After clicking on one of the links above and decompressing the file that you have downloaded, you will see the following, based on the platform you downloaded:

StackRunner (Mac OS 9 - all versions)	An application called "StackRunner"
StackRunner (Mac OS X - all versions)	An application called "StackRunner.app" (the .app may not be visible)
StackRunner (Windows - all versions)	A folder called "StackRunner17Win Folder" (or equivalent) with the application "StackRunner.exe", and a few DLL files and a folder called "Externals"
StackRunner (Linux - Version 1.3)	An application called "StackRunner"

StackRunner is dependent on certain files for it to operate properly. With all versions except the Windows version, the extra files are either built into the executable, or are bundled invisibly with them so that you only have one icon to manipulate.

The Windows version, however, MUST be kept with the DLLs and Externals folder that it came with, and will not work properly (or at all) if the executable is taken out of the folder. If you want to make just the icon for the StackRunner application available, please create a shortcut to the executable and place it wherever you want it.

StackRunner supports both MetaCard and Revolution stacks. There are two different ways to have SR open your stack:

1. You can double-click on SR, and it will try to open your stack automatically (see below), or will present a file picker dialog to select your stack;

2. You can drag and drop a stack onto StackRunner, and it will open it.

Note: As of the current version of SR, you may be able to double-click on a stack file to launch SR on the Mac, but if you have DreamCard or Revolution already on the Mac, you will likely get unpredictable results. Since file associations need to be set in the Registry on Windows, double-clicking a stack file in Windows will not launch SR. The same goes for Linux, where there isn't even a Registry.

Renaming StackRunner

SR is very customizable to suit your deployment. You can even rename the StackRunner executable to some other name and it will look like your own creation. To do this, you will need to do the following (I'll use the example of changing the name of SR to "FlashCards"):

• For MacOS 9: Change the name of "StackRunner" to "FlashCards"

• For MacOS X: Change the name of "StackRunner.app" to "FlashCards.app" (note that that ".app" may not be showing depending on your settings). Doing this will only change the name of the program in the Finder; as soon as the user executes the program, the process name (i.e. the name that appears in the Application menu, in process-watching apps like Activity Monitor, or during program switching with command-tab) will still say "StackRunner". This is because it gets this information from file(s) that are inside the application bundle.

  If you want to change the process name, refer to this tip and look in the section entitled "Carbon Application (Mach-O)".

• For Windows: Change the name of "StackRunner.exe" to "FlashCards.exe".

• For Linux: Change the name of "StackRunner" to "FlashCards".

Opening Stacks With StackRunner

SR will open your stack when SR is double-clicked in one of three ways:

1. You can name your stack file main.rev and put it in the same directory as SR. If SR finds a file by that name when it launches, it will automatically open it.

2. If you don't want to put your stack in the same directory as SR, or you don't want to rename it, you can create a configuration file called config.srn and put it in the same directory as SR. It must contains one or more of the following property assignment lines (can be in any order):

   open=pathToStack where pathToStack is a full or relative path to the stack to open, or a URL to where the stack is located. If using a URL, it must be a full URL, starting with 'http://' (ex. http://www.sonsothunder.com/mystack.rev).

   dialogText=textToDisplay where textToDisplay is the prompt in the answer file dialog.

   quitAction=action where action determines what to do when the the last stack closes. It can be set to quit, which will cause StackRunner to quit when the last stack closes, or to ask which will leave StackRunner open and bring up the "Please select a stack:" dialog.

   Note: If a stack is automatically opened (either through having a main.rev stack or by having a valid stack in the open property), StackRunner will by default automatically quit when the last stack is closed if no quitAction has been defined. If no stack is automatically opened, StackRunner will by default bring up the "Please select a stack:" dialog (with your custom dialogText if applicable).

   Example:

   open=/users/kenray/desktop/test.rev
   dialogText=Please locate 'test.rev':
   quitAction=quit

   If a stack cannot be found at the path you've provided in the open property, an answer file dialog will come up with the prompt specified in the dialogText property.

3. You can do nothing, and SR will present an answer file dialog that says "Please select a stack to open:"

Using Databases With StackRunner

In order to use databases with StackRunner, you will need to copy the database drivers into the folder called "Database Drivers" that exists in the "Externals" folder. For Windows and Linux, this folder is in the same folder as the StackRunner application; for Macintosh this folder is inside the application bundle (right-click on the SR app and choose "Show Contents",in Contents/MacOS/Externals). If the folder "Database Drivers" does not exist, you will need to create it inside the Externals folder.