ACal: The Data Folder

Academic Calendar

The ACal Data Folder

Where is the ACal data folder?

All the data files that ACal creates and uses are stored in the ACal data folder. The exact location of this can vary depending on your version of Windows, whether you are on a network and, if so, how it has been set up. A typical location might be C:\Users\Mike\AppData\Roaming\Greenhill Software\ACal.

The location of the ACal data folder is given in the details shown when you click the About ACal button.

In the normal course of use you will have no need to go into the data folder but to make it easy if you do need to there is a button on the ACal ribbon Open the ACal Data folder.

What files are in the ACal Data folder?

When you first create data or receive it from another user there will typically be two files.

ACalData2015-2015.xml any file with a name of ACalData followed by the name of the academic year contains the term dates, session times and events for that year. There will be one for each academic year. They can be deleted when they are no longer required.

ACalYears.xml contains the names of the available ACalData files and enables navigation from one to another.

MyTimetables2015-2016.xml Any file with the name MyTimetables contains the timetable details that have been entered on the Setup Data form for the named year.

ACalFolders.xml is created when you want select a calendar folder to print or to link with a new set of timetable entries. It contains a list of the folders that are available.

ACalManagerData.xml is created the first time you run the Manage Many Calendars wizard. It contains the choices you made and the staff and timetable data you import,

Can I change the location of the ACal data folder?

Yes. If you have a network that is set up in such a way that the default location for the ACal Data folder is not appropriate you can set a registry key to hold an alternative location.

From version 4.0.3.00 the install routine for ACal will create a registry key at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Greenhill Software\acal\DataFilePath but this will be empty. On startup ACal will check this key and if it finds an entry will use that as the path to the data folder. So, for example, you might create an entry and such as “N:\ACal Data Folder” where N: is mapped to each user’s own area. Note that you must create the folder named in the path. This feature is intended for use by network managers who can populate registry entries and create folders using Group Policies.