Overview

Client machines can fall broadly into two categories: users and administrators.   End users must have Netscape 3.0 or later, or Internet Explorer 3.0 or later.   Aspen Grove recommends Netscape Navigator 4.0 (part of Communicator).

For clients planning on generating documents (client side), the following steps must also be taken:

  1. Download Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 3.0 or later).
  2. Install Navigator or Internet Explorer.
  3. Add the Aspen Grove Document mime-type to the file types available on the user's machine.
  4. Include the Aspen Grove Document mime-type as a helper application for Netscape.
  5. Install the approriate Microsoft Word macro, and optionally the verdana font.
  6. Test your configuration.

Downloading Navigator or Internet Explorer

Visit http://home.netscape.com or http://www.microsoft.com/ie to download the latest version of their browser.  Aspen Grove recommends Netscape Navigator 4.0 (part of Communicator).

Installing Navigator or Internet Explorer

Follow the instructions provided by Netscape or Microsoft, as appropriate.

Installing the Microsoft Word Macro (client-side merge)

You must make the Aspen Grove Workflow macros available to all machines performing document merging.  The simpliest way to do this is to point the Word startup directory to the network, as follows:

  1. Open Microsoft Word
  2. From the Tools menu, choose Options
  3. In the Options window, click on the File Locations tab
  4. Click on the Startup File type, click on the Modify button.
  5. In the Modify Location window, browse to the appropriate network drive (e.g. \\server\share\documents\startup97).
  6. Ensure the appropriate Workflow macro is in this directory.  (Do not put a Word 97 template in the Word 95 startup directory - Word 95 will not be able to read it properly.)
  7. (Optional) Install the verdana font.
  8. Test the configuration

Netscape Configuration

Problem:  Netscape spawns a seperate copy of Word for each document, or the Word macro does not run after the control document is loaded.

Solution:  Netscape maintains it's own mime map.  In some cases, duplicate Aspen Grove mime types may be created.  Under Edit-Preferences-Navigator-Applications, there should be one and only one application/x-nextgen entry.  If one occurs under the label "Winword" (rather than "Aspen Grove Document"), delete it, shut down Netscape and restart.   This will typically fix the problem.  If it does not, contact Aspen Grove's Workflow Support.

Technical note

When a user clicks on a document link, the workflow system builds a control document delivers it to the client as an application/x-nextgen mime type.  A properly configured client sees the mime type, opens the control document in Word, and runs a macro called mDocumentMerge. The key to success is the availability of the Aspen Grove.dot file. The best method is to make them available in a common directory (e.g. \\<server>\documents\startup97).  As a side note, any other installation-specific macros can be installed in the appropriate startup directory.

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