Frequently Asked Question

Applies to: All Plato Versions

What external dependencies are needed by Plato Applications?

Plato applications have no external dependencies on a standard Windows PC or server.

Some older Plato V8.x applications needed Ghostscript installed to produce pdf files. Any such dependencies would be covered in installation documentation.

However, more recent versions have no external dependencies, with all required VC++ and Plato support libraries in the application launch folder. The only other dependencies are ODBC drivers and standard Windows API available in all currently supported versions of Windows- in practice, every version since Vista.

A customer's infrastructure decisions may involve dependencies set by Microsoft or other vendors. For example:

We want to use Microsoft's "Always Encrypted" database feature. Are there any Plato dependencies?

• Plato V11 and later is fully compatible out of the box- but check Microsoft's specifications for database and ODBC versions.

We need to use the ODBC HostNameInCertificate= setting to match our SSL certificates. Are there any Plato dependencies?

• No, but HostNameInCertificate= is only available in newer ODBC drivers. Please check Microsoft's specifications, or confirm via Windows UDL feature that the proposed connection string will work.

We need to use a special printer with non-standard printer drivers. Are there any Plato dependencies?

• All Plato apps print using the standard Windows Print dialog or API. If you can print from Windows Notepad, you should be able to print from Plato apps.

An old version of Adobe Acrobat is provoking security warnings on a Plato server. Does Plato need this, or can we delete it?

• Since 2000, no Plato version has needed Adobe Acrobat.