[GUI Plugin] FanFictionDownLoader

[JimmXinu]

Looks like ffnet is throwing errors. I got this in the browser:

FanFiction.Net Error Type 1

An error has occurred while processing your request.

Please email this error message in full to support@fanfiction.com.

All errors are logged for administrative and security purposes.1f068849028c428ccf8ef2f254473088
199.189.231.219:35
/s/5742587/9/ 2013-07-01 15:50:50

I'll add code to FFDL to more accurately report this error in the next version, but nothing I can do is going to fix it.

[Snowman]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Looks like ffnet is throwing errors. ...

Yes, it now looks like ffn have an issue - I tried re-downloading 'just desserts' just now (a couple of hours later), and it was fine, as was 'April-10'.

As a suggestion, would it be possible to save what ffdl captured up to the point of failure? A warning would still be required to retry later, though.

Thanks again for a brilliant plugin. My old solution of deffnetizer for ffn completes, and scrapbook for incompletes and other sites, had become seriously unwieldy even before my story totals reached 4 figures!

van

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Snowman

As a suggestion, would it be possible to save what ffdl captured up to the point of failure? A warning would still be required to retry later, though.

I've considered it before, but it's just not something that happens often enough to be worth the effort.

I'll think about it a bit again in case a new brilliant idea comes up, but no promises.

[JimmXinu]

Here's a test version with:

• Better error handling when fanfiction.net has errors.
• A new 'force_login' parameter for phoenixsong.net.

A user reported that phoenixsong.net can have an 'R' rated chapter (requiring login) in the middle of a 'Teen' rated story. FFDL can't detect that login is required in that case. 'force_login: true' will require the phoenixsong.net adapter always login.

[www.phoenixsong.net]
force_login:true
username:YourUser
password:yourpassword

UPDATE Jul 15, 2013 - Remove obsolete beta versions

[njd09]

Hey, thanks again for the help before, just wanted to bring up a new issue I've been having lately. Whenever I try to update any of my fimfiction.net stories, I get an error, which I've screencapped:



Tried reinstalling the latest version of the plugin to no avail. Any idea what the problem could be?

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by njd09

Hey, thanks again for the help before, just wanted to bring up a new issue I've been having lately. Whenever I try to update any of my fimfiction.net stories, I get an error, which I've screencapped:

I picked a fimfic story at random from the front page and it worked fine for me. You didn't report any specific story URLs, so I can't try the same stories as you.

That error suggests to me that your firewall software on your computer is blocking the plugin, or some other networking issue on your computer.

If you google for that error: "an attempt was made to access a socket in a way forbidden by its access permissions", there are many reports of it being encountered by many different programs. Here's one such with recommended solutions.

[njd09]

Thanks for the reply; I'm still not entirely sure what happened, but I went to turn off my firewall and noticed it wasn't open, so I opened it and then tried again, and now it works perfectly. Weird. Oh, and I did include a URL in the screenshot, which I can now confirm is working normally. Thanks again for your help.

[JimmXinu]

This is a test version with some changes to the GUI to (hopefully) better organize the Basic FFDL config tab and hide the download options on Add/Update until you choose to view them.

I'm interested in opinions about whether you think these changes are an improvement or not. Thanks.

UPDATE Jul 9 2013 - Added site: scarhead.net

UPDATE Jul 15, 2013 - Remove obsolete beta versions

[JimmXinu]

Previous posting updated, new site scarhead.net added, courtesy of Ida.

[Firedancer885]

I don't have a preference, but the new layout leaves more room in the window. It's good.

[JimmXinu]

Version 1.7.30 - 09 Jul 2013

• New Site: scarhead.net - Thanks Ida!
• Improved error handling when ffnet is having problems.
• Phoenixsong can have individual chapters req login. Add force_login parameter.
• GUI improvements to Basic config and Add/Update dialogs.

FFDL now supports over 90 different sites.

[Czarcasm]

Just wondering if there is a way to not have the front page be the whole category, language, genre, summary, etc etc thing, because I'd just prefer the usual cover then story format that I usually get.

I think I fixed it a bit, but it keeps breaking the cover. Even though the metadata page says it has a generated cover, when I open it, it has a blurry first page for the cover.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Czarcasm

Just wondering if there is a way to not have the front page be the whole category, language, genre, summary, etc etc thing, because I'd just prefer the usual cover then story format that I usually get.

I think I fixed it a bit, but it keeps breaking the cover. Even though the metadata page says it has a generated cover, when I open it, it has a blurry first page for the cover.

Changing the cover image in the metadata doesn't update the epub (or other format) file itself.

If the epub already has one, calibre will inject the cover image from the metadata when you send it to a device or do a save to disk.

To update the cover in the epub on disk, you can use calibre's Polish Book feature, the Modify ePub plugin, or do a conversion. Modify ePub can also remove cover images entirely.

[Jade Aislin]

I'm back from vacation and am trying to organize my personal ini once again.

I want all the names in my ships to be in alphabetical order (a/b/c). However, the authors often label the ships out of order (b/a). Most of the code in my ship section is trying to fix this.

I'm not sure if this is possible, but it occured to me that I might be able to write a general code that would do the work for me. Is it possible to have the personal ini separate the different characters in the ships based on the '/' mark and then reorganize them into aphlabetical order (ie: the ship starts as b/a/c, it's separated to b a c, then it's reorganized to a/b/c)? Or should I just keep writing the individual codes?

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Jade Aislin

I want all the names in my ships to be in alphabetical order (a/b/c). However, the authors often label the ships out of order (b/a). Most of the code in my ship section is trying to fix this.

There's no way I can think of to do that with the regex replacement feature. But since I've been playing with some additional metadata config options anyway, I'll try adding this.

Attached is a version with new options:

• sort_ships option: Reorder ships so b/a and c/b/a become a/b and a/b/c. Only separates on '/', so use replace_metadata to change separator first if needed. Something like: ships=>[ ]*(/|&|&)[ ]*=>/ You can use ships_LIST to change the / back to something else if you want.
  
• join_string_<entry> option: FFDL list entries are comma separated by default. You can use this to change that. For example, if you want authors separated with ' & ' instead, use join_string_calibre_author:\s&\s. (\s == space)
  
• keep_in_order_<entry> options: FFDL sorts list entries by default (except for author/authorUrl/authorId). But if you want to use an extra entry derived from author, it ends up sorted. For example, if you added calibre_author: keep_in_order_calibre_author:true
  
• replace_metadata <entry>_LIST options: FFDL replace_metadata lines operate on individual list items for list entries. But now if you want to do a replacement on the joined string for the whole list, you can by using <entry>_LIST. Example, if you added calibre_author: calibre_author_LIST=>^(.{,100}).*$=>\1

# add a new entry that is a copy of author.
add_to_extra_valid_entries:,calibre_author
include_in_calibre_author:author

# Keep calibre_author in original order
keep_in_order_calibre_author:true

# separate calibre_author by ' & ' instead of ', '
join_string_calibre_author:\s&\s

# Limit calibre_author list to 100 characters and trim any 
# trailing spaces.
add_to_replace_metadata:
 calibre_author_LIST=>^(.{,100}).*$=>\1
 calibre_author_LIST=>^(.*?) +$=>\1
 ships=>[ ]*(/|&|&)[ ]*=>/
# Change ships with ' & ' and ' / ' to '/' separated.

# sort the ships.
sort_ships:true

(If you're curious, I was trying to get FFDL CLI output files to match the calibre file name output I use for my devices.)

UPDATE Jul 18, 2013 - Remove obsolete beta versions