Calibre Portable and Dropbox

anleva · 10-23-2012, 12:18 PM

I'm looking for help with using Calibre for a specific application. Not sure of the best way to do this.

Here is what I would like to do. I have 3 computers, home, work and home server. I have Dropbox on all 3 computers and have installed Calibre Portable in my Dropbox folder so that Calibre Portable and my Library and Settings are available anywhere. However it is not quite working the way I had hoped.

I use Calibre for books but also have subscribed to multiple daily news feeds/magazines. I have one computer that is always on, my home server. So my thought was to leave Calibre Portable running on that computer so it will download daily feeds.

My hope was then to be able to either start up Calibre Portable on my work or home laptop depending on my location, connect my Nook and synch the latest magazines and books. At times I could even add books via Calibre Portable and Dropbox on any of the three computers and everything could be in synch. But I am seeing that leaving Calibre Portable running on my home server and opening it on one of my other computers ends up causing some database conflicts. So it doesn't appear to be a workable solution.

Is there a way to do this using Calibre Portable and Dropbox as described above? Or is there another method that would work better.

Thanks

itimpi · 10-23-2012, 12:41 PM

I am afraid not.

At the moment you can only have one copy of Calibre running against a given database. As you have found breaking this rule can cause data conflicts.

There is a long-running roadmap activity to enhance Calibre so that multiple versions can run against the same database. However there is no ETA when/if this work might come to fruition.

anleva · 10-23-2012, 12:58 PM

Thank you.

I've thought of one other option. Via task scheduler in Windows maybe I could schedule and automate Calibre Portable to run daily while I sleep. So it starts up and then downloads the latest news However, I am not sure how to then automate the program to close/shut down. Any thoughts on how to make that approach work?

I could then avoid running Calibre anywhere else during this period. Since it is while I am sleeping that would not be a problem.

PeterT · 10-23-2012, 06:02 PM

See http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cli/calibre.html

Command line option for calibre

Quote:

--shutdown-running-calibre, -s
Cause a running calibre instance, if any, to be shutdown. Note that if there are running jobs, they will be silently aborted, so use with care.

anleva · 10-23-2012, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

See http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cli/calibre.html

Command line option for calibre

The command line options do not seem to work for me. Do they work for Calibre Portable or just the non-portable version? The application will launch from the command prompt as an example, but the command options are ignored. Any idea on what could be the problem?

PeterT · 10-23-2012, 09:56 PM

Ah.... sorry I forgot this was Portable! I'm not sure at all

Dopedangel · 10-23-2012, 10:22 PM

Calibre portable supports multiple libraries your best bet for me is use a separate library for news.

anleva · 10-23-2012, 10:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

Calibre portable supports multiple libraries your best bet for me is use a separate library for news.

Thanks but not sure how that helps me in my intended application? Seems like the same problem would exist, database conflicts as the library would be on a running system on a server and I would download from a different computer onto my eReader.

DoctorOhh · 10-24-2012, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anleva

The command line options do not seem to work for me. Do they work for Calibre Portable or just the non-portable version?

If running from the command line I would start calibre using calibre.exe in the \Dropbox\Calibre Portable\Calibre\ directory. Download the news then shutdown calibre.

anleva · 10-24-2012, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

If running from the command line I would start calibre using calibre.exe in the \Dropbox\Calibre Portable\Calibre\ directory. Download the news then shutdown calibre.

I didn't realize that was there as well as calibre-portable.exe. If the version you reference supports the command line options this could work for me. Thanks for the tip!

anleva · 10-24-2012, 10:41 AM

I launched Calibre from the folder you suggested. I noticed it does use the "Calibre Library" folder from Dropbox, but does not seem to use the "Calibre Setttings" folder and does not leverage those settings. Is there anyway to use the executable with the current settings in the settings folder?

PeterT · 10-24-2012, 12:30 PM

In a full install of Calibre there is a batch file in the Resources directory. Take a look through it and you might get some ideas.

10-23-2012, 12:18 PM	#1
anleva Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Calibre Portable and Dropbox I'm looking for help with using Calibre for a specific application. Not sure of the best way to do this. Here is what I would like to do. I have 3 computers, home, work and home server. I have Dropbox on all 3 computers and have installed Calibre Portable in my Dropbox folder so that Calibre Portable and my Library and Settings are available anywhere. However it is not quite working the way I had hoped. I use Calibre for books but also have subscribed to multiple daily news feeds/magazines. I have one computer that is always on, my home server. So my thought was to leave Calibre Portable running on that computer so it will download daily feeds. My hope was then to be able to either start up Calibre Portable on my work or home laptop depending on my location, connect my Nook and synch the latest magazines and books. At times I could even add books via Calibre Portable and Dropbox on any of the three computers and everything could be in synch. But I am seeing that leaving Calibre Portable running on my home server and opening it on one of my other computers ends up causing some database conflicts. So it doesn't appear to be a workable solution. Is there a way to do this using Calibre Portable and Dropbox as described above? Or is there another method that would work better. Thanks

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10-23-2012, 12:41 PM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	I am afraid not. At the moment you can only have one copy of Calibre running against a given database. As you have found breaking this rule can cause data conflicts. There is a long-running roadmap activity to enhance Calibre so that multiple versions can run against the same database. However there is no ETA when/if this work might come to fruition.

10-23-2012, 12:58 PM	#3
anleva Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	Thank you. I've thought of one other option. Via task scheduler in Windows maybe I could schedule and automate Calibre Portable to run daily while I sleep. So it starts up and then downloads the latest news However, I am not sure how to then automate the program to close/shut down. Any thoughts on how to make that approach work? I could then avoid running Calibre anywhere else during this period. Since it is while I am sleeping that would not be a problem.

10-23-2012, 09:56 PM	#6
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,167 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	Ah.... sorry I forgot this was Portable! I'm not sure at all

10-23-2012, 10:22 PM	#7
Dopedangel Wizard Posts: 1,759 Karma: 30063305 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Singapore Device: Boyue	Calibre portable supports multiple libraries your best bet for me is use a separate library for news.

10-24-2012, 10:41 AM	#11
anleva Enthusiast Posts: 39 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle Paperwhite	I launched Calibre from the folder you suggested. I noticed it does use the "Calibre Library" folder from Dropbox, but does not seem to use the "Calibre Setttings" folder and does not leverage those settings. Is there anyway to use the executable with the current settings in the settings folder?

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