[GUI Plugin] FanFictionDownLoader

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by FaceDeer

Found another tricksy author name. http://www.fimfiction.net/story/40187/ has an author named "Rainbow|Dash". When FFDL tried downloading it I hit the same "metadata wasn't updated" error window I got earlier for the "&" names, and it turned the author's name into "Rainbow,Dash" instead. The author's name is correctly linked back to the author page, though.

Works fine for me. Author's name even comes up as Rainbow|Dash in calibre.

I'll need to see your error messages to know anything further.

[FaceDeer]

Interesting! This looks like an entirely different bug than the & one.

I popped over to my empty testbed library and downloaded the story, and it worked fine. I then tried updating it (with "update epub always" and "update calibre metadata" for maximum updatage) and that worked fine too. But then I switched to a different library, switched back, and tried updating it the exact same way and that time it failed.

Upon further examination, the author field is behaving strangely in ways that might indicate a bug in Calibre itself. Here's how it looked right after the initial download:

shot 1

Note how the author is listed as "Rainbow|Dash" in the main library table, but "Rainbow,Dash" in the metadata edit window.

Then after switching libraries and back again, it looked like this:

shot 2

The main library table had updated to match the metadata edit window, and the error came up when updating. Here's the error message:

calibre, version 1.1.0
ERROR: Error Updating Metadata: <p>An error has occurred while FFDL was updating calibre's metadata for <a href='http://www.fimfiction.net/story/40187/'>Battlepony 3</a>.</p>The ebook has been updated, but the metadata has not.

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.fanfictiondownloader_plugin.ffdl_ plugin", line 1113, in update_books_loop
File "calibre_plugins.fanfictiondownloader_plugin.ffdl_ plugin", line 1442, in update_metadata
File "site-packages\calibre\db\legacy.py", line 458, in set_metadata
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 56, in ans
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1123, in set_metadata
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 1110, in set_field
File "site-packages\calibre\db\cache.py", line 931, in set_field
File "site-packages\calibre\db\write.py", line 505, in set_books
File "site-packages\calibre\db\write.py", line 367, in many_many
File "site-packages\calibre\db\write.py", line 243, in get_db_id
File "site-packages\calibre\db\backend.py", line 287, in execute
File "c:\cygwin\home\kovid\sw\build\apsw-3.7.14.1-r1\src\cursor.c", line 231, in resetcursor
ConstraintError: ConstraintError: column name is not unique

Followed by the story details (which included "author: [u'Rainbow|Dash']" and "author_sort: [u'Rainbow|Dash']" if that's useful).

Attempting to change the author name manually to "Rainbow|Dash" triggers the same constraint error about non-unique column names.

[Sefiriot]

A question about anthologies: I'm wondering if it's possible somehow to add the summaries for the individual fics in the anthology to the usual "Anthology contains[list of fics]" generated in the comments?

[Amalthia]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Since I see that you're keeping your library under dropbox (which is going to be opening files automatically) and calibre starting with 1.0 has been doing a 'windows_check_if_files_in_use' and failing if another process has any of the book's files open, I'm going to blame dropbox vs calibre conflict. (FFDL only updates the epub through the calibre interfaces.)

Thanks for the explanation. I'll see if there is a workaround to this problem. Besides moving my entire library out of Dropbox. Or re-install the older version of Calibre.

[seabream]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

I've added that my list of things to look at later.
Example URL? Warnings from AO3 are working for me.

Thanks!

Okay, I've got it. Only some of the warning tags are showing up. All AO3 fics have at least one warning tag of the six possible ones. Only four are actually showing up, and they're the least common ones of my downloads, so I had a lot of examples of AO3 warning tags not showing, and few with. On top of that, warnings don't create tags by default (which I didn't check - my mistake), but I manually put them in when it's a fic I downloaded from the website as opposed to FFDL, so when trying to find out if there were past fics that worked, I only found the ones that either I'd tagged manually, or the author had freeform tagged, which got lost in the ones I'd done.

So, one example of each:
Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, http://archiveofourown.org/works/914859
No Archive Warnings Apply, http://archiveofourown.org/works/373690
Graphic Depictions Of Violence, http://archiveofourown.org/works/750412
Major Character Death, http://archiveofourown.org/works/779835
Rape/Non-Con, http://archiveofourown.org/works/779878
Underage, http://archiveofourown.org/works/952672

"No Archive Warnings Apply", and "Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings" aren't printing, the rest are.

If the other tags aren't printing because AO3 doesn't provide them, then that's that. If not, I'd point out that one use of "Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings" is to indicate that any of the other warnings may apply, but the author doesn't want you to know in advance for suspense, and that if the reader doesn't want to risk it, not to read it. "No Archive Warnings Apply" is usually the author's stated judgement that none of the positive warnings apply, though it can actually be selected in conjunction with other warnings when they apply to different aspects or parts of the fic (occasionally an author will designate which applies to a given chapter in notes) - there are some use cases in the comments to a couple tagging posts. They are neither equivalent, nor null information, and I would like to collect it if I can, please.

Um. Is linking to fic on this board with a few of those tags problematic? I can of course delete them.

[El_Pirato]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

No, for various complicated reasons.

Aw man.

Adultfanfiction.net is now adult-fanfiction.org

[redscarlett]

What would you consider the best way to update a fanfic on my e-reader (a Nook by the way) when it has new chapters? I'm not sure of how to do it, because I've been saving them manually onto the microsd card I use, but it doesn't always work and sometimes I miss one
Any ideas please?

[seabream]

Take a look at http://code.google.com/p/fanficdownl...ithReadingList

There are obvious optional things there that you don't need, but you can choose the bits that do what you want. You can also automate less if you have steps that you want to do in between.

[redscarlett]

Originally Posted by seabream

Take a look at http://code.google.com/p/fanficdownl...ithReadingList

There are obvious optional things there that you don't need, but you can choose the bits that do what you want. You can also automate less if you have steps that you want to do in between.

Thanks! I'll try this i'm glad it's step by step because i don't know too much about computers - plugboards, etc are pretty much beyond me unless I have very clear instructions :S

[seabream]

Originally Posted by redscarlett

Thanks! I'll try this i'm glad it's step by step because i don't know too much about computers - plugboards, etc are pretty much beyond me unless I have very clear instructions :S

You're welcome. If you just want to sync updated fic, you actually don't need to touch the plugboard part. That just prepends 000 to the title so that new stuff shows up at the top on your Nook. That said, it is handy. And doing it gives you a taste of the power of Calibre customisation. If you find it gives you ideas about other things you might want to try, there's lots of flexibility, and chances are that someone's already found a way to do it (finding it on the forum might take awhile...). People have got a lot of refinements that they use to set things up just how they like them. Pretty soon you could find yourself fiddling about with any number of things. Or not. It's totally up to you. Have fun!

[redscarlett]

Originally Posted by seabream

You're welcome. If you just want to sync updated fic, you actually don't need to touch the plugboard part. That just prepends 000 to the title so that new stuff shows up at the top on your Nook. That said, it is handy. And doing it gives you a taste of the power of Calibre customisation. If you find it gives you ideas about other things you might want to try, there's lots of flexibility, and chances are that someone's already found a way to do it (finding it on the forum might take awhile...). People have got a lot of refinements that they use to set things up just how they like them. Pretty soon you could find yourself fiddling about with any number of things. Or not. It's totally up to you. Have fun!

Thanks - I'll have a play with it! Any resources you recommend for a noob? A starting point?
I've tried the method, but the stories don't come up as not being on my Nook. Any ideas or shall I just do it manually?
Thanks again!

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Amalthia

Thanks for the explanation. I'll see if there is a workaround to this problem. Besides moving my entire library out of Dropbox. Or re-install the older version of Calibre.

You might post a thread asking about it in the main calibre thread.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by FaceDeer

...
Attempting to change the author name manually to "Rainbow|Dash" triggers the same constraint error about non-unique column names.

If you can cause errors with it outside FFDL, you should report it higher up for Kovid to see.

Otherwise my answer will be a filter in FFDL to remove that character from authors and probably titles, too.

[FaceDeer]

Bug report submitted, https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/1220348

[DocBrown13]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

I don't see any errors in the output.

I do, however, see several "* Notification delivered." lines that aren't coming from FFDL. Might something else be erroring instead of FFDL?

I have turned the notifications off however I am still getting the same error.

Bizarrely enough when I run Calibre in debug mode and try to update I don't get any errors and yet I do when running Calibre as normal?