Upgrading a Project from Arca 1.x to 2.x

Version 2.x of Arca is built on top of a customized version of SQLite 3.x, where previous versions used SQLite 2.8.x. As a result of this change the file format of the databases has changed to a more compact one. If you want to use your existing database files then they need to be converted. The process is simple if you use the Arca Database Browser:

a) Download version 1.5 of the browser. MacOSX and Linux users can download version 1.5c, Windows users need to get version 1.5d as it contains a fix for exporting of binary data to .sql files.

b) Open your Arca 1.x database file in Arca Database Browser 1.5. Select the FILE->EXPORT->DATABASE TO SQL FILE menu item. Choose a filename to export your database data to.

c) Download the new version 2.x of Arca Database Browser. Open the application and select the FILE->IMPORT->DATABASE FROM SQL FILE menu item. Choose the file exported in step b. The browser will ask you if you want to import the data to a new database, choose YES. Choose a filename to save to. You can then specify an optional encryption key, or you can add encryption later.

Lingo changes

All your Lingo and Javascript will still work without changes with Arca 2.x: just replace the Xtra file, convert the databases and your movie will work smoothly. To use encrypted databases however a small modification is needed. It is necessary to alter the openDB calls to include a second parameter, the optional encryption key. So, if you had for example:

gDB.openDB("myfilename")

This needs to be changed to:

gDB.openDB("myfilename", "mysecretkey")

If your database is not encrypted no changes are needed, the optional encryption parameter can be left out.

Database encoding

Databases converted from version 1.x will NOT convert accented characters from the original LATIN1 encoding to the new UTF8 format used by default to store data in Arca 2. This is not a problem for English characters, however if your application uses accented characters (French, Portuguese, German) then you should tell both Arca Database Browser AND the Arca Xtra to use LATIN1 as the database encoding. In the Arca Database Browser this can be done in the PREFERENCES window. In the Xtra the database encoding can be set using the setEncoding function, documented at the functions list page. The syntax to support database files with accented characters converted from version 1.x is:

dbobject.setEncoding(#DB, #LATIN1)

Call this function in your movie immediately after you open the database file, and data will be interpreted exactly in the same way it was seen by Arca 1.x. Please notice that changing the encoding does not change the actual data in the database file, it only alters the way data is translated to/from the database file to Lingo or the database browser interface.

If you have additional questions about upgrading older projects please contact Technical support using the resources available at the Support area on our site.