MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - [Android App] Coming: Android app to connect as a device to calibre using wifi

chaley · 08-06-2012, 10:46 AM

Thank you all for your comments.

We are making good progress toward a beta test. I don't want to promise a date, but it isn't weeks away. We have settled on a feature set for the beta and are now working through robustness and look-and-feel issues.

The beta will support:

Full support of calibre's device interface, including add and delete books, "on device", plugin notification, and automatic conversion.
Book display on the device grouped by title, author, tags, series, and publisher with first-letter navigation.
Book display grouped by custom fields.
Support for calibre's automatic metadata management facility. The app displays metadata supplied by calibre, not the metadata contained in the book's file.
One destination folder. Book format routing will come ASAP.
Launching of reader apps if they advertize their capabilities. It works with FBReader, Cool Reader, and Adobe reader. Kindle for Android does not play nice, so files to be read with it must be placed in the "kindle" folder. I haven't tried other reader apps.
Collections (similar to Sony collections, Nook shelves & Kindle collections). The collections will appear in the same way as grouping by tags/series etc. The collections will be managed by calibre similarly to calibre's collection management for Sony devices.
Simplified driver control in calibre. The driver can be started and stopped using the Connect/Share menu.
Optional password-protected access and rogue client flood-connection detection.
Manual IP setup in case the network/wifi router does not support finding calibre automatically or if the device and calibre are not on the same local network.
Support for Android 2.3 and up.

What won't be in the initial beta:

Multiple folder format routing. As noted above, this is a priority.
Detailed/complete metadata display (book details).
The content server interface.
Some menus, such as Setup, won't be as pretty as we would like.

Our current plan is to make the beta release available on Google Play so that updates will be rapidly available to testers. I will post here as soon as that happens.

08-06-2012, 10:46 AM	#42
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,741 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	Thank you all for your comments. We are making good progress toward a beta test. I don't want to promise a date, but it isn't weeks away. We have settled on a feature set for the beta and are now working through robustness and look-and-feel issues. The beta will support: Full support of calibre's device interface, including add and delete books, "on device", plugin notification, and automatic conversion. Book display on the device grouped by title, author, tags, series, and publisher with first-letter navigation. Book display grouped by custom fields. Support for calibre's automatic metadata management facility. The app displays metadata supplied by calibre, not the metadata contained in the book's file. One destination folder. Book format routing will come ASAP. Launching of reader apps if they advertize their capabilities. It works with FBReader, Cool Reader, and Adobe reader. Kindle for Android does not play nice, so files to be read with it must be placed in the "kindle" folder. I haven't tried other reader apps. Collections (similar to Sony collections, Nook shelves & Kindle collections). The collections will appear in the same way as grouping by tags/series etc. The collections will be managed by calibre similarly to calibre's collection management for Sony devices. Simplified driver control in calibre. The driver can be started and stopped using the Connect/Share menu. Optional password-protected access and rogue client flood-connection detection. Manual IP setup in case the network/wifi router does not support finding calibre automatically or if the device and calibre are not on the same local network. Support for Android 2.3 and up. What won't be in the initial beta: Multiple folder format routing. As noted above, this is a priority. Detailed/complete metadata display (book details). The content server interface. Some menus, such as Setup, won't be as pretty as we would like. Our current plan is to make the beta release available on Google Play so that updates will be rapidly available to testers. I will post here as soon as that happens. Last edited by chaley; 08-07-2012 at 11:36 AM. Reason: 1) Collections will be in the beta. 2) custom field grouping will be in the beta.