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Installation of palCentre is intended to be simple and safe.  The built-in database configuration wizard can create and configure the SQL database and logins for you with a bare minimum of customisable data entry.

To use the database configuration wizard, you will need to install palCentre and all the dependencies first.

Installing palCentre

To install palCentre and its dependencies, follow these steps:

  1. Unzip the file

  2. Click on the bat file named palCentre.msi

  3. You will be prompted for an install folder.  palCentre will work when installed in C:\Program Files (x86)\AHSRI\palCentre\ (the default) or any other local (not network) folder available to the machine.

  4. You will be prompted for a folder in which to store the configuration file.  This path should be a location where ordinary users have read and write access.  We recommend C:\palCentre\, however, we have allowed this as a configuration option in order to support different partitioning configurations including storing configuration files on a network drive.

Configuring the SQL Server via the database configuration wizard

Running palCentre for the first time will take you to the configuration wizard. Please follow these illustrated steps to have palCentre up and running.

STEP 1:   Has the database already been configured?


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Answer: NO and click Next

STEP 2:    Connection to the database

You will have to set the database server name and an administrator username and password.

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This form asks you to provide the following information.

  • Server: the name of the instance of SQL Server installed on the service (e.g. SERVERNAME/SQLEXPRESS)
  • Authentication: the Active Directory option can be chosen for those SQL installs that don’t have any explicit accounts, as long the account of the person installing has access to create databases within SQL Server
  • Database administrator: the name of a SQL Server login which has ‘System Administrator’ privileges on the SQL Server.  On a standard SQL Server installation, this user is called ‘sa’.
  • Administrator Password: the password for the SA username referred to above.

After entering these details, click Next. 


Note

palCentre does not keep any record of the database administration username and password you have entered on this screen, they are simply used to establish the connection.


palCentre will attempt to use these details to connect to the SQL Server using the login details provided

  • If palCentre is able to connect to the SQL Server using the login details provided, a message box indicating success will be displayed and the wizard will move to the next step. 
  • If there is any problem with the information you’ve entered, an error message will be displayed and the items causing the problem are highlighted.


STEP 3:    Creating and preparing the palCentre database

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This screen asks you to provide the following information:

  • Server: the name of the instance of SQL Server installed on the service, will be pre-filled from the previous page
  • Database: the name of the database you want to create in SQL Server
  • Authentication: the Active Directory option can be chosen for those SQL installs that don’t have any explicit accounts, as long the account of the person installing has access to create databases within SQL Server
  • Username prefix: palCentre relies on three SQL logins.  So that you can conform to your own naming standards, palCentre asks for a prefix to use for these logins.  The default is palCentre. This will create logins palCentre_dbo, palCentre_user and palCentre_reader.  You can use any prefix you like which would result in a valid SQL login.
  • Owner password, User password and Reader password:  you may use the same password for all three logins or different passwords.  For higher security we recommend using a different password for each SQL login.  For each login, there is a password and confirm password textbox.  Note that these passwords are encrypted before being saved in the configuration file, ensuring your password security.  Make a note of these passwords because you will need to use them again in the ‘Client Configuration Wizard’.  Ordinary users will never need to use or know these passwords.
  • Database path: this is the path on the SQL Server (not on the client machine) where the database .MDF and .LDF files will be created.  The default is C:\PCOC\ but you will probably have a specific folder where SQL Database files are kept. This path must already exist to correctly work.

After entering these details, click Next.

Info

palCentre will use the built-in database create SQL scripts and the database administrator login details provided on the previous step to connect to the SQL Server and create the palCentre database. 

Steps palCentre uses to create and configure the database

The database is created and configured in 3 steps:

  1. Create database and SQL logins - This is the step that is most likely to have an issue (such as the ones described below).  If it fails, the most likely outcome is that the database won’t be created in SQL Server. However, you should check in SQL Server to see if any part of the database or logins were processed
  2. CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTSs and database users - Creates the data structures of the palCentre database.  If this first step succeeded it is highly unlikely there will be any problems with this step.  It also creates the users with database-level roles based on the logins created by the previous step
  3. Create records - Populates the tables created in the previous step with structural records (constants, status lookups, and PCOC/PACOP code sets)

Potential Errors when trying to create and configure the database

If there were any problems with the data you entered, or with executing the database create scripts, the items which caused the problem will be highlighted and/or an appropriate error message will be displayed.  A few errors you may encounter here:

  • Not entering matching passwords for dbo, user, and reader SQL logins - palCentre will catch this error, highlight the problem items and display an appropriate error

  • Entering a database path that does not exist - If the path you enter in ‘Database path’ doesn’t exist, the create database script will ‘fail’ cleanly and report an error message.  If it reports this error, correct the database path and try again

  • Entering a ‘user prefix’ that results in illegal login names - If your prefix contained an illegal character, the create database script will again ‘fail’ cleanly and report an error message.  If it reports this error, correct the user prefix and try again

If you successfully created the database

If the create and configure step was successful, a message will be displayed indicating success and you will be moved to the next step.  You should also check that the database and SQL logins were created in SQL Server and that the .MDF and .LDF files were written to the expected location. 


If you see any problems in SQL Server, you should manually delete the database and logins in SQL Server, click Previous on the Wizard, and try again.

If everything is correct, the following box will appear, click on OK

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STEP 4:    Database Connection

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When using the Database Configuration Wizard this step is very simple.  You have already told the system the server, database name and user prefix so palCentre has all the information it needs to connect to the database.  The only additional information you will need to provide is:

  • Encryption Key: this is your facility encryption key. 

Warning

It is very important that you make a note of this encryption key because without it the identifiable data recorded in the database cannot be decrypted.  The encryption key is itself encrypted before being written to the configuration file so you won’t be able to inspect this file to find out what your encryption key was.

After you have entered the correct information for all the items on this screen, click Next. 


STEP 5:    Proxy Settings

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PCOC and PACOP do not require the proxy settings to be used so click Next on this screen.


STEP 6:    Administrator Account

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You now have created a working palCentre database, and configured the connection to that database. Now you need to create an account with Administrator privileges. Later you will be able to use this user account to create other user accounts. On this screen you are required to provide a name, username, email address and password/confirm password.

After you have entered this information, click Next. palCentre will create a user account and assign it a user role with Administrator privileges for All Facilities.

The following box will appear. Click on OK.

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STEP 7:    Facility

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In palCentre, all patient data belongs to a Facility.  In most cases an palCentre database will only be used to manage one facility, however the system supports multiple Facilities being used by a single database. Consequently, it is essential to create the first facility before any patient data can be entered.  The facility record includes a facility name, a unique 4 digit facility identifier supplied by PCOC or PACOP.


As part of your installation email, you should have received an email with your site specific details below. If you did not receive this, please contact us at pcoc@uow.edu.au (for PCOC) or pacop-data@uow.edu.au (for PACOP).

Field

Value

Facility Name

Your Facility Name

Facility Identifier

XXXX

Enter the information provided in the table below and click Next.

Tip

Congratulations, you have completed the Database Setup Wizard. 

An XML file called palcentre.config will be created in the folder you specified during the install procedure (the default is C:\palCentre\). That file is very important. It should be backed up and we ask services to send it to us so that we can also keep it on our secured server. Please send this configuration file to pcoc@uow.edu.au (for PCOC) or pacop-data@uow.edyu.au (for PACOP).  The Database Configure Wizard only needs to be run once to create and configure the palCentre database.  After this has been run, all palCentre clients can be configured pasting the palcentre.config file in the C:\palCentre\ folder.