Installing TOYS

These instructions cover installing TOYS. They do not cover using the product. Refer to Help for a tutorial on schema management concepts, example usage and for a reference guide to using TOYS.

The software is distributed as a single Microsoft® Windows® executable file. This file is a self-installing executable file that contains the whole distribution and performs an automated installation of TOYS.

To install TOYS on your system you need to perform the following steps:

1. Ensure your system meets the system requirements for TOYS.

2. Ensure that the Oracle® Net client is installed on your Windows system.

   You can install TOYS without having the Oracle Net client installed, however, you will not be able to access an Oracle database until you install the Oracle Net client. The installation of the Oracle Net client installs the required Oracle DLLs and support files that enable programs to access Oracle servers. The Oracle installation should also insert the path to its bin folder into your environment PATH variable. The Oracle bin folder contains the required DLLs that provide the connections to Oracle servers.

   Please note that Java applications that connect to Oracle using the JDBC Thin Driver do not use the Oracle Net client. The JDBC Thin Driver provides similar functionality. TOYS does not use the JDBC Thin Driver.

3. Download the distribution archive (TOYS_version.EXE file) onto your system. The version number is in three segments representing the release's major, minor and revision numbers. This file is also generically named toyslite.exe which is the name used by external download sites.

4. Once you have downloaded the release file, double click this file from within Window's Explorer. This file is a self extracting install program (often named SETUP.EXE on many installation disks). Once executing, this setup program will guide you through the few simple steps of the installation process. On completion, TOYS will be ready to use. This assumes of course that the Oracle Net client is also installed at this point.

   The installation program will require you to answer the following:

   • Read and accept the license agreement.

   • Choose which shortcuts to install.

   • Choose the location (folder) where the software is to be installed.
     Typically this will be somewhere like C:\Program Files\TOYS.

The installation process will update the Windows registry with the usual uninstall information. This allows you to uninstall TOYS from the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel. You can of course, uninstall TOYS from the Uninstall shortcut in the TOYS program group in your start menu. This assumes of course that you elected to have these shortcuts installed.

The registry entry mentioned above is the only information that TOYS writes into the registry. This entry is written by the installer and not by the TOYS executable. Without these uninstall entries in the registry, TOYS will function correctly, however, you will not be able to uninstall TOYS from the control panel.

The current release of TOYS is primarily one executable. A few supporting DLLs and executables also reside in the TOYS installation folder. No other DLLs or executables are installed elsewhere in the system.

TOYS should now be ready to use. Refer to the Help document to guide you through the processes of capturing schema snapshots, comparing and synchronizing schemas.