Soa Browser and Reconciler are Windows desktop applications (SoaBrowser2.exe and Reconciler.exe) and have to be installed by using the “ClickOnce” technology of Microsoft. Both applications have been tested on Windows 7, Windows 10 and Windows 11 and use Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.8.

The installation package is a compressed file (SoaBrowser2-setup.zip or Reconciler-setup.zip) with the following contents:

• setup.exe,
• Application Files (a folder),
• SoaBrowser2.application or Reconciler.application

Expand the zip file in a directory of your choice.

You must continue to use the same directory for all subsequent installations of new versions. If you don’t, you will need to uninstall the application (via the standard procedure in Windows Settings or Control Panel) before upgrading.

Installing the program starts with running setup.exe. Depending on your Windows Settings, this Windows popup may appear:

Just press More Info and then Run anyway. The program you are installing (Soa Browser or Reconciler) will be started automatically, after the installation has been completed. You may also see another Windows Protection popup – just press Run anyway. You can verify that the application has been published by Cace Consult on the subsequent popup.

WIth the first-time use, the program would indicate that the location of the “work directory” in the program settings is unknown. You will be asked to select it. In this example the directory: C:\R\WORK has been selected, see below:

Next, you will be asked to select your database. Choose “Browse” and select the SoaScape database (a file with the extension .db).

If you are Installing SoaBrowser2 for the first time, select the tutorial database (TUTORIAL2020.db) from the subdirectory DB of your WORK directory.

After your database has been opened, you are ready to start working. In case you are using a laptop, the windows of Soa Browser can be slightly blurry. To correct that, go to “Settings”:

Set the value of the parameter UseWindowsDPI to false and restart the program.

If your SoaScape database can always be found in the same location, you can skip selecting the database: change the settings parameter OpenDatabaseDialog to false.

If the user chooses to monitor the version of the currently published database and properly fills in the values in the dialog-box, SoaBrowser will connect to SoaScapeWeb every time it starts. The save time-stamp of the currently loaded database will be compared with the save time-stamp of the published database. If the time-stamps would differ, the user would be asked whether to switch to the published database or not. A published database is always downloaded into the DB subdirectory of the work directory.

The user may also change the settings related to the synchronization directly in the Settings (parameters: CheckPublishedDB, SoaScapeWeb and PublishedDbUrl).