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Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Justin Scott Shriver    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 11:02:01 -0500
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 11:02:01 -0500 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: Justin Scott Shriver Subject: Re: Custom Config Files MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII For the sake of history let me add my experience with import files. They are NOT easy to make. I have 15 years of experience programming in a variety of languages and it took me several days to get the configuration files working for my problem. There are undocumented features that make programming difficult. At some point there was discussion on a web/ftp site repository for config files. Is that up and running? A second suggestion is that if it is people who send in config files also send in a short (two record) example of the file they are importing. Justin "The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is to live under the government of worse men." Plato _________________________________________________________________________ Justin Shriver PhD Student G041 W.E Lay Autolab, 1231 Beal Avenue Phone: (313) 647-9732 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2121, USA Fax: (313) 647-3170 http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~jshriver E-mail _________________________________________________________________________ On Tue, 16 Feb 1999, David Wark wrote: > Elaine, > I fritzed around for a whole day trying to get a config file to do what > I wanted. No luck, > and a lot of time wasted. Finally called the help line and got it fixed > quickly. I know that a call to California is miles and time zones away > from you. [706]-438-5526. BUT why not try a call, and then ask them to > call you back on their outgoing line? If you paid for the program, you > are entitled. > > Good luck, > Dave Wark > > Scurr, Elaine wrote: > > > I am having problems setting up a configuration file for > > Bowker Saur Databases such as the British Humanities Index > > and ASSIA. Has anyone successfully managed to do this? If > > so, would you be willing to give me a few tips? > > > > Thanks > > Elaine > > > > ---------------------------------------- > > Scurr, Elaine > > Email: > > "University of the West of England" >

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: STANLEY: Dr Philip    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 16:18:21 -0000
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 16:18:21 -0000 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: "STANLEY: Dr Philip" Subject: Re: Custom Config Files In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Config files are certainly not easy to put together. I have been using ProCite since the early DOS versions and I still struggle, particularly with parsed SOURCE fields which can be fiendishly complex. I like Justin's idea of having a couple of records as examples to go along side the config file on a web site. I think there is a lot to be said for having ProCite give you examples to assist in setting up a custom configuration routine. And then when you think you'r finished it could give you a couple of records which conform to the config that you have just customised. In that way you would see immediately if you are going to have a problem importing records. ******************************************************************** Dr Philip Stanley WEB SITE: http://www.crtt.demon.co.uk Email: Tel: +44 1223-460888 FAX: +44 1223-461777 Cambridge Research & Technology Transfer Ltd 48 Glisson Road Cambridge CB1 2HF England ******************************************************************** -----Original Message----- From: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List On Behalf Of Justin Scott Shriver Sent: 16 February 1999 16:02 To: Subject: Re: Custom Config Files For the sake of history let me add my experience with import files. They are NOT easy to make. I have 15 years of experience programming in a variety of languages and it took me several days to get the configuration files working for my problem. There are undocumented features that make programming difficult. At some point there was discussion on a web/ftp site repository for config files. Is that up and running? A second suggestion is that if it is people who send in config files also send in a short (two record) example of the file they are importing. Justin "The punishment which the wise suffer, who refuse to take part in government, is to live under the government of worse men." Plato _________________________________________________________________________ Justin Shriver PhD Student G041 W.E Lay Autolab, 1231 Beal Avenue Phone: (313) 647-9732 Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-2121, USA Fax: (313) 647-3170 http://www-personal.engin.umich.edu/~jshriver E-mail _________________________________________________________________________ On Tue, 16 Feb 1999, David Wark wrote: > Elaine, > I fritzed around for a whole day trying to get a config file to do what > I wanted. No luck, > and a lot of time wasted. Finally called the help line and got it fixed > quickly. I know that a call to California is miles and time zones away > from you. [706]-438-5526. BUT why not try a call, and then ask them to > call you back on their outgoing line? If you paid for the program, you > are entitled. > > Good luck, > Dave Wark > > Scurr, Elaine wrote: > > > I am having problems setting up a configuration file for > > Bowker Saur Databases such as the British Humanities Index > > and ASSIA. Has anyone successfully managed to do this? If > > so, would you be willing to give me a few tips? > > > > Thanks > > Elaine > > > > ---------------------------------------- > > Scurr, Elaine > > Email: > > "University of the West of England" >

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Leon Zimlich    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 09:47:03 -0700
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 09:47:03 -0700 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: Leon Zimlich Subject: Re: Custom Config Files In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII With regard to configuration files, might it be any easier to massage downloaded data into a format already supported by a configuration file. I regularly download citations from the UC Melvyl catalog, importing them via the tagged format into my database with ease. Records in different formats taken from other online catalogs don't transfer as easily, even when the library offers a, usually comma delimited, option for exporting records in ProCite format. So far I've usually edited these occasional records to create tagged export files, which is as time consuming as simply typing them into ProCite. But much of that editing can be done with sed, awk or Perl, ports for which are available for Windows machines. While he learning curve for these programs can be daunting, what is gained can be applied to other editing tasks as well. On the subject of comma delimited ProCite export files, I have yet to import them successfully. On every occasion that I've attempted this ProCite responds, telling me that there is an incorrect number of fields. I do not have the patience to count commas and determine which fields are extra or missing, and be certain the data is where it should be. What is the underlying problem here? Are these libraries using outdated formats, or is there a way to tweak ProCite to accept the files?

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Michael A Dover    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 11:57:15 -0500
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 11:57:15 -0500 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: "Michael A. Dover" Subject: Re: Custom Config Files Comments: To: Leon Zimlich In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Leon's strategy is one I've used frequently. Writing macros in wordperfect to massage the files down to something a silver platter config file will recognize. Leon, last time I checke the best ascii text editors with macro capability were only on unix platforms, if you could tell us where to get the ports of the programs you mention, i'd appreciate it. to use wordperfect, it's hard to keep one line per field, which I've found a good idea. A workaround is to construct a very wide custom page size type and put it in landscape, and use a very small font size and set display to 400%. It is certainly a problem that you can't get procite to accept comma delimited w/o the proper number of fields, and I've had to several times use macros to count the number of "", or "xx", and then write macros to enter the proper number of fields in each record. I understand the program would require the same number of fields in each record, but can't understand why it has to have all 45 fields in every record. Perhaps I mis-understand its requirements. Michael A. Dover, M.A., M.S.W. Ph.D Candidate, Social Work and Sociology Research Associate Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations University of Michigan 418 Victor Vaughan Bldg. 1111 E. Catherine at Glen Ann Arbor MI 48109-2054 (734) 936-1079

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Justin Scott Shriver    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 11:58:31 -0500
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 11:58:31 -0500 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: Justin Scott Shriver Subject: Re: Custom Config Files In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I think the intent of my message might have been misunderstood, so let me try again. On the subject of creating import files Use the following checklist 1. Have I looked around/asked around and found if there is a configuration file in existence. If you can't find one go to 2 2. Is there a file that is REALLY close, if so spend a couple of hours with it. If this does not work go to 3 3. Writting your own file. My experience was it was easier to preprocess the file elsewhere and bring it into procite. Of course I am pretty demanding on what I wanted. I wanted a program that recognized a variety of date formats, conference formats etc. If you are willing to do a lot of the editing in Procite or another editor then what I would call an "approximate" import file is not as daunting a task. However, having done a two year stint as an IS person I would NEVER suggest writting a configuration file to an average computer user. > On the subject of comma delimited ProCite export files, I have yet > to import them successfully. On every occasion that I've attempted this > ProCite responds, telling me that there is an incorrect number of > fields. I do not have the patience to count commas and determine which > fields are extra or missing, and be certain the data is where it > should be. What is the underlying problem here? Are these libraries > using outdated formats, or is there a way to tweak ProCite to accept the > files? > On this subject, if I remember correctly Procite needs a fixed format file. I have always just written preprocessors to do this for me, but a reasonable sounding approach for end users is to import to a spreadsheet slide the columns around and dump the CDF from excell. Justin

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Justin Scott Shriver    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 12:13:49 -0500
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 12:13:49 -0500 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: Justin Scott Shriver Subject: Re: Custom Config Files In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII > Leon's strategy is one I've used frequently. Writing macros in > wordperfect to massage the files down to something a silver platter config > file will recognize. Leon, last time I checke the best ascii text editors > with macro capability were only on unix platforms, if you could tell us > where to get the ports of the programs you mention, i'd appreciate it. One of the strongest packages is Emacs (if you like Lisp). There are several PC ports available (although I don't use them since I like the Linux versions better). A good repository for these things is gnu (www.gnu.org). When you look at the quality of this software it is really amazing. Gawk,Emacs,grep,perl are all available. Note that this is not shareware but a donation is always appreciated. Also, what makes GNU so unique is they provide the source code so anything you want and have the talent to you can FIX. > > It is certainly a problem that you can't get procite to accept comma > delimited w/o the proper number of fields, and I've had to several times > use macros to count the number of "", or "xx", and then write macros to > enter the proper number of fields in each record. I understand the > program would require the same number of fields in each record, but can't > understand why it has to have all 45 fields in every record. Perhaps I > mis-understand its requirements. > I am not sure I would have written this any differently. If I was writting an import utility I would write it for LARGE files. I regularly import 100+ references at a time. I would rather have confidence that everything imported correctly than have the program guess at what to do with missing fields. I would suspect that this is why they require 45 fields, it is a form of error checking. > > Michael A. Dover, M.A., M.S.W. > Ph.D Candidate, Social Work and Sociology > Research Associate > Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations > University of Michigan > 418 Victor Vaughan Bldg. > 1111 E. Catherine at Glen > Ann Arbor MI 48109-2054 > (734) 936-1079 >

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Myron Molnau    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 10:42:16 -0800
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 10:42:16 -0800 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: Myron Molnau Subject: Re: Custom Config Files In-Reply-To: h.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" You asked about editors with good macro capabilities. I use (in Windows) Kedit from mansfields Software and have for many years. http://www.kedit.com It uses a subset of the Rexx language for macros and is really very powerful for text manipulation. Any OS/2 users will be very familiar with this language since Rexx is the OS/2 macro language. For the Mac, I use BBEdit but it is not nearly as nice as Kedit. I have been more successful in just using Excel and then using various VBA macros. Clumsy but it usually works. Me, I'm still looking for a MARC translator. Myron Molnau At 11:57 AM 2/16/1999 -0500, you wrote: >Leon's strategy is one I've used frequently. Writing macros in >wordperfect to massage the files down to something a silver platter config >file will recognize. Leon, last time I checke the best ascii text editors >with macro capability were only on unix platforms, if you could tell us >where to get the ports of the programs you mention, i'd appreciate it. > >to use wordperfect, it's hard to keep one line per field, which I've found >a good idea. A workaround is to construct a very wide custom page size >type and put it in landscape, and use a very small font size and set >display to 400%. > >It is certainly a problem that you can't get procite to accept comma >delimited w/o the proper number of fields, and I've had to several times >use macros to count the number of "", or "xx", and then write macros to >enter the proper number of fields in each record. I understand the >program would require the same number of fields in each record, but can't >understand why it has to have all 45 fields in every record. Perhaps I >mis-understand its requirements. > > >Michael A. Dover, M.A., M.S.W. >Ph.D Candidate, Social Work and Sociology >Research Associate >Institute for Labor and Industrial Relations >University of Michigan >418 Victor Vaughan Bldg. >1111 E. Catherine at Glen >Ann Arbor MI 48109-2054 >(734) 936-1079 > >

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Murphy, Michale    Posted: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 20:47:42 -0500
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1999 20:47:42 -0500 Reply-To: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: "Murphy, Michale" Organization: Urusline College Subject: Re: Custom Config Files In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit On the subject of comma delimited files and Procite's ability or inability to import: I can only speak from experience for the Innovative Interfaces library catalog, but I have had to deal with the problem you cite. First, are you exporting from a telnet or a web based source? Some telnet software cannot handle the loooooong records and drops its own line breaks in. Our telnet software supplier ended up having to do a whole a new release to fix that problem. The other problem (and we faced them both at once ) was a bug in the catalog software. Basically it took a statewide consortium to convince Innovative that one release of their software (I think it was 11, but I can't swear to it) had a bug in the comma delimited download function. What's more, after it was discovered, I believe that each library had to request a fix for the bug for its own catalog. My conclusion is that if Procite will not import a comma delimited file, it is most likely the fault of the producer or the transporter of the file. Michale Murphy Access Services Librarian 440-449-4080 Ursuline College Library 646-8183 Pepper Pike OH 44124

Re: Custom Config Files
Author: Steve Osborne    Posted: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 17:24:14 -0500
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 17:24:14 -0500 Reply-To: Sender: PROCITE The Personal Bibliographic Software Discussion List From: Steve Osborne Organization: School of Library & Information Science Subject: Re: Custom Config Files MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Justin, In regards to a FTP site, I have such a site up amd running (see Scholars Quest Archive below) where users can post hteir config files for all to use. Please read the "Welcome.txt" file for instructions on posting a file. If anyone has something they want to share please give it a visit. An announcement is made to the list when a file is posted. ~Steve Osborne -- Steve Osborne School of Library & Information Science Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis Post & Phone 5237 Mosswood Dr. Indianapolis, In 46254 (317)299-8582 Web Contact: Netscape/AOL Instant Messenger: Screen Name = slis1 Web Sites: Scholar's Quest Archive: Public FTP site for the Bibliographic Software Community> ftp://ftp.indy.net/pub/scholarsquest/ Bibliographic Software> http://php.iupui.edu/~rsosborn/Scholars_Quest/References/Gathering/Reference_Tools/BibliographicSoftware.html Bibliographic Software: Resources & Guides http://php.iupui.edu/~rsosborn/Scholars_Quest/References/Gathering/Reference_Tools/Bibsoft-Guides&Resources.html References Project> http://php.iupui.edu/~rsosborn/Scholars_Quest/References/reference-frame.html Hi-Tech at IUPUI> http://php.iupui.edu/~rsosborn/HiTech-IUPUI/hi-tech.html ERIC Resource Page> http://php.iupui.edu/~rsosborn/Scholars_Quest/References/Reference_Services/ResourcePages/ERIC.html CDS/ISIS Resource Page> http://php.iupui.edu/~rsosborn/Scholars_Quest/References/Gathering/Reference_Tools/CDS-ISIS/CDS-ISIS_ResourcePage.html Library Software Page (Preliminary)> http://php.iupui.edu/~rsosborn/Scholars_Quest/References/Gathering/Reference_Tools/LibrarySoftwarePage.html

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