• General

General

Notifications

The notification window can be opened by performing a long touch on the screen (approximately 5 seconds) on the iPhone or by pressing the upper-right hand corner on the iPad.

This window will display messages that are deemed important to the operation.  If you see a red dot, then it was a critical error and a yellow one represents a warning.  Informational messages may be displayed here as well.

You can dismiss the window by pressing the arrow at the bottom of the screen or by scrolling the table up.

iTunes File Sharing

Book Crawler has file sharing enabled through iTunes so you can access your data files via USB.  From iTunes, you would select your device after connecting, select the Apps tab, scroll to the bottom in the file sharing section and select bc.  You should see files ending in "bcs" listed that you can save to your desktop.  These bcs files represent the complete backup of your data which can also be used to transfer to a new device.  If you are not new to Book Crawler, you may also see files ending in 'sqlite'.  These are also database files which can be imported into bc and converted to the new 'bcs' format.  

Older versions of BC defaulted to using "Crawler.sqlite" as the main database file.  More recent versions now default to a file that starts with a timestamp and end in bcs (for example, 20141228004020.bcs).  You should be able to figure out what your main database file is by looking at the size and timestamp for the file.  If you are unsure, you can see which file you are loading the data from within the BC app.  Go to Settings -> DB to see which is your current data file.  It will also give you statistics on any other data file listed on your device.

If you replace your database file (e.g. 20141228004020.bcs) here with another version you will effectively be restoring the database from the version you replaced it with.  Do this with caution because overwriting this file cannot be undone.  Force the application to close before transferring that file.  If the application is already open, it won't know to re-read the file that was placed there. You may also change the name of your database file before copying it in.  As long as you don't change the suffix of the file ('bcs' or 'sqlite)', Book Crawler will know how to read it.  You can select an alternate file under Settings -> DB;

 


Transferring to another device

The Book Crawler database can be transferred to another device through the backup/restore mechanism.

The fastest way is to use a single Dropbox account to perform the transfer.  On the device that you want to copy, press Settings -> Import/Export.  Now, press "Link".  Press "Backup" to copy the database to the server.  From your secondary device (the device you want the database transferred to) go to Settings -> Import/Export.  Link to the same account as you did before.  Press "Restore" to replace the database with the one on the server.

IMPORTANT: To merge results with another device, transfer the CSV file.  The CSV file is all text, so it won't be able to transfer images.  To do this, go to Settings -> "Update Entries" to download missing artwork from the internet.  Only transfer the database if you want to replace the database.

You may also email your database under Settings -> Import/Export and press the "Email" button.  If your database file is small enough, it will attach the file directly to the email.  If it is not, it will provide you with an option to upload the file to dropbox and attach a share link into your email.  You can control the maximum size to allow for attachments under Settings -> Max Attachment Size.

It is also possible to transfer your database file between devices by using iTunes file sharing.

ISBN Scanner

The ISBN scanner is available when editing a book entry.  Select New -> ISBN Scanner or the ISBN field to receive the option for scanning the ISBN.

There are two ISBN scanners available: Apple and ZBar.  

  • Apple
  • ZBar

Book Crawler only works with ISBN numbers, not UPC.  If you receive a message like this: "Try again. Cannot retrieve ISBN from xxx: UPC-A" then you are scanning a UPC code, not an ISBN code.  In most cases, there will be another bar code that you can scan.  Try checking the inside cover of the book to see if there is one there.

Miscellaneous

Black titles indicate that a book is marked as read where as blue titles indicate that a book is unread. A checkmark indicates that a book is owned.

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