Some changes for Marvin

[At_Libitum]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Attached is a screenshot showing three Marvins happily coexisting on my iPad currently: new universal Marvin, original Marvin for iPad, and Marvin Free. This allows me to have three books open in Marvin at the same time.

Guess your location sync is now working overtime

BTW. @Kris,

I read a mention about a cloud based library? Not sure how different that would be from having them in say Calibre and accessible via OPDS, like Faterson already implied without probably realizing, you still would need to download it...maybe not directly needing to look for it, but that depends how many books in your library...otoh, if you got many you would be just as fast locating the same book in your Calibre's OPDS feed and downloading from there I imagine.

But, I do see another alternative approach here. One that might make an already existing feature a bit more polished. I believe that it is still the case that you need the same book in both iPhone and iPad for location sync to work, right? and if I am not mistaken, you also need a Dropbox account to be able to use location sync in the first place. So why not enhance the location sync such that if you enable it for a book, that book is sent with the location sync data to your dropbox account and in the 'other' device the book would show up with that cloud icon Faterson mentioned.

This is assuming that Marvin has some way of telling that location sync data is available, if so then it could possibly at the same time also look for any to-be-synced-books associated with that data too? Or is this too simplistic a thought?

I think at the least it would probably require much less work than totally rewriting a library system to be cloud based...(my main objection to that would be that this means I need to go online for another book, and I don't have a dataplan on my phone. With location sync I have at least the option to choose to use it or not)

[kguil]

@Lancer_325 - I'm sorry this happened to you. I really can't understand why this happened on the App Store. I also noticed that the App Store was sending older versions of the iPad-only edition instead of the new one and changing immediately to "Update" after installing

[kguil]

@At_Libitum - Yes, I think your idea is great.

[artbatista]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

But, I do see another alternative approach here. One that might make an already existing feature a bit more polished. I believe that it is still the case that you need the same book in both iPhone and iPad for location sync to work, right? and if I am not mistaken, you also need a Dropbox account to be able to use location sync in the first place. So why not enhance the location sync such that if you enable it for a book, that book is sent with the location sync data to your dropbox account and in the 'other' device the book would show up with that cloud icon Faterson mentioned.

This is assuming that Marvin has some way of telling that location sync data is available, if so then it could possibly at the same time also look for any to-be-synced-books associated with that data too? Or is this too simplistic a thought?

I think at the least it would probably require much less work than totally rewriting a library system to be cloud based...(my main objection to that would be that this means I need to go online for another book, and I don't have a dataplan on my phone. With location sync I have at least the option to choose to use it or not)

I suggested as much way back and Kris was not receptive to the idea of automatically uploading books for sync purposes. It is why I created this ticket on GitHub:

https://github.com/kguil/Marvin-Roadmap/issues/13

Since auto uploads of books was nixed, I proposed a manual upload facility. It is not the same we have now, where you can send a book to the cloud manually. My idea was for the user to select a book (or books) from the library or even the reader screen and ask Marvin to sync everything (including the ePub itself) with the cloud (probably Dropbox, as Marvin can already natively access it).

Then you could open Marvin in another device and tell it to scan for synced content and it would without further user intervention download the ePub, settings, sync location, etc to the new device.

The current way of doing this is very cumbersome and quite unfriendly, requiring you to "send to" one book, then open the cloud app, download the book, "open in", etc.

Art

[Ross Smith]

I've got the new version of Marvin installed on my iPad but I can't get my library transferred from the old version to the new. I've followed all the instructions on the migration page (twice), and everything seemed to work, but when I open the new Marvin, my library is still empty.

(Edit) Sorry, I won't be able to test this further; after trying again I gave up and reloaded all my books into the new Marvin from Calibre. Apart from the migration failure everything seems to be working fine.

[fireland]

Ross,

I had the same problem, until I figured out that "force quit" means turn off the device. When I did that and restarted, all was fine.

Yet another senior moment.

[Lancer_325]

Originally Posted by kguil

@Lancer_325 - I'm sorry this happened to you. I really can't understand why this happened on the App Store. I also noticed that the App Store was sending older versions of the iPad-only edition instead of the new one and changing immediately to "Update" after installing

Thanks Kris. I now notice on my iPhone when I go to open the book which I have been reading on the ipad it tells me when I sync it that the "IPHONE" is at an earlier reading location. This can only mean that it is the iPhone app which is installed on the ipad because I have no other books on it other than the one I downloaded from Dropbox last night when I lost my entire library. So what do I do now? Delete everything and start over again hoping that Apple has got the versions correct this time? How do I know I will have the correct version on the ipad? There is no way of telling I have the correct version installed.

[Lancer_325]

This has been a right mess by Apple. I lost my full library so will have to start from scratch. Anyway I deleted all marvin apps from the ipad and followed the instructions by philanthropy to get the correct version of the ipad app on my ipad. "Then either search for "Marvin - eBook reader for epub" in the AppStore or follow this link to it: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/marv...1209?ls=1&mt=8"

I Installed it and it seemed to open up as the iPhone version and then I went to the App Store it immediately showed an update for it ready. I just hope I have the correct version on the ipad. Is there any way of knowing?

[fireland]

Lancer,

I had the same experience. You should be fine since the update was to the universal version. I seem to have no problems now.

[Lancer_325]

Originally Posted by fireland

Lancer,

I had the same experience. You should be fine since the update was to the universal version. I seem to have no problems now.

Thanks fireland. I think I have it sorted now (famous last words!!) will see how it works over the next few days but it looks good.

[kguil]

@Lancer_325 - In Marvin go to Home > Settings (gear icon) > About

All new versions of Marvin should say 2.4 on top. If it say's 2.3 because the App Store is messing up and sending the older version, go back to the app store and run an update.

[Lancer_325]

Thanks Kris. Got it now.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

like Faterson already implied without probably realizing, you still would need to download it...

Spare me that, please. I explicitly addressed what you're talking about, so I fail to see how I could "not have realised it". Like I said: pushing a single cloud button on 3 iDevices is no big deal! It's not annoying or time-consuming. But having to go through the entire rigmarole of a long series of manual steps and many taps in various places, just to import every new book manually 3 times on 3 iDevices, is definitely annoying and time-consuming.

I also reject the rephrasing of the original request, moved to another thread now: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=227595 Like we said, we wish to use the current Marvin Library interface (no OPDS, the Dropbox plugin or web browsers), but without the requirement to store any book locally. That is, it should not be a requirement for a book to be locally present in any Marvin library; the book could be in the cloud only, while it would still show up in all Marvin Libraries on all iDevices, available for a single-tap download at any time.

Also, it has been stressed numerous times that putting your Marvin Library into the cloud would be 100% optional. If you don't like the feature, don't use it, and continue manually keeping your multiple local Libraries in sync on all your iDevices like you do now. That strikes me as a very inefficient workflow, but if you prefer it over an optional cloud-based Library, by all means stick to the current library (or I should say libraries) management method.

Originally Posted by fireland

I figured out that "force quit" means turn off the device.

It doesn't; no need to turn off the device. It's enough to close Marvin from the multi-tasking screen by swiping it up out of view.

Originally Posted by Lancer_325

I lost my full library so will have to start from scratch.

You never had to lose anything. Marvin always gives the user the option to perform a full backup of everything, regardless of which Marvin version you may be running. In your eagerness to get the new Marvin version up and running immediately, you acted a bit too fast without thinking of those disagreeable consequences, unfortunately.

[At_Libitum]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Also, it has been stressed numerous times that putting your Marvin Library into the cloud would be 100% optional. If you don't like the feature, don't use it, and continue manually keeping your multiple local Libraries in sync on all your iDevices like you do now. That strikes me as a very inefficient workflow, but if you prefer it over an optional cloud-based Library, by all means stick to the current library (or I should say libraries) management method.

You're assuming way too much. Who said I was keeping multiple libraries synced over various devices? Not me. I only said that as an optional interim alternative which might require much less time investment (= costs) a book could be synced together with its location data if the book is not already in your dropbox, or downloaded with the location sync if it is in your dropbox...and it wouldn't need any additional manual actions other than the single tap you're already doing for location sync

By all means, if you want to spent oodles of cash going online everytime you need to sync a Marvin copy with your cloud, be my guest. But overhere internet access on a device is costly if you're on prepaid. So for me a cloud based library is a definite no-no...besides, I never keep my whole library on any device, just the book I am reading...and a few in case I finish the current one and I ain't within range of a wifi access point to access my COPS server which spans across all my Calibre libraries.

[Lancer_325]

Originally Posted by Faterson

You never had to lose anything. Marvin always gives the user the option to perform a full backup of everything, regardless of which Marvin version you may be running. In your eagerness to get the new Marvin version up and running immediately, you acted a bit too fast without thinking of those disagreeable consequences, unfortunately.

Thats a bit unfair of you to presume I acted a bit too fast. Like I stated previously I downloaded the app I was led to believe by the App Store was the ipad version I needed, but because of the unbelievable mess the App Store created In listing the various updates, I only found out after that it was in fact the iPhone version which was the one listed as the one I required. It was too late at that point because I had restored to that new version and deleted the old app. Why would I need two of the same apps because I read one book at a time? It was not my fault the App Store gave me the iPhone version. And the proof is that others here have also fallen into the same trap of downloading the wrong version. Yes I did back up what in effect was the new iPhone version but I could not then load it into what was eventually the correct version found only thanks to thanks to Philantrop's post #36.