New File Format in the BookMacster Family

Version 2.5 of Smarky, Synkmark, Markster and BookMacster introduces a new document file format, replacing the old Bookmarkshelf document (.bkmslf file) with a new Collection document (.bmco file package).  Note: BookMacster users may have more than one document file.  Synkmark, Markster and Smarky only support a single document file, which appears as its “main

bkmslf-vs-bmco-icons

.bkmslf file opened in version 2.5 or later will automatically be deleted from the disk and replaced with a new .bmco file package.  For BookMacster, if it resided in the default Bookmarkshelf Documents folder, the corresponding .bmco file will reside in a new Collections folder.  Like the old Bookmarkshelf Documents folder, the new Collections folder also resides in ~/Library/Application Support/BookMacster/.

The new file format plays nicer and more efficiently with recent versions of macOS.  It is a file package instead of a flat file, its SQLite store now supports write-ahead logging.  Instead of using Apple’s notoriously problematic NSPersistentDocument, it is based on BSManagedDocument.  It has adopted Apple's asynchronous saving.

The only thing changed on disk is the packaging – the persistentStore file inside the new .bmco package is in fact just the original .bkmslf file.  As of version 2.5, there is no change to the schema (data model).

Jerry Krinock