Backing up, Restoring and Tweaking Sage Pastel Evolution

Sage Pastel Evolution is an Accounting / Stock / Point of Sale program for medium to large sized companies. The program can support a large number of concurrent users and an unlimited number of companies. It uses Microsoft SQL Server as its underlying database. Small setups (up to 10 users) can use Microsoft SQL Server Express with larger shops necessitating the use of the standard edition of SQL Server.

In order to backup Sage Pastel Evolution one needs to backup the Microsoft SQL Server database as well as the appropriate registry entries. In this article I will not discuss how to backup Microsoft SQL Server Express or Standard edition—email me on chribonn@gmail.com if you are interested in a write-up on how to backup these products.

The Windows Registry

A word of warning about handling the registry: unlike many programs, the registry program does not have an undo or an undelete option and changes go into effect immediately. If you delete a file by mistake you can pull it out of limbo by visiting the Recycle Bin. If you screw up a document, pressing undo will take you back one action at a time until you reach the stage before the oops or, if necessary, you can abandon all changes done during that session simply by not saving the updated document. None of this exists in the registry so be cautious. 

How Sage Pastel Evolution uses the Windows registry

The Sage Pastel Evolution program is a thick client that makes use of windows registry to store customisations each user makes to the program. Module settings, what information is shown, how it is formatted and the order of columns are all examples of the type of information that one can find in the registry. This is the approach Sage used to give each user his own personalised environment. If a single Windows login is used by multiple sage users, each user can have his own tweaks.

Storing the settings of each user within a computer’s registry rather than as a record within the Microsoft SQL database is a debatable design decision especially since database technology constitutes a core component of this product. My reasoning is that if a user wants column A to come before column B and column C being hidden, he would want that on each and every computer he uses. A person who uses more than one computer must set the customisations on each computer. When a new account is created, there is no option to copy settings from an existing user to the new one. And, if anyone of the client computers fails, the settings have to be reprogrammed. This article will explain how to tackle each one of these scenarios.

Backing up the Registry

Sage keeps all program settings in the registry hive HKCU\Software\Softline. Backing up this registry key ensures that all customisations are available if the computer fails.

1. Run the program regedit either from the command prompt, by clicking on the Run option found in the Start Menu (this option is not visible by default in Windows 7) or by typing in the program name in the Search Program Files and options box that is situated at the bottom on the Menu that comes up when you click the Start Menu button (this is not available in Windows XP).
2. Navigate to the HKCU\Software\Softline hive. Select the option File -> Export…from regedit (1).
3. A dialog box comes up. Select the folder and specify the file name you want to call this registry entry (2). As shown in the diagram above, the selected radio button of the group Export rangeshould refer to the Softline registry branch (3).
4. Backup this file and update it whenever settings change.

You have to repeat the process above for each Sage Pastel Evolution user who logs into the computer.

Restoring the registry

You may need to restore the registry file you backed up either because a computer failed and had to be reinitialised or to transfer settings from one computer to another.

Because this program retains information in the HKCU part of the registry, the user must be logged into the computer before his registry settings are imported.

After the user has logged in, execute the program regedit.exe. This time round choose the option Import… from the File menu (1). Navigate to the folder where you had previously placed your backup and open the file (2). A final dialog box will confirm that the registry was updated with the contents of that file.

Changing Agents

This section is highly technical and should only be performed by people who understand and are comfortable tweaking the Windows registry. An error could, at the very least, end up making this program stop functioning.

Each Sage Pastel Evolution user is known as an agent. A user who logs into this program using the user name Chris would have an entry in the registry starting at HKCU\Software\Softline\Evolution\Agents\Chris. Assume that you would like to copy Chris’s agent setting to those belonging to Mary so that Mary does not have to make the changes already done by Chris. Use the following steps:

1. Ask Chris to log into his computer and using regedit export the registry hive HKCU\Software\Softline\Evolution\Agents\Chris.
2. Open the exported registry file within a text editor such as notepad and change all instances of [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Softline\Evolution\Agents\Chris to [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Softline\Evolution\Agents\Mary. Save the modified registry file.
3. Ask Mary to log into Windows with her credentials and install the program on her PC if it is not already functional.
4. Test that she can log into the program.
5. Import the modified registry file created in point (2) into Mary’s Sage.

Conclusion

If you have any comments or observations or would like to request or share information on how to backup a particular program, send me an email on chribonn@gmail.com.

Tags: backup, Microsoft SQL, Registry, Registry Backup, Sage, Sage Pastel, Sage Pastel Evolution, Windows Registry