Sharing database file between multiple users

Hi,

How do two people on an XP machine share the same database file in Photo 
Album 6?

I have been using Photo Album 5 for a number of years and have recently 
upgraded to PA6.  My wife and I both use our Windows XP computer and have 
different logins on the machine.  With PA5 the database was stored in the 
C:\Program Files\Jasc Software Inc\Paint Shop Photo Album 5\System folder. 
So the database was the same no matter who logged into the computer.  If my 
wife logged in and marked a bunch of photos with a keyword, I would see the 
same thing when I logged in because we were using the same database file.

But with PA6 it moved the database to each of our C:\Documents and 
Settings\<user name>\Application Data\Corel Photo Album\6 folders.  Now we

have separate databases.  I installed PA6 under my account, so luckily I 
have the whole PA5 database, but my wife's database is empty.

I know I could probably back my database up and restore it to hers, but 
that's not the point.  We want to share a single database.  So far I can't 
figure out how to do that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jay

On 4/26/2007 6:58 PM, Jay Sullivan wrote:
> 
> How do two people on an XP machine share the same database file in Photo 
> Album 6?

It takes a little hacking. I posted this after PA6 first came out, but the
message has long since expired.

-mjc

--- orginal message ---

PSPA v5 stored the database in under the application directory, PA6 stores it
under the users' APPDATA, which means that it's not shared across accounts. If
you're like me and want to share your database with a (e.g.) a spouse, this
change is a little irksome. What makes it worse is that there's no preference
for controlling where the database is stored (only where backups are placed).

You can get around this with a little deep magic -- hard links and access
control lists. A hard link creates a new name for an existing file. Two files
that are hard linked to each other are actually one file, but the files can
appear in different directories. (Think of it like having a second telephone
line; there are two numbers someone can dial to make your phone ring.) Hard
links are managed by the operating system, so it's completely transparent to
Photo Album. You change the access control list (permissions) for the file to
ensure that multiple users can access it. Again, this is handled by Windows, not
PA.

If you're going to try this, be careful! This is black magic for most users and
there's definitely the potential to screw things up. You won't kill your
computer or PA6, but you could lose your database and all those painfully
entered keywords.

Here's what you do:

1) Log in to your system using an account with administrative privileges.
2) Select one user's database to become the master. This is the file that
   both users will use.
3) Rename the second user's database to something like "ixdb.mdb.bak"
   It will be in their application data directory:

     C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Corel Photo
Album\6

   Note that the Application Data directory is hidden by default. You will
   want to select the option to display hidden files. In Windows Explorer:

     Tools->Folder Options->View Tab->Show hidden files and folders

4) Open a command prompt (gasp!)
5) Change directories (using the "cd" command) to the second user's
PA6
   application directory (the directory from step 3).
6) Create a hardlink to the first user's database file:

     C:\>fsutil hardlink create ixdb.mdb <path>\ixdb.mdb

   where <path> is the full path to the first user's database. The path
will
   look like the one is step 3 but substituting the first user's name for
   <user>.
7) Use cacls to give both users full control over the database:

     C:\>cacls ixdb.mdb /e /g "<PC Name>\<user>":F

   If you don't know your computer's name you can find it by right clicking on
   "My Computer," selecting Properties, going to the "Computer
Name" tab. Your
   PC's name is listed as "Full computer name: <PC Name>"

April 28, 2007

Neat!! I didn't even know those commands existed!! But note that to use 
CACLS you must have your drive formatted with the NTFS file system.

Don Codling
WP 12.0.0.602
DP 2.6x
Windows XP home, SP2
512 MBytes RAM

Michael Carman wrote:
> On 4/26/2007 6:58 PM, Jay Sullivan wrote:
>   
>> How do two people on an XP machine share the same database file in
Photo 
>> Album 6?
>>     
>
> It takes a little hacking. I posted this after PA6 first came out, but the
> message has long since expired.
>
> -mjc
>
> --- orginal message ---
>
> PSPA v5 stored the database in under the application directory, PA6 stores
it
> under the users' APPDATA, which means that it's not shared across accounts.
If
> you're like me and want to share your database with a (e.g.) a spouse,
this
> change is a little irksome. What makes it worse is that there's no
preference
> for controlling where the database is stored (only where backups are
placed).
>
> You can get around this with a little deep magic -- hard links and access
> control lists. A hard link creates a new name for an existing file. Two
files
> that are hard linked to each other are actually one file, but the files
can
> appear in different directories. (Think of it like having a second
telephone
> line; there are two numbers someone can dial to make your phone ring.)
Hard
> links are managed by the operating system, so it's completely transparent
to
> Photo Album. You change the access control list (permissions) for the file
to
> ensure that multiple users can access it. Again, this is handled by
Windows, not PA.
>
> If you're going to try this, be careful! This is black magic for most users
and
> there's definitely the potential to screw things up. You won't kill your
> computer or PA6, but you could lose your database and all those painfully
> entered keywords.
>
> Here's what you do:
>
> 1) Log in to your system using an account with administrative privileges.
> 2) Select one user's database to become the master. This is the file that
>    both users will use.
> 3) Rename the second user's database to something like
"ixdb.mdb.bak"
>    It will be in their application data directory:
>
>      C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Corel Photo
Album\6
>
>    Note that the Application Data directory is hidden by default. You will
>    want to select the option to display hidden files. In Windows Explorer:
>
>      Tools->Folder Options->View Tab->Show hidden files and
folders
>
> 4) Open a command prompt (gasp!)
> 5) Change directories (using the "cd" command) to the second
user's PA6
>    application directory (the directory from step 3).
> 6) Create a hardlink to the first user's database file:
>
>      C:\>fsutil hardlink create ixdb.mdb <path>\ixdb.mdb
>
>    where <path> is the full path to the first user's database. The
path will
>    look like the one is step 3 but substituting the first user's name for
>    <user>.
> 7) Use cacls to give both users full control over the database:
>
>      C:\>cacls ixdb.mdb /e /g "<PC
Name>\<user>":F
>
>    If you don't know your computer's name you can find it by right clicking
on
>    "My Computer," selecting Properties, going to the
"Computer Name" tab. Your
>    PC's name is listed as "Full computer name: <PC Name>"
>
>
>   

Very cool solution - it worked perfectly!  Thanks so much.  I'm a software 
guy but I had never heard of hardlinks and the fsutil utility.  Pretty cool.

This seems like a BIG oversight by Corel not to think that people might want 
to share a single database (especially since that's how it worked in PA5). 
Hopefully they will make this easier to do in a future update.

Now if I could just solve the "download only new photos" problem that
I 
posted about a few days ago, I'd have no more complaints about the new 
version!

Jay

"Michael Carman" <mjcarman@mchsi.com> wrote in message 
news:46323fe4$1_1@cnews...
>
> On 4/26/2007 6:58 PM, Jay Sullivan wrote:
>>
>> How do two people on an XP machine share the same database file in
Photo
>> Album 6?
>
> It takes a little hacking. I posted this after PA6 first came out, but the
> message has long since expired.
>
> -mjc
>
> --- orginal message ---
>
> PSPA v5 stored the database in under the application directory, PA6 stores

> it
> under the users' APPDATA, which means that it's not shared across 
> accounts. If
> you're like me and want to share your database with a (e.g.) a spouse, 
> this
> change is a little irksome. What makes it worse is that there's no 
> preference
> for controlling where the database is stored (only where backups are 
> placed).
>
> You can get around this with a little deep magic -- hard links and access
> control lists. A hard link creates a new name for an existing file. Two 
> files
> that are hard linked to each other are actually one file, but the files 
> can
> appear in different directories. (Think of it like having a second 
> telephone
> line; there are two numbers someone can dial to make your phone ring.) 
> Hard
> links are managed by the operating system, so it's completely transparent 
> to
> Photo Album. You change the access control list (permissions) for the file

> to
> ensure that multiple users can access it. Again, this is handled by 
> Windows, not PA.
>
> If you're going to try this, be careful! This is black magic for most 
> users and
> there's definitely the potential to screw things up. You won't kill your
> computer or PA6, but you could lose your database and all those painfully
> entered keywords.
>
> Here's what you do:
>
> 1) Log in to your system using an account with administrative privileges.
> 2) Select one user's database to become the master. This is the file that
>   both users will use.
> 3) Rename the second user's database to something like
"ixdb.mdb.bak"
>   It will be in their application data directory:
>
>     C:\Documents and Settings\<user>\Application Data\Corel Photo
Album\6
>
>   Note that the Application Data directory is hidden by default. You will
>   want to select the option to display hidden files. In Windows Explorer:
>
>     Tools->Folder Options->View Tab->Show hidden files and
folders
>
> 4) Open a command prompt (gasp!)
> 5) Change directories (using the "cd" command) to the second
user's PA6
>   application directory (the directory from step 3).
> 6) Create a hardlink to the first user's database file:
>
>     C:\>fsutil hardlink create ixdb.mdb <path>\ixdb.mdb
>
>   where <path> is the full path to the first user's database. The
path 
> will
>   look like the one is step 3 but substituting the first user's name for
>   <user>.
> 7) Use cacls to give both users full control over the database:
>
>     C:\>cacls ixdb.mdb /e /g "<PC Name>\<user>":F
>
>   If you don't know your computer's name you can find it by right clicking

> on
>   "My Computer," selecting Properties, going to the
"Computer Name" tab. 
> Your
>   PC's name is listed as "Full computer name: <PC Name>"
>
>