Codex

Manage book information

2012-11-16T10:11:00.001-08:00

In Codex you can add authors, categories, collections, series and publishers to a book. Some of this fields can have multiple entities, like the authors and categories, and others can have only one, like the publisher and the book series.

In order to add entities to a field you have to choices:

Type the entity directly in the field using the keyboard
Press the little magnifying glass on the left and select the entity from the list

If you are in a field that accepts multiple entities, you just need to separate the several entities using a semicolon (e.g. "Author 1; Author 2; etc"). When you use the magnifying glass, the list with the entities to add contains checkboxes that you can use to select the entities you wish to add, when you are done just press OK and the selected field will be filled with the selected values.

To delete a value from a field, you can also delete it using the keyboard, or use the helper list to select other options. In the fields which only an entity is allowed, the first option from the list is the empty option, select this and the field will be cleared. When in a multiple selection field, just uncheck the value you wish to remove.

Those values are automatically managed by Codex and will be kept in the database as long as they are associated with a book. If an entity (e.g. an author) is no longer associated with any book, it will be removed from the available authors. This contributes to maintain a low sdcard space usage by Codex and keeps the filter listings clean and easy to use.

Import and Export - CSV vs. XML

2012-09-29T08:07:00.002-07:00

Codex has available an export feature for some time. In the current version (1.2.1 at the moment) Codex supports both CSV and XML import and export. If you are asking which format you should use where are some tips:

CSV

This is a very simple plain text format where the values are separated by a comma in the default format, hence the name CSV or Comma Separated Values.

This format is recommended if you wish to use the exported file in another application like Microsoft Windows Excel or Open Office Calc. A CSV file can be easily imported into a spread sheet and gain all of the advantages that file format has to offer.

Although Codex supports this format for import and export, mainly to allow you to import the same book list back from the spread sheet, this format has lots of problems that make the support for this kind of file difficult. One of the problems is that you can separate the values using a comma, a semi-colon, a colon, a space or a tab depending on the software you are using or the choice of who is exporting, so by now you are starting to see the problem.

XML

If you are exporting only to backup you books collection and don't intent to use the exported file with another software this is the format you want to use.

With XML, Codex support the structure of the resulting file and has a consequence, when importing Codex knows exactly what to expect, with the exception of some values like the date. This makes the process of exporting and importing much more safe and friendly for Codex. The disadvantage is that XML file tend to grow bigger than a simple CSV file but to compensate this Codex throws in a little bonus.

Starting in version 2 (coming soon), Codex will keep the source of the book cover for downloaded book in the XML file. When you import a version 2 XML file into Codex it will try to recover the covers from that source.

The future

Codex 2 is going to an extensive process of redesigning and will be released in a month or so. This release will introduce some new features but the main changes are in the user interface. After the release the process of adding new features will resume and one of the planed features is a real backup end restore feature that will save the book covers as well so you don't need to download them again. It will also introduce some new import and export formats to make Codex compatible with other softwares that handle books.

Stay tunned for the next version and if you like Codex and would like to see it in your language I'm looking for translators, please contact me.

Codex translations

2012-06-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Codex is currently in English, Portuguese and French. If you would like to contribute to Codex and see it in your own language I'm looking for translators that would help me in the translation of Codex.

If you are interested in translating Codex please contact me at codex.android@gmail.com

Thank you

New version - 1.2.1

2012-06-07T10:02:00.000-07:00

A new version of Codex, personal book manager for Android, has been released today. This release is a bug fixing release with some user experience improvements for Android version 3 or above.

As always, Codex can be found in Google Play.

Have fun.

Donate to Codex

2012-05-18T06:45:00.000-07:00

Codex is a free application developed on my free time, if you would like to help Codex to remain free to every one, please donate using Paypal.

Thank you.

New version - 1.2

2012-05-17T09:50:00.000-07:00

A new version of Codex, personal book manager for Android, has been released today. It includes several improvements and some bug fixes.

New features include:

Includes a new feature to import and export the books list to XML.
When loaning a book, is now possible to set a due date with a reminder.
Is now possible to search the local collection by the book title and subtitle.

As always, Codex can be found in Google Play.

Have fun.

New version - 1.1

2012-03-08T13:32:00.001-08:00

A new version of Codex, personal book manager for Android, has been released today. It includes several improvements and some bug fixes.

Also contains a new feature, import/export the books list to CSV. Please read the tips to learn more how to do it.

As always, Codex can be found in Google Play.

Have fun

Export Tips

2012-03-04T04:16:00.000-08:00

This tip will help you to export your list of books from Codex to Microsoft Office Excel or OpenOffice Calc

Preparing to export

Before exporting there are some things you need to take into account. One of them is the target application you are exporting to. Codex can only export to a CSV file. When exporting you can choose the values separator and delimiter. To know more about separators and delimiter please refer to the Import Tips.

Exporting to OpenOffice Calc

If you are exporting to OpenOffice Calc there are not much things you need to concern about.
When you are importing a CSV file into OpenOffice Calt it allows you to choose the separator and the delimiter so any option you take in the export options will be ok since you match them in OpenOffice when importing.

Exporting to Excel

When exporting to Excel you have to be more careful. Depending on the language of your Office the separator will be different and Excel will not ask you for the separator or the delimiter.
For example, if you have an Excel in English the default separator will be a comma but if your Excel is in Portuguese or German the default separator will be a semi-colon.
I recommend that you export a test CSV file from Excel to check the separator and the delimiter that are in use, otherwise you will end up with all the values in the same cell.

How to export

1. Select the "Manage books" option in the books list menu.

2. Select the export option in the menu.
3. Navigate to where you want to save the file in your device. I recommend that you leave it inside the sdcard or you may not be able to access it from your PC if you are connecting your device to the PC by cable.
4. In the file browser click the "New" button to create a new file to export the books and click "Save".

5. Select the desired export options and check the box at the bottom if you wish that the column names are generated in the first line.
6. Click the "Export" button. A new window will be shown. In this window you can choose which of the books fields are to be exported into the file and click "Save".
7. At the end of the export a dialog will be show. Copy the saved file into your PC and open it with the desired application.

Thats it...

Import Tips

2012-03-04T03:51:00.000-08:00

This tip will help you to import your list of book from an application like Microsoft Office Excel or Openoffice Calc.

Preparing to import

To import books there are some thins you need to know first about about CSV files. A CSV file is a type of file that saves sets of values in each line.
Those values are usually separated by commas, thus the CSV (Comma Separated Values) name. But, some applications, like Excel, depending on the Locale, can separate the values using a semi-colon.
Each value may also contain several entries, an example are the authors. In those situations the values are grouped using quotes.
So, before starting to import your books into Codex, there are some things you need to check:

The values separator in your CSV file
The delimiter used to group the values
The format of the dates in the file (if any)

Examples of valid CSV entries are:

File 1:
My Book Title,"Author 1, Author 2", 9781234567890, 02-03-2012

File 2:
My Book Title;"Author 1, Author 2"; 9781234567890;03/02/2012

File 3:

My Book Title,'Author 1; Author 2', 9781234567890, 02/03/2012

File 4:

My Book Title:Author 1, Author 2: 9781234567890: 2012-03-02

All of those files are valid CSV files so to assure a successful import you must first check those values.

The values separator

In Codex, supported values separators are comma, semi-colon, colon, tab and space. If you exported your CSV file from Excel the most probable separator is comma or semi-colon. Other applications, like Openoffice Calc, allow you to choose which separator you want to use.

The values delimiter

The supported values delimiter are double or single quotes. Fields, like the authors or the categories, may have multiple values. When those values are exported to the CSV file they are grouped using a delimiter.
When Codex is importing the values, in the fields marked has the authors and the categories, Codex will try to split the values if it founds a comma, a semi-colon or a line break.

The date

Dates are fairly hard to import since they can be represented in so much formats. To reduce the complexity and the probability of error, Codex only supports 6 date formats. Dates can be represented has:

dd-mm-yyyy
mm-dd-yyyy
yyyy-mm-dd
dd/mm/yyyy
mm/dd/yyyy
yyyy/mm/dd

Please check if the date in your file, if any, correspond to one of those formats or Codex will not be able to handle it.

How to import

1. Export your books to a CSV file and check the delimiters and separator.
2. Save the CSV file into your device.
3. Select the "Manage books" option in the books list menu.

4. Select the import option in the menu.
5. Navigate to the file that you saved to your device.
6. Select the date format, separator and delimiter that you are using in your file.
7. If the first line of the file are the column names check the box at the bottom.
8. After you click the import button a new window will open and you will have to match the fields in the file to the book fields that Codex supports. In this window each line represents a value. The info label has the format "Field x [example]" where the "example" is a preview of the value for that field in the first line:

9. Click the save button. Depending on the quantity of books the process may take a while. When the import process is finished a dialog will be shown and you can see the imported books in the library.

Thats it...