[GUI Plugin] Favourites Menu

[kiwidude]

Are you…

• Running out of screen space on your toolbar from adding plugins?
• Always forgetting where that xyz calibre feature is located?
• Tired of navigating deep into some menu hierarchy?
• Wanting a menu that you can control what order things appear on, and what they are called?
• Looking to change your life?

Now with with the patent pending all-singing and dancing Favourites Menu plugin you can build your own menu on a button! Wow!

Here are some testimonials from our actors customers:

“Every time I want the eject option for my Kindle from calibre, I can never click on that silly side arrow, it is just too darn small. Especially after a few drinks - not that I ever do of course. But thanks to kiwidude I can now have it right there on the big ol’ Favourites button just a little clickey clickey away. Cheers!”

”Well I have just about every plugin kiwidude has written. Keep them right here next to my jar of toenail clippings since 1974. But as much as I love them all, I just can’t see them on my 3.5” screen. Now I have just one button to put all of them on – I call it calibre on a button. Thanks dude!”

”I switch libraries – a lot. But every time I open the Library menu they are in a different order. My brain just couldn’t cope, it made me want to cry. But now thanks to Favourites Menu I can have just the libraries I use the most always in the same place. So that’s less time searching, and more time spent keeping my kids out of jail. Thanks kiwidude!”

”I add books using an option from the dropdown on the toolbar button. But last time I dropped it down I sprained my neck reading the description, it was so damn long on screen. I had to take a month off work, the company closed, we lost the house and my wife left me. Thanks to the Favourites Menu plugin though I can have my own ‘Add books’ menu option so it won’t happen again. You’ve literally saved my life!”

So just how much would you expect to pay have your own Favourites Menu button?
$99.99?
$49.99?
No - wait for it - if you download the Favourites Menu plugin in the next 3.2 seconds, it is absolutely free. That’s right - free! Wow!

But wait, that’s not all! If you click twice on the download button, we’ll give you not one, but two copies of the plugin. That’s two copies of the Favourites Menu plugin for no extra cost. Wow!

Our operators are standing by to take your call… 1-800-555-KIWIDUDE

Fine Print: Yes it was a slow day at work when I wrote this nonsense intro…

Main Features:

• Create a customisable menu button with your favourite menu options
• You can add specific menu actions, submenus or entire plugins to your own menu.
• Add, remove, reorder and rename the menus with separators
• Where appropriate menu items are disabled if they are not relevant to the current context - e.g. device not plugged in.

Special Notes:

• Requires Calibre 0.8.18 or later
• If a menu item changes its name dynamically (such as having a count in it) then it cannot be used without changes to this plugin. For instance the Reading List plugin has several of these menu items where the list name is followed by a count of items in the list. I have now added special case handling to cater for the Reading List plugin specifically, but if other such cases come up over time let me know and I will see if I can add another workaround for them.

Installation Notes:

1. Download the attached zip file and install the plugin/restart calibre/add to context menu as described in the Introduction to plugins thread.

Notes for other plugin developers

1. As of v1.0.3 Favourites Menu will support a plugin with its menus being rebuilt every time it is displayed (such as to enable/disable items based on the current state of calibre). The pattern for this is that your InterfaceAction class should have a .menu property representing the QMenu, and you will ordinarily have code hooked to the aboutToShow signal. When the Favourites Menu plugin is asked to dropdown will iterate through all of the child plugins it is being asked to display items for and (once per plugin) emit the iaction.menu.aboutToShow signal for any plugins that have such a .menu property.
2. If your plugin changes the name of a child item dynamically this can cause a problem for the Favourites Menu plugin (as it uses the text name displayed by a plugin as part of the "key" identifying a menu item). For instance the Reading List plugin includes a count of the items in a child list for some of its actions. To ensure such menu items can be supported by the Reading List plugin, you should simply assign a constant identifying name for the menu item to a .favourites_menu_unique_name property on your qaction at the time you create it. The Favourites Menu plugin will look for such a property being present and use that in preference to the current text name if it is present.

Paypal Donations:

• If you find this or any of my other plugins useful please feel free to show your appreciation. I have spent many hundreds of unpaid hours in their development and support so any encouragement for me to continue is appreciated!
  

Version History:

Spoiler:

Version 1.0.3 - 05 Nov 2012
Ensure submenus for plugins can have their states updated by emitting the aboutToShow signal for every plugin that has an associated .menu set for it

Version 1.0.2 - 06 Aug 2012
Support dynamically named menu names if they have a .favourites_menu_unique_name attribute

Version 1.0.1 - 30 Jun 2012
Add a hack to allow menu items from the Reading List plugin that have counts in them still be used in this plugin (without the counts)

Version 1.0.0 - 27 Jun 2012
Initial release of Favourites Menu plugin

[JSWolf]

You left out the download one now and at no extra charge you will get a second copy absolutely free. Just paid shipping & handling and you'll get two incredible plugins for the price of one.

[PeterT]

And it Slices and Dices too.

[kiwidude]

@JSWolf - actually I did put something in there along those lines (bar the S&H) but I shall leave the shopping channel marketing expertise in your clearly more capable hands.

[Jozawun]

Is today 1st April in London, are they still using the Julian Calendar?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@JSWolf - actually I did put something in there along those lines (bar the S&H) but I shall leave the shopping channel marketing expertise in your clearly more capable hands.

Actually, that's the infomercial shopping. The shopping channels charge too much and also charge shipping and handling on just one item nevermind getting a second supposedly free.

[DoctorOhh]

Thank You.

This allowed me to remove my Menu bar and clean up my main menu icons.

[kiwidude]

Excellent example Walt, just the sort of thing I hoped people would use it for.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Excellent example Walt

That's why I posted the image so folks could see a different set of possibilities in full context. Of course to us Yankees the extra u in favorites looks a little strange so I went ahead and changed mine. Hope you don't mind.

Now to seek out a less cheesy icon.

[kiwidude]

Yeah I was well aware that those from spelling impaired countries would notice the name . In fact I did hunt through calibre code at the time to see if there was a translation already existing for that word but I'm afraid not.

[DoctorOhh]

Update: There are no non-cheesy favorite icons, but this one works better for my layout.

[kiwidude]

Very nice, picking icons for my plugins is the hardest part of writing them. If someone out there with decent icons skills wants to volunteer their time to act as icon provider to give all the plugins a consistent look I would be delighted.

Speaking of which, perhaps this might be a time to remind people of a little tip. I'm not sure how dwanthny replaced his icon, but you don't need to go fiddling with the plugin zip file (because if you do, every time you get a new release your icon will be lost).

Instead what you do is navigate to your calibre configuration directory (Preferences -> Miscellaneous). It varies by OS e.g. on XP this will put you in:

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\calibre

Then if you don't have one already (you will have if you use the Generate Cover plugin), create a "resources" subfolder, and inside that create a "images" folder.

C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\calibre\resources\images

(Incidentally if you were to put an image of the same name as any of calibre's icons, calibre will use that from here, allowing you to give calibre a different look that survives reinstalling new calibre versions).

Now if you create a subfolder within that images folder for a specific plugin name, you can override any icons for that plugin. In Walt's case above, if we create a "Favourites Menu" subfolder, and put in there an image called "favourites_menu.png" then calibre will use that instead of the one bundled with the plugin. And you can upgrade the plugin while keeping your preferred icons without any future faffing.

QED.

[Jade Aislin]

I'm loving this! It makes it real easy to get to the few buttons I want, like viewing specific reading lists or viewing a story. It cuts down on the time it takes me to find those buttons in their regular spot. And when you're on a work break and only have a limited amount of time to get a little light reading in, every second saved counts.

Thanks.

[Jade Aislin]

I currently have two reading lists that I want easy access to. I put the view link for both into the favorites menu. I even tried to put in the view that has you decided between lists. Whenever I change one of my reading lists, the links in the favorites menu no longer work and I have to re-add the links.

I'm hoping there is some way to allow those view links on the favorite menu, even if I change the lists.

Otherwise, I'm still loving it. Makes it real easy to view a book.

I attached a screenshot of my favorite menu to show you what happens when I remove a book from one list.

[kiwidude]

Hi Jade,

See the Special Notes in my first post of this thread. Basically the plugin cannot handle menu items which change the text that they display.

The only way I could support such menu items from this plugin would be to make special case examples of them in the plugin. I resisted doing that because I wasn't sure there would be anyone who might actually hit this issue by choosing such few items that are like this... Then of course you did