Frequently Asked Question - For IT

palCentre was designed as a way for services to collect and use the PCOC information. It also allows services to submit data to PCOC for analysis and reporting, and promotes consistent terminology, processes and protocols among services participating in PCOC. 

palCentre consists of two components:  a client application (the ‘front end’) and a database. The database is where the data is stored and managed, while the client application displays the information on a user-friendly interface to allow entry, editing and use of the information. This structure allows the database to be stored in a central location for one or many computers to communicate with it.

There are 2 database options:

1. SQL server database - if your service has an SQL server database avaliable, this is the preferred option for installation.
2. SQL Compact database - this method can be used if your service does not have an SQL server available to be used.
    

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. The wizard allows you to specify your own SQL database name, SQL logins and passwords and an encryption key specific to your facility.  This ensures that the configuration of the database at your site will be able to comply with your own naming standards and password security policies. The configuration wizard takes less than 10 minutes run.

Once the database configuration wizard has been run once, the client configuration wizard can be run to connect a client machine to the palCentre database.  Alternatively, the configuration wizards create a configuration file which can be deployed to client machines, eliminating the need for running the client configuration wizard.

PCOC will send your service a preconfigured SQL Compact database. This file (typically called pcoc.sdf) needs to be stored on a network drive that is accessible by all client computers.

The client configuration wizard can be run to connect a client machine to the palCentre database.  Alternatively, the configuration wizards create a configuration file which can be deployed to client machines, eliminating the need for running the client configuration wizard.

palCentre uses the .NET Extended Framework v4.  Past testing indicates that most Windows XP and 7 machines do not have this framework pre-installed.

For reporting, palCentre uses the Crystal Reports for Visual Studio 2010 runtime.  Crystal Reports requires that the Visual C++ 2005 SP1 32-bit Runtime and the ATL Security Update for Visual C++ 2005 have been installed.

If the database option chosen is SQL compact then Microsoft SQL Server Compact 4.0 is also installed as a prerequisite.

If preferred, prerequisites should be able to be deployed automatically as there are no configuration steps required by them.  Some of the prerequisites may already be installed on the client machine and if so, the installer will inform you of this and you can move on to the next step.  Depending on which prerequisites are required, and the speed of the client machine this procedure should take between 5 and 15 minutes per client machine.

Note that palCentre is a 32 bit application, as are all pre-requisites.  This decision was made to allow support for older Windows XP machines.  palCentre and its dependencies have been specifically tested on Windows XP (32 and 64 bit), Windows 7 (32 and 64 bit), Windows 8 (64 bit), and Windows 10 (64 bit).

• Microsoft Windows installed on your computers. To use all the functionality of the palCentre software you should also have a PDF file reader. If you use Mac computers, you will need a program that allows you to run Windows. Examples of these programs are ‘Parallels’ and ‘VMWare Fusion’
• administrator rights on your computers, that is, the ability to install software programs. Administrator rights are not required after the program and its prerequisites are installed.