[Old Thread] Calibre + Dropbox = unclouded happiness

[Beau]

The very first post contains David's detailed instructions on how to do this. If you, like me, are unfamiliar with using command lines, you may also want to read through his explanations on pages 4-5 that he gave me.

Beau

[Beau]

Sugar sync update:

I've been able to create the xml file needed, to access it in Stanza and get an accurate list. As soon as I try to download though, Stanza crashes. I suspect it is related to the sugar sync java based interface. If someone else is able to get it to work, I'd love to hear about it.

Beau

[rcuadro]

Originally Posted by abrazor

Is there an entry with step by step instructions to set this up? I have dropbox and an ipodtouch and stanza so I would like to use it.

The very first post has all the instructions

[dpierron]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Beau: If you are using a PC to run Calibre you might also want to try using my Calibre2Web program. It should work fine in this environment as well and would give a you a heirarchically structured set of catalog files which you might prefer to use in Stanza.

Well, I tried using your program on my work PC to generate the catalogs, and then this week-end at home I accessed these catalogs from my iPhone, and it works great (almost on all catalogs, some of my collections are not working, and I don't know why..)

So, thanks for this tool, is there any way I can help with porting it to Python ? I'd love to see this done, so I can use it on every of my platforms...

[vern]

Until calibre or stanza straighten out the urlencode issues, here's my simple script to fix the urls on the stanza.xml file:
http://pastebin.com/m1dc17a20

to run, do:
# python thiscode.py path/to/stanza.xml

This just replaces the spaces and commas with url-encodes equivalents (but not the parenthesis, since stanza apparently doesn't like that)

[Beau]

Originally Posted by vern

Until calibre or stanza straighten out the urlencode issues, here's my simple script to fix the urls on the stanza.xml file:
http://pastebin.com/m1dc17a20

to run, do:
# python thiscode.py path/to/stanza.xml

This just replaces the spaces and commas with url-encodes equivalents (but not the parenthesis, since stanza apparently doesn't like that)

For the less educated among us, do you run that before or after you generate the xml file? or is this in place of?

Beau

[dpierron]

Originally Posted by vern

Until calibre or stanza straighten out the urlencode issues, here's my simple script to fix the urls on the stanza.xml file:
http://pastebin.com/m1dc17a20

to run, do:
# python thiscode.py path/to/stanza.xml

This just replaces the spaces and commas with url-encodes equivalents (but not the parenthesis, since stanza apparently doesn't like that)

Great, thank you !

Beau, you must run the script after the stanza.xml is generated...

[dpierron]

I programmed a tool based on Calibre2Web that can be used on all platforms (Windows, Macs and Unixes) to generate the Stanza catalogs.

It has its own thread here... have a look !

[da_jane]

How would we do this with a private dropbox file. I don't feel comfortable putting my entire library in a public dropbox folder. Couldn't anyone find and download a book from that?

[dpierron]

I'm pretty sure that anyone can access your public library, given your private (public, but only known to you) URL ; this URL contains a number that is unique to you, and is composed in a way that you decide. There is no way to obtain a listing of the files in your library, if the exact address (URL) of the catalog file is not known.

So, all in all, yes your library will be public ; but no, nobody will be able to access it, if you don't give away the address of your stanza.xml catalog.

Changing subject almost abruptly, I released a new version of my calibredbxtract tool, which adds support for generating authors, series and recent additions catalogs.

[Krystian Galaj]

Originally Posted by dpierron

So, all in all, yes your library will be public ; but no, nobody will be able to access it, if you don't give away the address of your stanza.xml catalog.

You can give it away to anyone running a packet sniffer on any of the servers your communication comes through, simply by accessing your library.

[dpierron]

Well, technically, that's true, and the security-concerned people would need to feel... well, let's say concerned

However, let's stay in the real world : I, personaly, am not afraid that someone would eavesdrop on my internet connection, and therefore finds out the address of my very private library...

First, it's only a library : I don't have any secrets stored encrypted deep inside any of my eBooks - except maybe Dan Brown's, but these secret can only be decrypted by the author

Then, if someone has the resources and the will to listen to my packets on my internet connection, then I will be afraid, because a lot of more important things are at stake here... But again, who are we to attract so much attention ?

So, to summarize : krystian is absolutely right, it is technically possible, if not easy, to listen to someone's communications and to guess the address of your private library ; but nobody would ever want to do that, in my humble opinion, and if someone would, what would on find that you wanted to hide ?

But anyway, it's an interesting point, and I'm going to research into the direction of private links with DropBox...

Cheers,
David.

[Beau]

Originally Posted by dpierron

I'm pretty sure that anyone can access your public library, given your private (public, but only known to you) URL ; this URL contains a number that is unique to you, and is composed in a way that you decide. There is no way to obtain a listing of the files in your library, if the exact address (URL) of the catalog file is not known.

So, all in all, yes your library will be public ; but no, nobody will be able to access it, if you don't give away the address of your stanza.xml catalog.

Changing subject almost abruptly, I released a new version of my calibredbxtract tool, which adds support for generating authors, series and recent additions catalogs.

Is there a fix in there for file names? I have spaces in all of them. Will I still need to figure out how to run the other script posted above?



Beau

[da_jane]

Here's how I did it.

1. Move your calibre database to Public folder in dropbox. You can do this by opening up preferences and choosing a new folder location. This will take a while. Go make a cup of coffee and read a few chapters of a book.

2. Download the calibredbextract found on this thread. Extract the contents into a folder called "calibredbxtract" and place it somewhere. I put mine in the C:\Program Files\Calibre2.

3. Start up your MS DOS command prompt by going to Start -> Run and type "cmd" and press return. A black window will open with "C:\folder path\>_"

4. type cd c:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibredbextract\bin

Your MS DOS command prompt should say:

C:\Program files\Calibre2\calibredbextract\bin>_

5. type calibredbxtract.bat c:\data\dropbox\My Dropbox\Public\calibre_library\

where "c:\data\dropbox\My Dropbox\Public\calibre_library\" = the path to your public dropbox folder. I.e., mine is C:\Documents and Settings\Jane\My Dropbox\randomname\

6. This should generate the xml files into a folder called "_catalogs"

7. Go to your iPhone.

8. Tap "online catalog"

9. Tap the "+" in the lower right hand corner

10. Type in a name for your catalog (i.e., Dropbox Catalog)

11. for the URL type in the public link to the file named "catalog.xml" (you can get this by browsing to this file in your public folder -> calibre library -> _catalogs

[dpierron]

da_jane: thanks for this excellent explanation ! I took the liberty of copying it to the tool's thread ; can I also copy it to the help forum on the tool's Sourceforge page ?