Knowledgebase

Export Data to a Local Drive

From the Inside Sesame Help Desk

We have 10 users in out Sesame client-server system. Once a month I need to make a list of mailing addresses in CSV format for our mailing house. Sesame makes the process easy with the Export Spec window and the ability to specify the records and sort them before output. However, the one thing it does not make easy is for me to get the output file. Sesame puts the file on the Server drive. Since I do not have regular network access to that drive, I need to obtain a key to the server room and have an IT person accompany me so I can copy the file to a thumb drive for mailing. Is there a way that the export file can be written to my local drive?
June

Tom Marcellus has designed a pop-up "Local Export Dialog" that resolves this problem and works for any user who knows the password. (It's featured in this issue.) But let me give you a very simple way to accomplish what you need without anything fancy. The only requirement is that you will need to shut down Sesame server then restart it after you have completed the following steps. (Yes, you will need that IT person one last time.)

1. Create a folder on your local drive where you want to store your monthly Sesame export files (or any Sesame export files for that matter). Let's call it C:\Sesame2\Export.

2. Use My Computer or Windows Explorer to find that folder. Right-Click on it and share it. Give it a network Share Name like JunesExport and set it so it can be written to. There may be slight differences in the method of sharing based on the operating system and the initial settings done by your IT department. If you can't figure out how to do this, ask them to help. This will make a folder on your computer that network users, including Sesame server, can write to.

3. On the physical server where Sesame is stored, modify the rootdirs.ini file found in the Sesame2 folder on that machine. (You will need IT to give you this access.) Add the line pointing to your new shared folder so that the ini file looks like:

Data
Data\Samples
\\YourComputerName\JunesExport
.
[DRIVES]

Save the rootdirs.ini file. Shut down Sesame server (not the machine, just the program) and restart it. Done!

Now when you do an export from the server, one of the locations that appear in the Root Directories drop down of the export menu will be your Export folder. Selecting that address or typing it as the start of the ASCII export filename (\\ComputerShareName\ExportFolderName\ExportFileName.txt) will allow Sesame to save the export file to your computer.