File Access in Local and Distributed Analysis Mode

The view of data folders (directories) and drives for both your local computer and the network is based on the computer that you are currently using to process commands and run procedures—which is not necessarily the computer in front of you.

Local analysis mode. When you use your local computer as your "server," the view of data files, folders, and drives in the file access dialog box (for opening data files) is similar to what you see in other applications or in Windows Explorer. You can see all of the data files and folders on your computer and any files and folders on mounted network drives.

Distributed analysis mode. When you use another computer as a "remote server" to run commands and procedures, the view of data files, folders, and drives represents the view from the remote server computer. Although you may see familiar folder names (such as Program Files) and drives (such as C), these items are not the folders and drives on your computer; they are the folders and drives on the remote server.

In distributed analysis mode, you will not have access to data files on your local computer unless you specify the drive as a shared device or specify the folders containing your data files as shared folders. If the server is running a different operating system (for example, you are running Windows and the server is running UNIX), you probably won't have access to local data files in distributed analysis mode even if they are in shared folders.

Distributed analysis mode is not the same as accessing data files that reside on another computer on your network. You can access data files on other network devices in local analysis mode or in distributed analysis mode. In local mode, you access other devices from your local computer. In distributed mode, you access other network devices from the remote server.

If you're not sure if you're using local analysis mode or distributed analysis mode, look at the title bar in the dialog box for accessing data files. If the title of the dialog box contains the word Remote (as in Open Remote File), or if the text Remote Server: [server name] appears at the top of the dialog box, you're using distributed analysis mode.

Note: This situation affects only dialog boxes for accessing data files (for example, Open Data, Save Data, Open Database, and Apply Data Dictionary). For all other file types (for example, Viewer files, syntax files, and script files), the local view is always used.

Note: Distributed analysis is available only if you have both a local version and access to a licensed server version of the software that is installed on a remote server.