SlotForge Paddock v1.2.0 - SQLite storage and faster collections

SlotForge Paddock v1.2.0

Paddock now uses SQLite, with faster everyday saves, on-demand screen loading and storage designed for larger collections. Your cars, stock, setups, history and existing Timing, Telemetry and Dealership connections carry forward.

What's improved

• Automatic database migration. Existing JSON collections are validated and migrated locally. The original JSON remains as a migration-time recovery copy.
• Load what you need. Startup opens the first screen without reconstructing every car, part and race session. Galleries, lists, histories and lap details use paged SQLite queries.
• Smaller saves. Ordinary edits load and validate the affected records and their dependencies. Changed records, stock accounting, review decisions and recovery information commit atomically.
• Quieter Dealership updates. Compatible Paddock peers exchange durable incremental changes, fetch original media separately and recover missed updates after reconnecting. Existing reviewed-change workflows remain supported.
• Original photographs. New imports retain their original bytes within the per-file limits; lightweight thumbnails serve galleries. The former 200 MiB total collection limit is removed, with a separate metadata safeguard and individual operation limits retained.
• Portable backups. Complete .sfpbackup files include original attachments, progress reporting and verified restore staging. Existing JSON backups can still be restored.
• Integration compatibility. Existing Timing results and Telemetry reads remain supported. An optional versioned scalable read API and updated handoff fixtures are included for companion-app developers.
• SlotForge wordmarks in the header and page footers, with light/dark theme artwork.

Updating

Close Paddock before replacing the app. Keep a backup before upgrading a collection. The first migration or index upgrade can take longer than subsequent starts.

After migration, SQLite is the live database: the retained JSON is not updated with later edits. Do not delete SQLite or reopen the old JSON as a downgrade method. Use a compatible exported backup. Timing and Telemetry do not need a client change to keep using their existing APIs; new scalable features require client support.

Full exports, migrations, restores and some compatibility operations still perform complete validation. This release does not promise constant-time operations or unlimited storage. See storage limits.

Downloads

• Windows: SlotForge.Paddock.1.2.0.exe — portable app.
• Native Linux x64/ARM64 packages are built by GitHub after publication. A universal macOS build will also be attempted; if it fails, this release will proceed without it.
• Timing, Telemetry and scalable API handoff ZIPs, plus SHA-256 checksums.

Windows is unsigned. macOS builds, when available, are ad-hoc signed and not Apple-notarised.

Validation

651 automated tests and 210 desktop checks passed, with no captured renderer errors in the final desktop run. Windows packaged SQLite workers and portable backup restoration were checked. Synthetic large-collection tests covered edits, stock, reviews, localhost replication, Timing corrections/withdrawals, exact original-photo preservation and backup round trips.

In a three-run synthetic 5,000-car benchmark, the first edit fell from approximately 3.8–4.1 seconds to 0.67–0.69 seconds, reading nine deferred records instead of 20,107. These are local backend measurements with warm OS caches, not guarantees for every machine or network.

Native build results appear in GitHub Actions. Automated localhost tests do not replace interactive platform installation or testing between two physical computers.