Installation Instructions for Contract Eagle

General Installation Instructions

Introduction

Where to start?

The first thing you need to do is download the installation package. You can do this via our download page. If you haven't yet purchased a licence for Contract Eagle then you may conduct a FREE TRIAL for 30 days. The Contract Eagle Support team will support you for FREE during your trial period. 

What if I don't work in IT?

That shouldn't prevent you from installing Contract Eagle. If you are comfortable with downloading a file from the Internet then you should be able to follow the easy steps in the Contract Eagle Setup Assistant.  If there are any difficulties you have during installation we are happy to help and appreciate your feedback so that we can continue to improve our installation process.

Find further technical information

Technical details about Contract Eagle are available via our Technical Information Page.

What are the prerequisites for installing Contract Eagle?

You need to be running a recent version Microsoft Windows (The earliest version of Microsoft WIndows suppported is XP Professional). For a full list of supported systems and a technical architecture diagram please click here.

Installation Walk-Through

1. Download and save the software installer package

You can download the software installer from our download page, either as a Trial customer or an existing customer.

Save the installer file (called ContractEagleLatestVersion.msi) to your computer.

2. Run the installer package

Double-click the package or right-click and select "Install".

The installation package may ask you to download and install the Microsoft .NET Framework version 3.5.  This is a requirement for Contract Eagle. You must install the .NET Framework as instructed or the installer will not be able to continue.

3. Open the Contract Eagle Setup Assistant

Just as the installer progress bar is about to complete the Contract Eagle Setup Assistant (pictured) will open.

You will need to fulfill every requirement of the setup assistant before you can begin using the software.

 

 

4. Ensure every step in the Contract Eagle Setup Assistant has satisfied

The following indicators will show next to each step.

Indicates that the step has been satisfied. You can now proceed to the next step.

Indicates that the requirement has NOT been satisfied. You will need to take action to correct the issue. Click on the item in the list to show the details relating to that requirement. Usually there will be a button you can click to perform the required setup.

Indicates that you can not do anything with this requirement until an earlier requirement has been satisfied. In this case you should return to the step indicat

5. Open Up Contract Eagle

In most cases you will be able to enter the url http://localhost/contracteagle into your browser. However, some installations my be slightly different, in which case you can go to the final step of the Contract Eagle Setup Assistant and click the link provided.

The link is only available once all steps have been complete.

Tasks Within The Setup Assistant

This section describes each of the setup tasks within the Contract Eagle Setup Assistant.

SETUP TASK - Installation Summary

No actions are required for this step. The installation summary is provided to show the overall status of the installation. If the software is fully installed then this step will be checked.

SETUP TASK - Windows Version

Again, no actions are required for this step. This step shows which operating system you have and confirms whether or not it is supported. If your system is not supported then you will not be able to install Contract Eagle.

For a full list of supported systems please see our technical information page.

SETUP TASK - IIS Web Server

This step ensures that you have the IIS package installed. This is an optional component available in most versions of Microsoft Windows.

IIS (Internet Information Services) is an optional software component, provided by Microsoft, that is used to host web sites on the Microsoft Windows Platform.

For all versions of Windows, except Windows XP Professional, there is an "Install IIS" button available to automatically install this package. Even if you have IIS installed already you may benefit from clicking the "Reinstall" button, to ensure that all the necessary components are installed.

Special Instructions for Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Professional does not support the automated installation of IIS. As such this task is more involved for those of you installing Contract Eagle under this system.

Click here to see detailed instructions for Installing IIS under Windows XP Professional.

SETUP TASK - Website

This step does everything required to install the Contract Application to your web server. The tasks this step will perform include:

• Create the application directory on your website. You may choose the name and change it again at any stage via this step.
• Select the web site you wish to install the application to. This only applies to advanced installations where there are multiple websites. You may move the application to a different website at any stage via this step.
• Create a default website if there isn't one there. It is unlikely you will see this, unless someone has already installed IIS previously and then deleted all of your websites.

SETUP TASK - IIS Security

This step ensures that the appropriate security protocols are enabled for the Contract Eagle application.

The security protocols required are:

• Anonymous Access: Disabled
• NTLM Authentication: Enabled  (Except for Home Premium Editions of Windows)
• Basic Authentication: Enabled (for Home Premium Editions of Windows)

SETUP TASK - Product Licence Key

At this step you enter your licence key details, as provided to you in your Trial Confirmation or Order Confirmation.

The easiest way to enter your product licence key is to copy and paste it from your confirmation email. To do this you select and copy where indicated in your email and then click the "Paste Licence From Email" button at this step. Your licence will be saved and verified automatically.

If you decide to enter your licence details manually then you will need to click the "Save Licence Details" button.

SETUP TASK - Database Type

This step requires you to confirm that you wish to use Microsoft SQL Server. This step has been provided to make life easy for people without the technical confidence to install Microsoft SQL Server.

If you do have the skills or confidence to install Microsoft SQL Server then you should do so, as it is the strongest database technically.

NOTE: If you have a 64 bit operating system then you MUST use Microsoft SQL Server. The JET database is not supported on a 64 bit host.

The following additional pages relate to this step:

• What is Microsoft SQL Server?
• What is Microsoft Access?
• Get SQL Express

SETUP TASK - Database Connection

This step allows you to specify your database connection details, including the location and name of the database and the credentials required to access the database.

If creating a new database then the setup assistant will automatically create the login id and password that you specify (If you are using SQL Server Authentication).

If you are a new customer or on a trial licence then you will need to create a new database.

SETUP TASK - Database Upgrade

This step installs the Contract Eagle tables and system data to the database. Any major upgrades to the Contract Eagle software may include updates to the database tables, in which case you may need to run this step in future when running database upgrades.

If upgrades are required the you will need to enter administrator credentials for the database. These credentials will be used and forgotten and, for security, will not be stored anywhere.

SETUP TASK - Activation

This step contacts the Contract Eagle activation server (via the Internet) to check whether you are entitled to activate the software. The following information will be transmitted to the Contract Eagle activation server and logged.

• Your customer number
• Your customer email address
• The licence key you are activating
• Whether this is a TRIAL activation or not
• Version of Contract Eagle being activated
• Whether you are using Microsoft SQL Server or Jet
• Which version and edition of Microsoft SQL Server you are running
• The name of the host being activated

The capture of this information is subject to our Privacy Policy. We gather this information to provide us with a technical snapshot of our customer base, to better enable us to support our customer base, and to protect ourselves against piracy. The information is transmitted in encrypted form and is stored securely.

SETUP TASK - Email Server

This step allows you to specify the mail server (SMTP) that Contract Eagle will use to post emails.

You also specify the email address which the emails come FROM. ie. The reply address.

Further information is available at the following pages:

• What is an email server address?
• What is the email reply address?

SETUP TASK - Finish Installation

This task allows you to setup the reminder acknowledgement address (URL). Contract Eagle will probably default it to the correct value according to your web site setup. NOTE: This reminder acknowledgement address setup is provided to make the process easy for first time users. For subsequent changes to this value you will need to use the "Workflow Preferences" screen within Contract Eagle.

Once this task has been satistifed you may click on the link provided to begin using Contract Eagle.

FINALLY - How to use Contract Eagle

To find out how to use Contract Eagle it is recommended you focus your attention on the User Guide, which is available from the Contract Eagle Help menu.

The User Guide is a comprehensive document covering all the features of Contract Eagle. There is no equivalent documentation available on this website. However, if you have any queries then please do not hesitate to contact us for support.