Import of legacy Australian hymns

gunther-paul

After gratefully using the original 1.xx OpenLP for many years (thanks to the developers!), we have recently updated to a new computer and thus newest OpenLP. While we have all Australian hymns (AHB and TIS) in the old database, we could not export/import as the old system only exports in its own format, which the new system will not import. We could not find any support through the Uniting Church. Has anybody come across the same problem and may help with a hint to resolve? We would be very thankful.

PaulRowell

There is an archive of old versions of OpenLP. You should be able to install intermediate versions so that your song database is gradually upgraded to the latest version.

I don't know exactly what the upgrade path is but hopefully someone from the development team will comment.

gunther-paul

Thanks for helping Paul, I tried this, but it didn't work. The version 1.2.2 exports hymns only in its generic *.olp format. Any newer versions did not import the data, or would not install on the new computer with an abundance of error messages. I will try to install newer versions on the old computer next (with its obvious limitations and complications), hoping to identify the version which can read our old database and export to the new formats accepted by version 3.x or 4. Trial and error ...

PaulRowell

What should normally happen is that successive versions save the old databases/data folder and then upgrade the previous version to the newly installed version, so there is no export/import involved. What I'm not clear about is the minimum number of versions you have to go through to get to the current version.

echan101

What I've previously done is drag and drop all the songs to a Service and save the service (to an .osz file). Then in the new version of OpenLP I just open up the saved Service file. In settings I make sure that "Settings > Songs > Import missing songs from Service files" is ticked. Then when you close OpenLP, all the songs will be added to the new database.

You can also export and reimport songs, but I found that this would lose the verse and chorus repeat orders.

Both methods avoid having to do a database upgrade.