The ReaderwareAW Report Writer

The ReaderwareAW Report Writer allows you to easily define your own custom reports in virtually any format, with images. You can view, print and save the output.

The input to the Readerware report writer is an HTML template which defines the layout and formatting options. Readerware then merges in your data to create an HTML file. As the output is in HTML format you can view it any browser, print it or save the output to a file and upload it to a web site.

Printing a custom report

The easiest way to get started is to use one of the templates that are shipped with Readerware. To produce a report do the following:

Search to establish the content for your report. The Readerware report writer uses the current search results as input. So you could search for all titles to produce a full report, search by a given author or category etc.

Open the Readerware Report Writer Window by selecting the File->Report Writer menu item.

Select the Readerware basic image report, (BasicImageReport.html), from the list. You will see the template displayed in the window, but instead of data, you will see text like [[$ARTIST]], [[$TITLE]] etc. The [[$----] fields identify which Readerware database fields will be displayed and where.

Click on the Create Report button. Readerware will then populate the report template with the contents of the current search results and display the output in your browser. You can view, print or save the report from your browser.

That is how you print a report with the Readerware Report Writer.

Creating a report template

A ReaderwareAW Report Writer template file is in HTML format so you do need to understand a bit about HTML to take full advantage of all the customization and formatting options available.

The basic idea is that you simply create the HTML to produce the desired report, but instead of using real data you use predefined ReaderwareAW keywords that determine where ReaderwareAW will insert the data. Consider the template for the basic table example:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>ReaderwareAW Basic Table Example</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<CENTER><FONT COLOR=#0000FF><H2>ReaderwareAW Basic Table Example</H2></FONT></CENTER>
<TABLE ALIGN=CENTER BORDER=3 CELLPADDING=5>
<TR>
<TH>Title</TH>
<TH>Artist</TH>
<TH>UPC</TH>
<TH>Est. Value</TH>
</TR>
[[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW]]
<TR>
<TD>[[$TITLE]]</TD>
<TD>[[$ARTIST]]</TD>
<TD>[[$UPC]]</TD>
<TD>[[$VALUE]]</TD>
</TR>
[[$END_READERWAREAW]]
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>

This is fairly standard HTML, the interesting part is between the [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW]] and [[$END_READERWAREAW]] lines. These lines mark the section of code that ReaderwareAW will duplicate, once for each CD to be displayed. You can see that between these lines the HTML statements define a new row within the table. So if you have five CDs in your result set, ReaderwareAW will duplicate this section five times creating a five row table.

Within this section you can see several ReaderwareAW database column names, for example [[$TITLE]] indicates this is where ReaderwareAW is to place the CD title, ReaderwareAW simply substitutes these keywords with the database values. That's really all there is to it. Here is the HTML file that ReaderwareAW might generate from the above template

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>ReaderwareAW Basic Table Example</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<CENTER><FONT COLOR=#0000FF><H2>ReaderwareAW Basic Table Example</H2></FONT></CENTER>
<TABLE ALIGN=CENTER BORDER=3 CELLPADDING=5>
<TR>
<TH>Title</TH>
<TH>Artist</TH>
<TH>UPC</TH>
<TH>Est. Value</TH>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Synchronistic Wanderings</TD>
<TD>Benatar, Pat</TD>
<TD>724349980327</TD>
<TD>$31.99</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Whoa Nelly!</TD>
<TD>Furtado, Nelly</TD>
<TD>600445021723</TD>
<TD>$13.29</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Tell Me Something: The Songs of Mose Allison</TD>
<TD>Morrison, Van</TD>
<TD>731453320321</TD>
<TD>$14.99</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Faith and Courage</TD>
<TD>O'Connor, Sinead</TD>
<TD>075678333729</TD>
<TD>$14.99</TD>
</TR>
<TR>
<TD>Ancient Heart</TD>
<TD>Tikaram, Tanita</TD>
<TD>075992583923</TD>
<TD>$14.99</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>
</BODY>
</HTML>

Accessing Disk and Track Information

Each CD in a ReaderwareAW database is made up of the basic CD information like artist and title. It then has one or more disk entries depending on the number of disks in the CD set, and each disk has 1 or more tracks. If you want to display disk and track information in your report, you must include a disk and track section in your template. ReaderwareAW will then automatically handle any number of disks and tracks. The disk template section is repeated for each disk and the track template section for each track, just like in the example above.

The disk and track sections of the template are identified by special keywords. For example:

[[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW]]
<TR>
<TD>[[$IMAGE]]</TD>
<TD>[[$TITLE]]<BR>[[$ARTIST]]</TD>
</TR>
[[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW_DISKS]]
<TR>
<TD>DISK [[$DISKNUMBER]]:</TD>
</TR>
[[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW_TRACKS]]
<TR COLSPAN=2>
<TD>[[$TITLE]]</TD>
</TR>
[[$END_READERWAREAW_TRACKS]]
[[$END_READERWAREAW_DISKS]]
[[$END_READERWAREAW]]

The above is not a complete template, but it illustrates how you would display disk and track information. The [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW]] ... [[$END_READERWAREAW]] identifies the complete ReaderwareAW template, this section will be duplicated once for each CD you are displaying. There is HTML to display the CD cover image, title and artist information.

The [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW_DISKS]] ... [[$END_READERWAREAW_DISKS]] identifies the section that will be duplicated once for each disk within each CD. In this example it displays the disk number.

Finally the [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW_TRACKS]] ... [[$END_READERWAREAW_TRACKS]] identifies the section that will be duplicated once for each track, within each disk, within each CD. This section displays track title information. Note that this section is within the disk section of the template. This is the normal way you would code this, you want the tracks listed for each disk. If you use the tracks section on it's own, ReaderwareAW will display track information for the first disk only.

There is an example template, awTrackReport.html included with the product. This is a complete template that displays disk and track information.

Getting Started

You might want to start with one of the examples included with Readerware and adapt them for you own use, or you can start from scratch.

To start with an existing template, select it in the report writer window. Copy/Paste the template into a text editor like Notepad or TextEdit.

To install your template select the File->Install template menu item.

To remove a template you no longer use select the File->Remove template menu item.

If you develop custom reports that you think might be useful to other users, please consider sending them in. They may be placed on the Readerware web site where others can use and learn from them. Full credit will be given to the author or you can remain anonymous if you prefer. Just e-mail any templates to support@readerware.com.

You can browse user contributed templates in the Readerware Knowledge Base.

Report Writer Templates

Report writer templates are standard HTML files with an embedded section that is duplicated for each database record displayed. This section is marked by the following statements:

[[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW]] . . . [[$END_READERWAREAW]]

Sometimes you need to display multiple records within the marked section. Consider a two column table where you want each column to display a record from the database. Effectively you want to duplicate a table row for each two records. You do this with the [[$INCR_READERWAREAW]] statement. It tells ReaderwareAW to fetch the next record from the database. For example:

<TABLE> [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW]] <TR> <TD>[[$TITLE]]<BR>[[$ARTIST]]</TD>[[$INCR_READERWAREAW]] <TD>[[$TITLE]]<BR>[[$ARTIST]]</TD> </TR> [[$END_READERWAREAW]] </TABLE>

Report Writer Main Keywords

The following is a full list of the keywords recognized by ReaderwareAW. These will be replaced by the appropriate data from the database.

[[$TITLE]]	Album Title
[[$ARTIST]]	Artist in selected format
[[$ARTISTLAST]]	Artist in Last, First format
ARTISTBIOLINK	Display a link the use can click on to open the artist contributor dialog. Includes image, biography etc.
[[$COMPOSER]]	Composer
[[$CONDUCTOR]]	Conductor
[[$ORCHESTRA]]	Orchestra
[[$SOLOIST]]	Soloist
[[$WORK]]	Work
[[$LABEL]]	Album Label
[[$DATE]]	Album release date
[[$COPYDATE]]	Copyright date
[[$RUNNINGTIME]]	Album running time
[[$LANGUAGE]]	Language
[[$COPIES]]	Number of copies owned
[[$BARCODE]]	Barcode, normally the same as the UPC
[[$UPC]]	UPC (Bar code)
[[$ASIN]]	Amazon Standard Identification Number
[[$UPC/ASIN]]	UPC (Bar code). If there is no UPC, this keyword returns the ASIN instead.
[[$LCCN]]	LCCN Library of Congress Card Catalog Number
[[$DEWEY]]	Dewey Decimal Number
[[$DEWEYLABEL]]	Dewey Decimal Number. Standard format, Library of Congress extensions removed.
[[$CALLNUM]]	Library of Congress Call Number
[[$USERNUM]]	User defined number
[[$TYPE]]	Display type
[[$FORMAT]]	Format
[[$SERIES]]	Series
[[$SOUND]]	Sound format
[[$RATING]]	Rating
[[$CONDITION]]	Condition
[[$COVERCONDITION]]	Cover condition
[[$CATEGORY1]] - [[$CATEGORY3]]	Categories
[[$LOCATION]]	Location where this album is stored
[[$KEYWORDS]]	Keywords describing this album
[[$PLAYED]]	Number of times the album has been played
[[$LASTPLAYEDDATE]]	The last time the album was played
[[$PLAYLIST]]	Is the album on the playlist?
[[$PRODUCTINFO]]	Product information, reviews etc.
[[$COMMENTS]]	Comments
[[$DATEENTERED]]	Date entered into the ReaderwareAW database
[[$DATEUPDATED]]	Date last updated
[[$SOURCE]]	Source of import
[[$CATALOGNUM]]	Album catalog number
[[$RECORDINGTYPE]]	Recording type Studio, Live etc.
[[$RECORDINGDATE]]	Date of recording
[[$RECORDINGPLACE]]	Location recording was made
[[$PURCHASEPRICE]]	Price paid
[[$PURCHASEDATE]]	Date purchased
[[$PURCHASEPLACE]]	Where purchased
[[$LISTPRICE]]	List price
[[$VALUE]]	Estimated value of this album
[[$VALUEDATE]]	Valuation date
[[$SALEPRICE]]	Sale price
[[$SALEDATE]]	Date sold
[[$NEWPRICE]]	New copy price
[[$NEWCOUNT]]	Number of new copies available
[[$USEDPRICE]]	Used copy price
[[$USEDCOUNT]]	Number of used copies available
[[$COLPRICE]]	Collectible copy price
[[$COLCOUNT]]	Number of collectible copies available
[[$SALESRANK]]	Sales rank
[[$WEIGHT]]	Item weight
[[$FAVORITE]]	Is this a favorite album?
[[$OUTOFPRINT]]	Is this album out of print?
[[$MEDIAURL]]	Local copy of media
[[$OWNER]]	Owner of this album
[[$STATUS]]	Album status
[[$EXTERNALID]]	External ID for this Album
[[$INVENTORY]]	Album inventory count
[[$IMAGE1]]	IMG tag for the first image
[[$IMAGE2]]	IMG tag for the second image
[[$LARGEIMAGE1]]	IMG tag for the first large image
[[$LARGEIMAGE2]]	IMG tag for the second large image
[[$BESTIMAGE1]]	IMG tag for the first image. Looks for the large image, if not found uses the normal image
[[$BESTIMAGE2]]	IMG tag for the second image. Looks for the large image, if not found uses the normal image
[[$USER1 - USER10]]	User defined fields
[[$ROWKEY]]	The Album ID, this is a unique ID alocated to each album automatically as it is added to the database
[[$DISKCOUNT]]	Number of discs
[[$ARTISTURL]]	Artist web site
[[$LOANTO]]	Loaned to
[[$LOANDATE]]	Loan date
[[$LOANDUE]]	Loan due date
[[$LASTLOANDATE]]	The last date this album was loaned out
[[$LOANCOUNT]]	The number of times this album has been loaned out
[[$CURRENTDATE]]	The current date
[[$TEMPLATESDIR]]	URL pointing to the templates directory
[[$TIMERTOP]]	Tells Readerware to add the album play timer to the top of the summary view
[[$TIMERBOTTOM]]	Tells Readerware to add the album play timer to the bottom of the summary view

All keywords must be in uppercase as shown above. They can be in any order, but must appear between the [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW]] and [[$END_READERWAREAW]] lines otherwise they will be ignored.

Report Writer Disk Keywords

The following is a full list of the disk section keywords recognized by ReaderwareAW. These will be replaced by the appropriate data from the database.

[[$DISKNUMBER]]	Disk Number
[[$DISKTITLE]]	Disk Title
[[$DISKSIDEBREAK]]	For LPs, the first track on side 2
[[$UNITNUM]]	Unit number, the changer number, book number etc. where this album is stored
[[$SLOTNUM]]	Slot number, the slot number, sleeve number etc. where this album is stored
[[$RUNNINGTIME]]	Disk running time
[[$USER1 - USER2]]	User defined disk fields

All keywords must be in uppercase as shown above. They can be in any order, but must appear between the [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW_DISKS]] and [[$END_READERWAREAW_DISKS]] lines otherwise they will be ignored.

Report Writer Tracks Keywords

The following is a full list of the tracks section keywords recognized by ReaderwareAW. These will be replaced by the appropriate data from the database.

[[$TRACKNUMBER]]	Track Number
[[$SIDEANDTRACKNUMBER]]	Display Side and Track Number for albums with a side break. i.e. A1, A2, B1 etc.
[[$TITLE]]	Track Title
[[$ARTIST]]	Track Artist
[[$COMPOSER]]	Track Composer
[[$CONDUCTOR]]	Track Conductor
[[$ORCHESTRA]]	Orchestra
[[$SOLOIST]]	Soloist
[[$WORK]]	Work
[[$WRITER]]	Track song writer
[[$RUNNINGTIME]]	Track running time
[[$FAVORITE]]	Favorite track
[[$PLAYLIST]]	Track on playlist
[[$BONUSTRACK]]	Bonus track, not on original album
[[$PLAYED]]	Number of times the track has been played
[[$BPM]]	Beats per minute
[[$COMMENTS]]	Comments
[[$MEDIAURL]]	Local copy of media
[[$USER1 - USER2]]	User defined track fields

All keywords must be in uppercase as shown above. They can be in any order, but must appear between the [[$BEGIN_READERWAREAW_TRACKS]] and [[$END_READERWAREAW_TRACKS]] lines otherwise they will be ignored. Normally the tracks section itself is embedded within the disks section.

Keyword Modifiers

The following is a full list of the modifiers that can be applied to any of the report writer keywords. These will modify the database values, i.e. display the database value in uppercase.

-U	Display the value in uppercase
-L=n	Limit the value displayed to at most n characters
-S=n	Display the value starting at the nth character. This is relative to 0.
-Y	Used with date fields, this will display the year only instead of the full date.
-H	Hide if empty. Do not display anything if this field is empty. For example `[[$IMAGE]]` will display the default image if there is no cover art. `[[$IMAGE-H]]` will display nothing if there is no image.
-H=text	Display the specified text if the database field is not empty. If the field is empty, nothing is output. Suppose you want to display the release date in brackets, but you don't want to display empty brackets if there is no date. Use `[[$DATE-H=(]][[$DATE]][[$DATE-H=)]]`

The modifiers must immediately follow the report writer keyword. For example:

[[$ARTIST-U]]

This will display the artist in uppercase.

You can apply multiple modifiers to a keyword. For example:

[[$ARTIST-U-L=3]]

This will display the first three characters of the artist in uppercase.

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