Ordering Game Material on the PC

[Verequus]

I admit it - I don't know anymore, which PDFs I actually bought. Along with other snippets and pieces collected from the web, I have to search often in the hope, that I've renamed the file and not left it with its cryptic name - which sometimes results in bigger renaming sessions.

A friend of mine suggested to use a database, which implements the library coding*, adapted for roleplaying needs. But this leaves a few question open:

1. Is there already a library coding for roleplaying books?
2. Which database is stable and can be used both under Windows and Linux?
3. Can I save my binary files in the database, too? Can this strategy be recommended compared to create a parallel directory structure? While there would be fewer inconsistencies and less effort to sort everything in the database, the files have to be extracted, if I want to view or even edit them. Is there a possibility to automate this? If yes, can the files be compressed on the fly?
4. Did I overlook any caveat or even a better method to organize my mess?


*Library coding is something like "3.1.5.6.2", where every number denotes a certain category. It is used in many big libraries, but I don't know the official name.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Welcome to the forums!

1. Is there already a library coding for roleplaying books?

I really doubt it.

4. Did I overlook any caveat or even a better method to organize my mess?

Do I understand that you're going to rename these files? Be careful. Remember that if you experience probelms at a later date and want to talk to the PDF service or publisher about it, they're going to want to know what files you have. If you say "I don't know, I renamed it" ... well ... it's going to make things hard or impossible for them to help you with.

Just my two cents!

 

[reveal]

Welcome to the forums!

I can't really help you with your query but I would suggest you put this into the Software forum (http://www.enworld.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6). I think you'll get more help there with your database questions.

 

[Verequus]

Welcome to the forums!

Having already 350 posts, I wouldn't consider myself new here. I don't start many threads here in General, so I'm not so much visible here. But thanks, I still appreciate the thought!

Do I understand that you're going to rename these files? Be careful. Remember that if you experience probelms at a later date and want to talk to the PDF service or publisher about it, they're going to want to know what files you have. If you say "I don't know, I renamed it" ... well ... it's going to make things hard or impossible for them to help you with.

Just my two cents!

I'm renaming the zip-files, not the PDFs. Instead having a non-descript "prj12345.zip" the name includes the content, like "prj12345 - Guide to Munchkin.zip". Also the publisher will need only the title of the product, not the name of the zip-file - and the title is in the PDF itself, thus no problem here.

 

[pogre]

I'm not skilled enough to make a database - I just created a hyperlinked table of contents to my stuff. It's easy to do in word or openoffice.

 

[reveal]

2. Which database is stable and can be used both under Windows and Linux?

I've never used it, but OpenOffice has database tools. http://www.openoffice.org/

OpenOffice is usable in Windows and Liux.

 

[Verequus]

Welcome to the forums!

I can't really help you with your query but I would suggest you put this into the Software forum (http://www.enworld.org/forumdisplay.php?f=6). I think you'll get more help there with your database questions.

Also a thank you to you!

Hmm, I leave it to the moderators, because I'm not sure about this.

I'm not skilled enough to make a database - I just created a hyperlinked table of contents to my stuff. It's easy to do in word or openoffice.

A table in Word or OpenOffice is inferior to a true database. A database with a library coding would allow an easy overview, what kind of titles are in one section - like all books which provide only new spells. Of course, this system wouldn't allow to list all books with spells in it - for this, an extra table would be needed.

 

[Voadam]

If you bought from www.rpgnow.com you can go into your account and see everything you bought from them. I haven't checked but www.dtrpg.com should probably have a similar feature.

I normally keep the pdf file name but add on the book title as well so I can ID it in scanning my pdf sourcebooks.

 

[Verequus]

I've never used it, but OpenOffice has database tools. http://www.openoffice.org/

OpenOffice is usable in Windows and Liux.

I've looked a bit on the website, but I couldn't find anything, which explained the capabilities of this database. Maybe the docs are only available after an install.

If you bought from www.rpgnow.com you can go into your account and see everything you bought from them. I haven't checked but www.dtrpg.com should probably have a similar feature.

I know exactly about this half-feature of RPGnow - you have not a single page with all books, but you have to choose a date, where you bought the product. If I have forgotten, whether I bought a product anyway, this is a serious hampering, taken into acoount, that I buy relatively regular from RPGnow and have a long history of purchases. I've written to the guy about an improvement of this situation, but I never received an answer... Furthermore, not every material I want to have listed, is from RPGnow and I don't have always internet access, so an offline solution would work best.

 

[Estlor]

Call me low-tech, but what I do is collect them all in the same folder until I have enough similar ones to burn on a CD. I label the CD with the names of the books on that CD, and make a simple text file that has filename - book name in it.

It would be rather simple to make a basic database in Access to hold the information. If everything has an ISBN you could use that as your linkable key number for normalization purposes. You could have a publisher table with each one having a self-assigned pubid, then a book table with ISBN as your key, the filename, the book name, and the pubid. This assumes you're going to do something else with publisher (e.g. have a table of pubids and websites if applicable), otherwise you could just put the publisher information directly in the table, skip Access, and make it a spreadsheet in Excel.

Basically, don't go the database route unless you want to add additional value to the data you're collecting. If you just want a roster of filenames and book names and where they are on your hard drive, use a spreadsheet. But if you're tracking all your RPG purchases, publisher information, designer information, and so on, take the time to make a proper database.