Custom Read Status Column

[PapaJohn]

I have added a custom column for Read Status as posted by pchrist7. When I do a Fetch Annotations from my Kindle nothing gets updated in the Read Status column. For some of the books there is some status info shown at the bottom of the summary pane in Calibre. Some books I have finished reading show no status and some show 99% instead of finished.
I would appreciate any help.

[Piper_]

I wish I could help you out with this, but I haven't gotten the whole fetching of annotations down quite yet, myself.

But here's a bump, so maybe someone will come along who can help.

In the meantime, do you have a link to pchrist7's post? If no one has answered by tomorrow, we can look deeper.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by PapaJohn

I have added a custom column for Read Status as posted by pchrist7. When I do a Fetch Annotations from my Kindle nothing gets updated in the Read Status column. For some of the books there is some status info shown at the bottom of the summary pane in Calibre. Some books I have finished reading show no status and some show 99% instead of finished.
I would appreciate any help.

For some reason some books require a couple of tries before they are downloaded into Calibre, but two things I have observes.

1. Calibre usually will not download the info if the read date is the same day, so wait until the next day for them.
2. For some reason my mbx files have disappeared from the Kindle, I think this is due to something that I may have done not a fault of the kindle or Calibre, but for those books look on your kindle and make sure they are actually there. If they are, reopen them on the kindle so that the files are recognized again, then try to download them again.

Please let me re-iterate, I am no expert here these are just observations based on my experience.

[PapaJohn]

What info shows up in your Read Status Column?
My column constantly shows Not Read no matter what the status is.
Don't know if I am doing something wrong or if I need to add something somewhere in Calibre.

[PapaJohn]

Piper_

Here is the link to pchrist7's post:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=137

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by PapaJohn

Here is the link to pchrist7's post:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...31#post1353631

You copied the abbreviated text not the underlying link. Consequently this link doesn't have the full information and goes nowhere.

[pchrist7]

Originally Posted by PapaJohn

What info shows up in your Read Status Column?
My column constantly shows Not Read no matter what the status is.
Don't know if I am doing something wrong or if I need to add something somewhere in Calibre.

Hi PapaJohn
Let's forget about the custom column for a moment.
It's vital that Fetch Annotations updates the Comments for your books as you read along, and Fetch new Annotations.
Below is an example from my K3 of a book I'm reading:

26-02-2011
Last Page Read: Location 2934 (72%)

Could you post an example of your read status from a books comments ?
Once we get the first step sorted, we can start looking a the column, code etc.

Also: What OS and Calibre version are you using ?

Did you follow these instructions ?:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=137

[PapaJohn]

Hi pchrist7
Thanks for your response.
I am new to all of this so please be patient with me.

Here is an example of the read status from the bottom of the books comments pane:

02/22/11
Last Page Read: Location 6736 (99%)

I am running Calibre 0.7.47 on Mac OS 10.6.6

Yes I did follow the instructions at :
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=137

and at:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=172

[pchrist7]

Originally Posted by PapaJohn

Hi pchrist7
Thanks for your response.

02/22/11
Last Page Read: Location 6736 (99%)

Hi again
Your K only gives 2 digits for the year, and the python template looks for 4.
So you need to change you python template. In Calibre choose Preferences, Template Functions, In the function field, scroll till you find kindle_read_status_2 and choose that.
In the Program code window, go to the line:

mg = re.match('.*\s(\d+[-/]\d+[-/]\d\d\d\d).*?Last Page Read: Location \d+ \((\d+)%\)', val, re.I + re.DOTALL);

See the 4 \d in bold above ? We have to change this to 1 \d+
This line you can change to:

mg = re.match('.*\s(\d+[-/]\d+[-/]\d+).*?Last Page Read: Location \d+ \((\d+)%\)', val, re.I + re.DOTALL);

Choose the replace button, choose apply and you should be there. You might have to restart Calibre though.
That should at least fix one of your problems.
Let us know how is goes from here.

[PapaJohn]

Hi pchrist7
Wow!
That seems to have fixed the problem.
Status now shows correctly in Read Status Column.... although year still only shows as 2 digits at the bottom of the book details pane.

[pchrist7]

Originally Posted by PapaJohn

Hi pchrist7
Wow!
That seems to have fixed the problem.
Status now shows correctly in Read Status Column.... although year still only shows as 2 digits at the bottom of the book details pane.

Good to hear.
The date format is determined by your Kindle firmware, so we had to change the template. Hope this works for you in the future.

[PapaJohn]

Hi pchrist7
Thanks for your help.
My wife has a Kindle 3 (3G+Wifi) and I was wondering if it would be possible to add a second Read Status Column that would be filled in by her kindle?

i.e.: First column showing read status on my Kindle DX

Second column showing read status on her K3

This would be great if possible!

[pchrist7]

Originally Posted by PapaJohn

Hi pchrist7
Thanks for your help.
My wife has a Kindle 3 (3G+Wifi) and I was wondering if it would be possible to add a second Read Status Column that would be filled in by her kindle?

i.e.: First column showing read status on my Kindle DX

Second column showing read status on her K3

This would be great if possible!

Hi PapaJohn
First of I'm guessing a lot here, since I only have 1 K3 and no other readers.
But: Consider this. Each ebook in a Calibre library have 1 comments field, with 1 and only 1 annotation part in the comments. So your books would always have the annotations of the K?? that did fetch annotations last. Understand ?
This could end up being a mess, and I suspect you want to keep track of your reading of a book for both readers. ?
If so, I think you need to have 2 libraries in Calibre.
1 for KDX and 1 for K3, then all you have to remember to do, is switch to the correct library before fetching annotations.
I have approx. 1100 books in my main library, but setup a 100 book test library, for testing new columns, features etc. ( used the test library for "faking" your annotation example for testing )
Also It's extremely easy to copy books from one library to another in Calibre.
As I said, much of this is guesswork, but I think I'm correct. You could test this for us, however, having 2 readers in the family.
If I'm correct, I suggest you consider having 2 libraries.
Before this however, make SURE you have good backups of your current setup.
To explore your options, click the arrow to the right of the Library icon. You could rename your current library to KDX Library, Create a new K3 Library, quick shift between them etc.
IF you create a new ie. K3 Library, all you have to do in your "main" KDX library, is to select all books, right click (at least on windows) choose Copy to library without delete, and you have 2 libraries setup with the same books, metadata etc.
This will also give you the possiblity to have different custom columns and probably much more.

Hope this makes sense - and I hope you'll try fetching annotations from the 2 devices, checking the status in between. You should at least see a difference in the date format. I want to know if my theory is correct or not
Well, think about it. Maybe someone else has better input, so let's see.
Cheers, Per

[PapaJohn]

Hi pchrist7
OK. I think I follow what you are saying. I will give it a go over the weekend and let you know how it goes.

On another issue....do you have any idea what criteria the Kindle uses for sort order? I want to sort by title within author sort. I created a plugboard to add series info to the title, but on the Kindle the sort order is out of whack.
i.e.

Series[05]- Title- Author
Series[04]- Title- Author
Series[02]- Title- Author
Series[01]- Title- Author
Series[03]- Title- Author

and sometimes if there is a non-series book by the same author it ends up being stuck in the middle of the series by that same author.

The plugboard template I am using is..... {series:||}{series_index:0>2s|[|]- }{title}

Is there something that I could add to the template to tell the Kindle how to sort titles within an author sort?
I just wish they would make the firmware folder friendly.....it would save a lot of hassle!
Anyway hope you can help.

[pchrist7]

Hi PapaJohn
I have a similar plugboard for my K3. On my Homepage I sort by collections, and inside collections you can sort by title, at least on K3. As far as I can see the sorting is correct. At least here.