PRS+: Enhanced firmware for Sony Reader, Folders, Games & more - Page 4

drwowe · 12-11-2009, 07:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kartu

Doable - yes. But I wonder about the use case. 2 users sharing books?

Sure, that's one possibility, but I have a different use case. I would use it in combination with my mobile phone:

Step 1) download file to phone.
Step 2) insert phone micro-SD card into Sony with adapter.
Step 3) copy to main memory
Step 4) Put micro-SD back to phone, put big SD card into Sony
Step 5) Copy file from main memory to big SD card
Step 6) Delete from main memory

I do this all the time with my MP3 player with an SD slot, which has a copy function, would love to use the same workflow with my Sony reader. It's very useful for library management when I'm nowhere near a PC.

OK if I make one more tiny feature request? It would be nice if there was a menu command in advanced settings to toggle (delete/create) the .noscan file. Then if I have a card with 1000 files, I can choose whether to wait and scan them all, or turn off the scanning. Without having to find a PC when I'm travelling.

Thanks for listening.

EDIT: maybe an easier way is to integrate the file manager app from here which already support copy to/from cards. Then maybe don't have to reinvent the wheel?
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21636

dreamers · 12-12-2009, 09:11 AM

i finally got this thing installed. found i was doing everything wrong. anyway. is there a way to read the book straight off the card instead of having to copy it to the main memory and then reading it that way?

pepak · 12-12-2009, 09:40 AM

Use "books by folder", it worked for me.

kartu · 12-12-2009, 09:48 AM

dreamers

Quote:

s there a way to read the book straight off the card instead of having to copy it to the main memory and then reading it that way?

At the moment you either disable scan, or can open files from the card, but not both.

drwowe

Quote:

It would be nice if there was a menu command in advanced settings to toggle (delete/create) the .noscan file. Then if I have a card with 1000 files, I can choose whether to wait and scan them all, or turn off the scanning.

Uhm, the problem is, card will be scanned before you'll get into advanced settings.

The best way would be to ask on insert "do ya wanna scan?", but I doubt that UI interaction is possible at that moment. Other way is, having menu setting "disable scanning of external cards".

Regarding copying files from anywhere to anywhere I think we'll soon come to "I want to copy to a certain folder", then "I want to create new folders" and in the end, full blown file explorer. It's doable, but it will take a while.

dreamers · 12-12-2009, 09:55 AM

i have the .noscan on the card. so i have to delete that and let it scan so i can read the book off the card is that right?

*i have scanned the card yet when i use books by folder to read the book, it still asks me to copt the file over to the internal mem. but i can read it through the other methods, once the book is scanned. but it is not as neat as reading it though the books by folders.

kartu · 12-12-2009, 11:12 AM

dreamers
If you've deleted the .noscan file, just remove/insert the SD card, you should be able to open books with Books by Folder. It shows "copy the file" only when it cannot find the book in the reader's book database.

pepak · 12-12-2009, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kartu

It shows "copy the file" only when it cannot find the book in the reader's book database.

Unfortunately, that is not quite true. It always shows "copy the file" if .noscan is used, regardless of the book database's contents (as I have just verified using my SD card with prepared database). If that is just a bug and not a design limitation, please fix it - my utility Collection Builder can generate a new database file from a card's content.

kartu · 12-12-2009, 11:43 AM

Pepak, by database I mean loaded database. If you have .noscan in SD root, nothing is loaded from the card. (this allows one to put libraries with tens of thousands files on it) If you are able to find the books you have on SD card in other menus (books by title etc) I guess that's because you have copy of that book in internal memory.

Can your Collection Builder add files that aren't present in cache.xml?

pepak · 12-12-2009, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kartu

Can your Collection Builder add files that aren't present in cache.xml?

Yes. It generates a new cache.xml based on both (or "either") old cache.xml and files on the device.

kartu · 12-12-2009, 12:02 PM

Wow, and how do you paginate the books? Or you don't?

pepak · 12-12-2009, 12:07 PM

I don't paginate. Though I have often thought it would be a cool feature to have.

pepak · 12-12-2009, 12:09 PM

Anyway, all we need is a way for Reader to load an existing cache.xml file, but not parse the directory structure looking for new and changed files. If we (that is, you :-)) could find that, the solution to a thousands-of-books-reader would be extremely simple - copy all books on a card, put a .noscan in its root, build a new cache.xml file using my Collection Builder and voila, we are done!

kartu · 12-12-2009, 12:22 PM

I tried to do something similar ("on demand scanning"), but it was quite complicated and I thought it wasn't worth delaying other features just for this one.

Besides, thousands of books on reader is already possible, you can put .noscan, copy books you need to IM and delete them afterwards, when you don't need them. And remember, that when loading cache you still have to check whether file is there or was deleted (standard code does it anyway). So it would still take a lot of time to load thousands of books (Russians have 80k+ lrf libs in the wilds, for English speakers there are about 16k books from guttenberg project and the likes)

Having file in cache.xml spares you creating a viewer instance, and reading books metadata. I think .noscan plus loading cache.xml book data wouldn't be too different from no .noscan and all books in cache.xml.

pepak · 12-12-2009, 12:39 PM

That's what I mean - using the existing cache.xml file without bothering to check if the referenced files exist. That would be fast (no problem with thousands of books) and still would allow all the features that are not present with "copy to internal memory" (e.g. collections support).

fortunados · 12-12-2009, 02:16 PM

As far as I understand, apart of the sudoku add an joypad and so I would say that the main point of this firmware is to carry the books in the sd and when you want to read one, insert it and copy to the main memory
Am I right ?

Is the card autoexec function run when you insert the sd card ?

So does it means that autoexec is in the card and the main mod of the firmware is the books by folder ?

My second question and I think that I would not be the only one

Is it possible to combine this firmware with the foreignt language support for menus Spanish, German, French, ???

I didn´t try this yet but I imagine that the main problem would be to traslate the new option "books by folder", at least should not be a problem to make it work with this choice in english

Thanks a lot for your effort
This looks very nice

12-12-2009, 09:55 AM	#50
dreamers Member Posts: 21 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Tatsuno, Japan Device: KOBO Touch, iPad, iPhone	i have the .noscan on the card. so i have to delete that and let it scan so i can read the book off the card is that right? i have scanned the card yet when i use books by folder to read the book, it still asks me to copt the file over to the internal mem. but i can read it through the other methods, once the book is scanned. but it is not as neat as reading it though the books by folders. Last edited by dreamers; 12-12-2009 at 11:09 AM.*

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12-12-2009, 09:11 AM	#47
dreamers Member Posts: 21 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Tatsuno, Japan Device: KOBO Touch, iPad, iPhone	i finally got this thing installed. found i was doing everything wrong. anyway. is there a way to read the book straight off the card instead of having to copy it to the main memory and then reading it that way?

12-12-2009, 09:40 AM	#48
pepak Guru Posts: 610 Karma: 4150 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-T3, Kobo Libra H2O	Use "books by folder", it worked for me.

12-12-2009, 11:12 AM	#51
kartu PRS+ author Posts: 1,637 Karma: 2446233 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Sony PRS-300, 505, 600, 650, 950	dreamers If you've deleted the .noscan file, just remove/insert the SD card, you should be able to open books with Books by Folder. It shows "copy the file" only when it cannot find the book in the reader's book database.

12-12-2009, 11:43 AM	#53
kartu PRS+ author Posts: 1,637 Karma: 2446233 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Sony PRS-300, 505, 600, 650, 950	Pepak, by database I mean loaded database. If you have .noscan in SD root, nothing is loaded from the card. (this allows one to put libraries with tens of thousands files on it) If you are able to find the books you have on SD card in other menus (books by title etc) I guess that's because you have copy of that book in internal memory. Can your Collection Builder add files that aren't present in cache.xml?

12-12-2009, 12:02 PM	#55
kartu PRS+ author Posts: 1,637 Karma: 2446233 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Sony PRS-300, 505, 600, 650, 950	Wow, and how do you paginate the books? Or you don't?

12-12-2009, 12:07 PM	#56
pepak Guru Posts: 610 Karma: 4150 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-T3, Kobo Libra H2O	I don't paginate. Though I have often thought it would be a cool feature to have.

12-12-2009, 12:09 PM	#57
pepak Guru Posts: 610 Karma: 4150 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-T3, Kobo Libra H2O	Anyway, all we need is a way for Reader to load an existing cache.xml file, but not parse the directory structure looking for new and changed files. If we (that is, you :-)) could find that, the solution to a thousands-of-books-reader would be extremely simple - copy all books on a card, put a .noscan in its root, build a new cache.xml file using my Collection Builder and voila, we are done!

12-12-2009, 12:22 PM	#58
kartu PRS+ author Posts: 1,637 Karma: 2446233 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: Sony PRS-300, 505, 600, 650, 950	I tried to do something similar ("on demand scanning"), but it was quite complicated and I thought it wasn't worth delaying other features just for this one. Besides, thousands of books on reader is already possible, you can put .noscan, copy books you need to IM and delete them afterwards, when you don't need them. And remember, that when loading cache you still have to check whether file is there or was deleted (standard code does it anyway). So it would still take a lot of time to load thousands of books (Russians have 80k+ lrf libs in the wilds, for English speakers there are about 16k books from guttenberg project and the likes) Having file in cache.xml spares you creating a viewer instance, and reading books metadata. I think .noscan plus loading cache.xml book data wouldn't be too different from no .noscan and all books in cache.xml.

12-12-2009, 12:39 PM	#59
pepak Guru Posts: 610 Karma: 4150 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Sony Reader PRS-T3, Kobo Libra H2O	That's what I mean - using the existing cache.xml file without bothering to check if the referenced files exist. That would be fast (no problem with thousands of books) and still would allow all the features that are not present with "copy to internal memory" (e.g. collections support).

12-12-2009, 02:16 PM	#60
fortunados Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2009 Device: PRS-505	As far as I understand, apart of the sudoku add an joypad and so I would say that the main point of this firmware is to carry the books in the sd and when you want to read one, insert it and copy to the main memory Am I right ? Is the card autoexec function run when you insert the sd card ? So does it means that autoexec is in the card and the main mod of the firmware is the books by folder ? My second question and I think that I would not be the only one Is it possible to combine this firmware with the foreignt language support for menus Spanish, German, French, ??? I didn´t try this yet but I imagine that the main problem would be to traslate the new option "books by folder", at least should not be a problem to make it work with this choice in english Thanks a lot for your effort This looks very nice