Open Source Software is computer software that is made available free of restrictions on use or modificiation, and at no cost, to anyone who wants it.

The developers of free software get satisfaction by providing a service to other people. This is the philosophical basis for the SQL Clinic Project.

SQL Clinic Developers design software for the non-profit sector, in particular, social service agencies that serve persons in need. We design Open Source, or Free, Software because we feel the idea of "intellectual property" has no place in the public sector. "Intellectual Property" fosters competition over cooperation. We feel that cooperation, more than competition, benefits software with a social service mission.

We believe that intellectual products are really social products as they are composed of ideas. This is particularly true when the intellectual products are sponsored by public monies (as is the case for SQL Clinic). Publicly funded entities that develop software have a moral obligation to share any "intellectual property" that might benefit society. In a sense publicly funded property is really "community property". Thus we feel it is our responsibility to contribute our ideas to the database of human knowledge and to disseminate that knowledge, whenever and wherever possible, particularly if it might help alleviate suffering.

Furtherance of knowledge is a collective endeavor. No one developer has original ideas: ideas are always built on the contributions of others. If you are a software developer and wish to build on our ideas or contribute to our source code, please contact us - we'd be very pleased to work with you.

SQL Clinic is a Web Application, and is designed to run on Netscape Versions 6.0+ and Internet Explorer 5.0+. Use of Netscape/Mozilla is recommended. SQL Clinic menues and forms function just like web pages, and navigating SQL Clinic should seem easy if you are accustomed to using a web browser. For example, clicking the Browser's "Back" button will take you back one page, clicking the "Forward" or "Next" button will take you forward a page. Clicking a "link" will take you to another page. Links are usually blue and underlined (if not previously visited), or purple and underlined if previously visited. (Note: The color of the links can vary, depending on your browser, operating system, and other factors. Double-clicking links is not necessary).

For your convenience, it is recommended that you set SQL Clinic's homepage to your Browser's Homepage. To do so in Netscape, click Edit -> Preferences. Netscape's preference panel will pop up on the screen. Under the section "Homepage", there is a field to enter the Location of the page. Type the address to SQL Clinic's homepage, which should be the server's web address on which SQL Clinic is running, optionally followed by a forward slash (/). The address should be prefixed with "http://" (Hyper Text Transport Protocol), or "https://" if it is running on a secure server (necessary for HIPAA compliance). When you are finished, click "OK". If SQL Clinic is set to your homepage, SQL Clinic will "load" as soon as the browser is open, and returning to the homepage is as simple as clicking the Home Icon on your browser.

It is difficult to get lost in SQL Clinic. The Main Menu has a Site Search feature, which makes finding what you are looking for a breeze. For instance, to find Agency Unit Logs, type "logs" into the Search field on the Main Menu, then click the button "Search". A list of all matches will subsequently appear. In addition to the Site Search, there is also a comprehensive Site Map available, which displays links to all submenues and individual pages. To access the Site Map, go to the Main Menu, and click on the third link from the top, just under Site and Patient Search.

Finding your way back to the Main Menu is simple. Each page has a link on the bottom of the page which looks like this: Return to Main Menu. Also if you have SQL Clinic set as your homepage, clicking your browser's Home Icon will always take you back to Clinic's Homepage. Here you will find links to the Main Menu, Log In, and Log Out Screens.

Whenever you are queried to enter information into a form field, click within the field so that the cursor is blinking within the field. Then start typing. To move from field to field, hit the TAB button, or click in the subsequent field.

Often, similar data needs to be entered in multiple places in SQL Clinic. Rather than retyping data which you have previosuly entered, you can copy and paste text into and out of any form fields. To copy text, simply highlight the text by clicking and dragging the mouse over the text. Then press Ctrl+C (or select Edit -> Copy on your Browser, or Right Click and select "Copy"). To paste the text, click in the field where you wish to paste the text, then press Ctrl+V (or select Edit -> Paste on your Browser, or Right Click and select "Paste").