Readerware Newsletter

Welcome to the Readerware Newsletter

Readerware 2.83 is now shipping. Some bug fixes, a lot of new sites and finally printed documentation.

Plus, how to run the Readerware Server as a Windows service.

Visit the Readerware Newsletter archive, all back issues of the newsletter are online.


Readerware 2.83 Now Shipping

Release 2.83 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 2.83 is available online:
Readerware 2.83 changes

Some of the highlights in this release.

A number of new sites have been added.

The Readerware tutorial and online help are now available in PDF format for easy printing.

Fixed a delete bug, the wrong record could be deleted.

Fixed an import problem that could cause some valid records to be rejected.

Download Readerware 2.83


Upgrade Policy

Readerware CD Most of you know this by now but Readerware 2.83 is a free upgrade. All 2.x upgrades are free. 

You can always download the latest 2.x release for free. If you ever want the latest version on CD, you can order it from the web site for $12.

Readerware CD


New Printed Documentation

Online Help Cover Both the Readerware tutorial and online help are now available as PDF files. You can of course view all the help in the product itself or on the web site, but a lot of users asked for a way to print out the online help.

Now you can. You can download both documents in PDF format from the web site. They are also on the Readerware CD.

For those of you looking for a real manual, this isn't it. The Readerware online help document is all the information included in the product help. It is a 200 page opus with lots of good and useful information. But it lacks a table of contents and index. That is why it is called Readerware Online Help and not The Readerware Manual.

These are Adobe Acrobat® documents. If you don't have the free reader installed, you can download it from the Adobe web site.
Readerware Tutorial PDF
Readerware Online Help PDF
Adobe Acrobat Reader
Readerware Online Help

Site News

Lots of new sites have been added to all products. These fill in some holes in coverage and should make it even easier to catalog your collections.

Some sites have been added to both auto-catalog and the drag and drop interface. Some are only available when using drag and drop. This is because the site does not support an ISBN/UPC search.

New Readerware Sites
Amazon [CA]
Amazon [DE] (See International Support)

New ReaderwareAW Sites
Amazon [CA] (auto-catalog only works with classical titles, all titles work with drag and drop)
Family Christian Stores

New ReaderwareVW Sites
Amazon [CA] (drag and drop only)
Chapters [CA]
DVD Pacific [AU] (auto-catalog only)
ezydvd.com.au [AU] (drag and drop only)
Family Christian Stores

International Support
As noted above Amazon [DE] is now available in Readerware. This is not an officially supported site, so it is disabled by default. To turn on Amazon [DE] support go to Preferences, Sites tab. Locate Amazon [DE] in the Import URL list and double click on it to toggle the status. When enabled, a green check mark is displayed next to the site.

Currently only English language sites are officially supported, Non English sites are contributed by volunteers. This is a very useful and generous endeavor and is much appreciated. But as it is done on a volunteer basis, there is no guarantee that the extraction will continue to work.

The Readerware Server as a Service

Firedaemon One common question, is how do I run the Readerware server as a Windows NT/2000/XP service? If you are running Readerware Client/Server Edition there are advantages to running it as a service. It can be started automatically when the system boots so that it is always available. The service can be automatically restarted at exit.

The Readerware server is currently a regular Windows application, so by itself cannot run as a service under Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP. But with the addition of a third party utility like Firedaemon, it is easy to set up the Readerware server as a Windows service.

Download and install Firedaemon. There is a free version available that works just fine, if you need some of the facilities offered by the Firedaemon Pro version, it is just $25.

Before configuring Firedaemon to start the Readerware Server, you should set up the server and configure it to open your databases etc. Once it is working just the way you want, close the program so that all the settings are saved.

Start the Firedaemon Service Manager and select Service->New from the menu. On the program tab enter The descriptive information to suit your needs. For Example:
Short Name:   Readerware
Display Name: Readerware Server
Description:  Launch the Readerware Server to support all Readerware applications in client/server mode
In the application selection, you must set the working directory to your Readerware directory and set rwserver.exe as the executable. For example:
Working Directory: C:\Readerware
Executable:        C:\Readerware\rwserver.exe
Click on the Settings tab and check the "Interact with Desktop" option.

That's it. Click on the Install button. Firedaemon will save your configuration and start the Readerware Server.

There are a lot of other options you can set, but they are optional. Refer to the Firedaemon documentation for more information.
Firedaemon for WinNT/ 2K/ XP
Readerware Client/Server Edition

Launching The Readerware Server at Startup on Mac OS X

Mac OS X Login Items If you want to launch the Readerware server every time you start your Mac, simply add the Readerware server as a login item.

Starting by setting up the server just the way you want it. Then start Mac OS X System Preferences, click on "Login Items". Then click on the Add button and select the Readerware server application.

That's it, next time you restart your Mac, the Readerware server will be started automatically. You can use the same technique to start the Readerware applications locally if you want.
Learning Mac OS X
Readerware Client/Server Edition

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.

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