Editing the Kobo's I'm Reading list with Calibre

[talios]

Awesome! Look forward to the next release of Calibre - sounds like these two issues that are fixed in this thread were what I was hitting.

Thinking about this - one very big +1 feature request for Kobo:

- CUSTOM COLLECTIONS

I'd love to maintain a list of my "Prog Prog Magazines", or "Tor Short Stories".

Originally Posted by timlegge

Found the issue. It looks like "Finished" is ReadStatus = 2. I will correct the issue and I will look at implementing an additional Tag (possibly Read or Kobo_Read) to allow you to specify which books are read.

Tim

[zoran]

Originally Posted by timlegge

The work was easier than expected. I need to run through some tests but if all goes well you may be able to set a books status to Finished in the next release.
Tim

There was a change of dependencies, as I recall. I was looking to
update to 0.7.x for freebsd and found this:
http://www.freshports.org/deskutils/calibre
Seems that I will have to do a little homework first and don't shoot
myself onto the foot. I will try to not go after "stable", but to upgrade
port only. New Makefile and patches would let me pass. Is there
someone running 0.7 on freebsd at all?
Best regards

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by CazMar

I presume that is when it shows the books on the SD card as "unread" even though you are still reading them? I notice that even with this it finds the correct place in your book when you re-open it. No great drama and it got rid of all those books my friends had opened while they were "playing" with my Kobo!

Yes, the sd card issue was fixed and the finished books now stay finished. As for not loosing the location in the book that is a feature/bug/conscious choice.

I don't exactly know all the fields that should be reset when removing books from the reading list. However, it seems to me that not messing with the bookmarked position allows a user to recover from mistakenly removing the wrong book from their reading list. If a user wishes to start at then beginning they can simply use they kobo's table of contents.

Tim

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by talios

Awesome! Look forward to the next release of Calibre - sounds like these two issues that are fixed in this thread were what I was hitting.

Thinking about this - one very big +1 feature request for Kobo:

- CUSTOM COLLECTIONS

I'd love to maintain a list of my "Prog Prog Magazines", or "Tor Short Stories".

I don't really know how custom collections work in calibre. I would have tom figure that out. No promises.

Tim

[Carpathian]

Hi....first post!

First, thanks for Calibre...wonderful!

I upgraded today because of this thread. When I double-click on "I'm reading" in the last column under Collections, I assume that I am supposed to delete those two words (to get the book off the "I'm Reading" list in Kobo). That seems to work. I also assume that when I do that, the book title disappears from that list immediately in Kobo (if Kobo is connected).....there's no Sync button in Calibre. Ok, so far. I then tried to "Edit Metadata" for some of the books that I had moved from Calibre to Kobo (title corrections, etc.). That didn't seem to make any difference when I disconnected Kobo and looked for the changes (not there). I then tried to make the changes under "Device" in Calibre, i.e. double clicking on items in various columns and typing changes. Those didn't show up either (in Kobo). In fact, after restarting Kobo, I now found that all of the 100 books that came with Kobo are missing (no longer listed under "Books" on Kobo (though they are all there under "Device" in Calibre). And, worse, when moving around the Menu, Kobo now crashes and restarts. After that, only the remaining "I'm Reading" books are listed (and are accessible).

I mention all these things since I don't know what I did wrong or which action got me into trouble. If anyone has any advice, please let me know. Thanks.

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by Carpathian

Hi....first post!

First, thanks for Calibre...wonderful!

I upgraded today because of this thread. When I double-click on "I'm reading" in the last column under Collections, I assume that I am supposed to delete those two words (to get the book off the "I'm Reading" list in Kobo). That seems to work.

Yes, in manual mode you remove the Im_Reading tag and closing the field (moving to a new line send the infomration to the kobo (Removes it from the list)

Originally Posted by Carpathian

I also assume that when I do that, the book title disappears from that list immediately in Kobo (if Kobo is connected).....there's no Sync button in Calibre. Ok, so far.

Yes as above, in manual mode it will remove the item (or add it to the reading list) after you finish editing the row

Originally Posted by Carpathian

I then tried to "Edit Metadata" for some of the books that I had moved from Calibre to Kobo (title corrections, etc.). That didn't seem to make any difference when I disconnected Kobo and looked for the changes (not there).

If I understand you correctly, you modified the metadata in the Library view? I may be wrong but if you do not resend those books to the device it will not update the kobo (you may even need to delete the record from the kobo first depending on what metadata you edited. If you change metadat management to Automatic, the collections on the device (reading list) will be build using any books tagged with Im_Reading that is also on the kobo.

Originally Posted by Carpathian

I then tried to make the changes under "Device" in Calibre, i.e. double clicking on items in various columns and typing changes. Those didn't show up either (in Kobo).

No, as in the details of the first post, while you can make changes to those fields currently it does not change the data on the kobo (but Calibre shows the changes).

Originally Posted by Carpathian

In fact, after restarting Kobo, I now found that all of the 100 books that came with Kobo are missing (no longer listed under "Books" on Kobo (though they are all there under "Device" in Calibre). And, worse, when moving around the Menu, Kobo now crashes and restarts. After that, only the remaining "I'm Reading" books are listed (and are accessible).

None of the things you mentioned should cause the loss of data or the crashes. I have been testing and regularly using the function and I am yet to see those sorts of issues.

You have a couple of options:

1) I can help troubleshoot (have you used a sqlite query tool?)
2) Restore your database as per the sticky forum entry

If you are able to send me your database I could look at it to see how the issue occurred (I would see the books you are reading...).

Originally Posted by Carpathian

I mention all these things since I don't know what I did wrong or which action got me into trouble. If anyone has any advice, please let me know. Thanks.

As a final note, you could try removing the metadata.calibre file but since your kobo is acting strangely it points more to the database.

I will look your sequence of events again...

Tim

[Carpathian]

Thanks timlegge.

I'm still not sure why the 100 book listing disappeared, but couldn't I also reset the Kobo (pin in back) to get it back? I expect that would dump the books I've added though there are only half a dozen and most are in Calibre. Or have I got this wrong?

At the moment I don't mind that they are missing. I can "retrieve" any I want by typing in "Im_Reading" in Calibre ("Device"), per this thread. They then show up when Kobo restarts.

I can also get new versions from Gutenberg or elsewhere that are preferable. The Kobo free books have undesired unjustifed margins and the line spacing is too great.

If I could also toss in another question: whether by using Calibre or some other software (or file change), can I replace the default Kobo fonts in books I add to Kobo? I find the two Kobo fonts (whatever their actual names) are too light (not sufficiently black and contrasty). Thanks.

[Gordo29]

I may be wrong about this, but if you have a damaged/corrupted sqlite database file either a soft reset (pin in back) or hard reset (from Advanced menu) will not solve the problem. I had to restore the sqlite file as per the sticky.

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by Carpathian

Thanks timlegge.

I'm still not sure why the 100 book listing disappeared, but couldn't I also reset the Kobo (pin in back) to get it back? I expect that would dump the books I've added though there are only half a dozen and most are in Calibre. Or have I got this wrong?

At the moment I don't mind that they are missing. I can "retrieve" any I want by typing in "Im_Reading" in Calibre ("Device"), per this thread. They then show up when Kobo restarts.

I can also get new versions from Gutenberg or elsewhere that are preferable. The Kobo free books have undesired unjustifed margins and the line spacing is too great.

If I could also toss in another question: whether by using Calibre or some other software (or file change), can I replace the default Kobo fonts in books I add to Kobo? I find the two Kobo fonts (whatever their actual names) are too light (not sufficiently black and contrasty). Thanks.

If i understand you correctly the books seem to be still available if you add the Im_Reading tag to the device collections in calibre and then disconnect the kobo.

Are you sure that it is not a case of the change that kobo made in 1.4 where the 100 books are hidden by default and only MyBooks show up? When you are in the books list you can hit the menu (or maybe display) and choose the preeloaded books or all books to be shown.

If you had previously opened a large number of preloaded books they would have been on your Im_Reading list.

My understanding is that the 100 books are either encrypted or encoded so it is not possible to change the fonts.

Tim

[Carpathian]

Timlegge, thank you.

Yes, you are right.....I had forgotten about that new feature. The 100 books show up when I change the Display setting. But, yes, typing "Im_Reading" in Calibre does put a book into view (though no advantage to that now).

As for the fonts, I don't really care about the encrypted 100 books.....I would like to change the font for books I add from other sources via Calibre or otherwise....Gutenberg, Feedbooks, etc.). Seems like all of those are governed by the Kobo's "hard wired" fonts!

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by Carpathian

Timlegge, thank you.

Yes, you are right.....I had forgotten about that new feature. The 100 books show up when I change the Display setting. But, yes, typing "Im_Reading" in Calibre does put a book into view (though no advantage to that now).

As for the fonts, I don't really care about the encrypted 100 books.....I would like to change the font for books I add from other sources via Calibre or otherwise....Gutenberg, Feedbooks, etc.). Seems like all of those are governed by the Kobo's "hard wired" fonts!

Great!! I was worried that the functionality was causing really weird issues. I have heard that fonts can be embedded in ePubs but I have not looked at it.

Tim

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by timlegge

The work was easier than expected. I need to run through some tests but if all goes well you may be able to set a books status to Finished in the next release.

Tim

The latest Calibre release is out there. It fixes the issue with SD cards and fixes the issue where the finished books were getting reset to not read.

In addition, this release supports setting books to "Read" which the kobo displays as finished.

Note that a book cannot be both in progress as "Im_Reading" and "Read". If you are using automatic management one of the tags likely "Read" will win. Do a search of your books for books tagged as "Im_Reading" and "Read" if you notice some book not showing up correctly.

Tim

[Gordo29]

Hey Tim

I've finally updated and used .20 of Calibre with your add on and I'm impressed. Finally I can change status of "I'm Reading" without using Kobo desktop and change the "Read" status without paging ahead hundreds of pages (for books without TOC)! Sure makes life simpler for those of us who like to keep things up-to-date.

Thanks!

[timlegge]

Glad to hear that it is working out for you.

[hbilly2002]

Thanks a lot !