In the following section, you will find some usefull tricks.
T1: The generator can compute number of volumes in a collection if volume identifiers are spaced by coma (i.e. ","). For a continuous list of identifiers, one can summarize it by its first and last identifiers spaced by a minus (i.e. "-"). For example, "1-10, 13, 15-17, 20" is a valid list of volume identifiers and it describes 15 volumes.
T2: Right clicking in author field or in author header pumps up a menu to access two function: add a new author entry or delete current author entry.
T3: Right clicking in volume identifier field on in series field pumps up a menu to access two function: add a new author entry or delete current author entry. In volume identifier header on in series header, delete function is deactivated.
Comics Refcard Generator (CRG) is a web service to create comics collection list in a refcard fashion, thanks to a TeX template. It allows to:
The user interface is split into 5 area. On top and in the bottom, there are descriptive header and footer. On left there a menu panel follow by a short sub area displaying useful tricks. The central area shows main information and control button. Just between this area and the footer, there's a status bar to display informative messages and errors.
There's, on the left side, a menu containing 5 buttons. The last one, named "Refresh" clean up empty database entries. The othe ones allow the user to switch the frontend from one of the 4 different tabs. Those tabs are:
There's 3 different ways to import data into CRG: from a LaTeX file containing a table definition (need packages textcomp and wasysym to support current UTF-8 charset), from a full TeX file (potentially generated by CRG itself) or from a CVS file. In any case, one need to choose a file to import and select a coding type.
Nowadays, only plain ASCII file are supported. This means that accentuated characters must be type in a LaTeX fashion: i.e. using backslash escaping. There's a table to ease encoding.
In this type of file, author's name is preceded by a percent (i.e. "%") and each series lines contain a volume identifier list and the series' name spaced by an ampersand (i.e. "&") and ended by a double backslash (i.e. "\\"). Author entry ends at the begin of another entry (i.e. an author line) or by end of file.
The following verbatim illustrates a LaTeX table entry:
% Rosinski et Van Hamme Thorgal & 1-33 \\ Western & 1 \\ Les mondes de Thorgal: Kriss de Valnor & 1-3 \\ Les mondes de Thorgal: Louve & 1, 2 \\ Les mondes de Thorgal: La jeunesse & 1 \\ Le grand pouvoir du Chninkel & 1 \\
TeX file is ordinary produced by CRG itself for people who don't want to generate PDF file on external serve but with their own LaTeX compiler. This feature allows to import full TeX back to the database editor.
There's a large header and a footer full of useful declarations but those are not check in this import module. Data encapsulation follow this scheme: author's name is preceded by "\sec" and followed by a semi-colon (i.e. ";"), each series' line contains the series' and the volume identifier list space by an ampersand (i.e. "&"). End of collection is marked by a line containing "\endsec". )
The following verbatim illustrates a LaTeX table entry:
\sec Coyote; Mammouth \& Piston & 2\cr Litteul K\'evin & 1-6\cr \endsec
This kind of files are usually produced by spreadsheet manager like Gnumeric or LibreCalc. Data fields are spaced by semi-colon (i.e. ";"). First field is author's name, second field is series' name and last field is volume identifier list. A collection start when the first field is not empty. If first line is a header (i.e. "Author;Series;Volumes"), it will be ignored.
The following verbatim illustrates a CSV file:
Author;Series;Volumes Francq et Van Hamme;Largo Winch;1-18 Mezieres et Christin;Val\'erian;1-3, 14, 15 ;Canal choc;1, 4
This module will help user to edit comics database.
By right-clicking on author's label or in author's name field, a pop-up menu appears to present two action labeled "Add author entry" and "Delete author entry". Action "Add author entry" creates a new table just after the current one to describe a new author collection. Action "Delete author entry" deletes current author collection and all series described below.
By right-clicking on volume identifier label or on series' name label, a pop-up menu appears to present two action labeled "Add series entry" and "Delete series entry". Action "Add series entry" creates a new series row on top of author collection table. Action "Delete series entry" is not activated in this context as it does not point out any specific series. If it remains only one author collection table, deletion is not permitted and will result by an error message in the status bar.
By right-clicking in volume identifier field or in series' name field, a pop-up menu appears to present two action labeled "Add series entry" and "Delete series entry". Action "Add series entry" creates a new series row just after current series row. Action "Delete series entry" deletes current series row. If it remains only one series row in author collection table, deletion is not permitted and will result by an error message in the status bar.
When generating PDF document, CRG counts the volume number of the collection. Thus volumes identifiers must follow some basic rules:
For example, "1-10, 13, 15-17, 20" is a valid list of volume identifiers and it describes 15 volumes.
This tab presents the export features and the PDF generation.
There's 3 different ways to export data into CRG: from a LaTeX file containing a table definition, from a full TeX file (potentially generated by CRG itself) or from a CVS file. In any case, one need to choose a file to import and select a coding type. Thoses format have been described in section "Import".
Nowadays, only plain ASCII file are supported. This means that accentuated characters must be type in a LaTeX fashion: i.e. using backslash escaping (see table latex coding).
The last button on this tab allow to generate a PDF file. The comics collection is published in a 4 columns refcard fashion. Each block starts by the author' name in a large bold font, followed by series' collection (one per line) with series' name aligned on left side and volume identifier list aligned on right side. On top of the first column, a header shows the volume number of the collection. And on bottom of the last columns, a line recalls when the refcard has been published.
Some parts of generated files are located in English. Thanks to the language selector, it's possible to translate those sentences/words in other languages. However, only French and English are actually supported.
There's two input fields and a "login" button which allow any one to peak up a login name and a secret passphrase and to store and reloard a database on the remote server.
It is not a real authentication system, as there is not check account validation but stored databases are associated to an unique set of login and password. Thus, only the original owner can retrieve those confidencial data.
Unfortunately, this mechanism does not allow any user to get back a forgotten password.
There is a special user with "admin" as login name and "admin" as default password, which activates the management module. The management module allows administrator to:
This service (SSL) is secured to insure full confidentiality of your comics collection. More over, only PDF generation needs to transfer data to the server but temporary files are automatically destroyed after PDF transmission.
Comics Refcard Generator is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.
Source and Debian packages are available on Soft'n'Design.
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