[APBeta] Starting up an observation database

[Paul Rodman]

On Oct 20, 2008, at 11:04 AM, Michael Portuesi wrote:

> With the coming of 2.0, and two days of time on my hands, I'm  
> finally getting my observing database (spanning 7 years) online and  
> out of my handwritten notebooks*.
>
> My current plan is to enter the observing entries into 1.6.1 and  
> later import into 2.0.  Any reason why I shouldn't do that?  Any  
> recommendations for making the eventual migration into 2.0 go  
> smoother?
>
> Also, what's the best strategy to use in 1.6.1?  I'm thinking of  
> turning on global observations, and creating one giant plan with the  
> entire NGC catalog, then start adding observations for each of the  
> entries on the list.  I'm guessing I have to do this because AP  
> 1.6.1 ties observations so heavily to plan documents.

You will have to turn on global observations, otherwise V2 will have  
nothing to import.

Putting the entire NGC catalogue into a plan will bring V1.6.1 to its  
knees. Trust me.

I would suggest doing it directly with V2, but not for another day or  
so. I'm currently working on a last tweak to the observation database  
format. I doubt it will nullify any previously-entered data, but just  
to be on the safe side...

The database format used in V2 (SQLite V3) is very stable and robust  
(I haven't had a corrupted database yet, even during development).

Also, after adding a few dozen observations, I'm sure you'll have some  
suggestions to speed things up.

Paul R.