The Readerware Newsletter

Readerware 2.60 is now shipping. By popular demand, Readerware now extracts reviews, edition details etc. Now Readerware products extract more information than ever. This major upgrade also includes a user number generator, a global price change feature, full HomeBase integration and more.

Also in this issue, finally an Amazon UPC search.

Readerware 2.60 Now Shipping

Release 2.60 is now available for all products (Readerware, ReaderwareAW and ReaderwareVW), and all platforms, (Windows, Mac OS X and Linux). A full list of the changes included in 2.50 is available online:

• Readerware 2.60 changes

Lots of you wanted Readerware to extract more information from web sites, like reviews, edition details etc. With the recent introduction of the auto-update feature, now seemed like the perfect time to add this functionality.

A global price change feature is new in 2.60. Building on the global search and replace feature introduced in 2.50, Readerware now lets you automatically adjust prices by a set percentage.

Automatic user number generation is also in 2.60. In the last newsletter I showed you how you could accomplish this with a custom extraction script. A lot of you wanted this feature but didn't want to mess with scripts. Now you don't have to.

HomeBase support has also come up a lot lately. Readerware is now able to import from and export to HomeBase. You can also use the HomeBase export file that Readerware generates to upload to ABE.

Readerware 2.60 is a major upgrade.

• Download Readerware 2.60

Product Reviews and More

All Readerware products now extract product reviews, edition information, technical details etc., from all the major web sites. You may have noticed that Readerware was extracting more information from some of the new sites like Half.com. Now this facility has been expanded to all the major web sites that provide this kind of information.

Readerware will add this information to the comments field. The detail view has changed to expand the amount of space given to the comments field. As you enlarge the window, the comments area grows, so it is easier to view all this new information.

As always the exact information will vary from site to site. Many sites will feature product reviews, but normally get their reviews from different sites. Others may feature edition details in place of reviews. This is especially true for music and video sites. So you get to decide which information best meets your needs.

Once you have decided which site you want to use, you could simply use that site with Readerware auto-catalog. But you might prefer the listings at another site. Readerware auto-update is a great way to add reviews to your database. Catalog your books, music and videos as normal. Then use Readerware auto-update to go through and update your entire database with consistent information from your chosen site.

Readerware stores the information in the comments field, so when running the auto-update wizard, make sure that the comments column is selected. You will probably want to set the mode to "Always replace existing contents". Then Readerware will replace any comments that may have been retrieved earlier by auto-catalog with the new information.

Readerware currently extracts comments from:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Books-A-Million
• Fatbrain
• Powells
• Alibris
• Half.com

ReaderwareAW currently extracts comments from:

• Amazon [US & UK]
• Tower Records [US & UK]
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Sam Goody
• Half.com

ReaderwareVW currently extracts comments from:

• Amazon
• Tower Records
• Barnes & Noble
• Borders
• Sam Goody
• Half.com

Pricing your Collection

There are two new features introduced in 2.60 that will help you price or value your collection.

As you know, Readerware has a single value field that you can use to store the value of each item. Readerware automatically extracts the price from web sites. A new option allows you to determine which price Readerware should use.

In Readerware Preferences, Web Import tab, you can specify:

Regular Price - Readerware will extract the normal selling price from the web site. For a new retailer like Barnes & Noble, this will be the retail price, including any discount offered. For a used retailer like Half.com, it will be their lowest used price.

Used Price - Readerware will extract the used price, if any. For a site like Amazon which offers new and used items, this will be the lowest used price. For a new only retailer like Barnes & Noble, the used price will be empty. For a used retailer like Half.com, it will be the lowest used price.

Collectible Price - Readerware will extract the collectible price, if any. For a site like Amazon which offers new and used items, this will be the lowest price of a collectible edition. For a new only retailer like Barnes & Noble, the collectible price will be empty. For a used retailer that does not distinguish between collectible and used, the collectible price will be empty.

You can use this with Readerware auto-catalog, but again it is probably more useful with auto-update. Once you have built your database and got everything cataloged, you can use Readerware auto-update to price your entire collection, based on the price and the site you have chosen. You can rerun Readerware auto-update at any time to update the value.

What if you want to value your collection based on a certain price rather than the actual price. For example, you might want to value each item at 10% less than the Amazon used price. Once you have run auto-update to extract the price you want to use, you can use the Readerware search and replace feature to adjust it by the required amount.

If you have used the Readerware Replace Wizard, you will know that you can update any column in all or selected database rows. When you select the column you want to change, Readerware displays an appropriate editor that you can use to enter the new data.

When you select the value column, you have the option of entering a new value or adjusting the current value by a set percentage. So in this example you would enter 90%, Readerware will then adjust each price so that it is 10% lower than the Amazon price. You can raise and lower prices this way. Specifying a value of 200% will double each price.

One final note on prices. Readerware will now let you choose which price to put into the value column during auto-catalog and auto-update. But what if you wanted to include all of them?

Readerware lets you define your own database columns. There are three additional values that Readerware can extract from the Amazon site that don't normally make it into the database. You can store these values into any user column with a script. A very simple one, honest.

This script will store the values into the first three user defined columns. You can edit the script to use whichever columns you want.

Note that indentation is important in Python scripts. If you copy/paste the above example you might have problems. You can download the sample script from the Readerware web site. If your browser displays the file rather than download it, right click on the link and select the save item. Be sure to save it as userexit.py in your scrapers directory.

• Sample user exit

Generating User Numbers

Using the Readerware search and replace feature, you can now automatically generate user defined numbers for your entire database in virtually any format.

When you select the user number column in the Readerware Replace Wizard you will have the option of entering a specific number or a pattern. You specify the pattern, the starting value and the increment. You use question marks in the pattern to identify where Readerware should insert the number.

To start with a simple example. If you specify a pattern of ?, a starting value of 10000 and an increment of 100, Readerware will generate user numbers of 10100, 10200, 10300 etc.

You can specify other text in the pattern which is used as is. You can specify multiple consecutive question marks to control the width of the generated number. If you specify a pattern of ?????? each number will have at least 6 digits, Readerware adds leading zeros if necessary.

The following table lists some examples:

Pattern	Starting Value	Increment	Numbers
?	10000	10	10010, 10020, 10030
?????	100	10	00100, 00110, 00120
TOM-?????-BK	100	100	TOM-00100-BK, TOM-00200-BK, TOM-00300-BK
BN-?	100	1	BN-100, BN-101, BN-102

HomeBase Support

To transfer data from from Homebase, select File->Import / Export->Export from the HomeBase menu. Select the books you want to export and click OK. Then select the location and name of the export file. Make sure the file type is set to HomeBase 2.0. HomeBase will then export the selected rows to a HomeBase format file.

To import this into Readerware, just start the import wizard as normal and select the HomeBase format.

To transfer data to HomeBase, start the Readerware Export Wizard as normal and select the HomeBase 2.0 format. As you go through the wizard, Readerware will create a file in HomeBase format containing the books you select.

To import this into HomeBase, select File->Import / Export->Import from the HomeBase menu. Select the merge or zap option and click OK Select the file you created in Readerware. HomeBase will ask you if you are sure and then import the records. HomeBase will display a statistics window showing you the results of the import. It is best to ignore these statistics as the counts don't seem to make much sense.

You can also upload the HomeBase file created by the Readerware Export Wizard directly to the ABE web site. Just follow the normal procedure for uploading files.

Here is a tip if you plan to regularly transfer files between HomeBase and Readerware. HomeBase does not remember the directory you choose during the import and export, but Readerware does. So if you are exporting from Readerware, save the file in the HomeBase export directory. Then when you try and import the file into HomeBase it will be right there. Readerware will remember the location when you create your next export.

• abebooks.com

Site News: Amazon UPC Search

You still won't find a UPC search on the Amazon search pages. Amazon UK has a UPC search for CDs, but not for videos, go figure.

The lack of a UPC search at Amazon was the reason it was not available in ReaderwareAW and ReaderwareVW auto-catalog. But it turns out there is a UPC search, but it is hidden away in a dusty, seldom visited corner of the Amazon site.

The good news is that you can now use auto-catalog and auto-update with Amazon when cataloging your CDs and videos.

If you use the UPC search from the Readerware search pages, you will notice that the results look a little different, but you can still drag and drop this page and Readerware will extract the full information, even though it isn't visible. It's magic!

• ReaderwareAW Search Page
• ReaderwareVW Search Page

Your Feedback

Your feedback is always welcome and does make a difference. Please send in your comments. E-Mail support@readerware.com.

Thanks for your support.