Multiple Databases on One Computer

This explains how you can handle separate databases in order to keep reporting separate for different business entities, or for instance you get multiple databases from different parks that you need to open for accounting purposes.

IMPORTANT -- If you are also networking one or more of the databases, e.g. it will have a live connection to another computer, then do not use this example.  Refer to Setting Up Multiple Connections in the Networking chapter instead.

To open multiple databases that already exist, you will first need to have a copy of each park's database, e.g. a backup file.  You will use the same procedure as Copying Campground Master to a New Computer to make a backup, create a New Database, and Restore the database from the backup.  Refer to that section for details.

If you're creating new databases, presumably starting with one that you've already started, follow the same procedures but just create a new name for each one and restore from your backup to initialize it.

Setting up multiple shortcuts

Once you have the separate databases created, you can make it easy to open each one by creating separate shortcuts on your desktop.

Lets say you need to open 3 different databases.  Start by making additional copies of the normal Campground Master shortcut on your desktop (and give each one a different name).  Then set up each shortcut to load a different database by changing the Target in the shortcut's Properties.  For instance if the databases are named "Park One", "Park Two" and "Park Three", set up the shortcut targets like this:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Campground Master\CampgroundMaster.exe" Park One

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Campground Master\CampgroundMaster.exe" Park Two

"C:\Program Files (x86)\Campground Master\CampgroundMaster.exe" Park Three

(Note that quotes are not needed around the database names.)

Enabling multiple program instances

Normally it will only allow one copy of Campground Master to run at a time, so you could only open one database at a time.  However if it's important for you to open more than one at a time, then you need to enable multiple instances of Campground Master.

There are 2 different ways to set this option.  If you're familiar with manually editing text files, then option #2 will be easy.  Otherwise option #1 might be better for you:

1. Request a special SuperUser login from Campground Master support, and then check the "Allow Multiple Instances" option that will appear in Program Options / Database. (Version 11.1 and later only)

2. In the file "Campground Master.ini", put the following setting in the [Main] section:

AllowMultipleInstances=1

The Campground Master.ini file will be found either in "Public Documents\Campground Master" (in Windows Vista and later), or "Shared Documents\Campground Master" (in Windows XP), or in the C:\Windows\ folder (in older versions of Windows or in Campground Master versions prior to v4.2).  This is a simple text file so you should edit it with Notepad to insert the line above.  It can be added anywhere after the line containing [Main] and before the next section in brackets, so putting it right after the line showing  [Main] is simplest.