The credentials authenticates with the web server

Spreadsheet usage records are written to the Lyquidity web service and recorded in a relational database alongside your account on our web site.  To be able to write the records to your account the utility must be able to authenticate you as a user of the web site and to do this it must prompt for your username and password.  The raw password is not stored by the utility as it uses a standard technique called challenge-response which is able to validate the password you enter without ever sending it across the internet.

Note: because the ability to authenticate passwords automatically could be used maliciously to gain access to the web site by constantly trying usernames and passwords, only five attempts to enter a valid username and password are permitted. After this, further attempts to authenticate will be blocked and will be unsuccessful until this status is reset by staff by Lyquidity.

Set options to influence performance

The key capability of the utility is to support the ability to specify the folders it will monitor for changes to workbooks.  Using the Folders configuration page any number of folders can be selected.  You can define:

• the local or server-based folder in which the utility will monitor workbooks;
• whether the folder definition is enabled (active);
• which extensions (.xls, .xlsx or .xlsm) will be included by the monitor utility; and
• whether just the selected folder should be monitored or whether sub-folders should also be included.

Select the folders to watch

Four options are available to help you affect performance and the volume of log information collected which may be of help when resolving configuration problems.

• choose whether to write detailed logging to the event log;
• choose how aggressively the utility should use CPU time;
• choose whether the utility should 'find files' before monitoring selected folders; and
• control how aggressively the utility should free used memory.

For example, to minimize CPU use on a PC run the utility without detailed logging, select the 'passive' or 'docile' aggressiveness option, do not find files and enable aggressive use of the garbage collector.

View the status of the utilty

The status page:

• shows the status of the utility (connected, not yet connected or unable to connect to the Lyquidity web service);
• shows whether the utility is installed as a service and, if it is, whether the service is started (running);
• allows you to try to confirm the previously entered credentials; and
• force the utility to write any unwritten usage records for processing by the Lyquidity web service.