[delvorak]

Hello all!

Recently I've started using two seperate Android devices to read books
using FBReaderJ for Android, a NookColor, and my phone, a Sprint EVO
4G. Very quickly, I ran into a problem. I read the same books on both
devices, so I ended up spending a lot of time looking for my place
whenever I switched devices (I used the NC at home, and my phone
everywhere else).

I imagine that this must be a problem quite a few people are having,
or will be having as android devices become more popular.

So, I wrote an android app to synchronize my place in each book
between the two devices.

I also added a Dropbox interface so you can sync your actual book files between devices using your own Dropbox account!

App Name: FBSync
Current Version: v1.0.14 beta

Requirements:

1) Root. Your devices must be rooted. This application only uses
root for two things. First, it uses root to get access to the
FBReaderJ books database, and second, it uses root to kill the
FBReaderJ process before it syncs the data (it has to kill the process
to force FBReader to reload the database).

2) FBReaderJ must be installed on the device (you will be prompted to
install it if you haven't already when you load my app)

3) You must have already opened FBReaderJ at least once, and viewed
it's library (Menu button, "Library"). This creates the databases
that my application needs.

Download:

It's been posted to the market, so just search for FBSync and you can find the latest version!

Instructions for Use:

After you install it, go into the settings (blue icon, or menu/
settings), and enter an email (doesn't have to be an email, any unique
string will work) and numeric pin # (this isn't secure, so don't use a
pin you care about). The email/pin is just to uniquely identify you.
You should use the same email/pin on each device.

On the same screen, you can choose to sync the actual book files as
well as their positions. Only your account can access the books, if
you choose to sync them. It only uploads/downloads the books when it
needs them, so it may take a while the first time you sync, but after
that it shouldn't take more than a minute MAX (my typical sync times
for 90 books is about 5-10 seconds)

Click the middle, orange icon, to begin the sync process. It first
uploads, then downloads. It only updates the book's "place" on the web
if it's farther ahead than the web's "place" for the book.

Miscellaneous Info:

This program is still in beta. I have used and tested it extensively,
but I'm not liable if you manage to break it somehow. Since it does
alter the data in FBReader's databases (it does not, and never will,
alter the database structures), it is possible, but very unlikely,
that it could lose your book's places. I would suggest that you back
up FBReaderJ using something like Titanium Backup before you start
using FBSync, just to be on the safe side.

The synchronized data is currently hosted on my personal web server,
but I've had people suggest syncing it with Google. As of right now, I
don't have any plans to change the way it syncs, but if enough
interest is shown, I would be willing to consider almost anything.


Please let me know of any issues you find, or any improvements you
want.

Thanks,

Scott