Operations and administration

Release baseline

The repository source targets NADABAS 6.02.005. The signed .xlam and .xlsm files remain release artifacts; they are not committed as editable source files.

Installation package

Release 6.02.005 is distributed as a ZIP archive containing two signed Office files:

NADABAS.6.02.005.xlsm is the versioned installer that the user opens;
NADABAS.xlam is the companion Excel add-in and contains the VBA project.

Keep both files together after extraction. Verify the publisher and validity of both Office signatures before opening the installer. The complete release manifest, SHA-256 checksums, and installation checklist are recorded in the 6.02.005 release and installation record.

Automatic version check

InterfaceVersionUpdate schedules a check five seconds after NADABAS starts. The check is enabled by default and runs at most once every seven days. It sends a synchronous, read-only HTTPS GET request to GitHub’s latest-release API and compares the numeric release tag with CURRENT_VERSION, which is 6.02.005 in this release. Application.OnTime delays the request until startup has completed; it does not make the HTTP request a background operation.

If a newer version exists, NADABAS displays a translated Yes/No message with the installed and published versions. Selecting Yes opens the familiar https://nadabas.net/nadabas/documents-and-downloads page. NADABAS never downloads, replaces, or installs a file automatically. Network failures, proxy restrictions, malformed responses, and current versions are silent during the automatic check.

The administration menu contains two translated controls:

Check for updates performs a manual check and reports a newer, current, or failed result;
Check automatically for new NADABAS versions enables or disables the shared policy.

Only a recognized database administrator can change the automatic-check setting. UserSettings.CheckForUpdates stores the database-wide value and defaults to enabled. The registry values under NADABAS\VersionUpdate cache the last attempted day, last observed public version, and the setting used before a database has finished loading. Opening a database applies its shared value and updates the local mirror.

Publishing the version that NADABAS sees

Publish a non-draft, non-prerelease GitHub release in statisticsnorway/nadabas. Its tag must contain the same numeric value as InterfaceVersionUpdate.CURRENT_VERSION, for example v6.02.005. A Git tag without a published GitHub release is not returned by the latest-release API.

When a pull request from a branch whose name starts with release_ is merged into main, the release workflow creates a draft release for the version in InterfaceVersionUpdate.CURRENT_VERSION. The workflow pins the draft to the merged commit, but it does not build, attach, sign, or publish release files.

Attach only reviewed and signed release artifacts. The GitHub release supplies the public version number, while the user-facing download link remains on nadabas.net. A maintainer must update and test CURRENT_VERSION for every new release; do not add a test-only latest-version override to production source.

A downloaded add-in is blocked by Windows

If installation ends with run-time error 53 after a download, close Excel and locate the extracted NADABAS.xlam file. Right-click the file, select Properties, select Unblock on the General tab, and then select Apply or OK. Check the extracted NADABAS.6.02.005.xlsm file in the same way when Windows presents the option. Reopen the versioned installer and retry.

Release 6.02.005 does not replace VBA’s run-time error 53 with localized unblock instructions, so this recovery procedure must remain available to users and support staff. Do not unblock a file unless it came from the official NADABAS download channel and both its Office signature and published checksum have been verified.

Microsoft documents this behaviour as Mark of the Web and recommends removing it only for Office files from a trusted source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-apps/security/internet-macros-blocked.

Operational safety

Examples must use synthetic values. Credentials, internal endpoints, production paths, and personal or statistical production data do not belong in this site. Backup, restore, database conversion, signing, and deployment must be tested in a non-production environment with a documented rollback path.