Table of contents
The desktop interface
There isn't much on the desktop since pybook is basically a Web application. The only interface is
- An icon in the Dock on Mac OS X
- An icon in the systray on Windows and Linux
Right-clicking on this icon pops a menu that allows you to
- Open a Web browser on the main page of the application
- Change your password
- Exit the program
The default password is 'admin'. pybook will insist that you change it. It is very important, if you don't want everybody to mess with your database...
The main page
![](images/mainpage.png)
At the top is a text entry that allows you to specify how much books to present on a single page. The left part is the book list itself and the right part is the actions menu.
The book list
The book list is a table with the following columns:
- Serie: Name of the serie the book belongs to, if applicable.
- #: Sequence index of the book in its serie, if applicable.
- Title: The book's title.
- Author: The book's author.
- Category: The book's category.
- Owned: A green check mark if the book is maked as owned.
- State: State of the book.
Hovering the mouse pointer on a book's title pops up a window with its description.
The sort order may be changed by clicking the column headers; the text entries below them can be used to search for specific keywords in each header.
The menu
Category filter
This allows to filter the list book to show only books belonging to a given category. Click on the first item ("All") to show all categories; then click on one of them to filter.
State filter
Likely, this allows you to filter books based on their state.
Actions
This menu is fully visible only if you are logged on.
- Add a new book: Enter the book details page to add a new book.
- Custom fields: Enter the custom fields editing page.
- Series: Enter the series editing page.
- Locations: Enter the locations editing page.
- Edit editors: Enter the editors editing page.
- Edit categories: Enter the categories editing page.
- Edit authors: Enter the authors editing page.
- Export: Export the database in XML format.
- Import: Import from XML format.
- Logout: logout.
Misc
- Statistics: (not available on all platforms) Shows a page with various statistics.
- Configuration: Enter the configuration page.
Book attributes
Book state
A book may be in one of these states (this is the "State" column of the book list):
- Not owned (
). Clicking on the icon will mark the book as owned.
- Loaned (
). Currently loaned to someone. Clicking on the icon will return it.
- None (
). None of the above; clicking on it will lend it (a popup will appear to ask to whom to lend it).
These states can be changed by clicking on their icon in the book list or by editing the book's details.
Categories, authors, editors
These three items, even if meaning different things, are handled pretty much the same way; so only categories are documented here. The category editing page looks like that:
![](images/categories.png)
The search box is used to filter category by substring. The "Merge selected" box is used to merge several categories into one; First select the categories you want to merge by checking the associated checkboxes; then enter a new name in the text field and click the button. All selected categories will be merged into one. All books belonging to a selected category will be updated as well. This is not very useful for categories but becomes very interesting for authors and editors, for instance "Adison-Wesley" and "Adison Wesley"...
Series
Books may belong to a serie, with an associated number. The series editing page allows you to delete, add and modify series.
![](images/series.png)
To change a serie's name, edit it and click "Save". To delete series, check them and click "Delete selected". To add one, enter its name in the text field and click "Add".
Locations
A book may have an associated location, and each location has a name and an optional picture. In the locations editing page, click on a location name to show its details:
![](images/locations.png)
Use the "Delete" button to delete the location. Use the text field and file upload field to change its name and/or picture. The name and picture fields at the bottom of the page are used to add a new location.
Custom fields
If the built-in book attributes are not enough for you, you may create new custom fields in this page. Check them in order to make them visible in the book list.
Configuration
This page allows you to configure the password for iPhone synchronization, the next synchronization type, and shows the complete log of the last synchronization.
Book details
When clicking on a book's title in the book list, or adding a new book, the book details page shows up:
![](images/details.png)
Most fields are self-explanatory. There are three ways to add a new book:
- Fill in the ISBN field and click "Autofill".
- Fill in the Info URL field with the URL to the Amazon page for the book and click "Autofill".
- Fill all fields by hand
The first two methods will try hard to get as much information as possible from Amazon, but this does not always work and you'll probably have to complete some fields by hand.
Also note that the iPhone application does a much better job for autofilling.
iPhone
There is a companion iPhone application for pybook, available on the ApStore. It does not have as much features, but is integrated with pybook. Just click on the app's syncrhonization button while your device is on the same Wifi network as the computer running pybook and all books are synchronized between the two. See the screenshots section.