Export to eBook

[Nobodo]

I would really appreciate it if there were a way to export a UR database to a professional looking output document that can easily be delivered to customers.

For an example:
The outliners "TreeDbNotes" and "ActionOutline" have an option "Export to eBook" that does what I'm talking about. The end result is an single-file executable with embedded database that gives users a read-only view that looks exactly the same as looking at the database in the application itself. When I give my customers one of these 'eBook' outputs they are very impressed and without instruction can just immediately dig in; it would be great if UR could generate output like that.

Thanks,
Mark.

[kinook]

Looking at TreeDBNotes, its E-Book output appears to be similar to putting the UR Viewer files (http://www.kinook.com/UltraRecall/viewer.html) and a .urd file into a .ZIP file. If the user unzips the contents and runs UltraRecallViewer.exe, it will open and display any .urd files in the same folder. You could also ZIP everything up into a self-extracting executable (see http://www.google.com/search?q=creat...extracting+exe).

[Nobodo]

Specifically in TreeDbNotes what I was talking about was...

On the menu,
"File" - "publish to eBook".

You have the option to output as a single .exe from there. That is extremely easy to distribute to the customer; they can just open it directly from a network share or web location. Also (very important!) what the customer sees in the exported eBook is exactly the same as what you see when working in the database.

---

Actually I had never taken a look at the free version of UR as an alternative to some version of exporting.

I just gave it a try... I took one of my databases and put it in a folder with the UR viewer and its two dlls. It seems to actually take several tries just to get the application to open; my guess is the first try or two it is making changes to the database so it can view it properly, then you are finally able to launch it and have it work?

Then when it does come up it kind of works, but definitely doesn't give the customer the same view of the data that you have since so many view features (tabs, hoisting, etc) do not work in the free version. I also notice that you cannot view anything except whatever happened to be in the very first tab of your view with the professional version.

See attached images. 'Normal' is viewing the database in UR Pro. 'Viewer' is viewing the database in UR Viewer edition. In the 'Normal' view, every tab except the very last one on the right is a hoisted view. In the 'Viewer' view, note that only one single 'hoist' from the database is visible, and even in that hoist items are missing (nodes "SR and SD SolSource out of chance fulfillment" is completely missing, along with several other nodes and their children).

I tried several times with one particular database and also with a couple of others, and consistently see the same problems:

• When first trying to open a UR Pro database in the viewer, it takes several tries (my guess is the database is being 'reworked' so the viewer can understand it).
• Only a portion of the database is seen in the viewer. It appears to be whatever was in the very first tab to the left in the UR Pro database.
• It appears that any items that have 'UR Pro' specific features (links, hyperlinks, etc) are completely left out, and any nodes under them are completely left out.
• Users of the viewer only get a very flat view of the data, since hoisting, tabs, etc. do not work.
• Flags got added to some tree nodes by the Viewer?

Obviously there are some real problems with viewing a UR Pro database with the free viewer.

I got curious about what changes the free viewer was making to the database, so I opened the database that the viewer was using in UR Pro. Big mistake! Bam, there went all the toolbar customizations I had made (custom toolbar completely gone), and they did not come back when I closed it and reopened the main copy of the database. But anyway, what did the database look like in UR pro? It was missing everything except the same subset of data that was visible in the viewer, so obviously the viewer made permanent changes to the database.

Thanks,
Mark.

Viewer -- Database as seen in Viewer:


Normal -- Database as seen in UR Pro:

[Nobodo]

For comparison...

Here is an example of viewing an 'ebook' created from TreeDbNotes. This particular ebook was created for the developers and QA people in the IT department of a contract earlier this year, to explain the work done in a software project I turned over to them. The eBook is a single executable; all I had to do was stick it in Sharepoint and the customer opens it directly from there.

In TDBN you add new trees (those are the tabs), but that is similar to hoisting and locking in UR.
The output 'ebook' looks exactly the same as the database viewed in TDBN, has all the same attachments, links, search functions, etc.

Thanks,
Mark.

[kinook]

Some features like hoisting and loading all previously opened tabs are not implemented in the viewer, and we'll consider adding them. Also, the viewer does store toolbar and menu customizations in the same place as the full version, so it's best not to run it on the same machine where UR itself is installed.

The viewer definitely should not take several tries to start, or ever modify the .urd file at all (the date modified timestamp on the file should not change), and should display all of the items in the database. I wasn't able to reproduce the problems you mentioned -- could you ZIP and post or send a problem .urd file to support@kinook.com? Thanks.

[Nobodo]

Originally Posted by kinook

The viewer definitely should not take several tries to start, or ever modify the .urd file at all (the date modified timestamp on the file should not change), and should display all of the items in the database. I wasn't able to reproduce the problems you mentioned -- could you ZIP and post or send a problem .urd file to support@kinook.com? Thanks.

I'll do this as soon as I can. the databases I tested with were copies of databases filled with customer data so I can't send them, but I don't think it will be a problem generating a new one that displays the issue. Of course the fact that I removed the viewer and will never run it again on a machine with UR Pro installed slows the process down too....

Thanks,
Mark.