Catalog files
What is the maximum size for a catalog ? How many games can I add ?
The size of a catalog is not limited by the program itself, but as the catalog will be loaded into memory, it naturally depends on the size of your computer's memory and may cause problems at some point. It is recommended to use external pictures for very large catalogs or cover pictures.
The number of games is limited to 2.147.483.647 (due to the maximal value of a signed integer number). Well, I guess that should be enough even for huge game collections, although this size has never been tested yet. Let me know if you have reached 2.147.483.648 games. ;-)
I lost games and my catalog file seems damaged, what can I do ?
First of all: DO NOT CLICK ON THE SAVE BUTTON anymore ! It's better to lose some new, not yet saved entries than eventually losing main parts of current catalog. By default Sisimizi Game Catalog holds a backup of your catalog file, that always contains the previous version and that is updated when a new version is saved. You can find that file on the catalogs folder with the file extension .bak . Simply rename it back to .sgc or .xml , depending on the chosen format for your catalog. If this file should be damaged too or has been overwritten by a damaged version, well, then you might be glad if you're one of those girls/guys who make regular backup copies of their catalog to another media.
Should I use XML or SGC file format for my catalogs ? Which one is better ?
While .sgc is Sisimizi Game Catalog's own binary format, .xml is a popular, standarized and very flexible plain text format (Extensible Markup Language). The main difference for the user is that only .sgc can store cover pictures inside the database file, so that there is only one, single file to backup, care about or give away. Using .xml as database format always needs external cover pictures, while on a .sgc database you can choose between internal or external pictures.
For speed reasons, I recommend to use .xml format with external pictures if you have either a very large games collection with hundreds of items, a lot of large cover pictures or an older computer with just a small amount of memory. There is another advantage of using .xml format - if the catalog file should be damaged for some reason, it might be easier to restore data from this file, as it is plain text and can be worked on with any text editor.