Upgrade issue

[laouto]

By upgrading to v12, I did the standard overwrite of the earlier version. Even if one submits payment for an upgrade, there is a significant delay in receiving the new registration number. This effectively makes it impossible for me to access my 3800 references (I could only get at 50 with the unregistered version 12). By downloading version 12, the database format changes in a way that is inconsistent with version 11, thus making it impossible to use a reinstalled version of 11 without completely uninstalling version 12 and everything associated with it. Even if one submits payment for an upgrade, there is a significant delay in receiving the new registration number. My only recourse has been to completely uninstall version 12, find a copy of bookends.dmg for version 11 on a backup drive (unavailable at this time from the sonnysoftware.com website), and reinstall version 11.

I now have been waiting for over 5 1/2 hours for the new registration number. If new registration numbers cannot be provided within a few minutes of an upgrade, then an explicit warning should be provided so that users do not find themselves unable to access their data.

[Jon]

Because of changes in the database engine, formats that are used in Bookends 12 cannot be opened in Bookends 11 (this has been true of almost every major update). If you want to use Bookends 11 after using 12, and you get errors telling you the format being unreadable, there are several things you can do. The most straightforward (other than changing the Default Format in the Biblio menu) is to have Bookends reinstall all the 11.x formats, even though probably only one needs to be replaced. To do this:

1. Trash the file ~/Library/Application Support/Bookends/Installed Version.txt

2. If you had opened any custom formats, find the unconverted (11.x-compatible) version in ~/Library/Application Support/Bookends/Custom Formats before Bookends 12

and move it to the Custom Formats folder (replacing the one that Bookends converted).

3. Launch Bookends 11 -- it will populate the Formats folder with the factory-default 11.x formats, and you can use them with Bookends 11.

Jon
Sonny Software

[dspady]

I agree with this complaint. If you are going to limit my access to 50 records, then you should have a near immediate response when the upgrade is paid for. Alternately, for those who upgrade (i.e. already have Bookends), maybe the limit should be converted to a time frame (e.g. 7 days). It is VERY frustrating to not be able to access my database.

Don

[Jon]

But you still have Bookends 11 to use (and we provide a link to that on the Downloads page if you trashed it), and your Bookends 11 databases were not touched (a copy was converted, not the original). So you can still work with Bookends 11 while waiting for 12.

The issue that I agree is less than ideal is the problem some people have going back to Bookends 11 with a format that was altered and no longer compatible. I don't see a way around that other than having a two formats folders, one for 11 and one for 12, but that's obviously far from ideal. We've tried to come up with a compromise that works, but that is an issue for some.

Jon
Sonny Software

[Massachusetts user]

Allow me to second this complaint as well. I am not a software developer, so I don't know what is involved in having a more rapid registration response -- but I do know that the norm is to hear back almost instantly. Alternatively, a trial version that is fully functional for X number of days would do the trick as well, if you truly need to have this slow registration method. I've spent most of the day now with an unregistered and unusable Bookends 12.

[alarob]

I am fuming about ths upgrade as well. I am using Snow Leopard and think it important to test the upgrade before committing to it, so I retained a copy of Bookends 11 in a separate folder. Of course the trial of Bookends 12 overwrites support files needed by Bookends 11, and no advice was given on how to work around this. So I cannot compare the two versions without two separate Macs, or at least two separate user accounts.

My first look at Bookends 12 suggests that at least one formatting issue is being introduced. (The first word of a subtitle, after a :, is no longer capitalized.) So the upgrade is not looking promising. I'd like to first establish that the format problem is not with my DB, but this is not going to be easy under the circs.

At the risk of sounding like a Monday morning quarterback, I feel pretty sure this upgrade could have been executed more wisely. At the very least, we could have used more than a standard changes list when seeking info on the upgrade on your website. Please try to anticipate user experiences and forewarn us if you can't forearm us.

[Jon]

Except for the format issue, Bookends 11 and 12 use either different files (i.e. databases) and different preferences. So you can run them simultaneously with one caveat -- they have to use different formats. This is hard to work around because the database engine Bookends uses has been upgraded and automatically converts old formats to new ones. Short of maintaining two independent format folders, which is ugly and confusing, I don't see a way around this. I agree it's not ideal, but it can be worked around. To run them side by side, set the formats back to the Bookends 11 versions (see above for how to do this). Then run Bookends 12 and select a different format (Biblio -> Set Default Format). If you have problems, please contact tech support and I'll walk you through it.

As for changes in formatting, remember this is a total rewrite, so of course there are going to be changes of some behaviors and bugs. We had a 5 month public beta, but obviously not everything was reported. We're fixing these as fast as we can. If you find bugs, please report them and we'll deal with them.

Jon
Sonny Software

[alarob]

I'll run through the steps described above. I opened a new thread which this seems to answer.

[Jon]

The first word of a subtitle, after a :, is no longer capitalized.

I can't reproduce this with title case set to Sentence or Title Case. Please contact tech support directly with details, most helpful would be screen snaps of the format and what you see in the example (or in the library).

Jon
Sonny Software