Kobo sqlite database

[Start]

Originally Posted by corona

I just used SQLite Expert -- free graphical sqlite program -- and opened up the database to delete dozens of the freebie books -- worked great.

(But does this actually get rid of the book data itself??) (Oops. How embarrassing.)

My post is only for thanking vey much for your tip!

SQLite Expert personale edition is the best for Kobo db. It saved me a lot of time instead of doing by hands...

[mahal48]

Has this project died? The links no longer appear active. I have started some basic editing of the Kobo SQL database to solve some simple problems I have had. Would be interested to learn more about it.

[davidfor]

I haven't seen it before, but it does look like its dead.

As to the database, what do you want to know? I'd like to think I have a good understanding of it. So, ask and I'll see what I can tell you. Or someone else might chime in.

[mahal48]

Ok here we go, a couple of observations and questions.

In the solution to the duplicate shelves problem, "davidfor" suggested editing the SQLite database on the Kobo. I followed this advice (by changing "_IsDeleted" to "true" for each record in the Shelf table) and was successful in deleting the duplicate shelves on my Glo. At the moment I have no shelves on my Glo and am holding off to putting them on again until Kobo sorts out the synch problem on its' servers.

I have two questions relating to this now and it is all about the database structure and editing entries.

Firtsly, the "Shelf" table still contains data for each record of the duplicate shelves. Why is this when there are no shelves showing on my Glo? Why wasn't the data for each record of the duplicate shelf deleted in the database? Or is this the data that is still being held on the Kobo server?

Secondly, the next table below "Shelf" is "ShelfContent" This holds no records, plus, the column titles are not the same in number, some are missing. I thought there would have been a correlation between the two. So, what is the difference between these two tables and why does the "ShelfContent" contain no data?


Apologies if my database terminology is loose and incorrect. Thanks in advance.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mahal48

Ok here we go, a couple of observations and questions.

In the solution to the duplicate shelves problem, "davidfor" suggested editing the SQLite database on the Kobo. I followed this advice (by changing "_IsDeleted" to "true" for each record in the Shelf table) and was successful in deleting the duplicate shelves on my Glo. At the moment I have no shelves on my Glo and am holding off to putting them on again until Kobo sorts out the synch problem on its' servers.

I have two questions relating to this now and it is all about the database structure and editing entries.

Firtsly, the "Shelf" table still contains data for each record of the duplicate shelves. Why is this when there are no shelves showing on my Glo? Why wasn't the data for each record of the duplicate shelf deleted in the database? Or is this the data that is still being held on the Kobo server?

The next time you do a sync, the device will tell the Kobo server which shelves have been marked with "_IsDeleted=true" and then the rows will be deleted. The server now knows you don't want the shelves and if you use another Kobo device or app, it will delete the shelves from the device/app at the next sync. The column "_IsSynced" records if the Kobo server knows about the shelf. If this is "false", you can safely delete the row.

So, to get rid of the rows permanently, you need to do a sync. This seems to be working correctly. I suggest you do it now, recreate the shelves and then hold off the next sync until you feel the problem is solved. From my point of view it is. I had one occurrence, fixed it and the duplicates haven't come back.

Another thing you can do is to add "SyncShelves=false" to the "ApplicationPreferences" section of the "Kobo eReader.conf" file. This tells the device not to sync the shelves at all.

Secondly, the next table below "Shelf" is "ShelfContent" This holds no records, plus, the column titles are not the same in number, some are missing. I thought there would have been a correlation between the two. So, what is the difference between these two tables and why does the "ShelfContent" contain no data?

The table "Shelf" contains the list of shelves and their status. The table "ShelfContent" contains the list of books that are on each shelf. Each row in this table contains the name of the shelf, the ContentId of the book (used to link to table "content") and status info. If there are no rows, there are no books on any shelf.

[mahal48]

Ok thanks got all that and am experimenting with these fields in the SQLite database. Just creating shelves, editing them and synching etc..

Don't worry you wan't receive a help scream, because I have made two copies of my database, before I even started experimenting.

[paola]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The next time you do a sync, the device will tell the Kobo server which shelves have been marked with "_IsDeleted=true" and then the rows will be deleted. The server now knows you don't want the shelves and if you use another Kobo device or app, it will delete the shelves from the device/app at the next sync. The column "_IsSynced" records if the Kobo server knows about the shelf. If this is "false", you can safely delete the row.

So, to get rid of the rows permanently, you need to do a sync. This seems to be working correctly. I suggest you do it now, recreate the shelves and then hold off the next sync until you feel the problem is solved. From my point of view it is. I had one occurrence, fixed it and the duplicates haven't come back.

Another thing you can do is to add "SyncShelves=false" to the "ApplicationPreferences" section of the "Kobo eReader.conf" file. This tells the device not to sync the shelves at all.


The table "Shelf" contains the list of shelves and their status. The table "ShelfContent" contains the list of books that are on each shelf. Each row in this table contains the name of the shelf, the ContentId of the book (used to link to table "content") and status info. If there are no rows, there are no books on any shelf.

many thanks davidfor, it worked for me as well, really annoyed with those (previously) undeletable empty shelves!

[Start]

Now I have fully deleted all data in my kobo sql within a couple of minutes!

I have not to delete 2 users (mine and kobo) only!

PS. Where is the smiling face? Not in a database, obviously but a friend of mine cannot see it, he has a commercial vendor logo... horrible!!!!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Start

Now I have fully deleted all data in my kobo sql within a couple of minutes!

I have not to delete 2 users (mine and kobo) only!

PS. Where is the smiling face? Not in a database, obviously but a friend of mine cannot see it, he has a commercial vendor logo... horrible!!!!

Have a look at the file "affiliate.conf" in the .kobo directory. It will have a line like:

affiliate=Kobo

But with the other vendor rather than Kobo. Others have changed this to Kobo to allow covers to be displayed during sleep. Hopefully that will change the boot logo as well.