I’m a new RootsMagic user.
I am very happy to see that RootsMagic uses SQLite as the underlying database.
I’ve noticed that the RootsMagic database implementation uses a customized collation named RMNOCASE.
Is this collation setting strictly required, or can I use the software with a database where I have changed this to SQLite’s NOCASE collation?
Thanks!
I can’t think of any reason it wouldn’t work. To be asking the question, you obviously have enough SQLite skills to make a copy of your RM database and change all the collations in the copy from RMNOCASE to NOCASE.
I don’t know what would happen exactly if you happen if you opened your NOCASE database with RM. I suspect that it would work but that the handling of letters with diacritics would be very different than would be standard with RM with all factory defaults. I’m sure that you couldn’t get support from RM on such a non-standard setup.
I’m pretty sure I can remember running scripts successfully by always overriding collation in all the RM columns that need alphabet collation with the NOCASE option, right in the script. But it’s been so long since I did it that way, I can’t remember the details. What most RM users of SQLite scripts do instead is to install a fake RMNOCASE collating sequence in their SQLite manager. That’s the way I do it. You can find details at https://sqlitetoolsforrootsmagic.com/ This is user site, not supported or endorsed by RM.
When I said I couldn’t think of any reason it wouldn’t work, I was referring to running SQlite scripts against the NOCASE copy. I’m less sanguine about RM itself. As I said, I think the only thing that would happen would be different processing of letters with diacritics. But I really don’t know for sure. It might work great. It might have serious problems. But even if it worked, I wouldn’t do it that way because I wouldn’t have support from RM with a non-standard database.
Thanks for the helpful information.
My goal is to be able to query the underlying database or run scripts using tools of my choice.
The RMNOCASE was creating errors for me. (I’m doing this on the Mac OS Big Sur version 11.6… It appears that adding the “fake” support to SQLite for RMNOCASE is not as convenient solution on a Mac.)
I have found I can build a copy of my database using NOCASE, run queries or scripts as I need to and then if updates were performed, I can copy this back to a database defined with RMNOCASE.
I will keep the RMNOCASE collation in place when working with the RootsMagic application.
Have you seen the page SQLite Managers for Mac OS? I had come across SQLite Studio 3 as a potential manager for Mac with an easy NOCASE substitution for RMNOCASE and another person reported on Native SQLite Manager and a way to add the more compatible UNIFUZZ collation as an extension to it. Both are GUI interfaces and much more pleasant to work with than a CLI.
If you have any Mac-specific tips regarding SQLite and RootsMagic or any queries you would like to share, please post them to SQLite Tools for RootsMagic.
Thanks!
I just checked out SQlite Studio 3 briefly. Looks good so far.
It is certainly handy to be able to run queries etc., with the collation automatically accommodated.
The SQLite Tools for RootsMagic site looks very useful too. Great scripts and I appreciate having the data model diagram.