From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org  Sat Aug 15 05:04:39 2009
From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley)
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:04:39 +0100
Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.5
Message-ID: <20090815100439.7a7920fa@jadzia>

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Alexandria 0.6.5 has just been released.

Alexandria is a GNOME application for managing your book collection.

This is a maintenance release, the primary purpose of which is to
update the Amazon provider due to the new requirements  of the Amazon
API. All Amazon request must now be authenticated, this also means
users who wish to continue to use Amazon from Alexandria must sign up
for their own free Amazon AWS accounts. For details, see
http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-08-15--amazon-support.html

On-line release notes, including installation instructions, are here:
http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-08-15--0.6.5-released.html

   -   Cathal Mc Ginley.
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From ophidian at ophidian.homeip.net  Wed Aug 19 14:17:38 2009
From: ophidian at ophidian.homeip.net (Aaron Clark)
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:17:38 -0400
Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.5
In-Reply-To: <20090815100439.7a7920fa@jadzia>
References: <20090815100439.7a7920fa@jadzia>
Message-ID: <4A8C41C2.3010403@ophidian.homeip.net>

Cathal Mc Ginley wrote:
> 
> This is a maintenance release, the primary purpose of which is to
> update the Amazon provider due to the new requirements  of the Amazon
> API. All Amazon request must now be authenticated, this also means
> users who wish to continue to use Amazon from Alexandria must sign up
> for their own free Amazon AWS accounts. For details, see
> http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-08-15--amazon-support.html

Yuck, that's not going to help with the "Out of the Box" experience for 
new users (at least in the US).  Anyone know how the other providers 
fare with providing cover images?

Aaron
-- 
"The goblins are in charge of maintenance?  Why not just set it on fire 
now and call it a day?"
--Whip Tongue, Viashino Technician

From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org  Wed Aug 19 15:59:27 2009
From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley)
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:59:27 +0100
Subject: [Alexandria-list] [ANN] Alexandria 0.6.5
In-Reply-To: <4A8C41C2.3010403@ophidian.homeip.net>
References: <20090815100439.7a7920fa@jadzia>
	<4A8C41C2.3010403@ophidian.homeip.net>
Message-ID: <20090819205927.04d72170@jadzia>

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On Wed, 19 Aug 2009 14:17:38 -0400
Aaron Clark <ophidian at ophidian.homeip.net> wrote:

> Cathal Mc Ginley wrote:  
> > users who wish to continue to use Amazon from Alexandria must
> > sign up for their own free Amazon AWS accounts. For details, see
> > http://alexandria.rubyforge.org/news/2009-08-15--amazon-support.html  
> 
> Yuck, that's not going to help with the "Out of the Box" experience
> for new users (at least in the US).  

Yep, I agree that it's annoying that Amazon have changed their API, and
it'll be awkward for the user. At the moment, there's no good feedback
within the program GUI to hint at why Amazon will be skipped if you
haven't included your AWS details. The providers preferences dialog
needs to be more detailed, I think.

>  Anyone know how the other providers fare with providing cover
> images?  

All the website-based providers except WorldCat and Spanish Culture
Ministry provide images. That's: AdLibris, Proxis, DeaStore & Livraria
Siciliano.

Now that Amazon has become more restrictive, there's an added incentive
for me to write new providers based on existing English-language book
websites with images. I see I already have a BarnesAndNoble
implementation for Palatina which could be backported quickly. Then,
I'm thinking, Borders, Waterstones, Powells? ... Any other suggestions?

Another excellent source of nicely-formatted book metadata (with
images) are the likes of Goodreads and LibraryThing. Again, I'm making
a start with that code in Palatina, so it's some way off before its
inclusion into Alexandria.

   -   Cathal.

- - --
Palatina - the experimental, ground-up rewrite of Alexandria
http://palatina.gnostai.org
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From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org  Sat Aug 29 17:04:37 2009
From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley)
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:04:37 +0100
Subject: [Alexandria-list] Alexandria v.0.6.5
In-Reply-To: <4A99686A.3010804@CVACorp.com>
References: <4A99686A.3010804@CVACorp.com>
Message-ID: <20090829220437.18981756@jadzia>

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On Sat, 29 Aug 2009 13:42:02 -0400
"R. J. Davey, III" <rjdavey at CVACorp.com> wrote:

> Greetings,
> 
> I just installed the deb for 0.6.5 and cannot find where it put
> it . . .
> 
> How do I launch it?  Sorry for the stupid question, but I cannot find
> it.

If you're using GNOME, you should find "Alexandria Book Collection
Manager" under the "Applications / Office" menu.

Or, you can enter the command

  alexandria

into a terminal.

> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> rob
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From ophidian at ophidian.homeip.net  Mon Aug 31 16:18:10 2009
From: ophidian at ophidian.homeip.net (Aaron Clark)
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:18:10 -0400
Subject: [Alexandria-list] Is Amazon ISBN search broken in 0.6.5 ?
Message-ID: <4A9C3002.9060403@ophidian.homeip.net>

Is it just me or is ISBN Search broken on 0.6.5 with the Amazon provider?

I have correctly set up the new AWS secret key for Amazon and can search 
for books via Title just fine.  However, searching for those same books 
by ISBN keeps coming up empty.

Thoughts?

Aaron
-- 
"The goblins are in charge of maintenance?  Why not just set it on fire 
now and call it a day?"
--Whip Tongue, Viashino Technician

From cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org  Mon Aug 31 19:26:59 2009
From: cathal.alexandria at gnostai.org (Cathal Mc Ginley)
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 2009 00:26:59 +0100
Subject: [Alexandria-list] Is Amazon ISBN search broken in 0.6.5 ?
In-Reply-To: <4A9C3002.9060403@ophidian.homeip.net>
References: <4A9C3002.9060403@ophidian.homeip.net>
Message-ID: <20090901002659.2f3ad499@jadzia>

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On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 16:18:10 -0400
Aaron Clark <ophidian at ophidian.homeip.net> wrote:

> Is it just me or is ISBN Search broken on 0.6.5 with the Amazon
> provider?
> 
> I have correctly set up the new AWS secret key for Amazon and can
> search for books via Title just fine.  However, searching for those
> same books by ISBN keeps coming up empty.

A sample working title-search and a sample failing ISBN would help me to
confirm this...

> Thoughts?
> 
I hate to say "it works for me"... but this is the first such report
I've seen.

Are you sure the "title search" books are being "Found at Provider
'Amazon'"? (Keep an eye on the status bar.)

An issue reported before (for Amazon not working) was due to extra
spaces at the beginning or end of one or other of the AWS identifiers
(I forgot to trim off extraneous whitespace). You could check this.

Finally, you could try running Alexandria with tons of debug output,
from a terminal:

  alexandria --debug

And check if the Amazon provider complains for any particular reason.

   -   Cathal.
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