Contents

• About the Report Tool
• Starting ReportTool - working around startup issues
• Adding to the permanent Accession book
• Printing off an inventory list

About the Report Tool

The M3 Server will return a list of the specified information when queried by the Report Tool program. This response is formatted by the Report Tool for printing, and can be used to generate inventory lists, Accession Book pages, and statistical reports.

Starting the ReportTool

On the server:

• Go to Mandarin M3 on the Desktop.
• Double-click ReportTool

IF IT DOESN'T COME UP:

The Report Tool has an annoying bug that causes it to not close properly in some cases. If you double click the icon, and it doesn't come up after a few seconds, you need to close the instance that didn't properly exit.

• Hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys, then press Del. The Ctrl-Alt-Del menu will appear.
• Click the Task Manager button.
• Click the Processes tab.
• Click the Image Name header to alphabetize the list of running processes.
• Look for Reporter.exe. Click on its entry and click the End Process button.
• End Process for all instances of Reporter.exe.
• Close the Task Manager, and try to open the Report Tool Again.
• If all else fails, try restarting the server.

Adding to the Accession Book

After a few orders, there are enough new pages to justify printing a report.
On the server:

• Open the Report Tool (see above).
• In the Report Tool, click on the File menu, then click Open
• In the Open box, click the down arrow by Look In and choose Desktop. From there, double click Mandarin M3 and then double click Accession Book.
• Select Library when the ODBC driver asks. The formatted page should come up.
• The ReportTool has to query the server for the barcodes of the records added since the last page was printed. Click the Tools menu and then click Query. The Query window will appear.
• Click the Criteria tab.
• The ReportTool uses a modified version of the BASIC programming language to query the server. To print our accession book, we only have to use a few functions.
  To get barcodes from XXYY to the newest.
  • In the Formula field, something like M3Holding.852#p > XXYY AND Len(M3Holding.852#p) = 5 will be there. If there is more, replace it with the example.
  • To the server, that request means "Return the requested parts of the records that have a 5 digit number greater than XXYY in the 852#p (barcode) field".
  • The M3Holding.852#p > XXYY part asks the server for records with barcodes greater than XXYY, where XXYY is of course replaced with the starting barcode for this Accession book page.
  • The Len(M3Holding.852#p) = 5 part restricts the output to records with only 5 digit numbers in the barcode field. This eliminates dumb barcodes from the report, since they all have 10 digits.
  • The AND part joins the previous two parts. The AND operator requres the returned data to match both requests. That way the only records that are returned are both 5 digits long and greater than XXYY.
• Once your query is set (You've replaced XXYY with the barcode number from the last entry on the last page the last time the Accession Book was printed), click the Test button. If it says Forumla OK, go on. If not, make sure the query is typed correctly.
• Click OK to get back to the the formatted page. Click the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar for a Print preview of the pages to be printed.
• It will take a while to sort the records. Tell it Library if the ODBC driver asks again.
• Verify that the records shown are the correct ones, and then click Close. Back on the formatted page, click on the File menu, then click Print. Tell it to print. It will sort through everything again, and then print.
• When everything is finished, close all open windows to return to the desktop and normal operation.

Notes:

• If there were records that were sent back or not loaded due to mistakes in the order, they won't appear in the report.
• If we have multiple copies of a book, with one Bibliographic and multiple Holdings, only one will display on the report.
• Dumb barcodes are excluded, but they can be added by modifying the Len(M3Holding.852#p) = 5 part to Len(M3Holding.852#p) = 10.

Printing an Inventory For Specific Categories

From time to time we reconcile the records in the computer with the books on the shelf. The Report Tool can generate a list of all the books in the computer for a certain category of books.

• Open the Report Tool (see above).
• In the Report Tool, click on the File menu, then click Open
• In the Open box, click the down arrow by Look In and choose Desktop. From there, double click Mandarin M3 and then double click Inventory.
• The Report Tool has to query the server for the barcodes of the records added since the last page was printed. Click the Tools menu and then click Query. The Query window will appear.
• Click the Criteria tab.
• The ReportTool uses a modified version of the BASIC programming language to query the server. To print our accession book, we only have to use a few functions.
  
  • Something like M3Bibliographic.852#h = "FM" should be in the Query box. This query, for example, asks for all records that have "FM" in the 852#h field, which is the Classification Part field. This query would print a list of all the FM books we have in the computer.
  • M3Bibliographic.852#h = "foo" will be what you want for any fiction category, where foo is a valid category, like F, JF, FM, E, AUDIO, etc..
  • Non-fiction is more complicated. To get juvenile non-fiction, you have to specify that the prefix is J. The Prefix field is 852#k. Then you have to specify the range of Dewey Decimal Numbers you want.
    (M3Bibliographic.852#k = "J") AND ((M3Bibliographic.852#h > 100) AND (M3Bibliographic.852#h < 300)) matches only books that have BOTH a J in the Prefix field AND a number between 100 and 300 in the Classfication Part field. The () work like a math equation; group multi-part queries with them.
    (M3Bibliographic.852#k = "E") AND ((M3Bibliographic.852#h = 641.5) OR (M3Bibliographic.852#h = 921)) matches only books that have BOTH an E in the Prefix field AND EITHER a 641.5 or 921 in the Classification Part field.
    (M3Bibliographic.852#k = "") AND ((M3Bibliographic.852#h > 100) AND (M3Bibliographic.852#h < 300)) matches only books with nothing in the prefix field AND a number between 100 and 300 in the Classfication Part field.
• Once your query is set, click the Test button. If it says Forumla OK, go on. If not, make sure the query is typed correctly.
• Once your query is set (You've replaced XXYY with the barcode number from the last entry on the last page the last time the Accession Book was printed), click the Test button. If it says Forumla OK, go on. If not, make sure the query is typed correctly.
• Click OK to get back to the the formatted page. Click the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar for a Print preview of the pages to be printed.
• It will take a while to sort the records. Tell it Library if the ODBC driver asks again.
• Verify that the records shown are the correct ones, and then click Close. Back on the formatted page, click on the File menu, then click Print. Tell it to print. It will sort through everything again, and then print.
• When everything is finished, close all open windows to return to the desktop and normal operation.