JPWS - Tips and Tricks!

 

How to use the Portable Modus

The Portable Modus assists you in performing JPasswords on different hosting environments. The basic idea here is that you can organize your JPWS installation so that it refers only to data files on the removable medium. When you move the medium to another host, environmental conditions change. Filepaths, directories, browser application and perhaps fonts and GUI-style. The Portable modus adapts to the new situation by correcting file paths and memorizing settings of previous program sessions. In effect, once you have set up your environmental options on each host, you simply plug the movable JPWS installation into some host and continue running the application as if it hadn't moved at all.

Now to practice! The Portable Modus is activated on two alternate ways. First, it is run automatically by the program when it encounters the JPWS.INI file in the same directory as the program file (JPWS.JAR). Second, it may by activated through the use of commandline option "/p" when starting the application. Please note that switching to Portable Modus makes only sense if the active INI-file of a session is on a removable medium.

The recommended expert way to use Portable Modus is the following:

  1. Install JPWS on each host computer you are going to use.
  2. Choose or create a directory on your removable medium to be the PORTABLE ROOT directory. (Most easy case: the root directory.)
  3. Write a batch command on each host computer you are using to start JPWS with the following commandline parameters:
    /p /o:<portable-root>.
    The complete batch command then looks like this:
    java -jar [<path>]jpws.jar /p /o:<portable-root>
  4. Start the batch. After first execution JPWS has placed a JPWS.INI file into the Portable Root.

The recommended layman's way to use Portable Modus is the following:

  1. Choose or create a directory on your removable medium to be the PORTABLE ROOT directory. (Most easy case: the root directory.)
  2. Copy your JPWS.INI file and JPWS.JAR program file into Portable Root. (You can find out where your INI file is by calling "System Information" in the "Help" menu of JPWS.)
  3. Start JPWS.JAR in Portable Root by either clicking on it or through a command batch.

You can detect your success in starting the Portable Modus by checking "System Information". You should see a line "Init-Modus = PORTABLE" on top of the listing.

Multiple Scenarios

JPasswords allows to address different application scenarios (option files), each related to a separate set of settings and usage data. For this the program has to be started with a commandline option which specifies a particular option file.

Explanation: The program makes use of an option file to store user preferences and latest usage data. By plain call it assumes a standard location for this file within the user account you are currently switched onto. You can override this usage by declaring a specific option file, which gives you the opportunity to have different "accounts" or scenarios without switching accounts in the operating system.

Practice: The commandline option used is "/o:<filepath>" to specify the option file. If your option file should be
"/home/hans/neuland/jpws.ini" your program start expression must look like
"java -jar jpws.jar /o:/home/hans/neuland/jpws.ini". You do not need to copy a file. If you have problems applying this, ask at the help forum.