Biblioscape supports multiuser environment in several ways. Biblioscape database can be shared by many users with a desktop interface as well as a web interface. So the first question should be: Which interface do you plan to use? The desktop interface gives you more features but cost more. The web interface doesn't require the installation of Biblioscape but has limited features. If needed, you can have a mixed solution.
Share a database with desktop application
- Pros: All features are available (depends on which edition is purchased)
- Cons: Each user needs to purchase a copy of Biblioscape. When openning a remote database, performance becomes slow.
Share a database on a mapped drive (not recommended): This is the easiest way to share a database among users. You simply put your database on a shared drive. This shared drive is mapped to a drive letter in each user's PC. End user just need to run Biblioscape and go to "File | Database | Open Database". Go to the shared drive, find Biblioscape database directory, and open the *.bsl file. Although the setup is very easy, there are a couple of drawbacks with this approach. When your database becomes large, the application will slow down. Because Biblioscape needs to load the whole database from the file server to your local machine, each time a query is run, it generates a huge amount of network traffic.
Share a database through BiblioRemote server (recommended): Instead of openning a shared database directly on a shared drive, we recommend using BiblioRemote server. BiblioRemote is included with Biblioscape installation. You can find it under "...\Biblioscape x\BiblioRemote\" folder. BiblioRemote is a database server. User can open a remote database located on the LAN (Local Area Network) or on the internet. All the database operations are handled by BiblioRemote server instead of each copy of Biblioscape. Compared to the shared drive approach, it is more robust and scale well. When used in a LAN, it gives good performance and it won't degrade rapidly as the size of your database grows.
Share a database with web browser
- Pros: No installation needed for end users, so it cost less. Fast performance and easy to learn.
- Cons: Only a limited feature set is available.
If your users only have a simple needs regarding the shared database, the web interface solution can be attractive. No software installation is needed. You only need to run BiblioWeb server which is installed with Biblioscape under the "BiblioWeb" sub-directory. There is no third party software needed. All you need to do is to run BiblioWeb.exe or set it up as Windows service.
Click here to learn more about BiblioWeb.
Click here to learn more about BiblioRemote.