Home Download Demo Changelog User manual Documentation About us Terms of use Privacy policy Follow us on Facebook

User manual

Getting started

phpSEL is an e-book manager designed to run on a server or your own computer if you install a web server locally. You can upload an unlimited number of books into it in multiple formats for each book. You can also upload the book cover and fill in extra information like publication date or the synopsys to create a well organized electronic library.

This User Manual describes the user interface and explains concepts unique to phpSEL. Instructions for obtaining and installing phpSEL can be found in the Documentation page.

Login

The first screen that you will meet when you access phpSEL in your browser is the Login screen. You will have to provide the username and password defined in the config.php file.

Header

When logged in, no matter where you are in phpSEL, you will see the header on the top of the page at all times. The header can be further divided into sub sections like the Menu and the Search field.

On the left side of the header you will find the menu which drops down if you move your mouse cursor over it.

  •   My books
    Clicking on My books reloads the List page with no active filters, so it will show you all books you uploaded in your library.
  •   Add book
    Clicking on Add book will show the form that you can use to upload new books into your collection.
  •   Import
    Clicking on Import will take you to a search interface where you can collect book data from third party websites to make adding a book easier.
  •   On my reading list
    Clicking on On my reading list will show only those books that you put on your Reading list on their Details page. Use this categorization to compile a list of books that you plan to read next.
  •   On my wishlist
    Clicking on On my wishlist will show only those books that you put on your Wishlist on their Details page. The intended use for this category is to mark books that you want to buy a physical copy of.
  •   Already read
    Clicking on Already read will show only those books that you marked as Already read on their Details page.
  •   Physical copy
    Clicking on Physical copy will show only those books that you possess a physical copy of. You can set this on the Details page for each book.
  •   Missing books
    Clicking on Missing books will show those books that have no e-book file uploaded.
  •   Missing covers
    Clicking on Missing covers will show those books that have no book cover uploaded.
  •   Collection overview
    Clicking on Collection overview will navigate to a summary page for your book collection.
  •   Tools
    Hovering over Tools will show it's submenu, which contains the following entries:
    • Small covers: Lists all books that have covers smaller than the height set for covers on the list page in config.php.
  •   Log out
    Clicking on Log out will log you out of phpSEL. If you are using a device that can be accessed by others, be sure to log out after using phpSEL.

You can customize the menu title by editing the $site_title variable in the config.php file.
Go to the Documentation to learn more.

Search field

On the right side of the header you can find the search input field and the search submit button. You can use these to search for book titles and authors. The system will recognize fragments and combinations of authors and titles too.

List page

After logging in, you will be taken to the List page where you will find your e-book collection. This screen can be further divided into sub sections like the Book list, List pager, Listing order and Advanced search.

Book list

The book list shows your uploaded electronic books in a paginated grid view. For each book besides the title, the author and the book cover is also displayed if available.

Clicking on any book will load the book details page for that specific book.

You can customize the number of books displayed on a page and the dimensions of covers in the config.php file.
Go to the Documentation to learn more.

List pager

Above the book list on the left and below in the middle you can find the list pager, that displays the number of available pages matching the search criteria, the current and neigbouring pages and links for the first, last, next and last pages.

Keyboard navigation

You can use the ← and → keys to navigate beetween the pages.

Listing order

Above the book list on the right you can change the listing order of books displayed. The default order is the order in which you uploaded your books, so you will always see the latest books first.

You can change the default listing order in the config.php file.
Go to the Documentation to learn more.

Above the listing order you can find the link to toggle the Advanced search panel and the Clear search link, which clears all search criteria and reloads the List page to display all your books.

By clicking the Advanced search link, the Advanced search pane will appear:

Advanced search allows you to search for books based on any combination of the following search criteria:

  • Title
    Full or partial match of the book title.
  • Original title
    Full or partial match of the book title.
  • Author
    Full or partial match of the book title.
  • Language
    Any or the specific language selected.
  • World
    Full or partial match of the book title.
  • Series
    Full or partial match of the book series
  • Genre
    Any or the specific genre selected.
  • Publisher
    Any or the specific publisher selected.
  • Year of publication
    Full or partial match of the publication year.
  • Year of first publication
    Full or partial match of first publication year.
  • On my reading list
    Any, not or on the Reading list.
  • On my wishlist
    Any, not or on the Wishlist.
  • Already read
    Any, not or on the Already read list.
  • Physical copy
    Any, not or on the Physical copy list.
  • Missing book
    Any, not or on the Missing list.
  • Missing cover
    Any, not or on the Missing cover list.

Whether you initiated a search from the Search field in the header or by using Advanced search, the active filters are listed in the Active search pane. You can selectively drop each search criteria by clicking the red x in front of them to broaden your search results.

Details page

Clicking on any book in the Book list will take you to that specific book's Details page. This screen can be divided into subsections like Book cover & Actions, Book data & Synopsys, Files and Related books.

Book cover & Actions

On the left side of the Details page you can find the cover you uploaded for your book. Below it are icons to manage the book with and links to search for more information based on the book's author and title.

  •   Edit book
    Clicking on Edit book will navigate to the book form where you can edit the book's data and modify the files uploaded.
  •   Delete book
    Clicking Delete book will delete the book and uploaded files from your collection. Before doing so, the system will verify if you really want to do that.
  •   Already read
    Clicking Already read will mark the book as have been read by you. Clicking again will remove this attribute. You can use this to list only those books in Advanced search that you have read already.
  •   Reading list
    Clicking Reading list will mark the book as a book that you intend to read in the future. Clicking again will remove this attribute. You can use this to list only those books in Advanced search that you intend to read in the future.
  •   Wishlist
    Clicking Wishlist will mark the book as a book that you intend to buy a physical copy of in the future. Clicking again will remove this attribute. You can use this to list only those books in Advanced search that you intend to buy a physical copy of in the future.
  •   Physical copy
    Clicking Physical copy will mark the book as a book that possess a physical copy of. Clicking again will remove this attribute. You can use this to list only those books in Advanced search that you possess a physical copy of.

You can remove the default search links and add your own in the config.php file.
Go to the Documentation to learn more.

Book data

The Book data shows all the information you entered when you added the book that is being displayed. Any links here can be clicked to initiate a search in your collection based on the data displayed. For example you can list all the books of the author or all the books published in the same year.

The Details page will only show data that you recorded for the book. If you didn't provide the genre or the synopsys, they will not be displayed at all. The only compulsory field on the book form is the title.

Files

You can upload up to four e-book files for your book to store it in multiple formats if needed. These will appear below the Book data in separate lines.

Clicking the Download button with the file extension will download the e-book file to your device.

Clicking on the QR code link will use a third-party service (Google) to show you a QR code that you can scan with your phone or tablet to download the e-book file to your device.

On the right side you can see the size of your e-book file.

If you have a book reader device that supports receiving book files via email (Kindle, PocketBook) or use such an app on your phone or tablet to read books, you can set up phpSEL to send your books to your device with the push of a button.
Go to the Documentation to learn more.

Related books will show a list of books from the same Series, World and Author. Clicking on the linked name of the related World, Series and Author will take you to the List page where phpSEL will show you the same book list that is present here, but with book covers also displayed. Clicking on any of the book title in the related lists will take you to the Details page of that book.

The concept of Series and Worlds might be hard to grasp at first, so let us see two examples of how it could work:

  1. Using the example books of phpSEL

    All the books are written by Arthur Conan Doyle and all of them are about Sherlock Holmes. One way to view these books is that they are all in the Sherlock Holmes series. Based on the original publication dates we can also put them in the order they are in on the screenshot.

    If you wanted to upload The White Company, a historical adventure set during the Hundred Years' War also by Arthur Conan Doyle, you most probably wouldn't put it in the Sherlock Holmes series as it has nothing to do with the series. Nevertheless, as the author's name matches, this book would appear among the Related books under the Author section.

  2. Dragons of a Fallen Sun by Margaret Weis

    Margaret Weis wrote a lot of books. Most of them take place in the Dragonlance world. Some of these are direct sequels to eachother, which makes them parts of a series in the Dragonlance world. Dragons of a Fallen Sun is the first book of The War of Souls series int the Dragonlance world.

    If phpSEL contained all of Margaret Weis's work, the Related books on the Details page of Dragons of a Fallen Sun would list all three books of The War of Souls series under the Series section, all the books in the Dragonlance world (even books that were written by other authors) under the World section, and all the works of Margaret Weis under the Author section, even if they don't take place in the Dragonlance world.

The use of Worlds and Series is completely optional. It is up to you how much information you want to store about your books.

Adding books

Clicking on Add book in the menu will take you to the book form where you can record information about your book and upload the cover and e-book files in up to four different file formats.

Certain input fields, like the Author, Language, World, Series and Genre list the last few values used under them. Clicking on these will insert them into the input field to help save time if you are uploading similar books.

  • Title
    The title of your book. This is the only compulsory field on the form.
  • Original title
    This field is useful if the book you are adding has been translated from another language. If you add the original title too, phpSEL will try to link to the original book if it has been uploaded too based on this field and the author on the Details page.
  • Author
    The author of the book.
  • Language
    The language of the book. It doesn't matter if you use the ISO 639-1 language codes or simply write the name of the language. Just be sure to be consistent, so you can list all your English books at once (without having a few 'english' or 'en' books somewhere hidden away).
  • World
    The world the book takes place in.
  • World #
    If the book takes place in a certain world, you can specifiy the number of the book in that world.
  • Series
    The series the book is part of.
  • Series #
    If the book is part of a series, you can specifiy the number of the book in that series.
  • Genre
    The book's genre.
  • Publisher
    The book's publisher
  • Year of publication
    The year when the uploaded book was published.
  • Year of first publication
    The year when the uploaded book was first published. This can also be a previous edition or the book in it's original language.
  • Synopsis
    The book's synopsys.
  • Upload cover
    You can upload the book's cover here. When you are editing the book, you can delete the uploaded file here to upload a different cover.
  • Upload book
    You can upload four different e-book files at the bottom of the form. This is handy if you possess the same book in different formats and want to keep more than one of them. When editing the book, you can delete the uploaded files here.

After clicking Save, your book will be uploaded to phpSEL and you will be taken to the book's Details page. If there was a problem during upload, the form will be redisplayed with an problematic fields highlighted in red.

The only compulsory field on the from is the Title. This might sound unintuitive, but uploading a book without any other data - even the e-book files - makes perfect sense in phpSEL, as you can also use it to record books that you want to obtain later. In this case the lack of e-book files is no problem and you can filter the List page to show only such books.

Importing

The Import page helps you with collecting book data from third party sources like Goodreads.com and Moly.hu.

Select the Source from the dropdown from where you would like to obtain book data and enter the author and/or title of the book in question in the input field. Press the Search button to start your query.

Select the closest match from the results and press the Import to my library button to start the import process. You will be taken to the book form, where you can modify the imported data and upload the ebook files for the book.

Try to be as specific as possible in the search field as this will greatly reduce the time needed for the query and will give you better results overall.

Collection overview

The Collection Overview collects and displays data from your collection of e-books in phpSEL to show an organized overview categorized by Languages, Genres, Authors, Worlds & Series and Other series.

  • Languages
    The languages of your books are listed here as you recorded them while uploading. Clicking on the links will take you to the list page filtering for the langugage selected.
  • Genres
    The genres of your books are listed here as you recorded them while uploading. Clicking on the links will take you to the list page filtering for the genre selected.
  • Authors
    The authors of your books are listed here as you recorded them while uploading. Clicking on the links will take you to the list page filtering for the author selected.
  • Worlds & Series
    The worlds and the series they contain are listed here. (No worlds have been recorded for the example books.) Clicking on the links will take you to the list page filtering for the world or series selected.
  • Other series
    Series that do not belong into a World are listed here. Clicking on the links will take you to the list page filtering for the series selected.