ASCE™ - Technical FAQ

• How do I find where ASCE has been installed?
• Editing files in the ASCE installation folder
• Where are plugins and schemas installed?
• What is a plugin digital signature?
• How do I create a link to a folder?

How do I find where ASCE has been installed?

Problem: you need to find where ASCE has been installed on your computer.

ASCE is installed inside your computer's Program Files folder, which is usually on your C: drive. Thus, the full location is likely to be c:\program files\ASCEvX, where "X" represents your current version of ASCE.

However, your computer may be configured to use another location for installing software. To verify where ASCE has been installed

1. Open your Windows start menu and locate the shortcut you use to start ASCE
2. Allow your mouse pointer to hover over the shortcut
3. A tool tip will appear, displaying the full path to ASCE's install location
   

Back to top of page

Editing files in the ASCE installation folder

Problem: you need to edit or create a file within the ASCE install folder

ASCE ships with a variety of example files; these are installed in a subfolder of the main install folder (see above). In addition, the ASCE install folder contains a number of configuration files. In some corporate IT environments, the folders where software is installed may have been set as read-only — effectively preventing any files being edited or created in this part of your computer's file system.

• If you are unable to open any of the files in the example-networks folder, this may be due to the fact that this folder, being read-only, is preventing ASCE form creating a "lock file" (a small file ASCE used to prevent concurrent access to a file by different people). Instead, copy the example file you wish to open to another location where you are usually able to save files, such as your "My Documents" folder, or your Windows desktop, and edit open it from there.
• If you are trying to edit one of ASCE's configuration files, and are unable to save your changes, you will need to log on to your machine with a user account which has sufficient privileges to override the read-only property on this folder. Contact your IT department for help with this.

Back to top of page

Where are plugins and schemas installed?

Problem: you want to know where to install a new plugin or schema, or you want to see which plugins and schemas you have installed

Plugins can be installed in two locations on your computer:

1. The plugins and schemas folders inside your ASCE installation folder, typically c:\program files\ASCE-v[your version]. See above for help on locating this.
2. A folder in your Windows user account's profile. To locate this, click Start → Programs → ASCE → User settings and plugins.
   
   You may prefer to install plugins here if you are unable to add files to your Windows program files folder (see 1, above).

When ASCE is deciding which plugins and schemas to load, any items it finds in your profile folder take precedence over any like-named files in the Windows program files folder. Since each user on a given PC has his/her own profile folder, the choice of plugins and schemas loaded by ASCE can be customised for each user.

Whichever folder you choose to use, you will see two sub-folders, one labelled "plugins", the other "schemas". Simply copy the items you wish to install to the relevant folder and restart ASCE.

What is a plugin digital signature?

Problem: When ASCE starts, a window appears warning you that a new plugin is about to be loaded. The warning dialog mentions a digital signature which can be used to verify that the plugin is bona fide. How do you use this information?

The warning dialogue in question looks like this:

When ASCE loads a plugin that it does not recognise you will see the message displayed above. This is intended to allow you to verify the name and author of the plugin. This is a prudent step — similar to the macro warnings you may have seen in MS Word and Excel. A digital signature, or checksum, is a further safeguard you can use to verify the identity of the plugin you are about to install. By comparing the signature reported by ASCE and the one supplied with the plugin you can verify a plugin's authenticity.

All ASCE plugins made available for download from this site are accompanied by signatures on the same page.

If a non-Adelard developer supplies you with a plugin, it is a good idea to ask them to generate a checksum to accompany the plugin.

Once you have verified a plugin the first time it loads, the warning dialog above can be supressed on subsequent occasions by checking the checkbox at the bottom left of the dialog (not shown).

How do I create a link to a folder?

This allows you to create links to folders that you can navigate both in ASCE and in networks you have exported to Word or HTML.

First we recommend you adopt the following folder structure, where the network, the evidence (i.e. supporting files such as Word documents and PDFs), and export folders are all siblings.

my project
|
|__ASCE file
|   |_my network.axml
|
|__Evidence folder
|   |__folder1
|   |__folder 2 etc
|
|__Export
    |__export.doc etc

1. In the ASCE node editor, use Insert→Internet link
2. Enter your path, observing the following two points:
   • Use forward slashes instead of back-slashes to separate folders
   • Add a slash to the end of the path
3. Putting it all together: to link to "..\Evidence folder" enter "../Evidence folder/"
4. Now you can click on the link, and when it opens, you can use the View button to confirm that the folder opens as expected.

If you want to test the exported version:

4. Save your file
5. Export to Word and test that the link still works from the Export folder (see diagram above)

Back to top of page