1 Reply by Sarah Shaw

  • Sarah Shaw
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

V6.10 installation CD's (network and standalone) are now ready for release.

We are hoping to have the bulk of the CD's copied and sent out to the Recorder resellers by Wednesday-Thursday next week, but in the mean time we have sent out a copy of each CD to two of the resellers (Mike Weideli and Sally Rankin), who need them for installations etc. booked early next week.

We feel the 6.10 CD's are much improved from the last installation CD's released, however, work still continues to isolate/fix existing bugs and to complete improvements to the documentation.

The new CD's include:

- New addins (some previously available in Recorder 2002 which have been redeveloped for Recorder 6)
- New XML reports (most were already in circulation within the user community but have now been incorporated onto the CD)
- Improved Getting Started Guide
- Improved in-system Help (large area of work - further revision still needed)

This version of Recorder 6 will install against an existing instance of SQL Server 2005 or SQL Express, however although a number of existing users use SQL Server 2005 or SQL Express to store and manage their Recorder 6 database, these are not yet fully supported. The additional changes to make Recorder 6 fully compatible with SQL Server 2005 and SQL Express are thought to be minimal, and we hope to provide these in future upgrades to the software.

Coming Soon...

- NBN exchange format export addin - requires further testing, but will be made available as a download from the Recorder Software website as soon as it is ready.
- Delete Survey addin - still needs some revision, but again will be made available as a download from the Recorder Software website as soon as it is ready.
- Dictionary update for existing users - we hope to provide this on the Recorder Software website during the week commencing the 30th July. This will include large updates to the VASCULAR PLANTS checklist and British Isles List of Lichens and Lichenicolous fungi checklist, and more than 28,000 new Nameserver entries. Unfortunately, we won't be able to include improvements to the Biotope Dictionary in this update as hoped - there are some technical issues around this that we need to resolve, but will provide these changes as soon as we can.

Thanks again for your support,

Best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Shaw
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC

Sarah Shaw
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC

2 Reply by Ian M Spence

  • Ian M Spence
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  • Registered: 30-06-2006
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Hi Sarah

If the CDs go to the resellers, does that mean that existing users of R6 have to pay for the upgrade, or are CDs sent out to existing users?

Cheers, Ian

3 Reply by Sarah Shaw

  • Sarah Shaw
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Hi Ian

In terms of the software, existing users can upgrade to version 6.10.4 using the download 'Upgrade from 6.9.3 to 6.10' provided on the Recorder Software website (see http://forums.nbn.org.uk/recorderWebsite/upgrades.htm). This also contains a new version of the 'Dictionary Upgrade kit V2' which should be downloaded and copied to your hard disk. This should then be used to run any future updates to the dictionary that we release.

The next dictionary update will also be available as a download from the upgrades page of the Recorder Software website (see link above) once it is ready (planned to be released during week commencing the 30th July) with instructions on how to run it.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Shaw
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC

Sarah Shaw
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC

4 Reply by sallyrankin

  • sallyrankin
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Some of the resellers have received pre-production versions of the Recorder 6 v6.10 installation CDs and we are expecting versions for distribution any day, postal strikes permitting.

Knowing that many people are awaiting the full preferred list for beetles (BEETLES Checklist of Beetles of the British Isles) I was surprised to see no reference to this in the release notes but looking at the Recorder 6 database I see that in version 6.10.4.120 this list contains 9,509 taxa (Taxon_list_item_keys) whereas in version 6.9.3.102 it only contains 5,714 taxa.

I presume that where the release notes say  ‘“A review of the scarce and threatened Coleoptera of Great Britain” – completed for all families and existing families updated’ they are actually referring to ‘BEETLES Checklist of Beetles of the British Isles’

‘A review of the scarce and threatened Coleoptera of Great Britain Part 1’ contains 2,407 taxa in both v6.10 and v6.9. Part 2 contains 1,327 taxa in both v6.10 and v6.9.

Sally Rankin, JNCC Recorder Approved Expert
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687

5 Reply by Ian M Spence

  • Ian M Spence
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  • Registered: 30-06-2006
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Hi Sarah

Just had time to follow up your posting about the upgrades available on the website. I see that the dictionary upgrade file is dated 19 March, so is probably the one I have done already. I am waiting for the dictionary upgrade that will sort out the White/Pied Wagtail issue (and that was not ready in March). When is it likely to be available?

Do the CDs have a later version of the program than 6.10.4.120 that was available in April? That is what I have installed.

Cheers, Ian

6 Reply by Sarah Shaw

  • Sarah Shaw
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Hi Ian

You are completely up to date in terms of currently available upgrades to the software and dictionary.

We are hoping to release the next species dictionary update (inc. pied wagtail issue) towards the end of next week (all being well).

Best wishes,

Sarah

Sarah Shaw
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC

Sarah Shaw
Biodiversity Information Assistant
JNCC

7 Reply by Ian M Spence

  • Ian M Spence
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Hi Sarah

Sounds good! I shall look forward to the next dictionary update.

Cheers, Ian

8 Reply by Luck (edited by Luck 14-08-2007 14:25:22)

  • Luck
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Hi Sarah,

Is rECOrd one of the Record 6 distributor?

Luck

IT Officer
rECOrd (A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington and Wirral)
www.record-lrc.co.uk

Luck's Website

9 Reply by sallyrankin

  • sallyrankin
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

rECOrd is not one of the Recorder 6 distributors although if they have bought a batch of copies from an authorised reseller they may have some available for local recorders.

The list of authorised resellers for Recorder 6 are available from the ‘Buying Recorder 6’ link on the Recorder web-site http://www.recordersoftware.org/.

Sally Rankin, JNCC Recorder Approved Expert
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687

10 Reply by Luck

  • Luck
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

many thank Sally

IT Officer
rECOrd (A Biodiversity Information System for Cheshire, Halton, Warrington and Wirral)
www.record-lrc.co.uk

Luck's Website

11 Reply by stevemcbill (edited by stevemcbill 27-08-2007 08:06:13)

  • stevemcbill
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Here is hoping some (or even one) of you can help me,

I have been out of the loop since the end of May when I left rECOrd and in truth had abandoned upgrading from Rec-2002 to Rec-6 until a FULL installation CD was produced.

I now understand that such a CD is available at version 6.10 of Recorder-6.

In the past when new installation CDs for Recorder-2000 or Recorder-2002 where released copies were automatically sent to all previous purchasers of the software. I would really like to bring my own version of Recorder-2002 up to the latest version of Rec-6 with such a CD but, so far, there has been NO information mailed or e-mailed to me about when the release was to take place nor how I am to obtain/receive it.

Can anyone enlighten me ?? As a user of Rec-2002 and long-term tester odf Recorder software (3, 2000, 2002 and 6 (in its early days)) am I to receive a free copy of the Recorder-6 installation CD(s) or does it mean I need to re-purchase the software in its new (6) guise ?? Will the new installation CD update/upgrade my Recorder-2002 software ??

Any help/advice would be very gratefully received. I am sure I cannot be the only user of Rec-2002 out here who is confused by the current upgrade process/procedure !!

Cheers and thanks

Steve J. McWilliam  :/
steve.mcwilliam@btinternet.com

Steve J. McWilliam
www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/

stevemcbill's Website

12 Reply by charlesroper

  • charlesroper
  • charlesroper
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

Who is your reseller? It is they who are responsible for informing you as to updates and sending out new CDs. IF you don't have one, you can find a list of them here. The best way to stay informed, though, is to subscribe to the announcements forum, which you can do by clicking Profile and then selecting Email Digests.

Charles Roper
Digital Development Manager | Field Studies Council
http://www.field-studies-council.org | https://twitter.com/charlesroper | https://twitter.com/fsc_digital

charlesroper's Website

13 Reply by sallyrankin

  • sallyrankin
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Re: Release of V6.10 Installation CD's

JNCC are not sending copies of Recorder 6 directly to users, partially because I don’t think they have very accurate records of who the actual users are as not everyone returns their registration forms when purchasing copies of Recorder 2002 or Recorder 6. Users need to contact one of the resellers (now called Approved Experts) to obtain a copy: http://www.recordersoftware.org/buying.htm. The recommended price is £30 and, at that price, it officially comes without support. As usual with software, there are quite a number of issues involved in deciding whether to upgrade or not and there is no point in obtaining an installation CD until you are more or less ready to swap over to using Recorder 6 as another version may be available by the time you do so.

One issue is that users' PCs may not be powerful enough to run it, although if you have bought a new PC fairly recently this is very unlikely to be a problem but please note that Recorder 6 is not yet officially supported for running with Vista, SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server Express. At present it is a SQL Server 2000/MSDE system although those running it with SQL Server 2005 report better performance, and the new CDs (v6.10.4) will install it with SQL Server 2005. Another issue is that their IT department may not be in a position to support SQL Server/MSDE systems. Also, it may not be convenient to upgrade. Transferring data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 is much more straight forward than doing a Recorder 3 to Recorder 2002/6 data transfer but users still need to allow time for installation and to sort out any errors detected by the transfer process.

The new CDs to install v6.10.4.120 came out at the end of July. If you would like a copy please contact a reseller. There were 2 previous versions: v6.6.8 which came out in September 2005 and 6.7.2a which came out in June 2006.

Although often referred to as an upgrade, technically Recorder 6 is not an upgrade - it is a new system that users typically install alongside Recorder 2002. The data is held in different databases and there are different entries in the registry. Once Recorder 6 is installed users need to transfer their data from Recorder 2002 to Recorder 6 using the facility on the installation CD.

Sally Rankin
JNCC Recorder Approved Expert
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687

Sally Rankin, JNCC Recorder Approved Expert
E-mail: s.rankin@btinternet.com
Telephone: 01491 578633
Mobile: 07941 207687