[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you, David. I like the new option for series, it works quite well. And I use a lot your plugin, thank you for it in general, too.

[davidfor]

Just a small update today.

I have added an option to the "Order Series Shelves" to update the "Kobo eReader.conf" file. When this is selected, the sort order for the shelves that were ordered will be set to "Date Added". If you don't want to change the order, make sure the option is not selected.

As usual, calibre will notify you of the update in the next few hours. And if you have any problems with the plugin, please report them so I can look at them.

[jbennion]

This is great Davidfor! A question for you on the updated series sorting order... will a simple connect and then eject reorder our series shelves, or will we need to resend the books?

[davidfor]

It isn't automatic. While the device is connected, you need to connect, run "Order Series Shelves" from the utilities plugin menu. Change any options, remove any shelves you don't want sorted and press OK. You won't need to redo this unless you change the books in the series shelves.

[Fallen33]

So let me get some clarification on the "upload cover" feature. (which I have not figured out how to use, the option is always greyed out)

I would like to update the kepub covers I have on the device that came straight from the bookstore. Meaning I did NOT upload them via Calibre but downloaded them from Kobo's Bookstore. I want to change some of the stock covers of Kobo store books without having to put them through Calibre and sideload them. (which kills some of the features I need, like annotations syncing automatically between devices via cloud etc.)

Is this is what the upload cover feature does?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Fallen33

So let me get some clarification on the "upload cover" feature. (which I have not figured out how to use, the option is always greyed out)

I would like to update the kepub covers I have on the device that came straight from the bookstore. Meaning I did NOT upload them via Calibre but downloaded them from Kobo's Bookstore. I want to change some of the stock covers of Kobo store books without having to put them through Calibre and sideload them. (which kills some of the features I need, like annotations syncing automatically between devices via cloud etc.)

Is this is what the upload cover feature does?

The plugin is mainly about improving the communication between calibre and the Kobo devices. As such, a lot of options only work when you have a book in the calibre library that matches a book on the device. The cover upload is one of them. But, you can achieve what you want.

If the calibre library has a copy of a book that is already on the device, it will match them together. It doesn't matter what format they are. What I do is to download the epub version of books I bought from Kobo and add these to calibre. At the next connection, calibre will see this and show the book as on the device. Then, functions such as the uploading covers will work.

If you don't want to add the book file to calibre, you can add it as an empty book. This will just record the book and its metadata in the library. To do this, right-click the add books button and select "Add empty book". You will be prompted for the number of books, the author and the series. When you press OK, you will have a book entry and you can set the title.

[Fallen33]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The plugin is mainly about improving the communication between calibre and the Kobo devices. As such, a lot of options only work when you have a book in the calibre library that matches a book on the device. The cover upload is one of them. But, you can achieve what you want.

If the calibre library has a copy of a book that is already on the device, it will match them together. It doesn't matter what format they are. What I do is to download the epub version of books I bought from Kobo and add these to calibre. At the next connection, calibre will see this and show the book as on the device. Then, functions such as the uploading covers will work.

If you don't want to add the book file to calibre, you can add it as an empty book. This will just record the book and its metadata in the library. To do this, right-click the add books button and select "Add empty book". You will be prompted for the number of books, the author and the series. When you press OK, you will have a book entry and you can set the title.

DUDE, perfect. Thank you, this is exactly what I need. I usually have access to my full Calibre library but I don't right now. I will use this when I get home. THANKS!

[hakan42]

Would it be possible to mark ebooks on Gobo Glo as "finished" if it is marked to in Calibre?

I like to keep complete series of books on my glo, but often read a book on the commute with my mobile (much better portability) and finish it even before getting back to my Glo.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by hakan42

Would it be possible to mark ebooks on Gobo Glo as "finished" if it is marked to in Calibre?

I like to keep complete series of books on my glo, but often read a book on the commute with my mobile (much better portability) and finish it even before getting back to my Glo.

Yes, and I do it all the time. There are three ways.

- Select the books in either the calibre library and choose "Update metadata in Device Library". At the bottom are the "Reading status" options. Select "Update reading status" and then "Finished". Press OK to make the changes.

- If you use the device list, there is a similar option labelled "Change reading status in the device library".

- If you use the "Store/Restore current bookmark" function to store the reading position, you can restore it. For what you are doing, set the percent read column to 100 and do a restore. This will mark the book as finished. This is the way I do it, but I also set the last read date in calibre to when I finished it.

[speakingtohe]

I updated my series info and ordered the shelves ad it works good. I was impressed that the default sort now seems to be date added instead of title.

Thanks

helen

[eXistenZ]

Hi David

There is any chance to bring back reading Stats for sideloaded kepubs?
Don't know if it is a feature for Kobo Utilities or Kobo Driver, but It would be nice someone finds a way to do this.
I think the main problem is to understand how the firmware recognize sideloaded from original ones. It could be the file position in the memory or the filename?

[PeterT]

Its a feature of the firmware having removed support for sideloaded kEpubs.

Yes it is based on location of the book; the challenge though is that when books are placed in the location where the f/w supports stats, they are not scanned and added to the Kobo Database, so are not accessible via the reader.

In order for them to be seen, all required database entries would need to be added by the driver, and this is a moire challenging / risky procedure.

[jgoguen]

I'm working on it, but it's not looking very promising. I've taken a database delta comparing the database before and after adding a real Kobo KePub and my current attempt already makes identical changes so there's clearly more going on.

And as Peter said, database work in the driver is risky. The option to support newer firmware (and likely also older firmware) would have to be ignored.

[eXistenZ]

Ok, thank you for the infos.
Shame on kobo for this (I understand why the made this choice, but it's annoying anyway), if only they leave the firmware the ability to scan also .kobo/kepub folder it would be really easy to work around.

[jgoguen]

There is a good reason for them not to scan the kepub folder though. They put their files in there and those files should not be scanned cause the Kobo process adds the information directly before the scanner runs.