Resurrecting a DBL project

Question

A NT was published some years back using Paratext 6 or 7 (pre-registry days), and thankfully submitted to the DBL. They are continuing on to produce an entire Bible now, so I have requested (and received) the DBL source data, so that I can create a new Paratext project for the Bible and import the data. (Lois also suggested making a daughter project that just contains books that are consultant-checked and ready for the DBL, which would just contain the NT or now.)

My question is, what procedure would you recommend for importing data from the DBL bundle. It appears to be an entire copy of the Paratext project folder (even including the .hg mercurial folder!), but I assume I need to be selective about what I pull in and how.

I have already imported the text files, MAT-REV, XXA-XXD, FRT, INT and GLO, and that seemed to go fine. I don’t think they will need project history or comment history, but I think it would be helpful if I could import the XML files for the BiblicalTerms and BookNames. It looks like I might be able to just replace the BookNames.xml file with the one from the DBL (with Paratext closed), to get that data. Is that an acceptable procedure?

It looks like the BiblicalTerms, however, are a different animal. In the DBL I have BiblicalTermsgqrDBL.xml, and if I add a rendering in the new project it creates a file TermRenderings.xml. The former (DBL) looks like this:

<TermRendering>
  <Id>Ἀαρών</Id>
  <Status>AllFound</Status>
  <Guess>false</Guess>
  <Renderings>Aron*</Renderings>
  <Notes />
  <Denials />
  <Tag />
</TermRendering>

And the latter (new project) looks like this:

  <TermRendering Id="Ἀαρών" Guess="false">
    <Renderings>Aron</Renderings>
    <Glossary />
    <Changes>
      <Change UserName="jeffh " Date="2021-03-25T12:52:[Phone Removed]+01:00">
        <Before />
        <After>Aron</After>
      </Change>
    </Changes>
    <Notes />
    <Denials />
  </TermRendering>

Similar but not identical. And it looks like there are places where the ID is not consistent. So I would be pretty scared to just replace the .xml file with something out of the DBL. It looks like there are 1722 renderings specified in the old file, so it would be a significant amount of labor to recover all that manually.

So is there a way to recover the BiblicalTerms renderings from an old project?

Answer 1

If you have the DBL source data then you have an old Paratext project that is compatible with PT 7. What I would do is to put it into a C:\ My Paratext Projects\gqrDBL\ folder and then migrate it using Paratext 8. PT8 will do any necessary conversion of the files. Once you have the complete project migrated you can create a publishing project with just the books you feel are ready for publication.

Comments

Wow, do I still remember how to do migration? I’ll have to go back to the videos…

I also haven’t used Paratext 8 in a while. Is the migration possible with Paratext 9? (But it wouldn’t be difficult to get Paratext 8 up to snuff…)

---

It is not hard. The PT 8 installer is still available. PT 9.1 does not have the migration utility built in.

All you need to do in PT8 is to

1. Click Open Project/Resource
2. Check the Show Paratext 7 projects on the Open Project/Resource page.
   Migration will automatically happen when you open the project in PT8.

---

Updated to latest PT8, put the DBL data into the C:\My Paratext Projects\gqrDBL folder, followed your instructions, but checking Show Paratext 7 projects doesn’t show that project. I compared the entire list (in case it sorted funny), but it isn’t there. What might I be missing? Is there maybe supposed to be a file in the My Paratext Projects folder that lists all of the projects contained in the folder?

---

I think you need a gqrDBL.ssf file under C:\My Paratext Projects. Otherwise, Paratext 8 won’t know the projects exists.

Was there such an SSF file included with the DBL source data? It had quite a lot of information as I think it was the Paratext Settings file for PT7.

If you can’t find one, I just created a new gqrDBL project in Paratext 7 and it made the SSF file for me. But that route would be missing a lot of the relevant info such as books present, language, etc. I don’t know if that’s crucial for the import or not…

---

There doesn’t seem to be an .ssf file in the DBL backup. @james_post Can you send me the .ssf file that your Paratext 7 created? I can probably edit it to make it “good enough” for the migration.

---

jeffh:

Can you send me the .ssf file that your Paratext 7 created?

The .ssf file in PTX 7 projects is copied into the gather folder so it can be S/R’d. You should be able to find it there.

---

anon291708:

copied into the gather folder

I found the .ssf file and put a copy of it in the root of the “My Paratext Projects” folder. Now I can see the project when I show Paratext 7 projects (in Paratext 8). It says that it is a non-registered project, but it is also greyed out, and I can’t select it to open it. Can anyone remind me what that means? The migration video seems to indicate that the registration can be started right from here, but it doesn’t have the project greyed out.

---

jeffh:

Can anyone remind me what that means?

You have to be an admin on the project. If there is a ProjectUsers.xml file, you can delete that and restart Paratext and the project should then have no users (making you an admin).

Answer 2

I figured it was something like that. Deleting the ProjectUsers.xml file did the trick, and I was able to migrate the project to PT8. (Full disclosure: I first tried making a change to the ProjectUsers.xml file, making myself admin in place of someone else. But then in the migration it said that there were changes to the project and I had to send/receive in PT7 before I could migrate! But when I just deleted the file, following anon291708’s directions… … then it worked fine.)

Answer 3

Thanks to all for helping out. I had forgotten about the ssf. file and user permissions. i now feel rather sheepish for saying “All you have to do . . .”

Comments

No worries @CrazyRocky! I think we’ve all been there.

It’s like somebody walking into the office saying, “I have a quick question… this will just take 5 minutes.” I’m thinking, “Uh-huh… Let me clear the rest of my afternoon.”

Life is good!