Sonny Software

Hi,
We run a wiki that members of our lab group update with information about their research. This wiki links to a Bookends DB to access publications of the group or references to articles and this system works exceedingly well.

However, not all the group members use Macs. Currently, those of us who use Macs take on the task of updating and maintaining the Bookends DB. It would be nice if there was a way for authenticated members of the group to add references/files to Bookends via the web inteface (since Bookends uses a mySQL database, I believe this should be possible). Is this currently possible? If not, what workarounds exist/ is such functionality planned in future releases?

Thanks,
Arvind

Hi arvind,

Bookends dbs cannot be updated via a web interface. It's something we may consider in the future if there is enough demand for it, though.

Jon
Sonny Software

I would really love to have this feature, too! Thanks for considering it.

I would also love this. And please make it possible for us to customize the output of database queries (via an html template or some such). The output is *coughs* a bit basic right now (no info about the query that has been entered, no standard compliant html, …).

If you are thinking about enhancing the web server features, I would recommend opening a separate thread asking for feature requests.

Hi ozean,

Yes, it's a lightweight server intended for personal/small group use. If we do decide to improve it, I'd no doubt need a lot of feedback (which I'm sure members of this forum like you would be able to provide).

Jon
Sonny Software[/i]

The idea of further server features is excellent. However if you start to improve it you will allways create demand for more. I wonder if it would not be possible to create a php package. This would then allow to people which would like to go beyond the basic functions to program it themself. It would also ease any customization.

Hi Pat,

Can you explain what you have in mind in a bit more detail?

Thanks,

Jon
Sonny Software

I think what the poster was talking about was making features of the web-interface more like Refman (http://refbase.sourceforge.net/) or Wikindx (http://wikindx.sourceforge.net/).

I use Bookends but also run Wikindx internally so that everyone in the research group has access to the references and most importantly the attached files (pdf). This does mean duplication of effort though.

For me it would be great if the Bookends server allowed for download of attached files.

Hi,

Bookends does allow the download of attached files. I belive there are examples of how to do this in the User Guide.

Jon
Sonny Software

Jon wrote:Bookends does allow the download of attached files. I belive there are examples of how to do this in the User Guide.

Doh so there are and it's so easy to set up too. Thanks!

I’ve looked at Refman (http://refbase.sourceforge.net/) and Wikindx (http://wikindx.sourceforge.net/) and Sanderso is right, something like this would be nice.
But is it necessary to reinvent the wheel? I wonder if it would not be possible to use both, Bookends and one of these Open Source bibliographic databases and Bookends would offer a tool to synchronize both databases.

Well, although I don't have access to OSX, I'm happy to provide any help and advice on using/integrating wikindx with bookends.

In fact, I'm not even sure what bookends is (some Mac-based version of Endnotes/RefMan or is that too insulting to Mac users?). Perhaps a first start would be the ability to manually import and export bookends format (I'm assuming there's such a thing) from within wikindx. But, as I have no Apple, I would need someone else to volunteer..........

(WIKINDX chief factotum)

Has there been any move toward allowing authenticated users to update a Bookends DB on a server? I'm working on a few collaborative projects, and it would be extremely useful to have a shared Bookends DB that collaborators could update and help to maintain.

Hi,

No, there's no movement on that. It's not clear to me that there's much demand for that, and there are many other things that are more pressing. But if there is sufficient interest it's something I'd revisit in the future.

Jon
Sonny Software

Well, to put it like this: if I could set up such a feature, I might be able to convince a few other people in my institute to switch, because we could set up a collaborative bibliography database.

I am sure that there is demand for such a feature: in a big research institute where I worked for two years, people had to go through difficult routines including a Filemaker database, a perl script and one other step that I forgot to comply to the strong suggestion that guest researchers should contribute to the common bibliographic database (which was kept in a custom written Filemaker server).

In its current form, the Bookends webserver is a neat but not overly useful service. One could also say that it is a bit too Web 1.0

If the work to be invested would be too big, perhaps you want to check the demand for an extension or plug-in that provide this ability for an additional fee. Other than that, I think this would be a unique feature that would help set Bookends even further apart from its competitors.