Logos Library Reporter

steve clark
steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭
edited November 20 in English Forum

I have a Window's based program that i built which generates reports on your Logos Library. It is useful to see what has changed between updates in your Logos Library. As you in the future get new updates, you can run the program to generate reports which show you the differences. [if you happen to have backed-up your Logos files, then you might even be able to find your old catalog files and run a report on them]

i have been working on a webpage in the hope of sharing my program with those of you on the forum. But it has turned into a much larger project than i expected. So i have decided to place this post to see how many of you are interested in this program before i put any more time into finishing the webpage (which will provide the installation program as well as detailed info on how to use the program). So if you are interested in using this program, then post a Thumb's-Up Reply to this post. i have the user's manual part of the webpage built, but still have to detail all the Reports, build the page for installation, and a few other webpage to help.

Click on a report image below to view the actual report

Reports on differences between my 2013 Library and my 2014 Library (pulled old copy of my Library from a Backup). This is where the program REALLY becomes useful !

  

         

        

       

(used really old backup from 2010 so these report would be populated)

   

Reports on a Single Library Catalog

      

       

QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

«13456

Comments

  • Randy W. Sims
    Randy W. Sims Member Posts: 2,272 ✭✭✭

    [Y] Cool stuff! The metadata hounds should love this. Be great to run when logos releases unidentified updates to see some of what's changed in those updates.

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,776

    [Y]

    Resource type changes are very useful to me. A report on Mytags and (My)Ratings differences would also be useful.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • Martin Grainger Dean
    Martin Grainger Dean Member Posts: 571
    Interesting! But all the data from "Logos version" are false (all books in your library)?
  • Brother Mark
    Brother Mark Member Posts: 945 ✭✭

    [Y]  Steve, I am entirely in favor of you expending your time and effort on my behalf!  Good on ya, mate!

    "I read dead people..."

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    Interesting! But all the data from "Logos version" are false (all books in your library)?

    Hi Martin,

    That is true, in the LogosVer report, there is a footnote at the bottom of the report as shown below:

    ============================================

    Logos book Version number as found in your Catalog does NOT reflect the actual version number for your book stored on your computer. (this seems to be updated in the Catalog file when opening Logos, to reflect what is currently available on the Logos site). The actual book's Version number seems to be locked away inside the book's data file and when viewing a book's info in the Logos program, it retrieves the version number from the actual book file.

    ============================================

    In my case, i don't have Logos set to Auto Update (for personal reasons). And i have noticed the discrepancy, but decided to leave the report as it is (thus why i added the footnote at the bottom). If you viewed the Full Report, then i just turned on a flag which included much of the info that is stored in the catalog file (thus the LogosVer showing up under each title. In the program the user just checks what extra info that they want added under each title. So it would be very easy to exclude the Logos Ver info in the reports.)

    Since i am not a Logos employee, i have no inside information as to why the Logos version for each title is not representing the actual Logos version for each title.

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    A report on Mytags and (My)Ratings differences would also be useful.

    In the current version of the program, these fields are not saved into the program's database. Also there are not current reports for these fields. Doesn't mean that i could not improve the program to add these fields.

    Are we speaking about the same fields in the Catalog.db file?

    User Tags ?

    User Ratings ?

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Erwin Stull, Sr.
    Erwin Stull, Sr. Member Posts: 2,793

    [Y]

    Yes, please. Thanks

    The Added/Missing report and the PBB's report would be good to try out at this time. I created a PB, deleted it, and it still shows in my library. Maybe one of your reports will uncover something.

  • Martin Grainger Dean
    Martin Grainger Dean Member Posts: 571



    Logos book Version number as found in your Catalog does NOT reflect the actual version number for your book stored on your computer. (this seems to be updated in the Catalog file when opening Logos, to reflect what is currently available on the Logos site). The actual book's Version number seems to be locked away inside the book's data file and when viewing a book's info in the Logos program, it retrieves the version number from the actual book file.

    Steve, so if the book's version is not stored (at all) on our computer, from where is taken in your report since you have "set the auto update to off"?
  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    so if the book's version is not stored (at all) on our computer,

    My program uses only 1 of the many databases which are part of the Logos Bible Software program. i am only making a copy of the catalog.db file and my program reads the copy of this database.

    EDIT:  i am guessing that the actual book version is stored inside the actual book file itself.

    from where is taken in your report since you have "set the auto update to off"?

    As mentioned above, i am making a copy of Logos' catalog.db. It is from this database that the program glean info to generate the reports.

    My mentioning that i have "auto update turned off" was to help you understand that my catalog.db may/is not fully up-to-date. i periodically will allow Logos to update my Library and it is at this time that my catalog file is fully updated. i have noticed that even though i don't permit an update, the catalog file is updated after opening the program (Logos), this doesn't occur every time i open Logos but i do notice it happening periodically.

    The reason for my controlling the "Auto Update" process is so that i can control when Logos wants to run the Indexer.

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Martin Grainger Dean
    Martin Grainger Dean Member Posts: 571
    Steve, maybe "Logos version" should be "Last updated"? Can you check this hypothesis?
  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    maybe "Logos version" should be "Last updated"? Can you check this hypothesis?

    Guessing at a resource's Version number is not going to happen in the program that i have built (Logos Library Reporter).

    By using the Com-API interface i could positively get a resource's Version number. But in other programs that i have written to work with Logos, i have found that there are inconsistencies with the Com-API interface working on several user's computers. Plus this interface runs pretty slow. This would slow down the reporter program as it interrogated Logos for each title in your library. So i will not be adding the Com-API interface to the Logos Library Reporter program. After contacting Logos in the past, they have better things to attend to than tracking down why the Com-API interface is inconsistent.

    Sorry....

    Is having each title's Version number that critical in a report?

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Martin Grainger Dean
    Martin Grainger Dean Member Posts: 571
    Depends. But most important I guess we have to have true data in a tool (?). Or maybe you can skip this step at all...
  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    Depends. But most important I guess we have to have true data in a tool (?). Or maybe you can skip this step at all...

    Perhaps viewing the webpage that i am working on would give you a better idea how the program functions. Please keep in mind that it is incomplete at this time (the reason for this thread). And yes, before releasing it to the public, i might disable the Version attribute/report (viewing the screenshot, you probably can guess how i would do that).

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • SteveF
    SteveF Member Posts: 1,866 ✭✭✭

    [Y]

    Regards, SteveF

  • Roger G Black
    Roger G Black Member Posts: 103

    Rog {BlueBird} Cool

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,776

    Are we speaking about the same fields in the Catalog.db file?

    User Tags ?

    User Ratings ?

    Yes.

    UserTags, UserRating,

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    Dave,

    UserTags, UserRating,

    i have added the Rating & Tagging reports to the program (see short example reports below)

    Click on images below to view the Reports

       

       

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 35,776

    Dave,

    UserTags, UserRating,

    i have added the Rating & Tagging reports to the program (see short example reports below)

    Thank you. The report with more details is the best.

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    The report with more details is the best.

    The number of details is set by the user, they will just use the checkboxes to identify which details they want in the report.

    Still cleaning up and testing the changes, haven't had time to get back to completing the webpage and add stuff for installation of the program.

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    But all the data from "Logos version" are false (all books in your library)?

    Sorry....

    Is having each title's Version number that critical in a report?

    Found a way to fix this. See example  report below (my book version may not match yours, but check my LastUpdated date for when i updated my Library). Never-the-less, all books will now have accurate Versions now.

    Click on image to view the report

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    i also added the generation of a CSV file (for use in a spreadsheet, e.g. Excel) when you generate a report on All books by Logos Type. It is automatically added to the program's My Reports folder.

    Click on image below to view

     (if you want to download it and open it in Excel, click on the link to the right)  CSV file

    EDIT: i plan on adding this ability to one other report (All Books as found in Logos Catalog DB)

    EDIT2: after opening your CSV in Excel, you can make changes to enhance it's appearance and then save it as an Excel file (.xlsx)

    Click on image below to view

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,143

    So if you are interested in using this program, then post a Thumb's-Up Reply to this post.

    [Y]

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    Found a way to show  Hidden books that are not shown in your Library. This will be a new report in the program LLReporter.

    Click on image below to view the report

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Lee
    Lee Member Posts: 2,714

    Why not turn the code over to the devs, and make it a new feature?

    FWIW, I think you should be remunerated appropriately for this. More than a token sum, I should think.

  • Naveen Balakrishnan
    Naveen Balakrishnan Member Posts: 55

    Yes

    Would love to see this made part of a feature in Logos.

  • David De Haan
    David De Haan Member Posts: 17

    This could be a worthwhile tool.  I am interested!

    Thank you.

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    OK, the Logos Library Reporter installer is active on the website.

    • Please fully read this post before going to the website.
    • Please read the System Requirements (on the website, the link should open you to the Installation Tab where the System Requirements are located)
    • Please READ the Disclaimer before downloading/installing the program!!!
    • Click on this link to go to the website

    After reading and agreeing with the disclaimer, scroll down to the Download & Installing section and click on the Reporter.zip link to download the zipped installer program (please follow the instructions to Download/Unzip/Install the program).

    If you have questions or problems, PLEASE email me (don't use the forum for your problems, i don't check it very often). You will find an email address for me in the bottom right-corner of the webpage (see image below). Hover your mouse over the webpage's Contact link (admin) and right-click on the link & in the pop-up menu click COPY EMAIL ADDRESS. Then go to your email program and paste the email address into the TO: section of your email. Please be very descriptive of your problem. Include screen-shots of error messages in the email. Also you will find a log file in documents/Logos Lib Webpage/LogoLibReporter_Logfile.txt , please add it also to your email.

        

    Hope that this works for you! Keep in mind that this has only be run on 2 computers (my Vista machine and my son's Win7 machine). So don't be surprise/discouraged if you run into problems. Remember i am a 1 man-development team [:D]. So be patient with me & the program.

    Please add a Reply to this post upon successfully installing and getting your first report generated. Please note what computer operating system you have (i.e. Windows7 or Vista or whatever). Thank you!

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1

  • Erwin Stull, Sr.
    Erwin Stull, Sr. Member Posts: 2,793

    Hi Steve, and thanks for the program.

    Installation issue (a small one): The program would not initially install due to a missing Visual Basic Lib. (Visual Basic Powerpack v10).

    The fix: Obtaining the required component from Microsoft (VisualBasicPowerPacksSetup.exe).

    Once the missing component was obtained and installed, the installation process was straightforward.

    Running Windows 7 Ultimate 64

  • steve clark
    steve clark Member Posts: 3,591 ✭✭✭

    The program would not initially install due to a missing Visual Basic Lib. (Visual Basic Powerpack v10).

    Thanks!

    i changed the manifest to include this library. The new version of the ZIP installer has been placed on the server.

    Thank You again, excellent diagnostics Sir!

    QLinks, Bibl2, LLR, Macros
    Dell Insp 17-5748, i5, 1.7 GHz, 8G RAM, win 8.1