Qercus

Qercus is a desktop database software that allows records to contain an arbitrary selection of fields. Several data types are recognised, including text, numbers, images and web addresses. In Qercus databases the data is structured in various ways to allow many forms of searches: For example by data value (float, integer, word search etc.), by the names (tags) of field and record types (which can be declared arbitrarily), and by using parent-child relationships between records. This high level of flexibility makes Qercus well-suited for storing notes and observations. It can also be used for conventional 'card-index' databases such as cataloguing collections. The inspiration for this software is Blackwell Idealist (long discontinued, still no comparable replacement), which academic users in particular found to be very useful. An example database of books is supplied, but Qercus is not intended only as a bibliographic database.

Fields may be inserted, re-ordered, or changed to a different type arbitrarily in any record using buttons to the left of each field (picture 1). The macro-button field makes it possible to embed searches and other commands within any record to assist navigation. For example, a macro-button to find all records of a particular type can easily be added. Each record and field type has its own editable colour/ style (picture 2). Picture 3 shows fields open for editing. The to-do list includes implementing the macro language, and implementing text and phrase indexing and searching. Up to six hit-lists (records found by searches) are available. Parent-child relationships were only added with v0.13a and the present GUI design may yet be improved.

This software is distributed as a zip file. and was developed and tested on Kubuntu Lucid. To make it work Python 2.5 or 2.6, Canonical Storm (deb package python-storm) and PyQt4 must be installed. The author would welcome contact from anyone who is interested in working on this project. The forum link is a MediaWiki page on sourceForge.

What is new in this release:

• Fixes to path handling, particularly for the "any url/file" type field. These should not affect Linux users - the mods. are to permit use of backslashes in filenames on Windows machines. You can, for example, create a button that opens a directory with MS explorer, Nautilus etc. I am informed that the bug on the Ubuntu Unity desktop described below is not fixed in the 12.04 beta release.

What is new in version 0.24 Beta 1:

• Shift-F5 keyboard shortcut added: Opens search dialogue ready for a text search. Keyboard focus handling improved for more convenient operation on laptops. Search dialogues have new checkbox labelled 'Switch': If checked there will be a switch to the hit-list selected for search results when the dialogue closes.

What is new in version 0.23 Beta 3:

• Command line parameters can now be given under Define-Configure (for external mp3 player, web-browser etc.). For Windows users, exe build scripts improved.

What is new in version 0.23 Beta 2:

• Minor change to make menu work ok with Unity desktop (tested on Ubuntu 11.10). For windows users, revised scripts for producing a stand-alone exe.

What is new in version 0.23 Beta 1:

• This is the first beta release, produced after much fine tuning. There are still some greyed out features that are not completed, but the core functions work well. Fields can now be opened for editing by double clicking with the mouse. Functions for re-assigning fields and records, and for deleting empty fields and records, are now available. WARNING: the note below about faulty versions of PyQt4 (e.g in Ubuntu 11.04) still applies!

What is new in version 0.20 Alpha 3:

• Update includes new features such as field types for audio (e.g. mp3) and pdf files.
• Improved unicode support for import and export of data via text files.

What is new in version 0.20 Alpha 2:

• Fixes a minor bug (hour-glass cursor instead of pointer).

What is new in version 0.13 Alpha 5:

• Various minor mods and bug fixes to allow Qercus to run properly on more operating systems. Tested on Ubuntu 11.04, Kubuntu 11.04, Windows XP and Windows 7/64. Scripts for creating Windows .exe builds now also supplied in the .zip file (.exe build not supplied).

What is new in version 0.13 Alpha 4:

• One minor bug fix. Added 'tree' button to make it easier to find parents or children of currently-displayed record.

Requirements:

• Python
• Qt