The latest development test version is available for download. The documentation has not yet been updated, but the process is the same as before: download the executable JAR file, click it and go.
Fixed: scrollbar problems, import speed, some file format issues, some file chooser inconsistencies
New: charts (two kinds), restrict view (and charting) by title, named exports, ad hoc queries (for database experts)
See the comments for more detail on the new features, known issues, etc.
Give it a try and let me know if you have any problems. Also please let me know if there are any particular charts or analyses or other functions you’d like added. Thanks.
Title selection:
I’ll explain the new features in more detail when I update the documentation. One thing, the “Set view..” item in the “Tools” menu lets you enter a book title. The underlying SQL expects a single title (spaces are okay), but you can somewhat fake that out with wildcards. For example, entering “the*” would select every title that starts with “The” (not case sensitive).
Next release will make multi-title selection simpler. Just entering * here selects everything, which is the same as “View all sales” in the “View” menu. The charts run on the current view of the data, so you can limit to one title or all of them. More control over the charts will come soon.
Known issues
There are a couple of things I overlooked in my eagerness to get a new version out. They’re easy to fix, so I’ll get another version (0.3.1) out very soon.
Currency: Right now the program is treating all currency numbers the same for the purposes of reporting total royalty earned, etc. D’oh. I’ll have it separate out the US dollars from Euros from GB pounds, etc. (Currency conversion is trickier because rates change over time. Dealing with that is a longer-term goal.)
Date ranges: There should be a way to report based on a given month or range of months. Right now there isn’t. (D’oh!) That’s an easy fix too.
Reporting based on a given day or range of days is problematic because most of the vendors only report by month, not the actual day of sale. For the former, the program would have to pick an arbitrary day of the month (first? last? 15th?).
(Tip of the hat to Dean Wesley Smith for pointing these out.)