The Readerware Newsletter

Readerware 2.71 is now shipping. New features, some requested changes, lots of site news and some tech tips.

As mentioned in the last newsletter, Readerware has moved. The new mailing address is:

Readerware Corporation
P.O. Box 2053
Clearlake
CA 95422-2053

It has been an interesting couple of months. Of course the move did not go as smoothly as planned. Getting everything back online was a lot more complicated than it should have been. The old adage "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" really applies to computers. Unfortunately there was no choice this time.

The main development server which has been running Windows NT for years had to be upgraded. The new network connection required a USB port and that meant the server had to be "upgraded" to Windows 2000. That is when the fun really started. Windows 2000 wouldn't recognize most of the cards in the machine and Windows 2000 updated drivers were not available. It is amazing how soon that fancy new card becomes an orphaned "legacy" card with no support whatsoever. So we had "half a machine" running Windows 2000 which blue screened every time someone sneezed. To cut a long story short, a couple of weeks and a brand new machine later, Readerware development is back up to speed.

During that time April 15th came and went. Unfortunately as you may have discovered the Windows XP printer drivers leave a lot to be desired. Trying to get a readable tax return to print from a fancy new laptop was an exercise in futility. Eventually the tax software had to be installed on another box running an older version of the OS, just to print. Unfortunately the IRS didn't accept the "Windows wouldn't print the corporation tax return excuse". I am thinking about sending Bill Gates the late filing penalty notice

As spring arrived, web sites started their spring cleaning. The Library of Congress unveiled their new site, Fatbrain disappeared, Amazon unveiled a bunch of new features and Alibris, well more about Alibris in a moment.

Just when things started to quieten down, the issue of software patents came up. More about that later too.

Fortunately things are more or less back to normal and the latest release of Readerware handles all these web site changes as well as add a bunch of new ones. And of course some of your most requested features.

Readerware 2.71 Now Shipping

Release 2.71 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 2.71 is available online:

• Readerware 2.71 changes

Some of the highlights in this release.

The Readerware auto-catalog, auto-update and replace wizards now display the added/updated items when they finish. Readerware used to display the full database, but now you will see just the new items following an auto-catalog and the updated items following auto-update and replace. This makes it a lot easier to review and edit your new items. There is also a new search available that will return the items updated by the last wizard. So you can easily switch between your updates and the full database.

Readerware Auto-Catalog
Readerware Auto-Update
Readerware Replace

Readerware now remembers the table position and selection when you return to the table view. So when you display the detail view, you go right back to where you were when you return to the table view.

The Readerware shopping cart has added new sites and now tracks availability. Readerware will now only report the price, if the item is in stock. Plus you can now check prices at ABE, AlphaCraze and more.

Readerware Shopping Cart

New backup and restore wizards. Backing up your database is now even easier. Readerware will even remind you to make a backup at exit. No more excuses! In case the reminder drives you nuts, you can turn it off in preferences.

Readerware Backup Wizard
Readerware Restore Wizard

Lots of new sites have been added to all products.

So, something for everyone in Readerware 2.71.

• Download Readerware 2.71

Site News

As I mentioned, there have been lots of changes recently at a number of web sites. Most of it good news.

The not so good news is that Readerware auto-catalog and auto-update no longer support Alibris. Alibris asked to be removed from the product. You can still check prices at Alibris in the Readerware shopping cart and you can still catalog from Alibris using drag and drop. But auto-catalog no longer supports Alibris.

This basically came about because Alibris thought that one or two Readerware users were abusing their site.

As Readerware supports a lot of different sites, there are still plenty of sources. But some people liked and used Alibris. Can Alibris be persuaded to change their mind? If you are an Alibris customer, please contact them and let them know how you feel.

Alibris

But there is something else you can do. Readerware was designed as a tool for collectors and there are now a lot of collectors using Readerware to catalog their book, music and video collections. I remain convinced that Readerware users are some of the best customers at online sites like Amazon, Tower Records, Alibris etc.

Most of the time when you place an order from the Readerware shopping cart or start from the Readerware search pages, Readerware contacts the site via an affiliate link. What does this mean? It accomplishes two things.

Firstly it means that if you place an order, Readerware gets a small commission. This helps to fund Readerware development. But more importantly, it clearly shows web sites that Readerware users are some of their best customers. So try ordering from the Readerware shopping cart or go to your favorite site via one of the Readerware search pages listed below. It is an easy way to demonstrate that Readerware users are customers.

Readerware Book Search Page
Readerware CD Search Page
Readerware Video Search Page

Other site news.

Fatbrain is no more. It was acquired by Barnes and Noble some time ago. B+N have now rolled the Fatbrain site into their site. So Fatbrain has also disappeared from the Readerware auto-catalog list. B+N is still a good site to search for both technical books and text books.

The Library of Congress have unveiled their new site. You may notice that Readerware lists two different LOC sites. LOC [1] is an old site that isn't used much anymore. As a result it can be easier to access. The main LOC site, (LOC [2]) does have limited capacity. This new release of Readerware now works with the updated main site. The data returned by both sites is almost identical, so when searching The Library of Congress, try LOC [1]. It is normally faster and more accessible.

All Readerware products now support AlphaCraze.

ReaderwareVW has added support for two British sites, so UK users can now catalog their video collections.

ReaderwareAW now supports the All Music Guide and All Music Guide Classical sites. They are only available via the drag and drop interface as unfortunately they do not support a UPC search. But they do have great information and reviews of your favorite CDs.

Readerware no longer supports non-English sites. Unfortunately supporting a lot of non-English sites was very time consuming. I do hope to come up with a solution for non-English sites later.

Alibris
AlphaCraze
All Music Guide
All Music Guide Classical

Readerware Book Search Page
Readerware CD Search Page
Readerware Video Search Page

Technical tip - Optional fields

Readerware extracts a number of optional fields. As there are no database columns for these optional fields, you have to store them in a user defined column if you are interested in this data.

The process is very simple. First define a user column for the data. Select Edit->Preferences, User Columns tab. Enter the column title and check the active box for each user defined column you want to add.

Next you have to tell Readerware to move the data to this user column. You do this in a custom extraction script. A sample script is provided in your readerware\scrapers directory. It is called userexit_prices.py. You need to rename this script to userexit.py. You can edit this script to move the optional data you want into your user defined columns. For example the following line will store the reading level in the first user defined column:

user1 = readinglevel

Lowest used price - usedprice
Number of used items available - usedcount
Lowest collectible price - collectibleprice
Number of collectible items available - collectiblecount
Lowest new price from an affiliated vendor - newprice
Number of new items available - newcount
List price - listprice
Sales ranking - salesrank
Reading Level - readinglevel
Buyer waiting for used item - buyerwaiting

Adding User Columns
Readerware Custom Extraction

Technical tip - Auto-Update

As you probably know, Readerware auto-update allows you to update your database and extract additional information.

You select the items you want to update, which database columns you want to extract and tell Readerware to either always update a column or only update it if empty. You set this option on a column by column basis.

This is a very powerful feature, but some users have found the update mode setting to be confusing. The update mode setting is on a column by column basis, it does not apply to all columns.

This means that in a single auto-catalog run you can for example, always update the LCCN column and extract images only if the image is currently empty.

The way to do this is to double click on the LCCN column to select it for updating, then set the mode for the LCCN to always update. Next you double click on the image column and then set the image mode, update if empty.

Some users thought that the mode applied to ALL columns not to an individual column. Therefore they would select LCCN and image and select always update, thinking that both fields would always be updated. But the mode setting only applies to the selected column. You need to set the mode as you select the column.

Readerware Auto-Update

Upgrading Readerware on Mac OS X

When upgrading Readerware on a Mac, some users have started by deleting their current installation. Dragging the Readerware icon to the trash can and then installing a new copy of Readerware.

However Readerware uses the standard Mac OS X installer, the same installer Apple uses for iPhoto, iMovie etc. It is setup to update your current installation. There is no need to delete Readerware before upgrading. You don't want to do this because by default, deleting the Readerware application will also delete your database.

By default Readerware creates your database inside the application folder. So when you drag the application to the trash can, you drag your database with it. You can change this. To create your database elsewhere, just select File->New Database from the Readerware menu and create the database wherever you want, maybe in your Home folder.

If you want to relocate an existing database, use the new Readerware backup and restore wizards. Simply run the backup and restore it to a new location. Then open your new database.

Readerware Backup Wizard
Readerware Restore Wizard

Fishy Patents

I have been notified by Inxight Software Inc. that the Readerware Fish Eye Viewer violates one or more of their patents.

The code itself is not in dispute, rather the whole concept of the Fish Eye Viewer is apparently covered by Inxight patents.

Right now we are having friendly discussions on how to resolve this.

In the meantime I would be interested in hearing from users who would really miss the Fish Eye Viewer. It has had mixed reviews in the past! Would you miss it if I had to remove it from the product?

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.