When you install a new version of JRaceman, you may need to upgrade your database. The new version of JRaceman may use new tables or columns, or, less likely, the format of the underlying Mckoi database may have changed.

Before upgrading to a newer version of JRaceman, be sure to back up your database with the old version in case there are database format changes. In particular, you should create an export file from your database (using the Export command in the Database menu) which can be used to import your data into a new database if required. A backup can usually be done easily by pressing the Backup button in the menu bar.

When you first run a new version of JRaceman, it checks to see if the database needs to be upgraded. If so, it opens a dialog asking you if you want to upgrade. Typically you will have to upgrade in order to run the new version of JRaceman.

You can force JRaceman to run an upgrade. After backing up your database and installing the new version of JRaceman, run this command:

java -jar jraceman.jar -db database -upgrade

This will add all necessary new tables and columns to your database. If you want to see what new tables and columns will be added without actually adding them, use the -checkupgrade command line option rather than the -upgrade command line option.

With an older database, you may receive a message something like this:

The state store for this database doesn't exist. This means the database version is pre version 1.0. Please see the README for the details for converting this database.

This message comes from the Mckoi database engine, and indicates that the underlying Mckoi database format has changed. The README file referred to in that message is the Mckoi README file, which tells how to perform the Mckoi database upgrade. Rather than doing this, you should probably export from your old database and import into a newly created database.

If the underlying Mckoi database format has changed, the simplest upgrade path is to create an export file with the old version of JRaceman (using the Export command in the Database menu, or by using the Backup button in the menu bar), then create a new empty database with the new version of JRaceman, and finally import the previously created export file into the new database with the new version of JRaceman (using the Import command in the Database menu).

Some versions of JRaceman may have special upgrade instructions, which will be in the HISTORY file.