Orphalese Tarot Zone Community Forum

Hi Richard,

I see that you wrote that you have opened parts of the Tarot Zone so that guests may browse decks and forums, but not download or post.

As a registered member, I would like to be able to connect to the Tarot Zone from any web location (rather than through the Orphalese software itself) so that I can both download and post when I am away from my computer that has the registered software version. We could log in using a username and password. Is this something that you are working toward?

The reason I ask is because since you released 7.0 and I installed NET Framework 2.0, I can no longer register the software on your server from my work computer. If I choose register later, I can't even connect to the Tarot Zone. Both results in an error that shuts down the program.

Interestingly, I am able to connect to Tarot Zone when my work laptop is connected to the network, but I registered this software via dialup, not via the network link.

I don't think it's the firewall issue as I was successfully registered with 6.0 on this computer prior to the upgrade and was able to access Tarot Zone without problems. Nothing has changed regarding my internet connection at my end since then either. I tried rolling back to Orphalese 6 on this work computer but it makes no difference. I simply cannot connect anymore to your server.

So, in addition to an alternative method of downloading/posting to Tarot Zone, I would like the ability to receive and install the license file via email, rather than having to register through the web.

Are either of these requests possible in the future?

regards
purple_scorp

Hi Scorp,

Well there are a number of separate issues here so let's take them one by one. As far as regular internet access to the Tarot Zone goes, yes I have thought about it and it is somewhere on my list of things to do, but it would probably only be so people can connect to and use the forum. Having the Deck Exchange available in that way would make it easier to hack.

What you are describing at work though is a bug, pure and simple. It is not part of the program's design. You try to connect as an unregistered user and the program blows up. I would much rather fix that bug, because apart from that it would be no different from if you were using a normal web browser at work without the wrapper of the tarot program. In fact the tarot program is a web browser (Internet Explorer 6, in fact), just without the usual toolbars and embedded into the program. So with the bug you describe fixed, all I would have to do is add an option to log in via the program, but using a user name and password instead of the machine's hidden registration settings.

Funnily enough I was working on the program last night when I came across exactly this behaviour. The program does a couple of non-essential checks when somebody connects to the Tarot Zone, and for some reason at that precise moment I wasn't able to connect to the server - which blew the program up. I didn't have good error handling in place. I strongly suspect this is the bug you are talking about, in which case it will be fixed in the next release. This check, although non-essential as I said, involves downloading a small dataset. On most configurations this would not be a problem, but maybe something at work is stopping the program from doing that (and the program is blowing up instead of just skipping the check and going on in to the OTZ).

You say the other time this is happening is during registration. This gels with what another user has reported about not being able to register on her home computer. I have a hunch that both issues are related. I would like to fix this but I fear it will mean redesigning the whole registration procedure to avoid using XML webservices, which do work for 99 of configurations. Bugs with registration are the one kind I can absolutely rely on people to report, because no-one pays for a software licence and then just gives up if they can't use it.

So to sum up, maybe we can fix the Tarot Zone access at work, so it recognises you as a registered user and you can download decks, even though you are not on a registered machine and you will still have the three decks limitations. I will look into it a bit more.

Cheers

Richard

Hey Richard,

thanks for that. Your suggestion will solve part of my problem, as I will be able to download the decks on a quicker link. Then, I guess it's just a matter of shifting the deck to my registered computer.

That will play havoc though, with the newly proposed deck organisation facility that you've got going in Beta 7.2. I have a suggestion for it which I'll post in the other thread.

regards
purple_scorp

Hi Richard,

I'm home now, on my laptop. I installed Beta 7.2 on my home pc and then tried to register it and got a message to say that it failed because the registered user had deactivated that computer.

I have two computers registered, according to My OTZ. How do I know which one is which? I don't want to deactivate one of the two registered ones in case it's my laptop. And then I won't be able to connect to Tarot Zone at all, and I will lose the ability to use all of my decks.

Can you help, please?

thanks
purple_scorp

Hi Scorp,

Have you seen the grid in my OTZ where you can deactivate machines? You will have noticed that with version 7.2 you are allowed to name each machine you register (laptop, work etc). But because this is new I had to name everybody's machines something simple by default, so everybody's machines are labelled up Configuration 1, Configuration 2 etc in the order they were unlocked.

Eventually everyone will have sensible names in for their machines, but in the meantime there will have to be a bit of trial and error. I see that the only two machines you had deactivated were Configs 2 and 3, so I have reactivated Config 3 for you. Try again and see if it works. If not write me again and say oi, richard, please activate 2 and deactivate 3. When it lets you through you should be able to go into my OTZ and see the new name you have given for the machine, so you will know it for the future.

This innovation is supposed to save me a whole lot of time because I get a lot of request from people who have apparently gone over their three machine limit. Normally this is because of installing new hardware or reformatting which can make the machine appear to be a different one. I really think in the long term this will save me work but I can see in the short term it will cost me more time than it saves - oh well :)

Best,

Richard

Hi Richard,

I have seen your grid, which is how I worked out that I had two machines registered. I don't know what those two machines are. As far as I know, I only have my laptop registered with version 6.5. Perhaps if your grid also captured the version number it would help.

I have installed the Beta 7.2 on my home pc but I still could not register this morning so I don't think that pc is config3. It was a different message to last time (about four lines long, something about having too many machines activated and to purchase a corporate license). Just now, I went and deactivated config 3. But, I'm at work, so I can't test my home pc until tonight. This has been v.frustrating for me.

We don't activate through your grid though, do we? Is it the process of Registering online through the software itself what activates the config???

I should probably just deactivate them all and start again. But, if I deactivate my laptop, I'll have no way of connecting to Tarot Zone.

Any other thoughts???

regards
purple_scorp

I love the idea of having the ability to put more deck info, if we can print it out somehow on all our decks without doing it deck by deck. Or at least all decks in a folder? As we're reminding of our hopes for the program, I'd still like to be able to add to a spread that is already drawn :o)

Shari
p.s: hope you enjoyed your time away!