The Readerware Newsletter

Readerware/ReaderwareVW 2.1

Readerware 2.1 and ReaderwareVW 2.1 are now available. Release 2.1 includes new features and some fixes. Both Readerware and ReaderwareVW offer the same basic functionality, Readerware for books and ReaderwareVW for videos. For the rest of this newsletter when I talk about Readerware, it applies to both products unless a product is explicitly specified. Same goes for platforms, unless otherwise specified the articles in this newsletter apply to all supported platforms, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Fixes/Minor enhancements

Let's start with a quick run down on the fixes and minor tweaks included in 2.1, there are a few and I recommend that everyone upgrade.

New Readerware installations will now default to the native platform look and feel, Windows on Windows, Aqua on Mac OS X etc. The cross platform metal look and feel is still available and can be selected using preferences.

Format will now be imported correctly from a TAB delimited or CSV file.

Eliminated the duplicate paste when using the Shift-Insert keys with some look and feels.

The database statistics dialog now uses the copies field when determining the value for your collection. It multiplies the value of each book by the number of copies owned.

Report writer now has tags for all database fields. Some of the new 2.0 fields were accidentally omitted. They are now all there and the documentation has been updated.

ReaderwareVW Screenwriter field now correctly updated.

Format and Location fields now print correctly.

Table view changes, the date entered and comments columns are now read only. Date entered cannot be changed and is assigned automatically when an item is added to the database. Comments can only be edited in the detail view as comments can contain multiple lines which cannot be edited in the table view.

Performance improvements, especially in auto-catalog.

Fixed a hang refreshing the display that some users were experiencing, typically after the auto-catalog wizard closed.

Backup/Restore

OK, so only the restore portion is actually new. Readerware has had a built in backup facility since 2.0. Finally, I have added the missing piece, you can now easily restore a backup file within Readerware. You no longer have to unzip the file and restore manually.

To create a backup, simply select File->Backup Database from the Readerware menu, name the backup file and Readerware does the rest. It creates a single compressed file containing all your data and images. You can then store this backup on your hard drive, CD, Internet servers etc.

To restore from a backup, select File->Restore Database from the Readerware menu, pick the backup file and select the new database to create. Readerware only lets you restore to a new database. When the restore completes, select File->Open Database and open your restored database.

Quick and convenient, so backup now!

Auto-Catalog Improvements

There are a number of improvements in auto-catalog in this release. Firstly, when using the auto-catalog wizard, you can now easily rerun the last list. On the item input panel, just click on the Reload button and your last list will be displayed. So if you had a connection failure, or you just want to try looking for not found items at additional sites, you can easily reload your last list and run it through again.

Readerware first checks the local database for a match, if one is found it skips that entry and moves on to the next. So you can try additional sites to see if you can pick up those few missing items.

If you want more control over your lists, you can turn off wizards by selecting Edit->Preferences, General tab. In expert mode you can save and load lists.

One of the questions that comes up quite a bit is how do you identify which items were not found? Readerware tells you which ISBN/UPCs were found and which weren't but it can be hard to relate that to the real item. Readerware 2.1 introduces two new features to help you out.

Now as Readerware processes the list, it displays the title of the matched item in addition to the icon. So if you have a not found item you should be able to find it on your shelf by noting the titles on either side of it.

Another new feature to help you in this area, is that Readerware can now add not found ISBNs to your database. This is a new option, by default it is turned off. To activate it select Edit->Preferences, Database tab. With this option turned on, Readerware will add any items it cannot find to your database with a "Not found" title. You can easily search for these not found items in your database and enter the details manually. If you order the table view by row number, you will be able to view the not found items in the order they were scanned, either alone or in with your found items.

One thing to remember though when adding not found entries. As Readerware adds them to the database, they will be skipped if you rerun your auto-catalog list as described earlier. So if using this option, it is probably a good idea to select all sites and search them all in a single run.

Readerware Client/Server changes

When you run the Readerware server, you will find a new menu item that allows you to select read only or update access for each database. Right now this is on a database level. not a user level.

So if you define your database as read only, how can you update it? There are a couple of approaches. If you define a database as read only, the client is given read only access when it connects. If you subsequently change the mode to update, it does not effect connected clients, they still have read only access. So if you set the mode to update, connect a new client, and then reset the mode to read only, that one client will have update access. Obviously this will only work on a small network where you have some control over when users are connecting.

A better approach is to stage the database, have a separate client or server for updating the database. When you are ready to make the new database live, you need to transfer it to your server. The easiest way to do this is using the Readerware backup/restore feature. Backup the new database and transfer the file to your server. Then select the restore menu item from the server console. Select the backup file and create the new database on your server machine. Finally reset the server and select the new database. The new database is now online.

As mentioned earlier, Readerware backup/restore creates a single compressed file containing all your data and images, so it makes it very easy to transfer the database across your network. This staging approach also gives you a way to control updates of the main database. Users only see the new data when you are ready.

Report Writer Improvements

Before we get into that, a word about the not too aptly named Readerware report writer. It started off life as a way to generate custom reports using an HTML template. Readerware replaces the template with actual data from your database. Then you can print out the results from Readerware or save the file in HTML format and print from your favorite browser, or virtually any program that can handle HTML.

It is not a big step to realize that if you can save the "report" in HTML format, you can also use the Readerware report writer to generate custom web pages. If you have been ignoring the report writer because you thought the only thing it was good for was printing reports, maybe it's time to revisit the Readerware "Report Writer" documentation.

OK, on to the the new features which are designed for generating custom web pages rather than reports.

RAWISBN returns the unformatted ISBN, i.e. no dashes. The normal ISBN tag assumes you are displaying the ISBN and formats it for you. The RAWISBN comes in very handy if you want to create links in the HTML file.

For example, if your report writer HTML template includes:

<A HREF=http:// www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/[[$RAWISBN]]>[[$ISBN]] </A>

Readerware will display the ISBN as a link, clicking on it will take you to that item on Amazon.

So you could easily generate customized web pages from Readerware that include the data and image from your Readerware database and a link to the same item at Amazon. Maybe you want to have a handy link to Amazon reviews, sales rankings etc.

Astute readers may have realized by now that using this little technique and adding their affiliate ID to the above link, they can generate an Amazon affiliate store using Readerware!

Also new in 2.1 is the IMAGENAME tag, The existing IMAGE tag embeds the full image tag into your HTML. This makes it easy to generate web pages to display on your computer but it doesn't make the web page that portable. Suppose you have a web server and you have copied all your Readerware database images to a directory on your server called "images". If you include the following in your template:

<IMG SRC=images/[[$IMAGENAME]]>

Readerware will generate something like:

<IMG SRC=images/10.gif>

You can then upload the HTML file Readerware generates to your web server and the images will load when you display the page.

One side effect is that when you display the HTML in Readerware itself, the images will probably display as broken links, because there is no images directory. You can still preview the web page on your machine before uploading by saving the HTML locally with a copy of your images directory.

These changes can make generating custom web pages from Readerware, much easier.

New Amazon Export

Readerware can now create this format for you. Using the export wizard, simply select the Amazon UIEE format from the drop down list. Once created you can upload the file to Amazon.

There is also a new export dialog in Readerware expert mode to make it easier to select the format. Prior to this, the format was determined based on the file type you selected. The new dialog allows you to specify the format explicitly. For example Amazon UIEE and Generic UIEE formats have the same file type, but you can pick the correct format from the drop down list in the new dialog.

Mac OS X Specific Changes

The response to the Mac OS X version of Readerware has been very good. Thanks for all the comments and feedback, and your patience as I learn some of your Mac ways. One thing that became obvious early on was that it was a mistake to default to the cross platform metal look and feel, so with 2.1, Readerware uses Aqua right out of the box.

The Aqua database creation dialog now has an entry field so that you can enter the new name.

Some list display problems have been fixed, but some remain. These are problems in OS X itself.

Readerware 2.1 is the first upgrade for Mac OS X users and there are some problems in the upgrade process. The StuffIt utility I am using to distribute Readerware on the Mac, does not seem to support updating an existing application. It insists on creating a new folder when you double click on the file. Dragging Readerware 2.07 to the trash and then installing 2.1 works. But as the Readerware application directory is the default location for your Readerware database, many of you would also end up throwing out your database.

So you have to backup your database(s) and restore them as part of the upgrade process. If you restore your Readerware database to your home folder or somewhere else outside the applications folder, this won't be an issue in the future.

There is more information on this at the web site. If anyone knows how to get StuffIt to upgrade rather than replace an application, please let me know. In the meantime I am looking at different distribution products for Mac OS X.

I am sorry for the inconvenience, but as backing up and restoring your database is really easy with Readerware, it is not that much trouble. Besides you were planning to backup your database anyway right?

USB CueCat Sightings

For Windows laptop users, you may have run into problems with the wedge CueCat on your laptop. Sometimes it is necessary to hookup an external keyboard before the CueCat is recognized. The USB version should solve this problem.

The USB CueCats don't appear to be available everywhere yet, but they are starting to show up. So check you local Radio Shack store.

CueCat® is a registered trademark of Digital Convergence Corporation.

Tip: Auto-Catalog Batches

A common question is how do I search for just the items added in my last Readerware auto-catalog run?

You can do a date entered search, it will default to the current date. Click on search and you will see all items added today. That might be good enough for most purposes. But if you have run auto-catalog several times today, that may not give you exactly what you are looking for.

Here is a simple tip. Using Import preferences you can assign a default value to a number of different database fields. When Readerware finds a match during auto-catalog, but no data is extracted for that field, Readerware uses the default value. You can use this feature to assign default categories etc.

So how does that help us in this situation? If you provide a default value for the comments field, Readerware will add all items with this value, as comments are not typically extracted from a web site. If you change the default value before each auto-catalog run, it provides an easy way to group items found in the same auto-catalog run.

For example, if you set the comments default value to BATCH1, run auto-catalog, change the value to BATCH2, run auto-catalog again, you effectively tag each item with the batch number. Then use the comments search, specify the batch number and Readerware will return the items in that batch.

Your Feedback

Your feedback is always welcome. Please send in your comments. E-Mail feedback@readerware.com.

Thanks for your support.