Chapter 3. General PRepS Usage

Table of Contents
Starting PRepS
The Main Window
Working with Problem Reports
Reports

Starting PRepS

preps [-d database_name | -h | -l | -v]

Typing preps at the command line will start PRepS. By default, PRepS will attempt to connect to a database called myprs. If PRepS cannot log into that database, PRepS will display the Login Dialog, where the user can specify an alternative database, or provide more information that may be needed to connect to the database. Once PRepS has established a connection to a valid PRepS database, the Main Window will be displayed.

The preps understands the following options:

-d database_name

Attempt to connect to the given database instead of myprs upon startup.

-h

Show help information and exit.

-l

Force PRepS to display the login dialog instead of attempting to login to the myprs upon startup.

-v

Show version information and exit.

The Login Dialog

Figure 3-1. The Login Dialog

The login dialog gathers the user information that is needed to log into a database. This dialog is displayed in any of the following circumstances:

  • PRepS is started using the -l.
  • The user has configured PRepS to display the login dialog upon startup. This is done via the general tab of the properties dialog.
  • If PRepS fails to log on to the requested database, the login dialog is displayed.
  • The user can choose to close the current database connection, and log in to a new database. This is accomplished by selecting Login from the Problem Reports menu.
Several of the fields on this dialog box get their default information from the PRepS Database Configuration File.

The following information is gathered from the user via the login dialog:

Database

The name of the database to connect to. The drop down list of database names is gotten from the PRepS Database Configuration File. Unless this file has been altered manually, it will contain the names for the databases that you have successfully connected to in the past. You may pick a database from the drop down list, or you may type in the name of a database that is not on the list.

User Name

The database username to use for the connection. If you have connected to this database in the past, the user name will default to the last user name you used when connecting to this database.

Password

If PostgreSQL is setup such that passwords are required, you will need to enter one here. The edit box will show stars as you type. The password is not stored in the PRepS Database Configuration File, and thus does not default from the last time you connected to the database.

Host

The name of the machine that the database server is running on. This value will be initialized based on the host name used last time you connected to this database. If you have never connected to this database before, the value will default to localhost.

Port

The port number that the database server is listening on. For PostgreSQL, this is usually 5432. This value will be initialized based on the port number specified the last time you connected to this database. If you have never connected to this database before, the value will default to 5432.

Common Login Problems

Incompatible Versions

Each version of PRepS is designed to work with a specific PRepS database schema. If the version of PRepS is not compatible with the version of the database schema, PRepS will fail to connect to the database. There are two different version incompatibility scenarios. The PRepS version could be too old for the database schema version, or the database schema version could be too old for the version of PRepS. Both scenarios are handled differently.

For the former case, where the version of PRepS is too old for the database schema version, you need to upgrade to a newer version of PRepS. Usually, this means that more than one version of PRepS is installed on your system, and the older one is found first in your path. If this is the case, you may need to re-arrange your path, uninstall the older version, or create an alias that explicitaly calls the newer PRepS version. Talk to your administrator to determine the best course of action.

The latter case, where the schema version is too old, is more common. This situation usually occurs when PRepS is updated, but someone forgets to run update_prepsdb to update the PRepS database. Have your PostgreSQL administrator run update_prepsdb on the database. Please remember that you must run update_prepsdb from the PostgreSQL super user account (usually 'postgres').

User 'user' is not in 'pg_shadow'

This generally means that a PostgreSQL user has not been created for you. Talk to your administror. They may have created a PRepS user for you, but the forgot about creating a PostgreSQL user for you.