Dictionary Upgrade Technical Information (v4)

The R6 Dictionary is based on the UKSI (UK Species inventory provided) by the NHM.  It is essentially the same as the UKSI, but with a few changes which make it suitable for use with Recorder 6.

The dictionary upgrade kit is a separate application. It can be installed  on any machine which has Recorder 6 installed simply by unzipping the files into a suitable folder. It does need SQL server admin rights to run and it when it is run it may be necessary  to log into SQL Server.  The folder containing the dictionary upgrade (dictionaryupgrade.exe) will have a scripts folder. The update files covered below need to be in this folder.

A dictionary update file may be a .zip (containing a single.mdb file in MS Access format)  or a .sql file which a MS SQL Server script file. The dictionary update files  are numbered using R6  keys (base 36) so that the digits can be represented using the Arabic numerals 0–9 and the Latin letters A–Z. This means that that numbers run 00000000 to 00000009 then 0000000A to 0000000Z then 000000010  etc.   The .zip files may have an associated .ini file which has the same name but a .ini file extension. The .ini file is  used to update the progress bar, but are not essential to the updates.

The update files  are distributed as  a zipped upgrade file forming  one download (eg. 0000004C- 4E ).  One R6 dictionary upgrade will consist of a set of update files normally two .zip files (with associated .ini files) and one .sql file, however,  some upgrade include additional .zip and .sql files.  All the update files in one upgrade set should be processed together (ie. 0000004C should not be processed without 0000004D and 0000004E).

R6 holds the number of the last successfully dictionary update file in the settings table and will not process the updates out of sequence and it will not re-process previous updates.  To find out which ones are needed, open R6 and click on Help/About Recorder 6. The number of the last  update will be shown as the ‘Dictionary Version’. You will need the upgrade sets following on from this.  For example if your dictionary version is 00000040  then you will need all the downloads for 00000041 upwards.  If you are a version of R6 earlier than 6.26.1 (check this when checking the dictionary version) then the dictionary upgrades you can install will be restricted - do not attempt to run upgrades not compatible with your version of R6.

To run the upgrade the dictionary update files need to be extracted from the upgrade file and placed in the scripts folder .  So for example with upgrade 0000004C- 4E the update  files needed in the scripts folder are 0000004C.zip, 0000004D.zip, 0000004D.sql 0000004C.ini and  0000004D.ini .  It doesn’t matter if the files from previous upgrades  are present in the folder, but they can be deleted if this makes it easier to check the files.  Two things are important

1. Only unzip the downloaded file once - there should not be any .mdb files  in the script folder.

2.. Make sure that the actual file zip file as downloaded is not in the scripts folder.  It is sometimes convenient to download the files into the scripts folder and unzip them there. This is acceptable as long as they are copied elsewhere or removed before the upgrade is run.

You can run multiple upgrades at the same time so for example if you are on dictionary version 00000040  then you can run the upgrades  from 00000041  all at the same time. Download each of the required upgrade files  and unzip then as describes above into the scripts folder, then run the upgrade.

After most upgrades it will be necessary to rebuild the four R6  index  tables.  These tables are not used during the dictionary update process which means that you need only rebuild them once when all your dictionary updates are complete. Make sure the rebuild is done in the order they are shown in the menu.

If the upgrade fails, because of some temporary problem, say a glitch in the network, then  try again.   Other than this the upgrade is most likely to  fail when processing one of the .sql files. The reason for this will be some inconsistency in the dictionary arising out a problem which may have occurred many years ago.  A temporary fix for this will be to remove the lines in the sql which are causing the problem. A longer term fix requires the dictionary to be checked against the master dictionary. Please see FAQ (Taxon Dictionary) for more information on this.         

           

   

     

Will unzip into the script folder as  7 files -00000041.sql,00000042.sql,00000043.Ini,00000043.zip,00000044.Ini,00000044.zip,00000045.sql

Main changes are a complete update of the marine list and the addition of  a new earthworm list. This is a fairly large update. All the indexes must be rebuilt after this update.    

00000046 - 00000048   file name  Rec6Dict46to48_UnzipMe.zip (5.01mb)

Will unzip into the script folder as  5 files - 00000046.Ini,00000046.zip,00000047.Ini,00000047.zip,00000048.sql

This is an update of the Fungi and Lichen list following problems discovered in the previous upgrade.   All the indexes must be rebuilt after this update.    

00000049 - 0000004B   file name  Rec6Dict49to4B_UnzipMe.zip (8.51mb)

Will unzip into the script folder as  5 files - 00000049.Ini,00000049.zip,0000004A.Ini,0000004A.zip,0000004B.sql

This is an update of the Lepidoptera, Fungi,  Lichens  and  Marine plus other minor changes, bringing Recorder 6 into line with the NHM UK Species Inventory  as published  on  16 December 2018. The four  dictionary indexes must be rebuilt after this update.     

 0000004C - 0000004E   file name  Rec6Dict4Cto4E_UnzipMe.zip (5.1mb)

Will unzip into the script folder as  5 files - 0000004C.Ini,0000004C.zip,0000004D.Ini,0000004D.zip,0000004E.sql

This  update fixes some  issues  with the UK Species Inventory  of 16 December 2018  and includes some other minor changes.

It brings R6  into line with the NHM UK Species Inventory  as published  on  5 January 2019 . The four  dictionary indexes must be rebuilt after this update however    00000049 - 0000004B and  0000004C - 0000004E  may be run together and the indexes run just once.     

 0000004F - 0000004K file name  Rec6Dict4Fto4K_UnzipMe.zip (9.06mb)

Will unzip into the script folder as  5 files - 0000004F.Ini,0000004F.zip,0000004G.Ini,0000004G.zip,0000004H.sql ,

0000004I.Ini,0000004I.zip,0000004J.Ini,0000004J.zip,0000004K.sql

This  update fixes some issues with recommended taxa  - mainly on lichen and fungi.   It may be run with the above or may be left until the next dictionary upgrade.  The effect on most users will be minimal.  No new taxa are included.