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Steve Friedl's Evolution Tech Tips

Two Evolution Clients on One Desktop

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Though the great majority of users need access to only one instance of an Evo server from their desktops, there are some circumstances where having two Evolution icons makes sense, each going to a different server.

• Service bureaus with production and test systems often need access to both.
• For security reasons, some service bureaus do their own in-house payroll on a different service bureau, such as Paydata.
• When one SB acquires another, during the migration process, the conversion staff usually needs to access the same client data on old and new service bureaus when running new-client setup.
• Surely there are other reasons.

If both payroll servers are running the same application version, then it's a simple matter of launching the same Evolution icon twice, then entering different server/credential information. But this has its limits because application versions are often different.

If the application versions are different, the Evo client will attempt to auto-update itself to the version it's connected to, and this will fail if there's a second instance of Evo out there (Windows does not allow updating a file that's in use).

So in this Evo Tip we show how to make a second (or third!) instance of Evo that can operate independently of the main one.

Configuring secondary Evo clients

1. Open My Computer, navigate to the C:\iSystems\Evolution folder.

   Note: if you don't have a C:\iSystems directory, then you are operating from an older installer for Evo that puts their files in C:\Program Files\Evolution. Though this can probably be made to work, I recommend uninstalling Evo and reinstalling with a newer installer.

2. In this folder you'll see a single "Client" folder, we need to make a copy to a folder called "ClientTest":
   • right-click on "Client" folder + Copy
   • right-click on the empty space in the folder + Paste. It will create "Copy of Client"
   • right-click on "Copy of Client" + Rename » "ClientTest"
3. Nav to the ClientTest folder
4. Right-click on the Evolution.EXE icon + Copy
5. Close this and other Windows Explorer folders
6. On an empty spot on the desktop, right-click + Paste Shortcut
7. Configure this new icon for Evo Test (see image to the right):
   • right-click on the new icon + Rename to "Evo - TEST"
   • right-click on "Evo - TEST" icon + Properties
   • select the Shortcut tab
   • in the Target box, go to the end of the text and add the hostname/IP of your test server, plus the Request Broker port number:

     (space) -hostname evotest -port 9500

   • Click [OK] to close it
8. Configure the original icon for Evo Live
   • right-click the original Evolution icon + Rename » "Evo - LIVE"
   • right-click on "Evo - LIVE" icon + Properties
   • select the shortcut tab
   • in the Target box, go to the end of the text and add the hostname/IP of your production server, plus the Request Broker port number:

     (space) -hostname evolive -port 9500

   • Click [OK] to close it

Here we show the server hostnames as evolive and evotest; these should be replaced with the hostname or IP address of the server hosting that environment.

Now there should be two icons on the desktop, each pinned to its own server, and each with its own copy of the Evo program files, allowing each to be updated independently by the server it connects with.

Adjust this as needed if one of the icons requires Remote Relay, which would set the port to 9901 instead of 9500.

Evolution client command-line options

When editing the shortcut's Target, Evo supports a few command-line parameters. Parameters not provided on the command line are filled in from the registry: when the two side-by-side users are the same (say, "steve" logs into test and live), then only hostname is needed.

But when the two (or three) Evo servers are not all to the same entity - say, internal LIVE system plus using Paydata for the SB's own payroll - then other options have to be changed too.

-hostname <HOST>

Specify the hostname of the remote system; an IP address is supported, but DNS is better.

-port <N>

Specify the TCP port that Evo will connect on. Can be

• 9500 — direct to Request Broker, used strictly inside the service bureau
• 9901 — Evo remote
• 9902 — Evo remote
• 9903 — Evo remote
• 443 — sometimes supported by Evo Remote

-compression <C>

Specifies the compression to use:

• 0 = None
• 1 = T1
• 2 = DSL/Cable
• 3 = Dialup

-user <NAME>

Specify the username to pre-populate the Login Id box (otherwise it defaults to the last username that any Evolution client used to login).

First published: 2013/08/19