Author Topic: switching between versions  (Read 4219 times)

scarecrowbirdie

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switching between versions
« on: June 05, 2017, 11:51:25 AM »
Is there an easy way to switch between 3.4 beta and the 3.3 that is in production?
Thanks.

Corey Cooper

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Re: switching between versions
« Reply #1 on: June 05, 2017, 08:12:29 PM »
Hmm, depends on your definition of "easy" I guess.

It's simple to have both versions installed.  You just need to specify a different folder when installing one of them.  To make life easier, I would install one version, then rename the shortcut that I use to launch it (on your Desktop or Start menu) to include the version number, then install the other.  That would prevent the second install from overwriting the shortcut from the first install.  Now you'd have two shortcuts, one for launching each version of the application.

However, both will use the same preferences files.  This could be a problem.  There are likely preferences in version 3.4 (beta) that version 3.3 doesn't recognize.  That's actually OK.  However, some of those preferences may use objects that are new in version 3.4, and that would cause version 3.3 to error when it loads the preferences.  Further, even if version 3.3 can load the preferences file saved with version 3.4, those new preferences could be lost when version 3.3 loads the preferences and saves them.  I can't remember off the top of my head if that's the case or not.

The preferences file issue can be overcome by specifying that one of the versions use a difference preference file.  You can learn how to do that in section 39 (Advanced Customization) of the User Guide.

Similar to the preferences file would be that files saved with 3.4 may not be backwards-compatible with version 3.3.  That is, using version 3.3 you may not be able to load files saved with version 3.4.  Again, that can be mitigated if you simply use different files (including, possibly, the database) for each version.  And again, in section 39 you can see how to specify where the application saves Data Stores information, and thus you can make the two versions use different Data Stores, avoiding the issue.