[GUI Plugin] FanFictionDownLoader

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by BeckH

Hi there,
I tried to search (but couldn't find) this topic on the thread, so apologies if this has already been dealt with...
....

If you're using FFDL's mobi output, switch to downloading to epub and converting to mobi or azw3. FFDL's native mobi output is rather poor compared to calibre's convert and is unlikely to improve. Plus with epub you can use update and not download old chapters all the time.

I've had two kindles (both without touch screen) and found that keeping all my fanfiction on them wasn't practical for my habits. (Some 3000 books; When I only had ~1/2 that many, it was still workable.)

Because the kindle wants to index the complete text of all books, and I update books on my device at least once and usually several times a day, it never really finished indexing. So search didn't work, and it would frequently pause for lengthy periods or even crash and reboot. Now I keep the kindles just for testing and light use with only a few hundred books on them.

However, I don't recall ever seeing the exact symptoms you describe.

[Ealdwulf]

I actually had something very similar to what was described happen with a couple of stories... except mine was with epub and a nook.

The problem turned out to be caused by improper html in the source of chapter. The nook couldn't handle it, but calibre was able to. Upon opening the epub with Sigil and then saving it would work on the nook and FFDL was able to continue updating without issue.

Not sure if this is what you are experiencing or not, but the epub download with conversion to mobi has been identified a few times as the way to go for mobi format stories

[devils_add]

Hi,
I have a question, is it possible for url for the story to be recorded the same way as lets say amazon id, where for example for fanfiction.net you can record it as fanfiction.net:some_story_id

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by devils_add

I have a question, is it possible for url for the story to be recorded the same way as lets say amazon id, where for example for fanfiction.net you can record it as fanfiction.net:some_story_id

To do this, you need a metadata source plugin. This does the work to translate the id to the URL. It should also download metadata for the story. The id side of it isn't that hard. But doing the search side can be a pain. It would also need a change in FFDL to use the id.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by devils_add

Hi,
I have a question, is it possible for url for the story to be recorded the same way as lets say amazon id, where for example for fanfiction.net you can record it as fanfiction.net:some_story_id

FFDL supports 90+ sites. I don't think it's practical to use site.com:story_id identifiers for each.

However, all of those sites use URLs and FFDL already saves the story URL to the 'url:' identifier. In what way is that insufficient?

[Bonnie_27]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

FFDL supports 90+ sites. I don't think it's practical to use site.com:story_id identifiers for each.

However, all of those sites use URLs and FFDL already saves the story URL to the 'url:' identifier. In what way is that insufficient?

does it support fanfic.net and adult fanfic and forbidden love site how about raising hell and will it work on the glo love this thread by the way lol I didn't know other people loved fanfics as much as me lol

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Bonnie_27

does it support fanfic.net and adult fanfic and forbidden love site how about raising hell and will it work on the glo love this thread by the way lol I didn't know other people loved fanfics as much as me lol

Supported sites list

[Bonnie_27]

[QUOTE=JimmXinu;2801018]Supported sites list

wicked, ty

[El_Pirato]

Are you familiar with www.fictionhunt.com ? I hope I can get stories from that archive if you are.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by El_Pirato

Are you familiar with www.fictionhunt.com ? I hope I can get stories from that archive if you are.

From the support sites list:

Other

fictionhunt.com - No description is given of the site at all, but it appears to only contain stories copied from fanfiction.net. Whether that's with permission or not isn't mentioned. I'm not sure what to make of this one.

[Ellachanted]

I'm thinking there probably isn't anything I can do about this, but sometimes a completed story adds an outtake, but because I am adding it, it doesn't update the story already in the database, nor is there something to tell me it didn't update.

So is my only solution to check for updates on a regular basis on all my completed stories? Because there are a lot.

And I really really really love this program. Though it hasn't been good for my hoarder tendencies.....

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Ellachanted

I'm thinking there probably isn't anything I can do about this, but sometimes a completed story adds an outtake, but because I am adding it, it doesn't update the story already in the database, nor is there something to tell me it didn't update.

So is my only solution to check for updates on a regular basis on all my completed stories? Because there are a lot.

??? I don't understand your problem.

As far as I know, for all the sites FFDL supports, any time the author adds a chapter, be it an outtake or not, completed or not, the site will send you an email if you follow/subscribe/alert/whatever that story.

So if you're following my strong recommendations and using story (or author) alerts on the site(s) (instead of using FFDL to try to update all your In-Progress fics), you'll be fine.

[Ellachanted]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

??? I don't understand your problem.

As far as I know, for all the sites FFDL supports, any time the author adds a chapter, be it an outtake or not, completed or not, the site will send you an email if you follow/subscribe/alert/whatever that story.

So if you're following my strong recommendations and using story (or author) alerts on the site(s) (instead of using FFDL to try to update all your In-Progress fics), you'll be fine.

Yeah, I wasn't doing it that way. I do follow most, but once it's in my completed library, I don't always remember to check. And I sometimes just re-add the whole author page because then I get the new stories in process that I may have missed. But add and update do different things. And I had to cut back on the alerts because my mailbox was being blown up.

Now I know better.

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by Ellachanted

And I had to cut back on the alerts because my mailbox was being blown up.

Mailbox management is an art.

In the case of heavy fanfic readers, there's no two ways about it: filters and automatic incoming actions are your friends.

All my fic notices are filtered into a "fic notices" subfolder, and are all autoflagged on delivery. I then go over them manually, and unflag all the uninteresting ones -- new communities or new author stories with uninspiring summaries, etc. Then I go in Calibre and update those stories still flagged. Not all, of course, juste those I'm interested in reading in the forseeable future.

Then, when FFDL had finished updating those, I unflag them in my mail folder. So I know that all the unread notices are those I haven't processed yet, and all the still flagged ones are those I may want to read/update at a later time. All mail not flagged is archived away or deleted.

Yeah, sure, it takes some time; but that's the (low, low) price of a cleanly managed fanfic bookself.

A cleaner way to do that would be a Calibre addon that plugs to your IMAP folders and manages those notices, creating a ReadingList of books to update and a list of URL to fetch, but that's a project I'm not yet ready to undertake right now ^_^;

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by aleyx

A cleaner way to do that would be a Calibre addon that plugs to your IMAP folders and manages those notices, creating a ReadingList of books to update and a list of URL to fetch, but that's a project I'm not yet ready to undertake right now ^_^;

I have considered it, but concluded that I wouldn't trust some plugin with access to my email; and therefore why would anybody else.