Release Notes for Version 1.70

Version 1.70
Monday, December 28th, 2009

Author: Shane McAliece
Homepage: http://booktome.shanemca.com/
Email: shanemca@iinet.net.au

Introduction

bookTome is a book management system which allows users to enter information about their book collection and then sort and search this information in a variety of different manners. The main use for bookTome is to catalog and manage your library or personal book collection and it is suitable for collections of all sizes and types. It can also be used to keep track of books that you wish to purchase in the future. You can read more about the features of bookTome on the official website.

Installation

Standard Installation

To install bookTome, run the installation file that has been downloaded and follow the instructions on the screen. The default installation options will install the program, web export templates and create Start Menu, Quick Launch and Desktop shortcuts.

To uninstall the program, run the uninstaller from Add/Remove Programs or the Start Menu shortcut. The uninstaller will also offer to optionally remove all data files and settings in addition to the program itself.

After you have installed bookTome, you can check for future updates through the Tools section. You do not need to uninstall bookTome before updating to a newer version.

Portable Installation

bookTome is also available in a portable version that is useful for running from USB Flash Drives or Network Drives. Please note that multiple users cannot use the program at the same time. The portable version stores all of its data in the same location that the program is run from - so it does not store files on the computer that it is used on. In order to install the portable version, download the zip file from the website and unzip it to where you want the program to be run from. You can start the program by running bookTome.exe. The only differences in the portable version are the data file locations and application name.

Backups

You can configure bookTome to automatically create a backup file of your data once each day. All of the information within bookTome is included in the backup files. You can use the Backup Manager, which is located in the Tools area, to manually view and delete older backup files. Due to the nature of backup files, you cannot use bookTome to restore backups, but you can follow the instructions below to accomplish this:

Quit bookTome.
Locate the backups directory. By default these are located in the following directories. If you have customized the backup location they may be stored in your custom location.

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\saSoftware\bookTome\backups
Windows Vista & 7: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\saSoftware\bookTome\backups
Copy all of the backup files to elsewhere on your hard disk, such as to the desktop. You should copy all of the backups in case the latest file is corrupt.
Go to the main bookTome data directory, which is located in the following directories:

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\saSoftware\bookTome
Windows Vista & 7: C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\saSoftware\bookTome
Delete all of the directories and files located here, so that you erase all of your existing data.
Open the latest backup file you have copied elsewhere and extract its contents to the now blank data directory. This restores the files from the backup.
Start bookTome and verify that the restoration was successful. If it was not successful, you can repeat instructions using an older backup file until you find one that works.

These instructions can also be used to move your data from one computer to another, except in this case you will need to start bookTome at least once on the new computer to create the required directories.

If you need additional help in restoring backups please contact the author for help.

Importing Data

bookTome supports importing data from other programs, but expects the data to be in a very specific format. The file format supported is CSV, and the following columns must be present for the import to be successful:

AUTHOR - Author Name
PUBLISHER - Publisher Name
STORENAME - Store Name
BOOKFORMAT - Binding
LOCATION - Location
CATEGORY - Category
SERIES - Series

TITLE - Book Title
BOOKNUM - Book Number (Format: Book x)
ISBN - ISBN
PUBDATE - Publication Date (Format yyyy/mm/dd)
PAGES - Number of Pages
LISTPRICE - List Price (Format $x.xx)
PURCHPRICE - Purchase Price (Format $x.xx)
PURCHDATE - Purchase Date (Format yyyy/mm/dd)
READ - Book Read (Format Y/N)
COMMENTS - Book Description (Format xx&newline;&newline;xx&doublequote;)
RATING - Book Rating (Format x (1 to 5))

The first row of the CSV file should be the headings as listed above in bold. You are able to change the headings to match the required values in the Data Management Wizard, including automatically creating any missing columns. Each subsequent row of the CSV file is a single data record, which contains the details of a single book record that you wish to import.

All of the fields must be present in the file, however they can be blank except for Author and Title, which are required fields. The Data Management Wizard will verify that these two columns do not contain any blank data.

Data validation, beyond checking all columns are present and required data is not missing, is not performed, so please ensure that the data is in the expected format before importing. Where a specific format is required, it is shown in brackets in the list above.

Duplicate checks of imported lookup lists is performed, but book records themselves are not checked for duplicates, as your collection of books may contain different copies of the same book.

The import procedure has been designed around the export file that Readerware creates. If you are using this program, then it should be easy to export all columns from the program, open the resulting file in Microsoft Excel, change the data format to match the requirements and then export the file to a CSV.

Exporting Data

bookTome supports exporting data for use in other programs. You can export the data into two different formats, HTML and CSV. The HTML format is used for websites, while most other programs are able to read the CSV format. If the program you are using to read the data requires a specific format, then you will manually need to change the exported data to meet this requirement. Additional configuration of the exported data is possible and is explained by the options presented in the wizard.

Web Export - Book Page

The following variables are available for use:

%TITLE% - Book Title
%SERIES% - Series Name
%BOOKNUMBER% - Book Number
%AUTHOR% - Book Author
%PUBLISHER% - Book Publisher
%ISBN% - Book ISBN
%YEAR% - Year of Publication
%NUMBEROFPAGES% - Number of Pages
%STORE% - Purchase Store
%LISTPRICE% - List Price
%PURCHASEPRICE% - Purchase Price
%PURCHASEDATE% - Purchase Date
%BINDING% - Binding Type
%LOCATION% - Location
%CATEGORY% - Category
%READ% - Read Book
%DESCRIPTION% - Description
%TAGS% - Tags
%RATING% - Book Rating

%LARGEIMAGE% - Filename of The Large Image
%SMALLIMAGE% - Filename of The Small Image

%INDEX% - Filename of The Index Page
%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database

%SERIESSTART% - %SERIESEND% - All Text Between These Is Removed If The Book Has No Series
%BOOKNUMSTART% - %BOOKNUMEND% - All Text Between These Is Removed If The Book Has No Book Number

Web Export - Book Index Page

The following variables are available for use:

%LINKS% - The location where you wish the links to be outputted.
%READINGLINKS% - The location where you wish the link to the currently reading page to be outputted.

%INDEX% - Filename of The Index Page
%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database

Web Export - Currently Reading Page

The variables available for use are the same as on the individual book pages.

Web Export - Author Page

The following variables are available for use:

%AUTHOR% - Author Name
%WEBSITE% - Author Website URL
%COUNTRY% - Author Country
%WISHLIST% - Author Wish List Status

%AUTHORIMAGE% - Filename of The Author Image

%NUMBOOKS% - Number of Books by Author
%NUMWISHLIST% - Number of Wish List Books by Author

%LINKS% - Links to Books by Author

%INDEX% - Filename of The Books Index Page
%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database

Web Export - Author Index Page

The following variables are available for use:

%LINKS% - The location where you wish the links to be outputted.

%INDEX% - Filename of The Books Index Page
%INDEXAUTHORS% - Filename of The Authors Index Page
%NUMBOOKDB% - Number of Books in the Database
%NUMAUTHORSDB% - Number of Authors in the Database

Web Services

This program makes optional use of a number of different websites and services to make adding new books easier. The sources currently used are:

Amazon - Book Cover Images, Data & Descriptions
Library Thing - Book Descriptions
ISBNdb - Book Descriptions

You can enable or disable these services in the Tools section. The bookTome server is contacted during the process to format the request - no personal information is transmitted or stored.

Keyboard Shortcuts

While bookTome is designed to be used with a combination of both the mouse and keyboard, the following keyboard shortcuts can be used in the program to streamline common tasks:

Delete - Deletes the selected book or wish list entry.
Insert - Adds a new book or wish list entry.
Enter - Edits the currently selected book, wish list entry or author.

Additional keyboard shortcuts will be added to future versions of bookTome.

Latest Changes

You can review the Change Log for this version on the page below:

Changes for Version 1.70

Known Issues

You can review the Known Issues and Wish List for this version on the page below:

Known Issues and Wish List for Version 1.70