Change record prefixes in a data folder

For introductory information on record prefixes, click here.

For versions of RIMMF dated after 170614 use these instructions.

Its possible to change all occurrences of a record prefix in a single data folder using the RIMMF utility described here. If you have multiple data folders, and want to change the record prefix in all of them, you will have to repeat the steps below for each data folder.

But you should NOT follow these steps if the data folder in question contains multiple record prefixes. The reason for this is that RIMMF assumes you are changing an existing record prefix to a new record prefix, and in the current version, it cannot handle multiple record prefixes. So the results of running this on a folder with multiple record prefixes might be unexpected.

Thus, these steps should only be run on a data folder where every RIMMF Identifier, including identifiers used in links, has the same prefix.

1. Start RIMMF
2. If necessary, select the folder where you want to change the record prefixes:
   1. Go to Tools | Change data folder
3. Go to Options | Setup | Set record prefix
4. Enter the new prefix (don't forget to check that it is unique)
5. Save
6. Click <OK>
7. Click <Yes> in reply to “Run record updater?”

When the updater is finished, it will display stats on the number of identifiers that were modified, and then RIMMF will restart (so that it can re-index the new identifiers).

NOTES

If the updater completes and announces that no record prefixes were changed, this might be because it could not find the original prefix in the folder. The only way around this problem is to close RIMMF, load the RIMMF options.ini file into a text editor, and change the parameter value for

recordIdPrefix 

to the prefix that you want to be changed.

Even if you changed the data folder (#2 above), RIMMF will start up in the previous data folder when it reboots. So you will then need to repeat step 2 above–select the data folder where you made the change–to get RIMMF to re-index it using the new prefixes.

Newer versions of the program do not have these issues; for more info, follow this link