Your InfoMaker configuration information is stored in both the IM.INI file and the registry. When you start InfoMaker, it looks in the registry and the InfoMaker initialization file to set up your environment.
Some InfoMaker features require the use of the IM.INI file, but many features use the registry to get and store configuration information. Normally, you should not need to access or modify items in the registry.
Information related to your preferences (such as the way you have arranged your views in the painters and the shortcut keys you have defined for InfoMaker menu items) is stored in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Sybase/InfoMaker/[version].
Installation-related information is stored in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/Sybase/InfoMaker/[version].
The initialization file is a text file that contains variables that specify your InfoMaker preferences. These preferences include information such as the last database you connected to and the PBL you are using. When you perform certain actions in InfoMaker, InfoMaker writes your preferences to the initialization file automatically.
Specifying preferences
Normally, you do not need to edit the initialization file. You can specify all your preferences by taking an action, such as resizing a window or opening a new application, or by selecting Design>Options from one of the painters. But sometimes a variable does not appear by default in the options sheet for the painter. In this case, you can use a text editor to modify the variable in the appropriate section of the initialization file.
Editing the initialization file
Do not use a text editor to edit the InfoMaker initialization file or any preferences file while InfoMaker is running. InfoMaker caches the contents of initialization files in memory and overwrites your edited InfoMaker initialization file when it exits, ignoring changes.
Format of INI files
The InfoMaker initialization file uses the Windows INI file format. It has three types of elements:
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Section names, which are enclosed in square brackets
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Keywords, which are the names of preference settings
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Values, which are numeric or text strings, assigned as the value of the associated keyword
A variable can be listed with no value specified, in which case the default is used.
Some sections are always present by default, but others are created only when you specify different preferences. If you specify preferences for another painter or tool, InfoMaker creates a new section for it at the end of the file.
Where the initialization file is kept
The initialization file is called IM.INI and is installed in the same directory as the InfoMaker executable file.
Telling InfoMaker where your initialization file is
You can keep your initialization file in another location and tell InfoMaker where it can find it by specifying the location in the System Options dialog box. You might want to do this if you use more than one version of InfoMaker or if you are running InfoMaker over a network.
To record your initialization path:
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Select Tools>System Options from the menu bar.
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On the General tab page, enter the path of your initialization file in the Initialization Path textbox.
InfoMaker records the path in the Windows registry.
How InfoMaker finds the initialization file
InfoMaker looks in the Windows Registry for a path to the file, and then looks for the file in the directory where InfoMaker is installed. If InfoMaker cannot find the initialization file using the path in the Registry, it clears the path value.
If the initialization file is missing
If InfoMaker does not find the initialization file when it starts up, it recreates it. However, if you want to retain any preferences you have set, such as database profiles, keep a backup copy of your initialization file. The recreated file has the default preferences.
