Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

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MakoSoft
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Joined: Sun Jun 03, 2012 5:29 am

Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#1 Post by MakoSoft »

Rdex is tiny, easy in use text-based information manager.
It may be named "freeform database" for pieces of text data.
This is very interesting tool for everyday personal use.
Also, for professional work, education, research and the like.

Rdex uses rare today organization of text clips (snippets)
named "cardfile": linear, as in old paper-based catalogue.
This solution in many applications is more efficient than
nowadays widely used tree-based, hierarchical data structure.

Program interface is simple and clear. Short help is well written.
To find a card(s) with demanded string search box is used.
The data is stored as a simple ASCII file with cards separated
by the ASCII character "7F". This simple solution allows easy
data recovery or further processing with typical text editor.
The latest versions are working with UTF-8 and ASCII too.

Portability is natural: after setup, program folder (with single
Rdex.exe and text database.rdx file) maybe copied to any place.

This program is free software, under GNU General Public License by
the FSF; either version 3 of the License. More details on homepage.

Author: Peter Newman
Homepage: http://pnewman.com/rdex/
Download: http://pnewman.com/rdex/rdex-1-5-4-setup.exe
Rdex version is 1.5.4, released November 2016 (384 KB setup).
This program runs on MS Windows XP or any more recent version.
Operating under MS Windows 10 64 bit. Rdex.exe is 166 KB only.
Other editions: Rdex Java 2.6.1 (2016), Rdex for Android (2016).

TP109
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Location: Midwestern US

Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#2 Post by TP109 »

Thanks for posting about this program. Rdex is a fast launching and easy-to-use text manager that's very lightweight in terms of resource usage and size. Useful as a quick launching application for taking notes from the desktop.


TP109
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#4 Post by TP109 »

It seems like that screenshot is for a previous version. Version 1.5.4 adds a List All Cards button to the right of the Delete Card button.

Image

MakoSoft
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Rdex - a small text-based PIM - new portable release.

#5 Post by MakoSoft »

Rdex is text freeform database - small, simple in use 32 bit application.
He was already discussed at this forum on Apr 22-30, 2017.

This program is developed for many years. The author is Peter Newman.
Rdex now has new version 1.5.6 completely portable (released Sep 2019).

Now settings are stored in file rdex.ini, in the same folder as the program.
Portable version is created on the basis of a typical installation version by
copying the executable file rdex.exe to the user selected folder and adding
to it an empty text file rdex.ini. I tested this version: handy and works well.

This application is distinguished by low consumption of RAM -
only about 1.5 MB (with small database, Windows 10 64 bit).
Portable version takes approx. 207 KB space of disk (pendrive).

The data file can be stored anywhere and may be encrypted.
Rdex text database may be written with UTF-8 and is readable.

Homepage: http://pnewman.com/rdex/rdex-windows.htm

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Midas
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#6 Post by Midas »

Great! Portability is always welcome. 8)

But, like you noted, Rdex has already been submitted so, to avoid confusion, I'm merging topics.

As a further note, let me add that Rdex is FLOSS licensed under GPL3, also available in Java-based format and as an Android App.

FTR, here's a copy of the available changelog:

Code: Select all

New in Rdex 1.5.6--Sep 2019

    Improved security of password handling for encrypted files.
    Added a timestamp (date) insertion menu item.
    Added an erase button for the search box.
    Added an option to open in List View.
    Display in browser function now accepts file: urls from the local file system.
    Organized preference items into a new options menu item.
    Added ctrl double-click to select an entire line.
    Added a portable memory stick capability that stores the rdex.ini file in the same folder as the program. 

New in Rdex 1.5.5--May 2018

    AES-128 encrypted file format.
    Made saving a backup copy of the file optional. 

New in Rdex 1.5.4--Nov 2016

    Launch browser or mail client on double click of url or email address. 

New in Rdex 1.5.3--Jly 2016

    Autosave check every five minutes.
    List all cards button
    Option to sort list all cards alphabetically
    If only a single card in list all cards just show card
    First save to a temporary file, save original file as a backup copy then rename the temp file
    Check if Rdex already running on startup 

New in Rdex 1.5.2--Aug 2015

    Wildcard search: "?" matches any single character, "*" matches zero to 100 occurrences of any character.
    Import from uncompressed AZZ cardfile format. 

New in Rdex 1.5.1--May 2014

    Fixed bug in import from Microsoft Cardfile that sometimes caused Rdex to crash. 

New in Rdex 1.5--Dec 2013

    Option to sort cards and insert them in alphabetical order
    Persistent state saved upon system shutdown as well as during program close
    New UTF-8 file format
    Import from Microsoft Cardfile file format
    Import from Quickdex file format 
Finally, a poetic quote form Rdex homepage:
I have been using my cardfile since the early 90's. The application I first used to create the cardfile is gone. The machine the application ran on is long gone. So is the operating system on which the application ran. Even the company that created that operating system has been gone nearly 10 years now. Only the data remains.

TP109
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#7 Post by TP109 »

Good news. I've been using this program for awhile as my default quick note app even though it wasn't fully portable. It's extremely fast, simple, has a tiny footprint, and works on XP. I extracted rdex-1-5-6-setup.exe and moved the old rdex.ini from %APPDATA % to the application folder and it works.

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Midas
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#8 Post by Midas »

@TP109: It's even better to have such feedback from a long time user. 8)

Rdex installer can be easily (Uni)extracted. Some further findings from my summary testing.

- There is no case changing option -- a simple "UPPER/lower" option in the "Edit" menu would be highly welcome.

- The text field present in the toolbar is for quick searching, not for the card title, which consists in fact of the card's first line of text -- titles get listed by clicking the common "clipboard paste" icon in Rdex's toolbar or by pressing 'ALT+Enter'/'CTRL+Enter'.

- Although not visually highlighted, URLs and mail addresses can be conveniently launched by double clicking on them -- URLs don't require a 'https://' prefix and will be automatically auto-selected (an option to take a selection and do an online search would also be welcome).

- Date formats can quickly be chosen from the "Options" menu but not customized -- as there is no ISO numeric string option, you're stuck with either "2019 out 18" ("Date Format Year First") or "2019/10/18" ("Date Format Year First" and "Date Format Numeric") if you want to follow EU standard.

- The "CurrentFilename=" in the new portable 'rdex.ini' location seems to work alright with relative paths -- I was able to relocate my testing card file to a "Data" sub-folder by editing it and inputing '.\Data\rdextest.rdx'.

- Available card file save formats are UTF-8, 7-bit ASCII, and AES-128 encrypted -- export options are TXT and CSV.

Lastly, here's the relevant portability snippet taken out of Rdex's 'readme.txt':
Normally Rdex will store preference information, the default password and recent filenames in a file called 'rdex.ini' located in the user's '%AppData%' folder. If you would prefer Rdex to leave no trace, copy 'rdex.exe' to a memory stick and create an empty text file in the same folder and name it 'rdex.ini'. You can then run Rdex directly from the memory stick. You can also enforce this behavior by starting Rdex from the command line with a '-p' flag:

Code: Select all

rdex.exe -p [filename]

TP109
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#9 Post by TP109 »

Midas wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 5:29 am - There is no case changing option -- a simple "UPPER/lower" option in the "Edit" menu would be highly welcome.

- Although not visually highlighted, URLs and mail addresses can be conveniently launched by double clicking on them -- URLs don't require a 'https://' prefix and will be automatically auto-selected (an option to take a selection and do an online search would also be welcome).

- Date formats can quickly be chosen from the "Options" menu but not customized -- as there is no ISO numeric string option, you're stuck with either "2019 out 18" ("Date Format Year First") or "2019/10/18" ("Date Format Year First" and "Date Format Numeric") if you want to follow EU standard.
Agree. Including those options would make the program more useful.

pnewman
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#10 Post by pnewman »

Thank you for the feedback. I have made a note of the suggestions for inclusion in the next version of Rdex.

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Midas
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#11 Post by Midas »

I am assuming you are the developer of Rdex.

Always glad to have devs drop by. Welcome to our forum. 8)

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Andrew Lee
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Re: Rdex - a small information manager for textual data

#12 Post by Andrew Lee »

Not sure why nobody has added this little gem to the database.

Anyway, here it is: https://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=3039

Please vote!

By default, the full path of the last saved cardfile is written to rdex.ini. Just change it to a relative path (eg. if you save to the same folder as the EXE eg. "F:\rdex\cardfile.rdx", just edit it to "cardfile.rdx" will do).

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