[gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Eric Martin]

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Before I recreated the wheel, does anybody know of any good library 
management software (preferably in portage)?  My wife and I are having a 
hard time keeping track of what books we have, and what books we are 
lending out to people so I figured this would be a good way to keep 
track.  Since it's for personal use it doesn't have to be anything big. 
  Preferably backended by MySQL as I already have a server running for 
MythTV and Amarok.

I did a few eix searches for portage and came up empty handed, and 
sourceforge.net has a ton of stuff but I was wondering what other people 
use.

Thanks!
-- 
Eric Martin
Key fingerprint = D1C4 086E DBB5 C18E 6FDA  B215 6A25 7174 A941 3B9F


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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[CJoeB]

Eric Martin wrote:
> Before I recreated the wheel, does anybody know of any good library 
> management software (preferably in portage)?  My wife and I are having 
> a hard time keeping track of what books we have, and what books we are 
> lending out to people so I figured this would be a good way to keep 
> track.  Since it's for personal use it doesn't have to be anything 
> big.  Preferably backended by MySQL as I already have a server running 
> for MythTV and Amarok.
>
> I did a few eix searches for portage and came up empty handed, and 
> sourceforge.net has a ton of stuff but I was wondering what other 
> people use.

Have you heard of Tellico.  It's a collection manager that can be used 
for books, music, video ... whatever.  It allows you to enter the name 
of the book, a graphic if you have one, rate the book and indicate 
whether or not it's a gift, how much you paid for it and if you have 
lent it out.  It *is* in Portage.

Some information:

http://periapsis.org/tellico/

Regards,

Colleen

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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Eric Martin]

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CJoeB wrote:
> Eric Martin wrote:
>> Before I recreated the wheel, does anybody know of any good library 
>> management software (preferably in portage)?  My wife and I are having 
>> a hard time keeping track of what books we have, and what books we are 
>> lending out to people so I figured this would be a good way to keep 
>> track.  Since it's for personal use it doesn't have to be anything 
>> big.  Preferably backended by MySQL as I already have a server running 
>> for MythTV and Amarok.
>>
>> I did a few eix searches for portage and came up empty handed, and 
>> sourceforge.net has a ton of stuff but I was wondering what other 
>> people use.
> 
> Have you heard of Tellico.  It's a collection manager that can be used 
> for books, music, video ... whatever.  It allows you to enter the name 
> of the book, a graphic if you have one, rate the book and indicate 
> whether or not it's a gift, how much you paid for it and if you have 
> lent it out.  It *is* in Portage.
> 
> Some information:
> 
> http://periapsis.org/tellico/
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Colleen
> 
Thanks to all who replied!  Of course my homework load just doubled so 
this will have to wait a while before I take on any more projects but 
such is life.

-- 
Eric Martin
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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Stroller]

On 14 Jul 2008, at 13:06, CJoeB wrote:

> Eric Martin wrote:
>> Before I recreated the wheel, does anybody know of any good  
>> library management software (preferably in portage)?  My wife and  
>> I are having a hard time keeping track of what books we have, and  
>> what books we are lending out to people so I figured this would be  
>> a good way to keep track.  Since it's for personal use it doesn't  
>> have to be anything big.  Preferably backended by MySQL as I  
>> already have a server running for MythTV and Amarok.
>>
>> I did a few eix searches for portage and came up empty handed, and  
>> sourceforge.net has a ton of stuff but I was wondering what other  
>> people use.
>
> Have you heard of Tellico.  It's a collection manager that can be  
> used for books, music, video ... whatever.  It allows you to enter  
> the name of the book, a graphic if you have one, rate the book and  
> indicate whether or not it's a gift, how much you paid for it and  
> if you have lent it out.  It *is* in Portage.
>
> Some information:
>
> http://periapsis.org/tellico/

The screenshots of this look really nice, however to me this seems  
like a really odd motivation for writing a program:

   I started developing it when I couldn't find a personal database
   program for KDE which didn't using a SQL backend.

What's wrong with an SQL backend that needs you to re-invent the  
wheel? I'm not saying there's a better collection manager out there,  
or that the author's in the wrong for doing it the way he has. But it  
just seems a little odd, and I'd love for him to explain his reasons  
more fully.

Stroller.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Dirk Uys]

On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 9:49 PM, Stroller
<stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>
> The screenshots of this look really nice, however to me this seems like a
> really odd motivation for writing a program:
>
>  I started developing it when I couldn't find a personal database
>  program for KDE which didn't using a SQL backend.
>
> What's wrong with an SQL backend that needs you to re-invent the wheel? I'm
> not saying there's a better collection manager out there, or that the
> author's in the wrong for doing it the way he has. But it just seems a
> little odd, and I'd love for him to explain his reasons more fully.
>
> Stroller.
>
> --
> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
>

I personally have a problem running a SQL server just so that some app
that I use every now and then can store its data. I don't print that
often, so why would I have the CUPS daemon running 24/7 when I print a
page once every two weeks?

Other than that there is also the added complexity to the
installation. You have to create a user in the database, create the
database and grant the user all the needed permission to that specific
database.

And what if one app prefers mySQL and another one postgreSQL? Now I
need to run two database servers that will be quite capable to fill
the data needs of two small businesses just because I want to use a
music player and a library utility for my ~50 books laying around.

The app should at least give you the option to use somethings else like SQLlite.

But, that is just my viewpoint and I felt like I had to defend the
developers motivation.

Regards
Dirk
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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Eric Martin]

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Dirk Uys wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 9:49 PM, Stroller
> <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>> The screenshots of this look really nice, however to me this seems like a
>> really odd motivation for writing a program:
>>
>>  I started developing it when I couldn't find a personal database
>>  program for KDE which didn't using a SQL backend.
>>
>> What's wrong with an SQL backend that needs you to re-invent the wheel? I'm
>> not saying there's a better collection manager out there, or that the
>> author's in the wrong for doing it the way he has. But it just seems a
>> little odd, and I'd love for him to explain his reasons more fully.
>>
>> Stroller.
>>
>> --
>> gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list
>>
> 
> I personally have a problem running a SQL server just so that some app
> that I use every now and then can store its data. I don't print that
> often, so why would I have the CUPS daemon running 24/7 when I print a
> page once every two weeks?
> 
> Other than that there is also the added complexity to the
> installation. You have to create a user in the database, create the
> database and grant the user all the needed permission to that specific
> database.
> 
> And what if one app prefers mySQL and another one postgreSQL? Now I
> need to run two database servers that will be quite capable to fill
> the data needs of two small businesses just because I want to use a
> music player and a library utility for my ~50 books laying around.

While I agree with most of what you say, I agree the most with this. 
Personally I run a MySQL server for school, Amarok, Krecipes, Mythtv and 
whatever I'm playing with.
> The app should at least give you the option to use somethings else like SQLlite.

Definitely a plus of Amarok, lets you choose what backend you want to 
use (including sqllite)

> But, that is just my viewpoint and I felt like I had to defend the
> developers motivation.
> 
> Regards
> Dirk

-- 
Eric Martin
PGP fingerprint = D1C4 086E DBB5 C18E 6FDA  B215 6A25 7174 A941 3B9F


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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Stroller]

On 17 Jul 2008, at 08:59, Dirk Uys wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 9:49 PM, Stroller
> <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> The screenshots of this look really nice, however to me this seems  
>> like a
>> really odd motivation for writing a program:
>>
>>  I started developing it when I couldn't find a personal database
>>  program for KDE which didn't using a SQL backend.
>>
>> What's wrong with an SQL backend that needs you to re-invent the  
>> wheel?
>> ...
> I don't print that
> often, so why would I have the CUPS daemon running 24/7 when I print a
> page once every two weeks?

There's probably no cost to having the CUPS daemon running 24/7 - it  
starts up, the o/s sticks it in virtual memory when it sees you're  
not using it and then reloads it to RAM when you do.

> Other than that there is also the added complexity to the
> installation. You have to create a user in the database, create the
> database and grant the user all the needed permission to that specific
> database.

Well, ideally the distro should handle all of this. Or have a "setup  
manager" app.

> And what if one app prefers mySQL and another one postgreSQL?

Agreed. This pisses me off no end. I'll bet the two are a pain to  
manage side-by-side on the same machine.

> The app should at least give you the option to use somethings else  
> like SQLlite.

Well, I have to say I was suspicious of Tellico's choice of XML flat- 
files, when this option is available to it, too.

> But, that is just my viewpoint and I felt like I had to defend the
> developers motivation.

You don't need to defend your viewpoint at all. I mean, it looks like  
a great app, so I'm not criticising it. It just seems odd, os all,  
that he cites reluctance to use an SQL backend as his main reason for  
developing the app, then doesn't explain further why he thinks that's  
a problem or why his way is better. True, it makes a big difference  
to setup, but I would have thought there were loads of features that  
would be more obvious during the end-user experience that would  
better distinguish an app.

Stroller.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[kashani]

Dirk Uys wrote:
> Other than that there is also the added complexity to the
> installation. You have to create a user in the database, create the
> database and grant the user all the needed permission to that specific
> database.
> 
> And what if one app prefers mySQL and another one postgreSQL? Now I
> need to run two database servers that will be quite capable to fill
> the data needs of two small businesses just because I want to use a
> music player and a library utility for my ~50 books laying around.

	I can see your point and in many ways I agree. The issue is that local 
data storage limits the application in larger environments. A db 
provides a ready made and easily understandable way for multiple 
machines to read and write data. Being a large IT shop person I tend to 
avoid anything that does not use a db since it's unlikely that I will be 
able to use it at a job in the future. Nothing worse than having www07 
go down and take the company blog with it because we couldn't run the 
blog software on all ten machines because it had to use local storage. 
Additionally it's easier to backup one db cluster than twenty odd 
applications.

I can recommend a few things to make dealing with a db easier.

1. Settle on Mysql, 99% of anything you'll install can use it.
2. However apps that can use more than one database backened are 
*always* better written, more mature, and is usually a sign that the 
schema has been designed rather than tossing data in tables.
3. Don't mess with my.cnf unless you really need to. Default Mysql 
serving settings spec about 100MB of RAM usage which should be plenty 
for local apps with small storage needs.
4. Spend an hour learning about how your db works and come up with a 
system for user accounts and database names.

I always do something like this in Mysql:
create database kash_gallery2;
grant all privileges on kash_gallery2.* to kash_gallery2@localhost 
identified by 'mys3cr3tp2ss';

This way I know that only the kash_gallery2 user can access the 
kash_gallery2 db. I also know that kash_gallery2 is my Gallery install 
and not someone else's. I can easily add kash_gallery3 when a new 
version comes out and don't have to worry about how to deal with db 
'gallery' which I think is the default. You'll have to change the 
settings in the config file of the app to reflect your changes, but that 
should be simple.

kashani

Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Eric Martin]

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Stroller wrote:
> 
> On 14 Jul 2008, at 13:06, CJoeB wrote:
> 
>> Eric Martin wrote:
>>> Before I recreated the wheel, does anybody know of any good library 
>>> management software (preferably in portage)?  My wife and I are 
>>> having a hard time keeping track of what books we have, and what 
>>> books we are lending out to people so I figured this would be a good 
>>> way to keep track.  Since it's for personal use it doesn't have to be 
>>> anything big.  Preferably backended by MySQL as I already have a 
>>> server running for MythTV and Amarok.
>>>
>>> I did a few eix searches for portage and came up empty handed, and 
>>> sourceforge.net has a ton of stuff but I was wondering what other 
>>> people use.
>>
>> Have you heard of Tellico.  It's a collection manager that can be used 
>> for books, music, video ... whatever.  It allows you to enter the name 
>> of the book, a graphic if you have one, rate the book and indicate 
>> whether or not it's a gift, how much you paid for it and if you have 
>> lent it out.  It *is* in Portage.
>>
>> Some information:
>>
>> http://periapsis.org/tellico/
> 
> The screenshots of this look really nice, however to me this seems like 
> a really odd motivation for writing a program:
> 
>   I started developing it when I couldn't find a personal database
>   program for KDE which didn't using a SQL backend.
> 
> What's wrong with an SQL backend that needs you to re-invent the wheel? 
> I'm not saying there's a better collection manager out there, or that 
> the author's in the wrong for doing it the way he has. But it just seems 
> a little odd, and I'd love for him to explain his reasons more fully.
> 
> Stroller.
> 
Agreed.  Before I found anything that totally suited my needs I was 
going to go LAMP all the way.  Why reinvent the wheel is one of the 
greatest questions of all.

-- 
Eric Martin
PGP fingerprint = D1C4 086E DBB5 C18E 6FDA  B215 6A25 7174 A941 3B9F


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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Joshua D Doll]

Eric Martin wrote:
> Before I recreated the wheel, does anybody know of any good library 
> management software (preferably in portage)?  My wife and I are having 
> a hard time keeping track of what books we have, and what books we are 
> lending out to people so I figured this would be a good way to keep 
> track.  Since it's for personal use it doesn't have to be anything 
> big.  Preferably backended by MySQL as I already have a server running 
> for MythTV and Amarok.
>
> I did a few eix searches for portage and came up empty handed, and 
> sourceforge.net has a ton of stuff but I was wondering what other 
> people use.
>
> Thanks!
Have you looked at alexandria? http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/index.html.

--Joshua Doll
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Re: [gentoo-user] Good Library Management software

[Aaron Clark]

Joshua D Doll wrote:
> Eric Martin wrote:
>> Before I recreated the wheel, does anybody know of any good library 
>> management software (preferably in portage)?  My wife and I are having 
>> a hard time keeping track of what books we have, and what books we are 
>> lending out to people so I figured this would be a good way to keep 
>> track.  Since it's for personal use it doesn't have to be anything 
>> big.  Preferably backended by MySQL as I already have a server running 
>> for MythTV and Amarok.
>>
>> I did a few eix searches for portage and came up empty handed, and 
>> sourceforge.net has a ton of stuff but I was wondering what other 
>> people use.
>>
>> Thanks!
> Have you looked at alexandria? http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/index.html.
> 
> --Joshua Doll

I'll second the suggestion of Alexandria for desktop usage but I would 
note that the latest stable version in Portage is extremely old.  I 
would suggest using 0.6.3 (the latest upstream release, ~amd64 & ~x86 in 
portage).

If you want something more involved (like a real Library would use), you 
could look into Koha[1] and/or Evergreen[2] as web apps but 
unfortunately neither is in Portage.

Aaron

[1] http://www.koha.org/
[2] http://www.open-ils.org/
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