Upgrading LargoRecipes

If you've already entered recipes into LargoRecipes and would like to upgrade to a new version of the program without losing your existing data, this is the page for you. The process is fairly simple if you are upgrading from version 0.9.x, a little more involved if you are upgrading from version 0.8.

Upgrading 0.9.x to later versions

Upgrading from 0.9.x to a later version (such as 0.9.1) is quite simple:

1. Open the folder where your new version is installed. Look for a folder inside it called data. If it isn't there, create it. If it is there, either delete or back up the contents, so the folder is totally empty. (Back up the contents only if you want to preserve recipe data you've entered into the newer version; most users can safely just delete the contents, since they will be doing this right after installation and won't have entered any important data into the new version.)
2. Open the folder where the old version is installed and find the folder called data. Copy the contents to the data folder in the newer version's directory.

Upgrading 0.8 to later versions

LargoRecipes version 0.8 used a simple relational database to store recipes. In version 0.9, I changed this for performance reasons; now recipes are stored using Java serialization.

This means that LargoRecipes versions 0.9 and later cannot read version 0.8 data files. You need to follow the steps below to move your recipes from version 0.8 to a later version.

Upgrade limitations

This upgrade process is far from perfect. Most importantly, there is currently no upgrade path for plans, lists, ingredients, or measures. This means that you will need to re-enter by hand any of these objects that you want to have after your upgrade.

I chose not to provide a migration method for non-recipe objects because I believe that most users do not have large numbers of plans or lists that they need to migrate, and that version 0.9 contains most ingredients and measures that people need. For instance, I was able to upgrade my own recipe database, with about 100 recipes, with only a few additional ingredients needed; and I didn't need to migrate any plans and only one list.

However, I'm happy to provide a migration method for these objects if even one person requests it - so if you need such a feature, please email me or file a feature request in SourceForge to request it.

I plan to stick with the Java-serialization feature from now on, so you can count on future upgrades not to require such acrobatics.

Upgrade steps

As you follow the steps below, you may forget which version you are using at a particular time. The main visible difference is the colour of the background: dark blue for 0.8, light green for 0.9 (unless you've customised your background). You can always click LargoRecipes and pick About to see exactly which version you have.

Step 1. Start LargoRecipes version 0.8 and create a web page containing all your recipes (see the last page of the 0.8 demonstration to remind yourself how to do this).

Step 2. The result of step 1 is that all your recipes are exported to the xml folder (which is in the directory where you installed LargoRecipes 0.8). Look in this folder to verify that you have lots of files ending in .xml.

Step 3. If you haven't already, install the latest LargoRecipes version. Use an installation directory name that is different from the name of the folder where version 0.8 is installed. (You can delete the 0.8 folder and rename the latest-version folder later, after you've finished the upgrade.)

Step 4. Run the latest LargoRecipes version for the first time. This will install all the folders in the latest-version installation directory. Quit LargoRecipes.

Step 5. Delete the xml folder from the latest-version installation directory. Copy the xml folder from the 0.8 installation directory to the latest-version installation directory.

Step 6. Run the latest version of LargoRecipes. Use the bulk import feature to import all the recipes you copied in the previous step. Use the error reporting feature to fix any problems - for instance, if there are ingredients you added to your 0.8 installation that you haven't added to your in your latest-version area, you will need to add them.

Last updated 5 August 2003
LargoRecipes source code, program, and web site copyright 2001-3 D. Squirrel