MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Interesting cataloging and gui features in Readerware

unboggling · 01-20-2011, 07:31 AM

I downloaded Readerware for free-30-day-evaluation. It's a pBook cataloging application available for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
http://www.readerware.com/index.html

Calibre and Readerware can't really be compared because they're apples and oranges. Calibre focuses on eBook cataloging, eBook device management, and eBook format conversions while Readerware focuses on pBook cataloging for single users, and pBook cataloging and inventory for libraries and vendors. So Readerware is not presently a competitor with calibre. Readerware does have some nice features in the cataloging and gui arenas that the calibre community might want to consider (idly) for (potential) eventual inclusion of similar functionality in calibre.

Some features I liked:

1. Print, with choice of all or choice of search results in the gui window, in csv. Report Print in basic table in html, or in other formats. (But I could only select columns for printing csv by hiding the ones I didn't want printed, which was clunky. Report Print only used author, title, isbn, estimated_value, not user-selectable fields.) [Sorry. No intent to beat a dead horse here, regarding the printing issue.]

2. Export metadata as csv or other filetypes, allows user-chosen and user-orderable columns.

3. Import csv. (But in Readerware the fields in the import csv have to be in the exact order Readerware wants them in, even the fields in Readerware that don't exist previously in your csv, which it doesn't tell you in advance.)

4. Scan ISBN of pBooks for auto metadata grab with cuecat or some other barcode scanner. (If I use calibre for also tracking my pBooks, I've got to get metadata for 2000+ books into empty records somehow, then also for any new pBooks I buy. For my existing pLibrary, I can automate calibredb add_empty_book with formulas from existing pBook spreadsheet pasted into OS command line, or a script to do all that. For new pBooks, it'd be nice to scan directly into an automatic calibre add_empty_book and metadata grab based on the scanned ISBN.)

5. Auto-metadata-grab from multiple pBook vendors based on ISBN. (Amazon, B&N, many others, then merge those various metadata's.)

6. Auto-load books purchased from vendors (e.g., it obtains metadata from vendors for the books I've bought there. Presently it only seems to do Amazon.)

7. Fields include, among the usual: Copyright_date (in addition to Published_date), Read or not, number of Pages, LCCN, Dewey. I don't use or care about LCCN and Dewey but other people might. Number of pages is possibly useful for pBook owners though I don't care about that either.

8. Column-dragging in the gui to re-order them.

9. Authors, title, and other fields links. Clicking author in the author field results in search and display of all titles in db by that author. Clicking title in the title field results in search and display of all duplicates. Clicking on items in other fields does other things depending on which field.

Yes, developers, I know: if I want calibre to do something, write calibre plugins myself. I will when I learn enough Python, which I'm working on.

There are lots of things in the gui and cataloging arenas calibre does better than Readerware. Readerware may have other potentially useful features or incredibly bad things I missed.

Meanwhile, in case anyone's interested in looking at Readerware and comparing apples and oranges, that's what I found.

01-20-2011, 07:31 AM	#1
unboggling Wizard Posts: 1,065 Karma: 858115 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Kobo Clara, Kindle Paperwhite 10	Interesting cataloging and gui features in Readerware I downloaded Readerware for free-30-day-evaluation. It's a pBook cataloging application available for Windows, Linux, and Mac. http://www.readerware.com/index.html Calibre and Readerware can't really be compared because they're apples and oranges. Calibre focuses on eBook cataloging, eBook device management, and eBook format conversions while Readerware focuses on pBook cataloging for single users, and pBook cataloging and inventory for libraries and vendors. So Readerware is not presently a competitor with calibre. Readerware does have some nice features in the cataloging and gui arenas that the calibre community might want to consider (idly) for (potential) eventual inclusion of similar functionality in calibre. Some features I liked: 1. Print, with choice of all or choice of search results in the gui window, in csv. Report Print in basic table in html, or in other formats. (But I could only select columns for printing csv by hiding the ones I didn't want printed, which was clunky. Report Print only used author, title, isbn, estimated_value, not user-selectable fields.) [Sorry. No intent to beat a dead horse here, regarding the printing issue.] 2. Export metadata as csv or other filetypes, allows user-chosen and user-orderable columns. 3. Import csv. (But in Readerware the fields in the import csv have to be in the exact order Readerware wants them in, even the fields in Readerware that don't exist previously in your csv, which it doesn't tell you in advance.) 4. Scan ISBN of pBooks for auto metadata grab with cuecat or some other barcode scanner. (If I use calibre for also tracking my pBooks, I've got to get metadata for 2000+ books into empty records somehow, then also for any new pBooks I buy. For my existing pLibrary, I can automate calibredb add_empty_book with formulas from existing pBook spreadsheet pasted into OS command line, or a script to do all that. For new pBooks, it'd be nice to scan directly into an automatic calibre add_empty_book and metadata grab based on the scanned ISBN.) 5. Auto-metadata-grab from multiple pBook vendors based on ISBN. (Amazon, B&N, many others, then merge those various metadata's.) 6. Auto-load books purchased from vendors (e.g., it obtains metadata from vendors for the books I've bought there. Presently it only seems to do Amazon.) 7. Fields include, among the usual: Copyright_date (in addition to Published_date), Read or not, number of Pages, LCCN, Dewey. I don't use or care about LCCN and Dewey but other people might. Number of pages is possibly useful for pBook owners though I don't care about that either. 8. Column-dragging in the gui to re-order them. 9. Authors, title, and other fields links. Clicking author in the author field results in search and display of all titles in db by that author. Clicking title in the title field results in search and display of all duplicates. Clicking on items in other fields does other things depending on which field. Yes, developers, I know: if I want calibre to do something, write calibre plugins myself. I will when I learn enough Python, which I'm working on. There are lots of things in the gui and cataloging arenas calibre does better than Readerware. Readerware may have other potentially useful features or incredibly bad things I missed. Meanwhile, in case anyone's interested in looking at Readerware and comparing apples and oranges, that's what I found.