Added Ability to Truncate a Field on the Left rather than the Right
The variable modifier of "R" may now be used, in combination with a length modifier, to keep characters on the right (truncating on the left), rather than the default behavior of keeping characters on the left.
Converted from Shareware to Freeware
PSTextMerge is now completely free.

Version 3.3

Output Directories Now Created
Previously, all parent output directories had to be created before PSTextMerge would create an output file from a template. All necessary parent directories will now be created automatically, assuming sufficient permissions.
Made Directory Last Mod Date Compliant with ISO 8601
Modified Last Mod Date format, generated when reading a file directory, to use hyphens instead of slashes between the month, day and year fields, to be compliant with ISO 8601. This also allows this date to be used when generating Google Sitemaps.
Several New Text Logical Operands Added
Added several new logical operands to check if a string is not included, if one string starts with another or does not, and if a string ends with another or does not.

Version 3.2

Add INCLUDE Command
Added an INCLUDE Command to Template processing. This command allows you to include text from another file into the output stream being generated by the template. The included text is not processed in any way, but is simply copied to the output file(s) being generated. This does allow output from a previous step in a script to be included in the output generated by a later step. If an include file is not found, then it will simply be skipped and processing will continue, with a log message to note the event.
Add Ability to Output Formatted HTML Table Cells
Added a new Data Source of "Excel Table", which generates only one column for each row in the table, called "Table Row". This column contains complete formatted HTML for every column in the row, including comparable text formatting, hyperlinks, and cell dimensions.
Add Ability to Detect Start and End of Lists
Added IFNEWLIST and IFENDLIST commands, that indicate the beginning and ending of a list of records, all having the same group identifier at the specified level. So whereas IFNEWGROUP indicates a new value in the group identifier field for a particular level, IFNEWLIST indicates the start of a new sequence of values. In general, IFNEWLIST and IFENDLIST can be used to insert begin list and end list tags when generating HTML.
Hyperlinks Now Available from Excel Spreadsheets
When reading an Excel spreadsheet, if an Excel cell has a hyperlink associated with it, that hyperlink can now be accessed by adding "link" to the name of the column.
Simplified Syntax for Links in Outline Format
When processing a Data Source in PSPub Outline format, hyperlinks can now be added simply by specifying a URL (beginning with the usual http: prefix) on a line by itself following the line to be hyperlinked. An outline heading may now have such a hyperlink applied, as well.
Notify User when Memory is Low
The program now generates log messages when it is low on memory.
Add Informational Messages to Log at Startup
Added some additional informational messages to the log at startup. Now displaying amount of available memory and information about the Java Virtual Machine on which the application is running.
Corrected a Bug in Play Recent Script Menu Item
Corrected a bug that prevented the length of the Play Recent Script menu item from ever showing more than four items. The list should now show up to 10 items, as previously intended.

Version 3.1

Added Outline Format
Added a new data input format, called PSPub Outline. This format allows an outline to be easily created within any text editor. Any character may be used consistently within a file as a bullet character, to indicate a heading item. Indention is used to indicate outline levels. The output may then be formatted as HTML, in any format that the user chooses.
Added Play Recent submenu to Scripts Menu
Added the ability to remember recent scripts played, and to easily play them again by selecting them from the Play Recent submenu on the Script menu.
Start in User's Home Directory
Modified the starting location for the first file open dialog to show the user's home directory, rather than the PSTextMerge folder.
New Variable Modifier to Access File Name Base
Added a new variable modifier, "b", to strip the extension from a file name and return only the base part of the name.
Added Global Variable of dataparent
Added a new global variable, "dataparent", allowing the enclosing folder of the input data file to be used in the output, most usefully as part of an output file name.
Add Template Library
Added a template library. This defaults to a new templates folder in the PSTextMerge application folder. A new button on the Template tab allows you to select another folder to contain your collection of standard templates. Another new button on the Template tab allows you to open a template from the template library, rather than the folder where the input data file, or script file, resides. Recording a script that references a file from the template library will store the folder location as the template library, so that moving the template library will not later break scripts that have been recorded. In combination with the ability to reference the dataparent folder as a variable, and call out the data file name as a base file name (without a file extension), templates may now be written (and are supplied with the PSTextMerge standard distribution), that can be used with any appropriate data file, and will generate output in the data file's location, and with the data file's name (rather than hard-coding a specific output file name in each template file).

Version 3.0

Product Renamed from TDF Czar to PSTextMerge
Product Renamed from TDF Czar to PSTextMerge. "TDF Czar" has always been a mouthful, and with the change in the latest version to read MS Excel files directly, it was no longer even descriptive. Following the precedent set by the PSRenamer product, I am now calling this product PSTextMerge.
Read Excel Files Directly
Lists stored in MS Excel style spreadsheets can now be read directly as input, without having to first save the data in a tab-delimited format.
Commands Can Be Indented
PSTextMerge commands may now have white space on the line preceding the start of the actual commands.
Alternate Delimiters Now Available
Added a new delimiter scheme that should allow better compatibility with various HTML editors. The delimiters in the far right column are the new ones.

Meaning Original Delimiters New Delimiters
Start of Command << <?
End of Command >> ?>
Start of Variable << =$
End of Variable >> $=
Start of Variable Modifiers & &
XML Parsing
XML is now a valid input type. Field names will be stored in columns 1 - 4, and field values will be stored in column 5.
Word Demarcation
The way in which words are delimited within a variable can now be changed. The delimiter can be specified, as well as capitalization rules. All normal word demarcation rules are recognized to parse the variable into words, including punctuation characters, and transitions from lower- to upper-case.
Variable Modifier of X converts for XML
A variable modifier of x will now cause a variable to have applicable characters translated to XML entities. This is especially useful when generating an RSS feed.
Date formats in templates may now be used for any mm/dd/yy date
Date formats in templates may now be used for any mm/dd/yy date. Templates previously offered a very flexible way to format dates, but this formatting could only be used to format today's date. The same date formats may now be used for any date in month/day/year format.
User Preferences Now Stored per OS Standard
User preferences are now stored using the Java API, which places them in the proper location for preferences per the operating system standard. When converting from a prior version (of TDF Czar), the parms.txt file should be copied to the PSTextMerge folder before launching PSTextMerge for the first time.

Version 2.6

Program sometimes hangs or quits unexpectedly
Modified program to reset input options to initial default values after playback of a script, to ensure stable execution of following actions.
Somehow try to enforce and/or supply default file
Modified program to automatically add the default file extension of '.tcz' when recording a script file, if no extension is specified.
Fixed Group Breaks Bug
Corrected a bug that caused new group breaks to be ignored when a higher level break had occurred, but the lower level data happened to be the same.
Add ability to run from command line
Added two command line arguments, to allow PSTextMerge to be run completely from the command line, without any graphical user interface. The first argument is specified as -q and tells the program to run in quiet mode -- that is, without any GUI. The second argument specifies the location and name of a script file to be played, the location being relative to the PSTextMerge program.
Fixed Global Variable Bug
Corrected a bug that caused a global variable to be set to 0 (zero) whenever a String (non-integer) value was assigned to it.
Fixed Global Variable Bug
Corrected a bug that prevented a global variable from being set to a non-blank value once it had been initially set to a blank value.
Fixed Length Modifier Bug
Corrected a bug that resulted in an unrecoverable error when a length variable modifier was longer than the starting variable. Modified logic so that the variable will be padded with zeros on the left in this situation.
Added Data Normalization Ability
Added the ability to invoke a data normalization routine, as demonstrated with a special routine for Boeing Mesa IT.
Seem to be problems passing a run-time parameter
Modified the program to treat a run-time parameter script file strictly as a file, and not a URL. This cleared up some problems that were occurring when trying to pass the name of a script file that was not located on the path of the program (on a separate volume or server, for example).
Fixed Lookup Files Bug
Corrected a problem that would prevent lookup files from being found in same directory as the script file when the program was being invoked from the command line.
Modified to write log to disk when in quiet mode
Modified to write log file to disk when program is invoked in quite mode.
Seems to be a bug when reading a file directory.
Corrected a recently introduced bug in the 2.6 beta version that caused the following file or directory name, rather than the current one, to be returned with each record when reading a file directory.
Add More Selective Case Modification
Added the letter 'i' as a template variable modifier to indicate that the associated case conversion character ('u' or 'l') should be applied only to the initial character of the variable.
Space in file name causes difficulties
Removed space in name of executable in order to prevent problems on some platforms with execution via a batch script.
Add the ability to lookup data in associated table
Added fields to the data dictionary that allow a field to be calculated, based on other fields and possibly other files. The first calculation function added is lookup , which allows a value in an associated tab-delimited file to be looked up, based on key values in the primary file. See the description of the Input tab in the Operating Guide for more information.
User Guide doesn't seem to launch from Help Menu
Improved Help/User Guide functionality to more consistently launch the user guide in your Web browser under Mac OS X.

Version 2.5

Fix Bug in Playback of HTML Table Open
Corrected a bug that prevented playback of an action to open an HTML table.
When reading multiple levels of a file directory
Corrected bug that caused wrong folders (one level too high) to appear in new Folder columns.
Would be nice to have file references in scripts
Modified scripting logic to allow relative path references to refer to files higher in the folder hierarchy, using the ../ convention for each upwards folder level.
Ignore cells with rowspan/colspan > 1
When reading HTML tables, modified logic to bypass table cells where rowspan or colspan is greater than 1, on the assumption that this would not be part of a true data table.
Add HTML import ability that uses various heading levels
Added a new input type to extract bookmarks from HTML files using Heading tags as categories.
Add Ability to Replace Spaces with Underscores
Added an underscore character ('_') as a new variable modifier. When present, this will cause any spaces in the variable to be replaced with underscore characters.
Separator variable modifiers always have spaces
Omit spaces after forward and backwards slashes, when used as variable modifier separator characters.
Play Back Script Just Recorded
Modified Script Play Again to always play back last script played or recorded (instead of last script played, if there was one, then last script recorded).
Can't decrement maximum directory depth on Input
Corrected Decrement Directory Depth logic so that it could be set back to 1 after having been incremented (previous logic would not allow it to go below 2).
Change look of Script Play Button
Modified Script Tab so that focus shifts to Stop button after recording is begun.
Should be able to open local user guide
Modified to try to open local user guide on Mac systems, instead of sending user to the PowerSurgePub Web site (already works this way on Windows).

Version 2.4

Add merge option to supply missing column headings
Added a new merge option that uses column headings from last file read, for files that do not have their own embedded column headings.
For file directories, last mod date should be formatted for sorting
For file directories being input, broke the last modified date and time into two separate fields. The date field is in the form yyyy/MM/dd so that it can be easily sorted. The time field is in the form hh:mm:ss tmz with a military (24-hour) time, again for easy sorting.
Make Sort parameters text box scrollable
Added scroll bars to sort and filter parameter displays.
For file directory opens, read sub-directories
Added a maximum explosion depth for file directory opens. Sub-directories will also show up as separate fields in resulting tabular data, as well as in sort key.
Name seems a bit generic as the heading for file
For file directory opens, changed the column heading for file names from Name to File Name .
Add HTML entity Translation
For HTML input, added ability to translate character entities found within HTML text to their equivalent ASCII characters. For now, translation is only provided for characters that are not platform-specific: (non-breaking space), < (less than sign), > (greater than sign), & (ampersand) and " (double quotation marks). Entities may be specified using mnemonics or their numeric equivalents.
Access Individual Words within Filenames
For file directory input, file names are now broken into a maximum of five separate words (separated by spaces, puncutation, etc.), which are returned as individual fields (Word1 through Word5).

Version 2.3

Program has no menus or shortcut keys
Added proper menus and accelerator/shortcut keys to perform major program functions without having to use tabs and buttons.
User interface doesn't gray out buttons and menu selections
Modified user interface to gray out buttons and menu items when they are not applicable.
Merge Bug
Fixed a bug that was causing problems when processing an alias in a data dictionary.
Add Today as Special Variable
Added today as a special variable that will be replaced with today's date, at the time that a template generation is run. Also added an optional date format as a variable modifier, to allow the format of today's date to be specified.
Add Play Again Button for Scripts
Added a Play Again button on the script tab, which will rerun the last script recorded or played without having to re-select the script file.
User interface has several quirks
Removed the ability to run the program as an applet, since this seemed fairly useless, wasn't reliable (due to lack of consistent testing), and was causing several user interface challenges.
Application takes up too much screen real estate
Made the initial application window size smaller, and made it resizable.
Doesn't obey Mac OS X interface guidelines
Made several Mac OS X specific enhancements:
Put menu bar at top of screen;
enabled About and Quit menu items on Application menu;
enabled script files to be played by dropping them on the application or by double-clicking a file with an extension of .tcz.

Version 2.2

No way to get data out of an HTML table
Added the ability to parse an HTML table as an input data source.
Added list punctuation variable modifier
Any punctuation entered as a variable modifier will cause that variable, along with any preceding or succeeding ones so marked, to be treated as elements of a list, with the punctuation character used to separate non-blank elements.
User interface is awkward
Improved user interface on Input, Output and Template tabs.

Version 2.1.1

Hard to debug when results are not as expected
Added additional logging to show results of commands.
Creating templates can be hard
Provided example in user guide of using meta-templates to generate templates from a data dictionary.
Bug that prevents Set command from working
Corrected bug that prevented Set command from working.
Bug in testing for equality
Corrected bug in checking for equality between two variables.
Data dictionary accumulates values when not desired
Modified to start with empty data dictionary every time a new input data source is opened, unless a merge has been requested.

Version 2.1

Add ability to merge two files
Input tab now offers the option to merge an input file with the existing data set. Files should have some overlapping columns, but may have unique columns as well.
Add ability to combine records
Sort tab now offers the ability to combine records with identical sort keys. This may be used with the new merge feature, or on a single file to eliminate duplicates.
Add Creator and File Type Codes for Output Files on a Mac
When running on a Mac, output files will have the SimpleText creator code (ttxt) and the plain text (TEXT) type code assigned, to make these files easier to open using other programs.

Version 2

Not getting paid for this great program
Program now requires a registration code to process more than 20 data records.

Version 1.17

No way to go from HTML to tab-delimited records
Added an option to parse HTML into tab-delimited records. The first option available reads bookmark files that use multiple, indented lists to indicate the organization of the bookmarks. This is the format used by URL Manager, for example.
Script files aren't portable
Modified script files to make file names relative to the location of the script file itself, where file names are within the same folder. This should make script files more portable.

Version 1.16

Doesn't work natively under Mac OS X
Now available for execution under Mac OS X.
Text sometimes overflows available area on Script
Added scroll bars to output text areas on Log and Script tabs.
Logging output sometimes difficult to find
Added a logging option that sends log data to the text area on the Log tab.
Add Group Commands
Added three new group commands to allow template lines to be written out before and after control breaks in up to ten different key fields.

Version 1.15

Fix IF Results Bug
Corrected bug that caused results of IF comparisons to be reversed.
SET commands not working properly
Corrected program logic so that global variable values would not be confused with data record values.
Last row in input data gets skipped
Corrected bug that caused last row of input data to be skipped when using a template to generate an output file.
Script input file is not using same log file
Modified Script playback file to use same log file settings as the rest of the program.
Create program icons for distribution
Created program icons.

Version 1.14

Exception occurs when running as applet
Corrected an exception that occurred when running as an applet with an initial scriptfile.
Script output file is not using same log file
Modified so that the output script dictionary would use the same log and log settings as the rest of the program.

Version 1.12

Exception occurs when reading dictionary file
Added check in dictionary read routine to skip blank lines in the input file.
Change file:\\http to http at beginning of hyperlinks
Eliminated occurrences of file:\\http at the beginning of hyperlink fields.
Code for condition when URL begins with slashes
Added logic to handle condition when hyperlink field begins with slashes.
Add some way to quit the program
Added ability to quit the program by closing the window.
Trim spaces from front of hyperlinks
Added logic to trim spaces from the front of hyperlink fields.
Ensure that the output dictionary uses correct log settings
Modified so that the output dictionary would use the same log and log settings as the rest of the program.

Version 1.11

Maintain last used directory
Modified to remember last used directory and start further file activity (opens, saves) there, rather than home directory.
Make sure dictionary file gets saved in same directory
Modified to ensure that the dictionary file gets saved in the same directory as the output file.
Dictionary output file contains extra records
Eliminated penultimate dictionary record containing no field name, but a non-blank data format. This was being created when a Dictionary was being saved as part of the Output function.
Dictionary output file does not contain input data format rules
Modified to prevent extra dictionaries from being accidentally created internally. This would result in custom formats being lost when going from Input to Output functions.
ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
Corrected an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException at com.powersurgepub.psdata.DataRecord by being more tolerant of irregularities in the Input data source.
Template Generation not creating a Script Action
Added code to record a Script action when pressing the Template Generate button.
Prevent fatal errors when data records misconfigured
Prevented fatal errors when one or more data records did not conform to expected configuration (blank lines, missing fields, extra fields, etc.).

Version 1.10

Open dialog box for Script playback shows up in wrong location
That's where it should be! Not a problem.

http://www.powersurgepub.com/ | versions.html | Revised: 1/20/12