InfoCentral for Wine Portable

[mikeslr]

InfoCentral is an Object-Oriented relational database manager, with builtin note-taking, calendar and idex-card functions. It only runs under wine or wine-portable. Ages ago, I published and discussed versions, http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... f3c#405975.
Under InfoCentral everything, every file, is an object and every file can be linked to every other file creating an information tree of associated files. From its InfoPad view, you could follow the link from any file you remembered to every note relating to that file and every other file you have associated with that file. And, of course, you can then follow the links from those files. Every template=database=ibase includes three 'functional' templates: a "Thing" template which is a simple one-liner you can name and then use to link other functional templates to; a "Person Template" what includes fields such as address, and phone-number; and an Organization Template similar to the Person Template but including other fields. Every functional template can be modified --or duplicated with modifications-- to include any other field you may think useful. For example, you can add a 'web-site' field or an email field, or several 'telephone-number' fields.

As originally designed under Windows, having followed the links to an external file --such as a document or spreadsheet-- you could open the external file in the application associated with that file's mime type: e.g. "odt" files could be opened in LibreOffice Writer. The problem jrb discovered was that under portable-wine new 'mime-types' could not be written to portable-wine's registry. I only use Wine-portable. Moreover, at that time 'Wine-partially-externalized' did not exist. 'Non-portable' wine would only install applications and files to /root/.wine. That folder uses RAM even for static files kept there. Consequently InfoCentral as a file-management system defeated Puppy's objective of using RAM only to do actual work --effect changes in files. So I removed files on mediafire and the links to them.
InfoCentral as a note-taking and organizing application, even as a Personal Information Manager, has always worked. But there are Linux-native applications which can do that.
A couple months ago I accidentally discovered a work-around. Under InfoCentral I had created a link to a document using the rtf mime-type. I expected it to open in wine's builtin write.exe. Instead, it opened in CryptEdit.exe, a program which also uses the rtf mime-type but, among other 'bells & whistles', enables the encryption of documents. I had forgotten ever having installed CryptEdit. What that discovery meant was that --although Linux applications could no longer be used to associate mine-types with particular applications-- applications written to run under Windows could. One of the programs which can is OpenOffice for (32-bit) Windows. [FYI running OpenOffice under Wine does not appear to be more RAM demanding than running a Linux-native version].

Having made that discovery, I explored further, discovering how to open any Linux applications including rox-filemanager, and gimp, albeit but not any directly open datafiles associated with the default or other applications. And, of course, InfoCentral can be configured to open any windows program that will run under wine.

If you're interested you'll find a (portable) InfoCentral7-in-OPT.pet at http://www.mediafire.com/folder/7wqob471g3twi together with several associated files. Of the files there, you may find the DOCS.zip useful as it contains several sources of information about how to get the most out of using InfoCentral. [Unfortunately, some of the documentation written a decade or more ago is no longer valid as not all of InfoCentral's functions work under Wine]. The only other file you may need is Fonts.zip, but only if you have difficulty reading the display, or to get rid of the 'font-not-found' nag which may appear. Fonts, once decompressed are copied to .../drive_c/windows/fonts. Or you can drop them in /usr/share/fonts and create a symlink to that in .../windows/fonts.

[The other InfoCentral Files on mediafire are for anyone who wants to explore an installed (not portable) version of InfoCentral. They are not needed if you use the pet].

As its name suggests, the InfoCentral7-in-OPT.pet installs to /opt. Once installed you can drag the entire folder to /mnt/home and symlink it back*. Installation creates a Menu entry. The executabe which calls InfoCentral is a bash-script" is employing 'if... else' so works under either wine or wine-portable.

The first time InfoCentral opens it will* be using the "Standard" template (ica=database=ibase). Click the "Files" icon --2nd from the left on InfoCentral's Toolbar'-- and select the "Phoenix.ica" ibase. It's a modification of the Standard Template providing examples and documentation about linking to applications and files. Another very helpful template is the one named "HINTS.ica". But each of the templates presents surprisingly well-thought-out ways of managing information. For example "dayplanner.ica".

The official way to duplicate an ibase with modifications is one of the things which no longer works. The work-around is to copy all of an ibases files to a folder. Then use rox's batch rename ability. See, http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 14d#781358
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* One problem you may have when you move the infoCentral folder from /opt to /mnt/home: Wine uses what I believe are referred to as "absolute-symbolic" links. At any rate, the path between the .ica files and the ICWin7.exe has changed.** You'll have to 'file-browse' to locate Phoenix.ica within the "Local" folder within the InfoCentral Folder on /mnt/home. The same problem will show up whenever you move InfoCentral or a file it linked to. Remember Wine sees files you installed into it, or created within its folders as being on drive_c; while it sees Linux Applications and their datafiles are on drive_z.
** I may be wrong. But I think a "relative" symbolic link has a path directly between the two locations whereas a 'absolute' symbolic link always uses /root as a reference in the path between the two locations.