Working on Collections

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Print a collection

The printing feature offers three different choices: simple text lists, cover images or templates. Printing is based on the collection you have selected but if you only want to print a few entries, you can either filter the collection with an internal search (through the search field in the toolbar) or create a new collection with those entries to be printed.

• Select a collection and choose 'Print...' from the File menu.


• Depending on the kind of printout you're looking for, choose one of the tabs: List, Cover or Template.


• If you choose 'List', you can customize the print-out by adding a header, border and/or color. There are preset list templates to choose from the drop down menu or select 'Custom' to use the columns from the list view.


• If you choose 'Cover', set a size for the cover image or if you want to print more than cover per page, check the 'Fill page' option and set the spacing you'd like in between the images. All sizes are given in pixels.


• If you choose 'Template', select a template from the drop down menu. Before doing a large print job using the DVD and CD size templates, make sure you do a test print out to make sure that the sizes fit your cases.


• Press the 'Print' button and follow the printing procedure as usual.

For yet more printout options, take a look at the Export feature and especially the HTML templates. They are fully customizable and can be printed using your browser's print command. The following describes how to open and save a customized print template. More details on the editing process can be found in the customizing templates section.

To edit one of the printing templates, ctrl-click (right-click) the DVDpedia icon and choose 'Show package contents'. Then navigate to Contents/Resources/Templates/. You'll see all the printing templates are prefixed with 'Printing' in the title to distinguish them from the export templates. Open the template you want to customize with a good text editor. (If you're using Text Edit, make sure you use the 'Open' command and tell it to 'Ignore Rich Text commands' so that it'll open the file as a simple text file.)

Once you're done editing your template, create a new folder titled 'Templates' inside your DVDpedia data folder (by default the DVDpedia data folder is located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia) and place your template in there. Otherwise it'll be overwritten the next time you download an update for DVDpedia. It's also a good idea to name your template something different so you know it's a template you customized. Just remember to keep the 'Printing' prefix so that it'll show up in the printing feature.

Export a collection

There are several different formats available for exporting your DVDpedia collection. Most of these are found under the File menu > Export Collection. Those formats based on templates (HTML and text) are fully customizable so you can edit any of the existing templates or write your own from scratch. For more information on how to do that, take a look at the HTML section or further down at customizing templates.


The .dvdpedia format exports your data in XML format and includes the cover images. It's great for sending a collection to friends with Macs, so they can view it using DVDpedia. (They don't need a licensed copy to view your collection. The free trial of the program will do.)

A smaller version of this would be a .dcard file. To create a .dcard, select one or more entries in the list view and drag them out to your Desktop.


The backup command creates a copy of your DVDpedia data folder, which includes everything from the data file to the covers folder and any personalized templates or plug-ins you might have, and compresses it into a .zip file to save space. For extra security, move this .zip file to a different location such as an external hard drive.

If you ever need to restore your database from a backup, make sure DVDpedia is not running, unzip the .zip file by double-clicking it and then move the DVDpedia folder into the default location (~/Library/Application Support/). Then restart DVDpedia.
If you're on Lion, it hides the Library folder by default so to go to your DVDpedia data folder you have to use the Finder's 'Go' menu, hold down the Option key and the Library folder will appear.


The HTML export lets you to choose from various HTML templates. Once exported, the files can then be uploaded to a webpage or printed out. There are also special iPhone templates that are optimized to be viewed on your iPhone. You recognize them by their title. All the templates are fully customizable so you can change them to fit your needs or write your own from scratch.

Some templates come with a default setting for the best output. If you change those settings, a little warning triangle will appear in the export window. If you mouse over the triangle, it'll let you know why you're getting the warning. (The template will still export with the changed settings but it might loose some of its functionality.)

To export a collection using an HTML template,

• Select the collection you would like to export.


• Choose 'Export collection' from the File menu or use the 'Export' toolbar button.


• Choose the HTML tab from the export sheet that pops up.


• Select a template. (You'll see a little preview on the right-hand side of the sheet.)


• Choose how you'd like to separate the pages of the export: by number of entries, alphabetically by letter or by word. (For example, to split entries per page by genre, sort the collection by the Genre column, then export it and check the option 'Pages separated alphabetically by word'.)


• Choose whether you'd like to export the images and the image quality.


• Press the 'Export' button and choose a location to save the export.

Tip: If you don't want to see a preview of the export open automatically in Safari, hold down the Option key while pressing 'Save'. That'll suppress the preview action.

If you would like to edit an HTML template to include different fields or have a different layout,

• Select the template in the HTML tab of the export window.


• Press the 'Edit' button in that same window.


• DVDpedia will automatically copy the template into its Templates folder (by default this is located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia/Templates) and prefix the copy with 'My' so that you know it's a template you've edited. (For example, if you choose to edit the Silver template, the program will create a template named 'MySilver'.)


• Open the template with any good text editor. (If you're using Text Edit, use the 'Open' command and tell it to 'Ignore Rich Text commands' so that it'll open the file as a simple text file.)


• Change the tags and/or the layout of the template.


• Save the file.


• Now when you return to the HTML export feature in the program, you'll see your template under the template drop-down menu.

More about customizing templates


To export and upload your collection using FTP, the procedure is similar to the regular HTML export:

• Select the collection you would like to export and choose 'Export collection' from the File menu.


• Choose the FTP tab from the export sheet that pops up.


• Enter your FTP server information into the fields provided.


• The HTML export settings will be taken into account for the FTP export, so choose a template under the HTML export tab and then return to the FTP tab for the export.


• Press the 'Preview' button and if you like the result, choose 'Upload'.

If you have done an FTP export before, you can choose to do an update of the site to save uploading time.

• Follow the same procedure as above about choosing the export settings and previewing the site.


• Once the preview has been done, you can toggle between 'Update' and 'Upload' by pressing Command-N while you're in the FTP export window. You'll see the button at the bottom of the window change accordingly.


• 'Update' will upload the data and update new entries and their images but not refresh any of the existing images to save time and bandwidth.


• If you have changed any of the existing images (deleted or replaced them, for example) you will want to do a regular 'Upload' for the program to replace the images on your site.

NOTE: Since one FTP server can be very different from the next, the program might not be able to connect to yours. If that is the case, do a regular HTML export and use Transmit or a similar FTP application for the upload.


This export option is for the classic iPod only, the one with the click wheel at the front. If you have an iPod touch or iPhone, please take a look at this section instead: iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

• Connect your iPod to your computer.


• Select the collection you would like to export.


• Choose 'Export collection' from the File menu or use the 'Export to iPod' toolbar button.


• Choose a template to be used for the export and the name you would like to give the exported file.


• Press the 'Export' button.


• The exported file will now be available under the Notes section of your iPod.

There are two different types of iPod templates: those with 'sorted' in the title use whatever column you have your collection sorted by as the value for the collection. For example, if you sort your collection by Genre, you'd have different subgroups in your export like 'Action', 'Adventure', etc.

If you choose a template that has 'alphabetical' in the title, it'll be sorted alphabetically by whatever column you sort the collection by. For example, if you choose Genre as your sorting value, you would get all the Genres with A (like Action and Adventure) together on one page. This would also apply if you sort the collection by Title, so you'd get all the A's, B's, etc. on one page.

If the program tells you that no iPod is connected even though it is, go into the iTunes Preferences and under the iPod tab, make sure you have selected "Manually manage music and videos". The iPod needs to be connected while you do this. (Remember to manually eject the iPod each time you disconnect as long as you have this preference enabled.)

The iPod has a 1000 note limit, so if you are going to export collections with over 1000 entries you need to use a template which will list all the entries in a single note per letter and sort your collection alphabetically. But note that the iPod also has a 4k limit per note, so watch out if you're going to include the summary or have more than 130 or so entries per letter. Another option is to export collections that are less than a 1000 or use a third-party software that will help you split exports to the iPod.


The text format provides three different options for export: tab delimited, comma delimited (CSV) or text format (.rtf, .xml or.txt). The tab and comma delimited formats are 'what you see is what you get' meaning they will export the columns showing in your list view and in that order. For the text templates you can choose a template from the drop-down menu or write your own. (Take a look at the HTML section above for more information about editing templates.)

To export a collection in tab or comma delimited format,

• Select the collection you would like to export.


• Make sure it is showing the right columns in the order you want them to export. To change the columns, select 'View Options' from your View menu. To rearrange the order of the columns in your list view, drag them into the desired order.


• Choose 'Export collection' from the File menu.


• Choose the Text tab from the export sheet that pops up.


• Choose Tab delimited or CSV from the options.


• Press the 'Export' button and choose a location to save the export.

To export a collection with a text template,

• Select the collection you would like to export and choose 'Export collection' from the File menu.


• Choose the Text tab from the export sheet that pops up.


• Choose the Text template option and select a template from the drop-down menu.


• Press the 'Export' button and choose a location to save the export.

The iWeb export is not part of the regular export feature in DVDpedia because it works a little differently. To send a selection of entries to iWeb, you have to do the following:

• In the list view, select the entries to be exported.


• From the Movie menu choose 'Send Selection to iWeb'.


• iWeb will automatically start up, prompting you to choose a style.


• When you've chosen a style, iWeb will fill in your selection of entries and you can customize the iWeb template as you usually would.

Customizing templates for print and export

The template export is geared primarily towards HTML but templates can be any ASCII file. You can use XML templates, .txt, .rtf or .php.

The following paragraphs explain the basic building blocks of a template but if you have never done anything like this before, have a look at these pages for more information on getting started: How to change an export template (for the most basic approach) and Creating a template (for a little more in-depth information). Also have a look at our Extras page where you can download templates written by other users. If you create a template and wish to share it with others, please send it to support@bruji.com and we'll put it up on the Extras page.


To customize one of the HTML export templates, start by opening the Export feature in DVDpedia, choose the HTML tab, select the template you want and press the Edit button. The program will automatically copy the template into the program's external Templates folder (by default this is located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia/Templates) and prefix it with 'My' so that you will know it's a template you edited. For example, if you choose to edit the Silver template, the program will automatically create a template named 'MySilver' and show it in the Finder. Open that template with your prefered text editing program and you can get started. (If you're using Text Edit, make sure you use the 'Open' command and tell it to 'Ignore Rich Text commands' so that it'll open the file as a simple text file.)

The process is the same for print and export templates except that there is no 'Edit' button for the printing templates. Instead you have to ctrl-click (right-click) the DVDpedia icon and choose 'Show package contents'. Then navigate to Contents/Resources/Templates/ and open the template file you want to customize with a good text editor. All print templates are prefixed with 'Printing' to make it easier for the program to tell the different files apart.

To save your template, create a new folder titled 'Templates' inside your DVDpedia data folder and save your template there to avoid it being overwritten the next time you download an update for DVDpedia. It's also a good idea to name your template something different so you know it's a template you customized. Just remember to keep the 'Printing' prefix so that it'll show up in the printing feature.

The HTML templates that come with the program are all set up very similar. There is always a <head></head> and a <body></body> part. The head part defines the structure of the template (the how) while the body part adds the information (the what). The most important part of the body are the tags. They represent the fields of the program and you can arrange them pretty much any which way you want. To change a tag, simply replace one that's already present in the template with the one you want. For example:

<span class="head">Title:</span> <span class="text">[key:title]</span>
could become
<span class="head">Summary:</span> <span class="text">[key:summary]</span>


Template fields are designed to be HTML comments. That way they won't be seen on a webpage when there is no data to fill them. They consist of the format: [key:name]. The fields are pretty self explanatory and are the following:




[key:genericField] will automatically include all fields containing information in the export. No need to write out all the tags listed above, the [key:genericField] tag will do it for you automatically. This is especially useful for the Details templates.

If you want to use the [key:genericField] tag but exclude a particular field, use the [exclude:] tag. (So for example if you want to exclude your comments from the export, add the (uncommented) tag <!--[exclude:comments]-->.)

[credit:name] is the tag for the actors name, as listed in the Credits tab of the Edit window.

[credit:role] is the tag for the role the actor played, as listed in the Credits tab of the Edit window.

The [credit:...] tags need to be enclosed by the tags [creditsBegin] and [creditsEnd]

[key:coverImageURL] is a link to the cover image if you select to export images. Place it where the image link would go. For example: <img src="[key:coverImageURL]" width="100" height="140">.

[key:coverImageURLHeight] returns cover image height to use in <height> tag

[key:coverImageURLWidth] returns cover image width to use in <width> tag

[key:myRating] corresponds to the number of stars the entry has. Since the program uses a half-star rating system, this means you need stars numbering from 0-10, 10.png being 5 stars. (for example, a 3 star rating would correspond to the image yourImageName6.png). You must include the .png images in the "Images" folder for your template, see inserting images below. Feel free to re-use the stars from the templates included or make your own.

[key:incrementalNumber] creates a number that increments with each entry exported.

[global:sortedBy] Shows which column the exported collection was sorted by.

[global:totalEntries] Shows the total number of entries in the export.

[global:pageNumber] Shows the page number if there is more then page in the export.

[global:totalNumberOfPages] shows the total number of pages in export

[global:myEmail] - The "me" address book entry email

[global:myFirstName] - The "me" address book entry first name

[global:myLastName] - The "me" address book entry last name

[global:collectionName] Shows the name of the collection.

[global:previousPageURL] Link to the previous page of the export.

[global:nextPageURL] Link to the next page of the export.

If you would like the Next and Previous buttons to disappear when there is no next or previous page, use the following IF statements wrapped around the [global:previousPageURL] and [global:nextPageURL] tags. Example: <!--IF_PREVIOUS_PAGE [previous page stuff here] END_PREVIOUS_PAGE--><!--IF_NEXT_PAGE [next page stuff here] END_NEXT_PAGE-->

IF statements can be used on any of the other tags as well. For example if you only want the comments title to show when there are comments to display, add this: <!--IFcomments Comments: [key:comments]ENDcomments--><

If you want to share your template with other Pedia users via the Extras page, please consider translating your field titles. You can do this easily by replacing the title with a tag of this format: [translate:...]
For example, [translate:comments] would turn the title 'Comments' into 'Kommentare' for our German users, 'Commentaires' for our French users, etc.

[global:letter] Shows the letter the collection is sorted by.

[global:dateUpdated] Shows the date the page was exported.

[global:totalBorrowed] Number of entries currently in the Borrowed collection

[global:totalWanted] Number of entries currently in the Wish List collection

[global:totalPrice] Total value of the database as calculated from the 'Price' field

[global:totalPaid] Total amount paid for the database as calculated from the 'Paid' field

[global:totalDiscs] Total number of discs in the database as calculated from the Number of Discs field.

[global:totalDuration] Total duration of the movies in the database.

[link:url] is the tag for the URL of a link, as listed in the Links tab of the Edit window.

[link:name] is the tag for the name of the link, as listed in the Links tab of the Edit window.

The [link:...] tags need to be enclosed by the tags [linksBegin] and [linksEnd]

You must also include two mandatory tags of "<!--BeginRepeat-->" and "<!--EndRepeat-->". This is the part of the file that gets duplicated for each DVD. Even if you're creating a file that will have only one entry you must include these tags. If you want the whole file to repeat, place them at the beginning and end of the file. They're necessary in non-HTML files as well.


Although it is best to leave the options up to the user, there might be times when you want to override them with your template, for example when adding a details page or when certain settings simply make your template look better. To override the set option you have to add meta tags to the header of your HTML template. These are the options:

• <meta name="PageSplit" content="SortLetter" />
• <meta name="PageSplit" content="SortName" />
• <meta name="PageSplit" content="[integer]" />
• <meta name="PageBreakAfterEvery" content="[integer]" />
• <meta name="image-export" content="yes" />
• <meta name="image-export" content="no" />
• <meta name="image-width" content="[float]" />
• <meta name="image-height" content="[float]" />
• <meta name="image-compression" content="[float]" />
• <meta name="image-rotation" content="90 or 270 " />
• <meta name="statistics" content="statistics" />
• <meta name="details" content="aTemplate.html" />
• <meta name="includeLocalLinks" content="yes" />
• <meta name="PrintLandscape" content="yes" />
• <meta name="date-format" content="[unicode-format]" />
• <meta name="uidNaming" content="title" /> (exports files based on item title)
• <meta name="uidNaming" content="sort" /> (labels the URL based on the sorting attribute)
• <meta name="uidNaming" content="yes" /> (exports files based on the uid (unique ID number), useful for templates with a secondary details template)

If your template includes images, such as background, a next button or just generally pretty pictures, place a folder with those images into the folder named "Images" in Templates and name the folder the same as your template but with Images at the end.
For example, the images for a template named "Hello.html" would be in a folder named "HelloImages" inside Templates/Images. All images must be referenced in the html as Images/imageName. If using a web design program it's best to use a folder named "Images" in the same root as your html and then rename it on installation. For a more detailed understanding, browse the already installed templates and try to mimic those.


Place your .html file into the program's external template folder, by default located in your Home folder under ~/Library/Application Support/DVDpedia/Templates. After that you will see the template in the drop-down menu of the export window.
Make sure you name the template something other than the original name of the template since the program otherwise won't recognize that there is a new template but will keep using the original one from inside the application.

For modifying or creating details view templates, take a look at the Details View section.

Find duplicates

The 'Duplicates' command found under the View menu helps you find duplicate entries in your Library and collections.

• Select the collection you'd like to check for duplicates.


• Go into the View menu and choose 'Duplicates...'.


• If duplicates are found, a new collection titled 'Duplicates:[title of the collection]' will appear.


• To delete duplicate entries from that collection and the Library, press Option-Delete on your keyboard. (Delete alone will only delete the entry from the collection, not from the Library.)


• After you are done with the duplicates, you can delete the 'Duplicates:[...]' collection.

Search your collections

Use the search field in the toolbar to quickly locate entries in your Library or collections. Command-Option-F is the keyboard shortcut to get the cursor into the search field.

• Select a collection and enter a search keyword into the search field.


• If you would like to include only certain fields in the search, click on the little magnifying glass in the search field to choose a particular field to search or to include all the fields, regardless of whether they are displayed.


• To narrow down a search even further, add quotation marks around your search keywords to make sure that the program only looks for those words in that order.


• Boolean search options: by default the search is AND but you can also use OR like this: 0043396226333 or 0097368925144 or 0027616924674

Using Spotlight for searches in your DVDpedia database means you don't even have to run the program to find a particular entry.

• Open Spotlight and type the title of the entry.


• To speed up the search, type 'DVD:' before the keyword. This will narrow the search down considerably.


• Click the result to open DVDpedia with the search result selected.


• If you want to see your whole DVDpedia database in Spotlight, type 'PediaItemDVD'.

Sorting a collection

In the list view you can arrange your entries alphabetically, ascending or descending, by any of the displayed columns.

• To sort a column, click the column header.


• To reverse the sort order, click the column header again to reverse the little triangle that appears when the column is selected.


• By default the program sorts columns by the first letter it encounters but if you hold down Option (Alt) and then sort the column again, it will use the last word that comes before a separator such as a comma, semi-colon or slash instead. An example of the different sorts, one by first name and one by last name:
  
  Antonio Banderas
  Tim Allen
  ...
  
  or
  
  Tim Allen
  Antonio Banderas
  ...
  
  
• You can also sort by multiple columns to a depth of 6 columns. When you change column, it sub-sorts by what was last sorted so you want to click on the columns in reverse order i.e. if you want to sort your collection by Director, Genre and My Rating, sort the My Rating column first, then Genre, then Director; the sorting will now be Director, and where those are equal Genre, and where those are equal My Rating.


• If you want complete control over the way your titles are sorted, use the 'Sort Title' field. Whatever you enter into that field, that's what the program will take into account when sorting. So if you want "12 Monkeys" to be sorted under M for Monkey instead of 12, enter M or Monkey into the Sort Title field of the movie.

The statistics

The statistics are a fun and insightful way to learn more about your collections, such as which genre you have the most or the least entries of, which entry is the most popular to be borrowed or how many 5 star entries you have.

Please note that the 'Actors' statistics are based on the field 'Starring'.

You can access the statistics by clicking on the 'Statistics' button in the toolbar or choosing 'Statistics' from the View menu. To include a link to the statistics in an HTML export template, include the link <a href="statistics.html">Statistics</a> in the template.

You can modify the statistics by changing the color scheme (read more about that in this blog post) and even the order of sorting, eg. chronological vs count. For more information about that, please take a look at this forum post.