 3
classic Bisque and 5 new Bisque, they will all be reflected as 8
items on hand under the current part #.
Make your selection and hit O.K. to begin update.
As the update rearranges your order form it will display products
as they are being added. You can change the description and color of
products being added. Click OK to close the product window and
continue with the update. A message will appear to notify you when
the update has been complete. Click OK to close the message.
Troubleshooting Product Update Issues
If you've installed the update and the updater is still displaying dates for the old update, there's a
few things to check to get updated.
Make your selection and hit O.K. When selecting, Star old product and add new, you are choosing to add the new items to your database and if a classic product is found to utilize a similar description that product number will be modified to begin with an * as the first character and both products, part numbers, and inventory will be maintained in your database. The come back of Bisque Ivory is a good example. i.e.) If you have classic Bisque and new Bisque, both will be retained in the database as separate. You will need to make sure you select the proper item from your pop up window while creating an invoice in order to reduce the proper inventory.
When selecting Utilize old product and update part number, you are choosing to have the products combined into one part number and inventory. Again utilizing the Bisque example, i.e.) you have 3 classic Bisque and 5 new Bisque, they will all be reflected as 8 items on hand under the current part #.
Make your selection and hit O.K. to begin update. As the update rearranges your order form it will display products as they are being added. You can change the description and color of products being added. Click OK to close the product window and continue with the update. A message will appear to notify you when the update has been complete. Click OK to close the message.
If you've opened the product updater program before installing the new download, it's possible that you've updated the file with todays date. This can cause the installation to skip overwriting the data file since it's now showing as newer than the file being installed. To remedy the situation, you should delete the prods.mdb file in your c:\dawin directory and then reinstall the download which will force it to add the update file. Click Start then My Computer. In the Computer window, double click on your local disk C: (C Drive). Then double click on your dawin directory. In the dawin directly locate the file called prods (or prods.mdb - it's an Access database). Click on the prods.mdb file with your RIGHT hand mouse button and select 'Delete' to move it to your recycle bin. Then reinstall the download and run the product updater again.
Updates always need to be installed into the same directory as your active program's data directory. You can check your data directory by clicking on 'View' then 'Settings'. In Settings click on 'System Settings' and check your data directory. if the data directory is not c:\dawin\dawin.mdb (the default), you'll need to install the update into the directory that's displayed. For example, if the directory reads d:\dawin\dawin.mdb then the updater needs to be installed into d:\dawin.
