Encrypting communication between web browsers and web servers has been common for years, and is now pretty much required in all situations. The protocols used for this encryption have evolved over the years, in spec and in name, from SSL versions 1.0 to 3.0, then TLS versions 1.0 to the present 1.2 and 1.3. As newer versions are released, older ones are considered less secure and obsolete. As a security best practice, it is usually prudent to remove or disable older protocols on servers, so they can’t be exploited.

All software that Andornot offers and hosts is or can be run under TLS 1.2 or later, including Inmagic WebPublisher PRO. Version 19 of WebPublisher PRO, released in 2021, has native support for TLS 1.2, but there is a workaround for earlier versions.

If you are running WebPublisher PRO on premises and disable versions of SSL and TLS less than TLS 1.2 and find your WebPublisher app no longer works, contact us. We can both advise you on approaches for your current software and suggest more modern software for an improved search experience, such as our Andornot Discovery Interface.

Inmagic has released version 17 of the its popular desktop database management system, DB/TextWorks, with several new features, such as:

1. Undo Record Deletion

Ah, we've all done this... deleted a record we didn't mean to, or worse, clicked Batch Delete instead of Batch Modify and wiped out hundreds or thousands of records. Oops. Of course, we all have robust backup systems (right?) so we've been able to recover from our mistake without too much grief.

But now we can recover deleted records with a couple of clicks within DB/TextWorks. This new feature needs to be specifically enabled for each DB/TextWorks user (in Tools > Options).

Once active, whenever you delete a record, a copy of it is first written to a CSV text file in your User Files directory. This applies both to single record deletions and to batches. The file is stored for 5 days, so you have a short window in which to realize your mistake, but there is no limit to the number of records that can be stored this way. There is then a new menu option (Records > Undo Delete Record(s)) to recover the most recently deleted records, working backwards through all deletions.

One important caveat is that fields in your textbase which are Automatic Number, Automatic Date and similar system-generated fields will most likely not be restored to their original values, but rather set to new ones. For example, if you have a field that stores the date a record was created, when you undo record deletion, the restored records will have today's date as the created date. A small price to pay for the ease of recovering from a mistake, though.

Savvy Windows users who want to rely on this as an even longer term insurance policy could get around the 5 day storage period with a script that runs nightly on their PC to copy the CSV text files to some other folder for permanent storage, where they won't be deleted. (Contact us if you need help with something like that).

2. Search for Duplicate Records

A new entry on the Edit menu, "Browse Duplicated Terms", opens the Query Choices Browser with a new radio button option, "Duplicated Terms", selected. This shows all entries in the selected field which are present in more than one record. In other words, where the Term Index shows all entries, this omits all those that appear in a single record only.

This feature is useful for fields that ought to be unique, such as Call Number in a Library Catalogue or Accession Number in an Archival Accessions or Descriptions database. You,ll quickly be able to see, find and correct inappropriate duplicates.

3. Send Report as Mail supports specifying alternative port

This feature is handy if you use a service such as SendGrid to send bulk emails to addresses stored in a DB/TextWorks databases, as these sorts of services often require that you use a specific port, rather than the email default port of 25.

Bug Fixes

Also addressed in this release are fixes several issues that appeared in the previous one:

• Specified sort in Genie report is ignored.
• Dead URL Link Checker: cannot handle TOC info (pound sign) in URL. The checker is more robust, but some URLs still may not be handled correctly (Due to obsolete WinHTTP stack in 32-bit window).
• Copy Special operation may not include all data in a record.

If you upgrade from a version prior to 15 directly to 17, be sure to read the instructions about the necessary upgrade to your textbases as well as the software. If you're already using version 15, 15.5 or 16, you'll have done this already.

Customers with a current Inmagic maintenance subscription will receive emails from advantage@inmagic.com with instructions for downloading this release. As always, contact us with any questions about this new release, to check the status of your maintenance subscription, or for help upgrading.

Arctic Health, intended for students, researchers, and anyone with an interest in health aspects of the Arctic, is a central source for information on diverse aspects of the Arctic environment and the health of northern peoples. The Arctic Health website provides access to a database of over 280,000 evaluated publications and resources on these topics. To improve access to this collection, a new search engine has just been launched at https://arctichealth.org

Search results in Arctic Health include published and unpublished articles, reports, data, and links to organizations pertinent to Arctic health, as well as out-of-print publications and information from special collections at the University of Alaska. Resources come from hundreds of local, state, national, and international agencies, as well as from professional societies, tribal groups, and universities.

Arctic Health is managed by the Alaska Medical Library at the University of Alaska Anchorage, by Prof. Kathy Murray and a team of staff. Andornot has worked with this group since 2005 and designed several previous search interfaces using Inmagic WebPublisher PRO and dtSearch.

Prof. Murray approached Andornot last year with several updates in mind, such as to ensure the search results are accessible on mobile devices, not just desktops. Rather than simply adjust the existing site, this precipitated a complete review of the current system, including data entry workflow and the actual content to be included, as well as discussions on a more modern search engine.  

As we do with many projects, Andornot began this challenge by separating out the user groups and functions. Library staff need a system to manage and upload records, with features for adding, editing, converting and validating data. Researchers and health care practitioners, on the other hand, need an easy to use, robust system for searching the vast archive of resources. With such a large number of records, a sophisticated search engine is needed to float the most relevant results to the top of any search.

For the back-end, Andornot developed a web application that uses Inmagic DB/TextWorks for data storage, and Inmagic WebPublisher PRO as a middle layer. We were able to update and re-use an XSLT we'd previously developed that UAA uses to import records in XML format from PubMed. This hybrid approach of using existing commercial software and a custom-developed web application provided the features needed by library staff at a more economical cost than a completely custom written system. 

For the public search interface, we used our Andornot Discovery Interface (AnDI). AnDI is a modern search engine based on the popular Apache Solr system, with features such as:

• Excellent keyword search engine and relevancy-ranked search results.
• Automatic spelling corrections and “did you mean?” search suggestions.
• Full text indexing of linked documents.
• Facets, such as subjects, authors, places, dates, and material types, to allow users to quickly and simply refine their search.
• A selection list allows users to mark items of interest as they search, then view, print or email the list.

AnDI helps users quickly find relevant materials from the large collection at Arctic Health and is a significant improvement over the previous search options.

Both systems in this solution are hosted by Andornot as part of our Managed Hosting Service.

Check out the new iteration of the Arctic Health resource database at https://arctichealth.org, and contact Andornot for help with your project.

Inmagic DB/TextWorks version 16, released in July 2017, provides you with several great new features for managing data and databases. This blog post is one of a series providing details of how to take advantage of these new features.

This blog post is about the new ability to sort empty fields last in search results.

Suppose you search a bibliographic database and sort the results by publication date, in reverse order, so the most recently published materials appear first. This works very well when every record in the search results has a publication date. However, if a record has no date, as sometimes happens, those "empty" records will appear first in the search results. This tends to be disconcerting to users as it's not often clear why they are first.

This new feature in DB/TextWorks version 16 allows you to sort those records last. This feature can be used in DB/TextWorks and in WebPublisher PRO searches, including in web forms built from our Andornot Starter Kit.

Here's how to apply this sort option to any Report Form in DB/TextWork (a Report Form is typically used to display many records at once, usually in a brief format):

1. Open your database in DB/TextWorks version 16.
2. Open a form that has an existing sort order, or one you want to add it to, in the Form Designer with Display > Design Form.
3. Select Report Options > Compulsory Sort.
4. Note the new tick box for sorting empty fields last. Select the field you wish to apply this to, add it to the Sort Fields list on the right, and tick the Sort Empties Last option.

If you have a web interface built by Andornot using our Andornot Starter Kit, you can follow the same steps above to apply this to a Web Form. It's most suitable for something like a WebBriefDate form, where results are sorted by Date.

You can also use this new Sort Empties Last feature with reports that have no sort order applied yet, on-the-fly, by searching, then selecting Display > Sort Report and choosing this sort option (step 4 above).

Contact Andornot for help applying this new feature to your databases, or for a free assessment of your databases and suggestions to use them more efficiently or in new ways. We’d be happy to chat with you!

Inmagic has released version 16 of the very popular and long-standing DB/TextWorks database management system, and the companion WebPublisher PRO web search interface. Several new features, as well as issues fixed from previous releases, continue to make this software great value for our clients.

New features include:

• Sorting – When specifying sort fields, you now have the option to sort empties last. Before, records where the sort field was empty could only be listed first or omitted. Since this option does not change the perceived number of records in the report, it is also available for the textbase Default Sort Order and for WebPublisher reports.
• Form Designer – WebPublisher reports can now easily link from a small image on a web page (a thumbnail) to the full size image. The new option is on the HTML tab of the Picture Box Properties dialog box.
• Adding/Editing Records – When editing a Link field, a new type of box permits you to browse the values in a field other than the Link field, making it easier to select the record you want to link to. For example, you can display the list of Borrower Names, and clicking a name will paste that user’s employee ID into the Link field box.
• Select All (Ctrl+A) – This keyboard shortcut now behaves as it does in nearly every other product. You can use it to select all the text in a box, all the boxes on a form or screen, all the text in the Command Query window, or all the annotations on an image. In previous releases, Ctrl+A was used for Redo. Redo now uses Ctrl+Y. 
• Edit Textbase Structure – The Edit Fields dialog box has two new features:
  • Sort Field List by – This feature permits you to sort the Field List by Field Name, or by Field Type.
  • Hide <Deleted> Fields – This option permits you to hide the <Deleted> items so they do not clutter up the display.
  • Note: Both are display-only features to make it easier to find and work with the fields you want to modify. Neither affects the actual field order specified in the structure.

Other issues addressed include:

• Print Images – If a textbase has multiple Image fields, and you print only the images from a specific field, blank pages are no longer printed for any images specified in the other fields.
• Report window – Addressed an issue with the records sometimes not being visible past the first page when you held down the mouse scroll wheel then dragged the mouse.
• Send Report as Mail – Improved the handling of multiple email addresses when using the "Mail to addresses specified in records" feature.
• Textbase Information – Addressed an issue where longer short date formats caused the year to be truncated in the "Current date" specified at the top of this display.
• Toolbar icons – The icons for Vertical Tile and Horizontal Tile were backwards in previous releases. This issue has been corrected, and the options have been renamed to "Show Windows Side by Side" and "Show Windows Stacked" to make their behavior clearer.
• Form Designer – Addressed an issue with the Box Properties dialog box crashing when a box included an extremely large Fixed Text or Added Text string (usually HTML).
• Textbase Information – Removed Windows Group Memberships from Textbase Information and "About this Computer System".
• WebPublisher Browse Choices – The buttons have been optimized; for example, we've added an "Add & Close" button so that users no longer need to click "Add" then "Close".

If you upgrade from a version prior to 15 directly to 16, be sure to read the instructions about the necessary upgrade to your textbases as well as the software. If you're already using version 15 or 15.5, you’ll have done this already.

Clients with a current Inmagic maintenance subscription will receive emails from advantage@inmagic.com with instructions for downloading this release. As always, contact Andornot with any questions about this new release, to check the status of your maintenance subscription, or for help upgrading.