MARC Report 256: Program enhancements

MARC Report 256 introduces a method by which the user can export and import a complete MARC Report configuration.
The Help file for this option follows.

Beginning in version 256, two new menu options appear under 'File' on the main menu:

  Export configuration
  Import configuration

EXPORT

Use the 'Export configuration' option to launch a dialog that will guide you to export a complete MARC Report configuration.

This export can either be used as a backup, or as the source for an import–for example, to copy a complete MARC Report configuration from one computer to another.

WHAT IS INCLUDED

A configuration export may include any or all of the following sections (where applicable):

 Options set using the 'Options' menu
 Macros and Shortcuts
 Profiles
 Cataloging Check sets 
 Cancelled Message sets
 Mandatory Field sets
 Subject Heading sets
 MARC Review Cataloging Checks
 RDA Relationship sets
 RDA local terms
 MARC Review saved reviews      
 MARC Global saved reviews      
 MARC Global autoreviews
 MARCXML XSL stylesheets
 MARC editing templates
 Utility configurations for:
     MARC Analysis
     MARC Review 
     MARC Global
     MARC Sort/Dedupe
     Import Text
     Verify MARC
 MARC Review history logs
 MARC Global history logs
 Edit Session history logs
 MARC Review review exports 
 MARC Global review and autoreview exports (as XML) 

WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED

The following sections are not exported:

 Picture files (in the "Images" folder)
 MARC files (in the "Edit" or "MARC" folders)
 Reports (in the "Reports" folder)

Local validation tables are not exported. (Local validation is a deprecated option and will be replaced in a future version).

Files in the “Lists” folder are not exported. Although these 'list' files may theoretically be customized by an advanced user, there is no well-defined method for doing so, as these files are potentially replaced each time the program is updated.

Finally, any parameter in the main options file ¹⁾ that includes a Windows path is removed (these typically appear in the “Files and Directories” section of the options). File paths typically vary significantly from one computer, and/or user, to another, and importing them will generate errors (note that the same exclusion is also true for Option profiles).

CONFIGURATION vs PROFILE

A configuration export is far more comprehensive than a “profile”. Profiles record only the options that are set on the Options menu; their purpose is to support quick toggles between one set of choices and another. But profiles do not include any of the customizations in the list above; profiles were designed to be used only within an existing user's installation. If a profile were to be copied to another computer, any file referenced by that profile would also have to be present on the destination computer.

HOW IT WORKS

The Export configuration option displays a form which includes a checkbox for every possible exportable option. If an option is not applicable–for example, a user who has never used MARC Review cannot have any saved review files–that option will be greyed out on the Export form.

By default, all enabled options are selected.

The user may de-select any option that they do not want included in the export. This makes it possible for a user to export only a single section of the configuration–like saved reviews.

There are three switches under the 'Options' menu of this form to help you quickly select/de-select/toggle all enabled checkboxes.

Once the decisions on what to export have been made, simply press the “Run” button. The program will copy all of the files relevant to the selected options into a temp folder, and then package the files in that temp folder into a single archive (.zip), output on the Desktop.

The filename of the exported configuration archive follows the pattern here:

  marcreport-config-2020-11-20T10-51-14.zip

At this point, you might set aside the 'config.zip' file as a backup, or copy it to another machine, etc. The size of the archive is relatively small (typically less than 1 MB), so it would also be possible to email the archive as an attachment (so some sites may have rules that block .zip attachments).

IMPORT

Given an exported configuration as described in the above section, it is then possible to import it.

HOW IT WORKS

The import configuration function uses the same form as described above for an export.

The first step is to select the archive containing the configuration that you want to import. Once that is done, the program opens the archive, determines what option sections are present, and then enables those option sections on the form.

By default, all enabled options are selected. The user may de-select any option section that is present, which will exclude that section from any subsequent import.

Once the decisions on what to import have been made, press the “Run” button. The program will copy all of the files pertaining to the selected options to their appropriate locations in the user's MARC Report folder. If there are no errors, the program will then shutdown. The next time the program is started, the imported options will take effect.

Imported options add and overwrite: if a file is not present on the target system, that file is added; if a file is already present on the target system, that file will be overwritten by the copy being imported.

Also note that when the “Run” button is pressed for an import, the program makes a silent copy in the background of all existing user options (in fact, the program just runs 'export configuration' will all option types selected). This backup is saved in the 'MarcReport' folder of My Documents, using a filename that follows the pattern here:

marcreport-config-backup-2020-11-20T10-51-14.zip

The purpose of this backup is to allow a configuration to be restored in case an import has unintended consequences.