FieldWorks 9.0.8 Release Candidate
Version Date: May 5, 2020
Send/Receive has changed in FW9.0.8 and is no longer compatible with S/R in previous versions of FLEx such as FW8.3.12. This affects you if you want to run FLEx 8 on the same machine as FW9.0.8.
We have recently found a problem that causes many crashes when writing systems are connected to invalid (italicized) keyboards. Writing Systems should be connected to valid (non-italicized) keyboards to prevent these errors. A fix to prevent the crashes will be in the next version of FieldWorks, but the writings systems still need to be connected to valid keyboards.
To see what’s new in Version 9.0.8, see the bug fix notes and beta release notes.
Known Issues
Known Issues with this version
- This is is not a complete list of the known things that don’t work in FieldWorks.
- If you have problems installing on a Windows 10 or other 64-bit operating system, try installing the Visual Studio Redistributable.
- Installation may fail on Windows 7, 8, or 8.1 due to missing software. If you have trouble installing, click the button that opens an installation log and send that to flex_errors@sil.org to get help.
- There may be problems installing or running on Windows 7 and Windows 8/8.1.
- If your computer came from the manufacturer with Windows 7 or later, it is probably 64-bit and you should probably use the 64-bit installer.
- The 32-bit installers are not yet fully functional, so they will have problems. In addition to the .NET runtime, users will also need to install the Visual Studio 2017 Redistributable prior to installation.
- If you are using Windows 8.1, the Windows 8.1 update 2919355 must already be installed before installing the 2017 redistributable.
- When using ChorusHub, it must be run on a Windows machine. Running it from a Xenial machine doesn’t work reliably.
Send/Receive Lexicon (LIFT) with e.g. WeSay
- Send/Receive Lexicon should not be used to pass data between two or more FLEx users. You should use Send/Receive Project.
- Send/Receive Lexicon depends on the LIFT standard. Some FLEx data is not handled well yet by this collaboration method. E.g. Which entries belong in which inflection template slots and some other morphological grammar facts stored on a lexical entry. Components of a complex form. Custom lexical relations. Example Sentences, which will work with simple examples, but when edits happen to the example sentence, the results may not be reliable since LIFT does not use unique ids for examples.
Packages For Windows
Which packages to download
Offline packages contains Visual Studio redistributables; Online package can get them off the web. If your internet isn’t very reliable, use the offline version.
Most users can probably use the 64-bit version of FieldWorks, though you will need a 64 bit operating system. It will allow for more addressable space and hopefully relieve most memory issues.
You will need the 32-bit version of FieldWorks if you have a 32-bit operating system.
Packages | Size |
---|---|
64-bit FieldWorks (offline installer) | 521 MB |
64-bit FieldWorks (online installer) | 366 MB |
Installers for 32-bit FieldWorks
These installers could cause problems during installation though they are necessary if you are running a 32 bit Operating system. Look under ‘Known Issues’ for more help. If you still have problem, click the button to bring up the installation log, then send us the log to get help.
Packages | Size |
---|---|
32-bit FieldWorks (offline installer) | 500 MB |
32-bit FieldWorks (online installer) | 349 MB |
No patch is available for this version as it is the base version.
Installation Instructions
- Download one of the installation packages above.
- Double-click the exe file you downloaded.
- If FieldWorks is already installed, you have the option to Repair or Uninstall the current installation.
- If FieldWorks is not already installed, you can install it by checking ‘I agree to the license terms’ to indicate you agree with the license and click ‘Install’ then ‘Next’.
- Select the type of Installation you want to do.
- Typical will install the most common program features.
- Custom will allow you to select which languages to install.
- Complete will install all the available program features.
- Select the program and data location then click next.
- Click ‘Install’.
- When the installation completes, click ‘Finish’, then ‘Close’.
For more information on upgrading to FieldWorks 7 or 8 from an older version (6 or earlier), see the Data Format and File Locations page.
Please check the Known Issues section above.
Note: The movies have not yet been updated since FieldWorks 6. More recent movies are available online as noted on the demo movies page.
Sample Projects
- Sample projects are no longer being included in the download packages.
- The version of sample data you need will depend on the model of the version of FieldWorks you are using.
- For versions 9.0.4 and later, use this sample data:
- Sena 2 – 14 MB (Lexicon and Texts for training)
- Sena 3 – 16 MB (Lexicon and Texts data)
- Lela-Teli 2 – 2 MB (Data Notebook for training)
- Lela-Teli 3 – 2 MB (Data Notebook data)
- For versions 8.3.2 – 9.0.3, use this sample data:
- Sena 2 – 14 MB (Lexicon and Texts for training)
- Sena 3 – 15 MB (Lexicon and Texts data)
- Lela-Teli 2 – 2 MB (Data Notebook for training)
- Lela-Teli 3 – 2 MB (Data Notebook data)
- For versions 8.0.5 – 8.3.0, use this sample data:
- Sena 2 – 14 MB (Lexicon and Texts for training)
- Sena 3 – 15 MB (Lexicon and Texts data)
- Lela-Teli 2 – 2 MB (Data Notebook for training)
- Lela-Teli 3 – 2 MB (Data Notebook data)
- Click one of the sample projects, such as “Sena 3”. Download and save this file to your computer. If you find that your browser (e.g., I.E.) has renamed the files to .zip, you will need to rename them first to .fwbackup in order for the FieldWorks restore function to work.
- Launch FieldWorks (FLEx).
- Open the Restore a Project dialog by doing one of the following:
- If the welcoming Language Explorer dialog appears, click “Restore a project from a backup file”.
- Or if the main FieldWorks Language Explorer window appears, choose File -> Project Management -> Restore a Project.
- On the Restore a Project dialog, click “Another location” and click Browse.
- Navigate to the downloaded sample project file (which may be in your Downloads directory by default), click the file, and click Open.
- Click OK.
Verifying Downloads
Following is the MD5 hash of each of the download packages, should you wish to use this to verify the download completed successfully.
Package | MD5 hash |
Offline 64-bit | 718ff6e4f4d36df32cd13e9d213ea484 |
Online 64-bit | e93909b056ba6ce10b7bef36ad4d9d17 |
Offline 32-bit | b561a152905a12ea2e6cc57ede8bb4be |
Online 32-bit | b2d1665ed8accc3d9e2a33ccd90d9d9e |
System Requirements
Recommended System Configuration
- Operating system: Microsoft Windows® 10 version 1803 or later
- Computer and processor: Computer with Intel Core® (or equivalent) processor running at 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) or higher
- Memory: 4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM or more.
Note: The more RAM and the faster the CPU, the better FieldWorks will perform, especially with larger projects.
Minimum System Requirements
- Operating system: Microsoft Windows® 7 with Service Pack 1, Windows 8.1, or Windows 10 version 1607 or greater.
- Computer and processor: Computer with Intel Pentium® (or equivalent) processor running at 1.5 gigahertz (GHz).
- Memory: 500 megabytes (MB) of RAM.
- Hard disk: Hard disk space requirements will vary depending on existing machine configuration and custom installation choices. As a guideline figure, you should have at least 1.5 gigabytes free prior to installation. In any case, you are recommended to have at least 10% of your hard drive free in order to allow Windows to run properly.
- Display: 1024 by 768 pixels screen resolution or greater (for laptops, use native display resolution).