Suppose you have a field called FileLink in a database, and you have a collection of PDFs or similar documents on your network. And suppose you want to catalogue these, enter the name of the PDF in the FileLink field, and then in DB/TextWorks search results, have the file name appear as a link that you can click to open the file.

Here's how to do this:

1. Open your Display Form (the one used to show all records) or a Report Form (usually used for brief results) in the Form Designer.

2. Right click on the FileLink field (or add it first if it's not there) and select Box Properties.

3. Select the Format tab, then the Added Text subtab.

4. In the 'Beginning Text' field, enter '<file://' (without quotes) and just a closing angle bracket > in Ending Text, like this:

5. Apply your changes, save the form, and return to your database.

6. Create a new record and in the FileLink field, right click and choose Browse Files. Browse to the location of the file. For example, if the file is on a network server called DOCUMENTS, in a folder called Reports, browse to \\DOCUMENTS\Reports and select the document (e.g. \\DOCUMENTS\Reports\Report123.pdf).

7. When you now search the database and view the full record, the above data will appear with <file:// in front and a closing >, like this:

<file://\\DOCUMENTS\Reports\Report123.pdf>

as shown in the image below.

8. You should be able to click this and open the file (assuming you have a PDF reader app in this case).

As always, contact us for help doing this or making other changes to your DB/TextWorks databases.

Inmagic released version 15 of DB/TextWorks and WebPublisher PRO not long ago and many of you have or are upgrading to this new version, to take advantage of some of the great new features, especially in DB/TextWorks.

Please note that when upgrading, special attention must be paid to any forms and query screens inside your textbase that you use on the web. This may be forms that you developed yourself and use with WebPublisher, or they may be forms provided by Andornot as part of our Andornot Starter Kit or Andornot Archives Starter Kit. A change to DB/TextWorks in version 15 may affect the layout of your search pages and results.

The ReadMe file for version 15 notes the following:

Use Cascading Style Sheets to preserve formatting. In the Query Screen Designer and Form Designer the HTML tab of the Screen Properties or Form Properties dialog box includes this new option. Previous versions of DB/TextWorks asked the question each time you used Export Query Screen to HTML or Export Editing Form to HTML. In addition:

• Whether cascading style sheets (CSS) are used is explicitly specified for each form, rather than for WebPublisher as a whole or by query screen.
• The WebCSSOpt= DBTWPUB.INI option and the CS= URL parameter have been removed.
• WebPublisher no longer tries to guess whether CSS will cause overlapping by automatically disabling CSS for forms that include Raw HTMLor Inline Images.
• When DB/TextWorks upgrades a textbase for use with v15.0, all query screens and forms will be modified to have this option checked. If any of your forms include Raw HTML or Inline Images, which may cause overlapping, you may need to open them in the Form Designer to uncheck this option.

All forms that were provided by Andornot from our Starter Kits should not have Use CSS checked. With forms that you developed yourself, you may or may not wish to have this, depending on your form design.

If you've already upgraded and your web search layout is looking a bit like the morning after a wild night out (e.g. messed up), most likely it's due to the above and you simply need to open each form in the Form Designer, edit the Form Properties, and uncheck this box.

If you need assistance with the above, or have other layout issues, please feel free to contact us.

Did you know that you can track quite a bit of detail about database usage in Inmagic DB/TextWorks? Every textbase can include a log file in which can track opening and closing a database, record locking, and record additions and deletions, including the Windows username of the person editing a record.

Time and time again, this log file has proven useful to Andornot and our clients. When errors appear in records, and especially when they have been deleted, perhaps erroneously, checking the log file usually helps clear up the mystery of when and by whom changes or deletions we made. While recovering a backup may be necessary to undo the changes, identifying how it happened goes a long way towards preventing future issues (as does adding passwords and other security to databases).

Full details and options for enabling textbase logs are provided in the help built in to DB/TextWorks. Just press F1 and read the entry for "Textbase log files." Here are some excerpts:

Textbase Log Files 

For each textbase, you can enable a log file to record textbase activity, including record and structure changes. A log file is a standard ASCII text file. It is saved in the same location as the textbase and has the same file name as the textbase, with the extension .log. You can enable, view, print, or delete a log file from within DB/TextWorks.  

Note: A log file does not record activity performed using Manage Textbase Elements.  

To enable a textbase log file 

Choose Maintain > Edit Textbase Structure > Log File.  

In the Textbase Log File dialog box, select Enable Logging to File.  

Select one or two fields with key identifying  information that will be written to the log file. We usually recommend selecting the Record ID field if you have one, plus the Title or similar key name field.

To record user activity in the textbase log file 

You can add a Details = parameter to the [LogFile] section of the <textbase>.ini file if you want the textbase log file to record who is opening the textbase, editing records, and locking records. 

Example:  

[LogFile] 

Details = 2  

 

You can set this to one of the following:  

0 - No enhanced logging 

1 - Logs when a user opens or closes the textbase 

2 - Logs when a user modifies records (and opens/closes the textbase) 

3 - Logs when a user locks/unlocks record (and opens/closes the textbase or modifies records) 

 

The <textbase>.ini file will be located with all the other database files, including the log file.

 

See our series of "Spring Cleaning" blog posts about other recommended textbase management tasks.

Contact us for assistance setting this up, or for any other aspect of using DB/TextWorks.

At Andornot, we see a lot of email. Most of our communication with you, our clients and colleagues, is via email. We think this is similar for many of you too.

Many times we know you well, so when we see your name or email address in our Inbox, we know exactly who you are and where you work, live and play. But, sometimes, you're new to us, or perhaps one of us knows you and not the others. And that's when we immediately scroll to the bottom of your email to look at your signature to know more about who you are, what organization you work for. Alas, if all we see is:

"thanks, Bob"

it's often hard to answer your inquiry or provide whatever assistance you might be seeking. So much depends on context and fore-knowledge - what software you might have, when and how we last helped you, the nature of your organization (government department, corporation, library, archives), and so on.

When we see something like:

Bob Jones
Chief Archivist
Smallville Archives
Tel: 605-555-1212
bobjones@smallvillearchives.com

Joy! We know who you are and how best we can help you. All that from just 5 lines of text at the bottom of an email. And all so easy to set up in your email client. A signature can be appended to every outgoing email, both to colleagues within your organization, but most importantly, to those in the wide, wide world who haven't yet had the pleasure of meeting you.

But why stop at just your contact info? Your email signature is a great opportunity to let people know more about you and what you're doing. For example:

• include links to your LinkedIn profile or Twitter page,
• add a message about a project you're working on,
• list your latest blog post,
• invite people to contact you for help with information management or research, or
• remind people to return books to the library! 

The possibilities are endless. It's marketing, but it's useful, informative, helpful marketing. People appreciate these messages, much more than say, a billboard.

Further reading:

• http://www.getmailbird.com/do-me-a-favor-and-change-your-email-signature/ 
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/04/the-art-and-science-of-the-email-signature/
• http://www.fastcompany.com/3025208/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/5-common-mistakes-youre-making-with-your-email-signature

Genie’s Catalog Edit Screen includes all the fields needed to manage bibliographic records in the Genie catalogue. To help see more fields at once and minimize the need to scroll, the fields are split across four tabs, as shown here:

However, as monitors grow ever larger, with ever higher resolutions, more of a web page can be seen at once, and thus it may be more efficient to have more fields on fewer tabs. For example, here’s a layout with all the core bibliographic fields on one tab, with only serial info remaining on a separate tab:

This layout features fields that span the full width of the form, half the width, and one-third the width.

It’s fairly easy to do this by editing the Catalog edit screen in the MyEditScreens.config file, but do note that you will need to create a MyGenie.css style sheet with 2 new catalog edit styles, for the full-width and one-third width boxes, such as:

Once the styles are created, just re-arrange the fields in the Catalog edit screen into multiple tables of rows with 1, 2 or 3 fields in them, each using the appropriate styles. Here’s an example of the start of the report:

Contact us for any assistance with optimizing Genie to match your workflow, and your monitors!