Information for advanced users

If you are not an advanced user in IT-technology, like a programmer, stay away from this section. You don't have to read it. You can quite well manage your books without this knowledge.

This section is only related to Windows use, because in Android you cannot modify the files in the internal memory of the application without development tools.

Application data

The Microsoft Store Packaging system installs the application data to a bit peculiar place. The data root is in C:\Users\nn\AppData\Local\Packages\13034TinyClerk.TinyClerk_batxwq295ye54\LocalCache\Local\TinyClerk. To complicate the matters the AppData is a hidden folder.

Resetting the application

You can reset the application data by removing the data. Stop the application. In Windows delete the root data folder TinyClerk. In Android go to Settings / Applications / TinyClerk / Storage / Clear Storage. Next start for the application behaves like it is just installed.

Modifying the data files without application

The data of the application is in flat files saved probably in ...\TinyClerk\db. But it isn't sure, the Windows Store Packaging has her own mind in these things. If you plan to modify the data, you cannot use the encryption.

Here is a brief description of the files. They are not described in details, but you can clear them up by comparing the file and the view.

• companyset.dat
  • This is the list of all the companies
• settings.dat
  • First line contains the data of the Settings view
  • Second line is a crc-check
• themeset.dat
  • This contains the data of the Themes view
• tphraseset.dat
  • This contains the translations, if you have done any
• data-999-yyyy.dat
  • This is the data of the company 999 of the fiscal year yyyy
  • First there is the chart of accounts, row type a
  • Then there are the vouchers, row type v
  • Then there are the entries, row type e
  • Then there are the report parameters, row type r
  • And last there is a crc-check, row type h

Except settings.dat, you can edit these files straight with a text editor. They are plain text files encoded in UTF-8 without BOM. Be sure not to change the encoding.

If you edit the data-file, you get an error message from your next start: the crc-code does not match the data. But it does not break anything. Next time you save something that belongs to the data-file, you get a new working crc.

If you edit the settings.dat, the crc-code does not match and the program won't start. The editing of the settings.dat is prevented because otherwise someone could edit out your login-password or data-encryption.

It should go without saying that if you make a mistake, no one but restore, can help you. Provided the application starts. If it won't, you can do the restore manually. The backups are just plain zip files containing the data files.

Modifying the reports without application

The reports are in HTML. The live reports use linked scripts and style sheets, so their modification is tricky. But there is always an alternative to save the report as an off-line file (the diskette symbol in the title bar of the report). That file has all the styles embedded in, so you can modify it freely.

To get more options for the Balance sheet and the Income statement, you can set the option "print accounts" on and then edit the HTML-file as you wish.

Or you can use the csv of the report as an input and use the spreadsheet application to do the formatting.

Modifying the application layout

The application uses a proprietary template model for the UI. The templates are in ...\TinyClerk\tpl. The naming links the templates to the views. Don't touch the templates unless you are familiar with the template technology. You can easily break the application by editing these.

Finally

Remember, that there are no guarantees that the inner structures remain the same over program versions.