3.1 Starting the program and registering a user

 

When the program starts, all parameters of the system are loaded from the most recently used configuration file or a default configuration is used. On the Welcome window one can define a new user and pick up a data folder or create a new one. The program creates a new database and saves the configuration file. These new database and configuration file have the same name as the name of the new user. Both can be changed in the Main window. The first configuration file with default settings is a copy of the Lap_conf.ini file where all start-up settings are defined. The new database copies a structure of the (empty).mdb base and has already one Material entry testMaterial and one Sample entry testSample. These entries allow saving in the database some temporary and preliminary measurements, however it is not advised to use them for extensive experiments. More Material and Sample entries and new databases can be created from the Main window and the temporary ones removed. When the current user is chosen and the Main window opened then in the background the Experiment Database (ExpDBase) program is also loaded and it reads in the database which is specified in the current configuration. If this configuration file is missing, the default.ini configuration is loaded. Similarly, if the database specified in the current configuration file is not available then the default.mdb database is loaded by the ExpDBase program. After the loading process of the database, the Experiment Database program window can by put on the top by clicking this button on the main toolbar.