How To Configure Calibre Device Target Directory?

[jasn]

I can't seem to be able to configure the device target directory for Calibre. My device is a rooted Nook Color, and I simply want Calibre to sync my books with a top level directory on my Nook's sdcard, called books. Calibre refuses to do anything but put my books into a subdirectory called Books, inside a root level directory called My Files, and will create them if they're not there. It's also interesting that Calibre always refers to the sdcard in my Nook as Main Memory, and the internal, (emmc), memory as Card A.

After searching the forum here, I've tried;

1) Editing the Preferences -> Plugins -> Device Interface and putting books/, /books/, or /sdcard/books/, immediately preceding the {author_sort}/{title} - {authors} string, in the Nook Color device plugin. Or by putting the same directories as the only directory in the directory field of the Android plugin.

2) Editing the Save Template to put books/ before the {author_sort}/{title} - {authors} string there as well.

Neither works. Calibre forces the books into a My Files -> Books directory hierarchy, which it will treat as the root directory, because if I specify /sdcard/books/ as the directory to save to as indicated above, it will create a My Files -> Books -> sdcard -> books hierarchy to save books to.

I also noticed that even though I ran the welcome wizard and tried selecting Android device (tablet), or Generic device, it will only use any customized settings that I applied to the Nook device plugin. In other words it doesn't matter what device I select when I configure Calibre, it detects my Nook, and treats the device as a Nook.

All I want, is a way to define the device target directory. Is there an advanced option available for this that I'm missing? Also where can I define the device for Calibre in a way that will stick?

Thanks..

[wallcraft]

Have you tried using Save to disk? It will save in whatever folder you want. You will loose any Nook specific metadata etcetera that the Nook driver adds.

[jasn]

I haven't tried that only because it's probably about the same as what I'm doing now, send to device main memory, and then manually move all subdirectories under /My Files -> Books to /books. I just thought that with the configurability of Calibre, there would be way to set the device target directory, (more directly).

Thanks..

[kovidgoyal]

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....-connect-to-it

[jasn]

(again) Thanks Kovid,

This was a key phrase from your referenced section of the manual for me;

Note that if you are using the user defined plugin for a device normally detected by a builtin calibre plugin, you must disable the builtin plugin first, so that your user defined plugin is used instead.

Using these instructions, I was finally able to configure Calibre to achieve my goal. For anyone searching, who finds this thread, this is what I did:

1) Under Preferences -> Plugins -> Device Plugins, disabled all Device Plugins except for the one titled, User Defined. (I realize that it isn't necessary to disable all plugins, but I really only need one for my purposes)

2) Customized the User Defined plugin by selecting all supported reader formats for my device, and then I entered in the 3 USB ID numbers in hex, for my Nook Color in the fields marked, USB Vendor ID, USB Product ID, and USB Revision ID. While Calibre does have a feature to extract these numbers using the option at

Preferences -> Miscellaneous -> Get information to setup the user defined device

it was coming up blank for me. Instead I chose the

Preferences -> Miscellaneous -> Debug device detection

which output information for all of the USB devices connected to my computer. In the line that contained

[hex number 1], [hex number 2], [hex number 3],'B&N', 'NookColor',...

I was able to get the information necessary to configure the User Defined device plugin. Hex number 1 is the USB Vendor ID, hex number 2 the USB Product ID, and hex number 3 is the USB Revision ID. After I applied the changes, my Calibre library began recognizing all the books in my Nook Color sdcard's /books/ folder, so I know that my communications are now working correctly.

I then used Calibre to delete all books on my Nook, and then used Calibre to send just one, to my device's main memory. However, even though I had configured the User Defined device plugin Main Memory Directory field with, books, Calibre copied the book to the root directory of the sdcard. So borrowing from my first test, I deleted the User Defined device plugin Directory field, and added books/ immediately preceding the {author_sort}/{title} - {authors} string in the device plugin customization. Now when I send books from Calibre to my rooted Nook Color, they end up being copied to a subdirectory of the root directory, books, on my sdcard. Which is what I was after.

Thanks again..

[cliver]

Originally Posted by jasn

(again) Thanks Kovid,

This was a key phrase from your referenced section of the manual for me;

Using these instructions, I was finally able to configure Calibre to achieve my goal. For anyone searching, who finds this thread, this is what I did:

1) Under Preferences -> Plugins -> Device Plugins, disabled all Device Plugins except for the one titled, User Defined. (I realize that it isn't necessary to disable all plugins, but I really only need one for my purposes)

2) Customized the User Defined plugin by selecting all supported reader formats for my device, and then I entered in the 3 USB ID numbers in hex, for my Nook Color in the fields marked, USB Vendor ID, USB Product ID, and USB Revision ID. While Calibre does have a feature to extract these numbers using the option atit was coming up blank for me. Instead I chose the which output information for all of the USB devices connected to my computer. In the line that contained

I was able to get the information necessary to configure the User Defined device plugin. Hex number 1 is the USB Vendor ID, hex number 2 the USB Product ID, and hex number 3 is the USB Revision ID. After I applied the changes, my Calibre library began recognizing all the books in my Nook Color sdcard's /books/ folder, so I know that my communications are now working correctly.

I then used Calibre to delete all books on my Nook, and then used Calibre to send just one, to my device's main memory. However, even though I had configured the User Defined device plugin Main Memory Directory field with, books, Calibre copied the book to the root directory of the sdcard. So borrowing from my first test, I deleted the User Defined device plugin Directory field, and added books/ immediately preceding the {author_sort}/{title} - {authors} string in the device plugin customization. Now when I send books from Calibre to my rooted Nook Color, they end up being copied to a subdirectory of the root directory, books, on my sdcard. Which is what I was after.

Thanks again..

Hi jasn,

I'm trying to achive the same thing on a rooted android.
When I connect it via usb Calibre finds it as two itmes Device and Card A.
I can get calibre to send books to the root of card A but not to a sub folder on the card.
I have tried following your solution but can't make head or tail of the usb debugging info. Like you the option to extract it comes up blank. Using the other method I get..

Version: 0.8.38
USB devices on system:
[u'usb\\root_hub20&vid8086&pid3b34&rev0006',
u'usb\\root_hub20&vid8086&pid3b3c&rev0006',
u'usb\\vid_046d&pid_c52b&rev_1201',
u'usb\\vid_046d&pid_c52b&rev_1201&mi_00',
u'usb\\vid_046d&pid_c52b&rev_1201&mi_01',
u'usb\\vid_046d&pid_c52b&rev_1201&mi_02',
u'usb\\vid_04e8&pid_685e&rev_0400',
u'usb\\vid_04e8&pid_685e&rev_0400&adb',
u'usb\\vid_04e8&pid_685e&rev_0400&mi_00&class_08&s ubclass_06&prot_50',
u'usb\\vid_04e8&pid_685e&rev_0400&modem',
u'usb\\vid_0a5c&pid_4500&rev_0100',
u'usb\\vid_18e3&pid_9106&rev_0100',
u'usb\\vid_413c&pid_8160&rev_0173',
u'usb\\vid_413c&pid_8161&rev_0100',
u'usb\\vid_413c&pid_8162&rev_0100',
u'usb\\vid_8087&pid_0020&rev_0000',
u'usb\\vid_8087&pid_0020&rev_0000']
Drives detected:
(0) F:\ ~ \\?\STORAGE#VOLUME#_??_USBSTOR#DISK&VEN_ANDROID&PR OD___UMS_COMPOSITE&REV___00#8&14DD013B&0&304D19C3C C28AA9E&0#{53F56307-B6BF-11D0-94F2-00A0C91EFB8B}#{53F5630D-B6BF-11D0-94F2-00A0C91EFB8B}
(1) K:\ ~ \\?\STORAGE#VOLUME#_??_USBSTOR#DISK&VEN_ANDROID&PR OD___UMS_COMPOSITE&REV___00#8&14DD013B&0&304D19C3C C28AA9E&1#{53F56307-B6BF-11D0-94F2-00A0C91EFB8B}#{53F5630D-B6BF-11D0-94F2-00A0C91EFB8B}
Available plugins: USER_DEFINED

Looking for devices...




eBooks/import, wordplayer/calibretransfer, Books, sdcard/ebooks
Devices possibly connected: None

But I can't identify the hex numbers refered to??

On another tack, I have noticed that when I select customise the existing Android driver there are no hex entries to fill in but there is a field with a comma seperated list of directories to send e-books top on the device. I have tried editing this but no matter what I puit in there it stubournly goes to the root of the card.

Can you or anyone point me in the right direction please. It's quite frustrating not being able to achieve such a simple thing.
The device is a Samsung Galaxy Note btw and I am storing my books on the external SD card.

Any help appreciated

Regards
Clive


Update: Cracked it. I have edited the Android plugin,>Save Template field. Just added "eBooks/" to beginning of the string and bingo they go in the subfolder eBooks. Just what I want :-)