Library on Dropbox

maara · 05-19-2011, 09:24 AM

Hi all,

I have my calibre library placed on my dropbox to have my ebooks acessable from anywhere.
The question is - I have got two laptops. The first one is mac and the second one is pc. Will they both be able to read/write the same library???
I am asking because I don't know if the path to the book written in the Calibre's library is relative or absolute (you know C:/....whatever.... on win vs. /Volumes/....whatever... could cause that the calibre would be not able to find the books properly).
If they are able to share one library db, is there any possibility how to auto add newly added books on the second computer? (example. I add a new book on pc to the calibre. This book is copied to the default calibre library path. I start the calibre on the mac - can I tell calibre "hey, automatically check the folder and if there is some new book, add it to your library...)

Thanks

itimpi · 05-19-2011, 10:48 AM

Yes - they CAN both use the same library. Calibre always assumes a path relative to the library folder.

What you must NOT do is have Calibre running on both machines at the same time. This is almost certain to result in the Calibre database metadata.db file getting out-of-sync with the actual books.

There is no automatic "watch this folder" feature in Calibre for adding books, although I believe that people have built their own custom system based on the Calibre Command Line tools.

pilotbob · 05-19-2011, 11:00 AM

What calibre needs is a web dav or other interface so you can host a shared database somewhere.

BOb

itimpi · 05-19-2011, 11:27 AM

Changing Calibre to allow multiple-clients has been on the Roadmap for a long time now. However it is non-trivial task, and therefore I do not believe anyone has felt enough of an urge/need to put in the effort required to add this capability.

pilotbob · 05-19-2011, 11:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itimpi

Changing Calibre to allow multiple-clients has been on the Roadmap for a long time now. However it is non-trivial task, and therefore I do not believe anyone has felt enough of an urge/need to put in the effort required to add this capability.

It would be an interesting project to take on... however, I'm just too lazy to learn Python right now.

Learning the new stuff in .Net and trying to learn Ruby on Rails (sort of on the back burner these days since deciding to learn MVC 3) is enough for now.

05-19-2011, 09:24 AM	#1
maara Member Posts: 10 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Device: Kindle	Library on Dropbox Hi all, I have my calibre library placed on my dropbox to have my ebooks acessable from anywhere. The question is - I have got two laptops. The first one is mac and the second one is pc. Will they both be able to read/write the same library??? I am asking because I don't know if the path to the book written in the Calibre's library is relative or absolute (you know C:/....whatever.... on win vs. /Volumes/....whatever... could cause that the calibre would be not able to find the books properly). If they are able to share one library db, is there any possibility how to auto add newly added books on the second computer? (example. I add a new book on pc to the calibre. This book is copied to the default calibre library path. I start the calibre on the mac - can I tell calibre "hey, automatically check the folder and if there is some new book, add it to your library...) Thanks

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05-19-2011, 10:48 AM	#2
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	Yes - they CAN both use the same library. Calibre always assumes a path relative to the library folder. What you must NOT do is have Calibre running on both machines at the same time. This is almost certain to result in the Calibre database metadata.db file getting out-of-sync with the actual books. There is no automatic "watch this folder" feature in Calibre for adding books, although I believe that people have built their own custom system based on the Calibre Command Line tools.

05-19-2011, 11:00 AM	#3
pilotbob Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,832 Karma: 11844413 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Tampa, FL USA Device: Kindle Touch	What calibre needs is a web dav or other interface so you can host a shared database somewhere. BOb

05-19-2011, 11:27 AM	#4
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	Changing Calibre to allow multiple-clients has been on the Roadmap for a long time now. However it is non-trivial task, and therefore I do not believe anyone has felt enough of an urge/need to put in the effort required to add this capability.