CatView Information and Manual
Last updated: 30-Oct-1999

HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
To use CatView, your computer should have:
? DOS/Windows9x/NT4
? A hard disk with enough space for your catalogues

WHAT IS CATVIEW
CatView is a simple text-file search program that provides a user interface to 
searching plain text files. If you have a file that consists of many new-line 
delimited records (e.g. flat file database or a spreadsheet saved as plain text) 
then CatView can search these files without the need to import them to a 
database or do any conversions. All that CatView asks is that the file is plain 
text (ASCII) and that most of the records (lines) are not longer than around 400 
characters (else CatView begins to suspect that what your searching is not 
really a catalog/database).
CatView also has a multiple search-and-replace facility that could be useful for 
any text documents but is also particularly useful for catalogues that have 
injudicious abbreviations. Read section "CatFiRe" below for more information.

INSTALLATION
Unzip the catvw[xx] file and run the cvinstal.exe (DOS) executable and the 
installation procedure will prompt you for the location to install. To run 
CatView, just run the executable catview.exe in the directory that you chose.

SEARCHING FILES
Catalogue files intending to be searched must have the extension "txt"; this 
indicates to CatView that the file is in ASCII format. If in doubt, open a file 
with a program such as Notepad or the DOS "Edit" utility. Files with the .csv 
extension that are in the catalogue directory on startup will be automatically 
re-named to .txt to facilitate searching.

CatView looks for catalogue files in the directory specified in the 
configuration file "catview.cfg". This file is located in the CatView directory. 
CatView will search the specified catalogue directory (default is current 
directory) to determine the number and names of the catalogues installed. To 
install a new catalogue, simply copy the file into your catalogue directory. 

NOTE: As CatView is a DOS program, the limitation of 8 character folder-names 
and 8.3 filenames apply. You may still use directories with longer names but 
must use the DOS format when specifying the catalogue directory in the 
configuration file ->
E.g. c:\mylongdirectoryname -> becomes -> c:\mylong~1

SUMMARY
CatView is an ASCII text search-engine which accepts input from the user in the 
form of (up to and including) three string patterns or keywords. Keywords have 
no minimum length and any combination of keywords can be used provided that they 
are sequential. A user may, for example, search for "Bartok", "sonata" and 
"percussion" or simply "bar", "son", and "perc" for convenience. If more than a 
full screen of matches is produced, CatView will prompt the user to press the 
Page-Down key to view more screens or "pages". The page number is shown in the 
top-right corner of the screen and can be viewed in reverse order by pressing 
the Page-Up key. CatView will indicate the number of matches in the bottom-right 
corner of the screen.

CONFIGURATION
A number of items are configurable in CatView. Editing the configuration file 
"catview.cfg" in your CatView directory can change these values. Below is a 
sample file with an explanation of each item:
? [CATALOG_DIR] = "." - directory where CatView looks for catalogue files
? [SAVE_DIR] = ".\quotes" - directory into which search results are saved 
/appended to file
? [USER_NAME] = "CatView User" - name to be printed on hardcopy printouts and 
on some screens
? [CONFIRM_QUIT] = NO/YES - confirm quit at catalogue selection screen by 
showing dialog requesting another key-press.
? [FINDREPLACE] = NO/YES - whether to use the CatFiRe search and replace 
facility (see CatFiRe section below for details)
? [REPLACE_NONANGLO] = NO/YES - whether to replace all non-Anglo characters 
with Anglo equivalent when doing Find & Replace

(The configuration file contains comments outlining the above for clarification)

PRINT/SAVE OPTIONS
Press "P" or "S" at the Search Results screen for print/save options. Select 
from the following options:
1. Save to file
All search results are saved to disk in the sub-directory specified in the 
configuration file under [SAVE_DIR] (default ".\quotes") and are in plain text 
format. CatView will prompt for an MS-DOS file-name (maximum of 8 characters) to 
"save as". The extension "txt" will be automatically appended to the filename.
2. Append to file
This option appends (adds) the current search results to an existing search 
results file. The original text of the file chosen to append to remains intact. 
This option is useful for lengthy price quotations where several different items 
are being searched and only one document or printout is required. A list of 
files in the save directory [SAVE_DIR] is presented in a list-box. Use the up 
and down arrow keys and press "Enter" on the selected item to choose a file to 
append to.
3. Print to printer 
CatView will print the results to printer port 1 (LPT1). Printed reports use 
condensed printing and double-spacing and also allow room at the foot of the 
page for any comments that may be necessary to complete a quotation. Reports are 
personalised to the user through the key [USER_NAME] in the configuration file. 
If LPT1 is not appropriate for your machine, simply save the results (as above) 
and print to a network or other printer using the program you use to display 
text files.
4. Manipulate prices 
This option allows for the changing of price values within the search results. 
All valid price codes (as determined by CatView) are manipulated. Only the 
dollar value (no cents) are taken into account for calculations. 
Enter the Discount, Mark-up, and Exchange Rate.  Price manipulation does not 
affect the original catalogue file contents. 

Discount - Percent discount the buyer received - generally between 30 and 50 
percent.
Mark-up - Percent markup intended to be placed on the items - usually slightly 
higher than the discount.
Exchange Rate - Exchange rate of the country of origin.
ATTRIBUTES /ADDITIONAL FEATURES
1. CatView searches are case-insensitive i.e. "Mozart" and "MOZART" is 
considered equal.
2. CatView will search any text file that is in ASCII format: approximately 1 to 
5 lines of text per record (maximum 400 characters) terminated by an "end-of-
line" and/or "carriage-return" character sequence

CATFIRE - SEARCH AND REPLACE UTILITY
When CatView detects a new file in the CatView directory it can prepare the file 
by replacing abbreviations and foreign language translations (or any words you 
choose) with alternatives that you supply. When a new file is detected in the 
directory on startup, CatView will prompt to use this facility - provided that 
your configuration [FINDREPLACE] is set to "YES".

The Find & Replace facility is based on configuration files with the extension 
".frd" - which you should (try to) ONLY edit with the accompanying program 
FRDedit.exe in the CatView directory. FRDedit is a 32-bit Windows application 
that allows for safe editing of the .frd file. This program can only be used 
with Windows9x/NT, so DOS only users will need to edit the configuration file by 
hand.
The default Find & Replace dictionary file is "CatView.frd". As discussed 
further below, this configuration file provides a list of words to "Find" and a 
list of words to "Replace" those words with.
Find&Replace dictionary file (FRD)
The Find & Replace dictionary file (.frd) file is in the format:
wordtofind [TAB (whitespace)] wordtoreplacewith
E.g. The text on the 3 lines below copied into and .frd file will replace all 
the words on the left (find) with the words on the right (replace) in the file 
that is 'CatFiRed'

windows	windoze
australian	ozzy
pno	piano{pno}	

You can only replace words: a word is defined as something delimited 
(surrounded) by any one of the characters: !"#$%&()*+,-./:;<=>?[\]^_`\
It is not possible to replace the entire text of "Mendelssohn-Bartholdy", for 
example, because it is 2 (two) words.
You may find it useful to put the word that is being replaced in curly braces 
after the replacement so that the original file is 'softly' altered i.e. best of 
both when searching (see the last entry "pno" in the example above). The curly 
brace is a reserved character for this purpose. (If it were not reserved then 
each subsequent Find&Replace operation would detect and replace the word before 
the brace over and over again)
If you use the program FRDedit to edit the .frd file, prevention of false values 
is ensured.
Multiple Find&Replace dictionary files
You can create multiple search-and-replace configuration files: a catalogue file 
(ignoring file extension) will attempt to use the .frd file with the same name. 
E.g. mycat.frd, if in the CatView directory, will be used if a catalogue named 
mycat.txt is detected.
CatView uses the first and last lines of your catalogue to save the status of 
Find & Replace information i.e. whether to use this facility, when it was done 
or if it is not to be done etc. as below:

a) If CatView is CatFiRed (searched and replaced) this first line will 
read:"CatView prepared file ([DATE_CATFIRED_HERE])"

b) If you designate not be searched, the last line of file will read:
"This file is not to be 'CatFired' by CatView". 

Delete these lines to force CatView to re-examine on startup.

MULTI-SEARCH FEATURE (SUPERSEARCH)
To search all catalogue files in the CatView directory sequentially, choose the 
menu item "__ALL__" at the menu selection screen. Catalogue file-names that 
begin with an underscore ('_') are not included in SuperSearch; in this way, 
catalogues can be selectively omitted from this. CatView will display the 
necessary catalogue origin information for each record on the Results display 
screen.

Author: Peter van der Woude
e-mail: spurrymoses@bigpond.com
Program status: freeware - send me an e-mail if you find it useful.

Disclaimer:
Peter van der Woude claims no responsibility for any damages caused by the use or misuse 
of this product. This product is distributed "as is" with no warranty, expressed or 
implied. Peter van der Woude will not be responsible for any losses incurred either 
directly or indirectly, by the use of this product. Use this product entirely at your 
own risk. Peter van der Woude reserves the right to make modifications at any time. 
Prices are subject to change without notice.
