Unicode Database Upgrade (SQL Financial Accounting 5)

Must Do List

1. Backup all the databases before upgrade.

2. Remove/Uninstall the previous Firebird version installed, ie. 1.5, 2.0, 2.5.

3. Install Firebird 3.0.1.

4. Install SQL Financial Accounting 5 (32 bits), version: 5.2016.790.737.

5. Check the System Locale in Regional setting.

5.1 Go to Control Panel.

5.2 Look for Regional setting. See screenshot below.

5.3 Click on Administrative tab. Check the Language for non-Unicode programs, eg. English (United States) or Chinese (Simplified, China).

Important:
To ensure the encoding conversion correctly, please ask the user the following questions:
 1. Do you key-in any Chinese or other than English words in the database?. 
 2. What type of language input using? Simplified or Traditional Chinese? 

6. Check Local C drive free spaces (follow the Windows drive). Recommended 25GB free space or more.

7. Restore the database from the backup file.

Unicode Database Upgrade Steps

1. Execute the SQL Financial Accounting 5 (Version: 5.2016.790.737).

2. Restore the database from the backup file.

3. Login the database restored.

4. Click on Yes to confirm proceed the database upgrade.

5. Choose an appropriate encoding. Select Default - Windows 1252 ANSI if your server current language for non-Unicode programs is "English (United States)".

6. For more info about choosing a correct encoding, see the check list table below.

No.	SQL encoding	Regional setting (non-Unicode language)
1.	Defaul-Windows 1252 ANSI	All English, ie. English (United Kingdom), English (Malaysia), English (Singapore), etc.
2.	Simplified Chinese 简体中文	Chinese Simplified ONLY, ie. Chinese (Simplified, China), Chinese (Simplified, Singapore)
3.	Traditional Chinese 繁体中文	Chinese Traditional ONLY, ie. Chinese (Traditional, Hong Kong SAR), Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan)
4.	Firebird NONE character set	NONE encoding (Not recommended to use). For Firebird programmer use.
5.	Database Encoding Diagnosis (For Chinese only	To analyse the encoding (for Chinese character) able to read by your eyes.

7. Upgrade database started.

8. Transliterate to Unicode sample list out.

9. Click on Yes to proceed upgrade if you are confirm the characters are meaningful to read.

Note:
If you have click on No, you will get prompt an operation aborted. Press Ok to exit the message.

10. Upgrade database continue... (estimate upgrade duration : 15 -30 mins per database)

11. Database upgrade successfully, Old Database link will be DROP and New Database link will be ADD (new database file created automatically).

12. Re-login with New Database. Usually you can identify the new database at the remark, eg. Unicode from Old Database filename.

Example:
OLD database filename: ACC-0003.FDB (DROP)
NEW database filename: ACC-0001.FDB (ADD)


At the new database file (ACC-0001), you will see a remark displayed as Unicode from ACC-0003.

Possible Error and Solution

1. Unsupported on-disk structure for file (found 11.2, support 12.0)

Solution:

Restore the database from the backup file.

2. Unable to find vendor library of database with ODS version 11.2

Solution:

Restore the database from the backup file.

3. Access violation at address....in module msxml6.dll

Solution:

Retry to upgrade the database again.

4. The following error(s) have occured invalid class typecast

Solution:

Uninstall the previous SQL Account (64 bits). Download the setup-x86 file (32 bits) and install again.

5. Cannot transliterate character between character sets

Solution:

Run the Database Encoding Diagnosis (For Chinese only).

Advantages of Unicode Database

1. No longer need to set your system locale

You able to read, key-in and store the Chinese Simplified characters without change the system locale.

2. Multi-Language Support in Single Database

2.1 Capable to store different language characters (ie. English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese, Arabic, etc...) in a database.

2.2 All reports are support multi-languages.

3. Free to search any characters in single database

You are free to search the keyword from the language that has stored in the database.

Optional: Database Encoding Diagnosis (For Chinese only)

Reason to use

Failed to perform database upgrade due to the database could have contains other characters (eg. UTF-8 character set which is copy from others source eg. internet webpage).

Steps

1. Select encoding option: Database Encoding Diagnosis (For Chinese only).

2. Select Simplified Chinese 简体中文 - GB18030.

3. For example, if you have found the value is not meaningful to read in Converted Value (By Encoding) column, then you have to fix it.

Note:
1. If you have found the value is meaningful to read in Converted Value (By Encoding) column, then do not fix it. 
2. Click on Cancel button to exit.

4. Click on Fix All button to fix the value in the list. It will converted as shown in the Fix Value (UTF8) column.

Note: 
You can choose to delete the line from the list that you do not wish to fix it.  

5. Click on No to proceed the fixing database encoding.

6. Click on Yes to confirm the fixing database encoding.

7. After this, repeat the Unicode Database Upgrade Step 3 onwards.

See also

• Backup Database
• Restore Database
• Firebird 3.0.1 Installation