[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[PeterT]

The database restore is done very simply by manually copying the database from the backup location back to the .kobo directory on the device.

In the backup location, the file will be name according to the date / time / model and serial # of the device backed up.

Just copy it back to the .kobo directory, and ensure it is named KoboReader.sqlite

[bernard.ryefield]

Originally Posted by PeterT

The database restore is done very simply by manually copying the database from the backup location back to the .kobo directory on the device.

In the backup location, the file will be name according to the date / time / model and serial # of the device backed up.

Just copy it back to the .kobo directory, and ensure it is named KoboReader.sqlite

Thanks! Do I have to do a hard reset or something after?

[PeterT]

To be safe I'd suggest a power cycle.

[bernard.ryefield]

Originally Posted by PeterT

To be safe I'd suggest a power cycle.

I had to since I got a black screen of death! All works fine now, the device is even faster than before (with a larger database).

To davidfor, PeterT, chrisidd

[PeterT]

@Davidfor: Had an interesting experience last night. Attached the Glo, let the automatic processing happen (DB backup, Reading List process to send some books, some metadata changes), deleted two bools, and unplugged. it

I only added 2 books yet when the Glo stared processing it took forever, and the Glo reported 100+ new books, and all reading locations were wiped out

Reattached the Kobo and saw numerous database errors.

Renamed the database on the device and copied over the backup, then after ejecting did a power cycle on the Glo.

All was fine.

Any interest in any of the databases and logs? (I should add calibre is running in debug mode, and I have not restarted it yet, so still have the full debug log).

[davidfor]

Peter: Yes, I'd like to see them. Hopefully they will show something.

[auspex]

I've been gone from here for almost a year, as my Kobo Touch went out of warranty and promptly died.

This is just a note to announce my intention to try to copy as much as possible of your Kobo Utilities to build an imitation to work with my Sony (unless I'm fortunate, and that dies too, then I can justify buying a real reader!) There's just too much missing on the Sony that I loved on the Kobo with all the plugins.

[Jellby]

Does the maximum number of database backups include all files in the backup directory? Could it at least ignore directories (if not other files which are not backups for the current device)?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Does the maximum number of database backups include all files in the backup directory? Could it at least ignore directories (if not other files which are not backups for the current device)?

It already does that. It is checking for files in that directory that match a pattern That pattern includes the model name and the serial number. My backup directory has backups for the five different Kobo devices in my house.

Of course, that also requires that the person who wrote the code could count and add up. I've just tested it and I can see a case it will fail and keep failing. I have fixed this and uploaded the fix. Calibre will notify you of the update in the next hour our so.

[Jellby]

When was that failing? What I noticed is that I had the maximum number set at 5, but the backup directory contained only:

2 backups for the Aura
2 backups for the Touch (probably from a time when the Aura files were named Touch, because I never had any Touch)
1 subdirectory

And it seemed that the Aura backups were being correctly rolled, but only the latest 2 remained (except that it doesn't save more than 1 per day). So thought maybe all the files and directories were counted. Anyway, I have tested again today, after I removed the old Touch backups, and still I get only 2 backups. If the new update fixes this (I'll try later), then ignore it, otherwise consider this as a new bug report

[davidfor]

The bug was that if the actual number of backups was less than the maximum to keep, it always deleted the oldest. I didn't retry starting from zero backup before I fixed it. It probably would have created two and then started removing them. I had mine set to 11, and had different number of backups for each device. But, I also had a lot more than eleven files in the directory.

Keep a watch for a few days and see what happens. I'm pretty sure it will be OK. But, my testing was partly faking it by renaming files to give me one per day for a enough days.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by auspex

I've been gone from here for almost a year, as my Kobo Touch went out of warranty and promptly died.

This is just a note to announce my intention to try to copy as much as possible of your Kobo Utilities to build an imitation to work with my Sony (unless I'm fortunate, and that dies too, then I can justify buying a real reader!) There's just too much missing on the Sony that I loved on the Kobo with all the plugins.

I think you will make a some people very happy if you do that.

I don't have a Sony device, but I have looked at a copy of the database and some other structures. A lot of the concepts in the plugin will map across fairly well. Things like the database backup will be easy. But, a couple of the other things might be harder. From memory of the Sony driver, there isn't quite the direct link to the database that the Kobo driver has.

I hope you are also considering annotations. For fetching annotations with the Annotations plugin, you create a reader extension that the plugin can call. This can be added without modifying the plugin.

When you start on this, I'll be happy to answer any questions.

[Jellby]

Would it be possible to have an option to remove empty annotation files (in Digital Editions/Annotations) and directories? With "empty" I mean with no real annotations, like this one:

<annotationSet xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns="http://ns.adobe.com/digitaleditions/annotations">
  <publication>
    <dc:identifier></dc:identifier>
    <dc:title>Shadows on the Grass</dc:title>
    <dc:creator>Isak Dinesen</dc:creator>
    <dc:publisher></dc:publisher>
  </publication>
</annotationSet>

If yes, I'd like an option to run this every time the device is connected too.

[davidfor]

The annotations files are something that annoy me and I keep thinking I should do something about them. I will occasionally delete them, but when I do, I delete all of them. Providing a clean-up of them is a good idea. Automating running of it is fairly simple as I already have code to run jobs.

But, I don't think deleting the empty annotation files will change anything. If the file is empty, it should mean that the book has been opened and there are currently no annotation made on it. Other than someone creating the file manually, I don't think there is a way to have an empty file there and have annotations in the database. Are you seeing something happening when these files are there?

My thoughts for an annotation file clean-up might have options to:

- Remove all annotations files
- Remove all annotations files for books that are no longer on the device
- Remove all annotations files for books that do not have annotations in the database
- Remove all annotations files for books that do have annotations in the database
- Remove empty annotations files

The first is easy and is what I would probably use. The second is sensible and not to hard. I'm not sure how useful the others are. The third and fourth options possibly shouldn't be run automatically. Maybe they should be run against selected books. And in that case, I would consider options choose whether to remove the files or the database entries.

I'm won't be doing anything immediately. I don't want to touch anything until calibre 2.0 is released and settled in a little bit. But, I'll think about it and take any ideas that people have.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by davidfor

But, I don't think deleting the empty annotation files will change anything. If the file is empty, it should mean that the book has been opened and there are currently no annotation made on it. Other than someone creating the file manually, I don't think there is a way to have an empty file there and have annotations in the database. Are you seeing something happening when these files are there?

What I want is keeping only the annotation files that contain some actual annotations. If I need to backup the annotations or look at them in my computer, these files are useful. I haven't tried saving the annotations from the database yet, but the files are easily readable without calibre.
Cleaning up the annotation files would also let me quickly see which books have real annotations (by just seeing which files are there).

So, my thoughts about:

1- Remove all annotations files
2- Remove all annotations files for books that are no longer on the device
3- Remove all annotations files for books that do not have annotations in the database
4- Remove all annotations files for books that do have annotations in the database
5- Remove empty annotations files

1 and 4: No, although it could be used if you want to remove duplicate information. Or if that forces the device to re-generate the annotation files
2, 3, 5: Yes. Those files would be pretty useless.

This is all assuming that under normal conditions the database and the annotation files contain the same information. Have you seen that this is not the case? I had a quick look and the annotation files for the books which I know I have annotated do indeed contain at least some of the annotations, the files for books I have annotated and then removed the annotations are "empty", the files for books I have not annotated are "empty" too. It's these "empty" files i don't want there.