[alephnull]

Prerelease version of library research tool (Z39.50 client) available for testing.

Sente is a popular Medline/PubMed literature research program for Mac OS X. A prerelease version of the next major release, which will include Z39.50 support for searching libraries catalogs and other data sources, is now available for download and testing.

In addition to the existing Sente functionality, with this prerelease software you can:

-- search library catalogs around the world, including many major university libraries, using one, simple interface;

-- search on-line reference databases, such as Agricola, PsychINFO, Books in Print, CAB Abstracts, Current Contents, Dissertation Abstracts, MLA Abstracts, and others from Ovid (you must have individual or institutional access to Ovid to access these data sources);

-- merge search results from multiple libraries into a single collection, and then use standard Sente features like filters and custom keywords to organize these results;

-- view a text version of the MARC21 records that are retrieved.

The prerelease version of Sente can be downloaded (free-of-charge, of course) from here:

http://www.thirdstreetsoftware.com/index.cgi?page=beta

(You will not find a link to the prerelease version of Sente on our regular web site -- www.thirdstreetsoftware.com -- you must use the link above to get to the appropriate page.)

Also, please note that if you are already a Sente user and you try this prerelease version, you would need to delete any Z39.50 searches before launching the regular Sente release again. (The regular release just does not know how to deal with these new searches.)

[zachs]

Huh...it won't launch for me. Here's the Console log:

Code:
2004-06-21 17:31:39.934 Sente[5397] DataSource.pkl = /Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/DataSources.pkl
2004-06-21 17:31:39.997 Sente[5397] ODLibrarian.identifyTopLevelCollections:  Copying in from sample library at /Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources: 
<CFArray 0x4b1a420 [0xa01900e0]>{type = mutable-small, count = 9, values = (
	0 : <CFString 0x4b1a810 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/COX1, 2, 3 genes.pkl"}
	1 : <CFString 0x4b1a820 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/DataSources.pkl"}
	2 : <CFString 0x4b1a890 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/Preventive mental health.pkl"}
	3 : <CFString 0x4b1a8a0 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/Red Wine.pkl"}
	4 : <CFString 0x4b1a5c0 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/Tennis Elbow.pkl"}
	5 : <CFString 0x4b1acc0 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/COX1, 2, 3 genes.pkl.hdl"}
	6 : <CFString 0x4b1a580 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/Preventive mental health.pkl.hdl"}
	7 : <CFString 0x4b1a590 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/Red Wine.pkl.hdl"}
	8 : <CFString 0x4b1ad30 [0xa01900e0]>{contents = "/Users/zachs/Desktop/Sente.app/Contents/Resources/Tennis Elbow.pkl.hdl"}
)}
2004-06-21 17:31:41.103 Sente[5397] ODLibrarian.createHandleForTopLevelCollection: no file DataSources.pkl
2004-06-21 17:31:41.128 Sente[5397] *** -[ODDataSourceList setLoadedFromPath:]: selector not recognized
2004-06-21 17:31:41.128 Sente[5397] An uncaught exception was raised
2004-06-21 17:31:41.157 Sente[5397] *** -[ODDataSourceList setLoadedFromPath:]: selector not recognized
2004-06-21 17:31:41.157 Sente[5397] *** Uncaught exception: <NSInvalidArgumentException> *** -[ODDataSourceList setLoadedFromPath:]: selector not recognized
Jun 21 17:31:48 zach crashdump: Started writing crash report to: /Users/zachs/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Sente.crash.log
Jun 21 17:31:51 zach crashdump: Finished writing crash report to: /Users/zachs/Library/Logs/CrashReporter/Sente.crash.log

[alephnull]

Sorry about that -- I guess that's why we do these betas! There was a problem with the build that was posted earlier and it has now been fixed.

If you downloaded the broken version, you will need to delete a file for Sente to run (even the new, unbroken build). The file to remove is:

YourHome/Library/Sente/DataSources.pkl

If you download the new build AND delete this file, Sente should run fine (of course, I said something like that earlier today, didn't I?).

Thanks for sending in the console log -- that helped point out the problem immediately!