[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Minifish

i don't find the file for the plugin , it says it is attached to the post and i can't find it
could you help me please ?

The file and the version info for the last update are missing. I must have messed up the update last week, but I don't know how. I have fixed this. Version 1.6.9 is now available and calibre will offer it soon.

[Minifish]

Thanks for your reply davidfor

I have found the file with a button "Attached Files" in the list of the Threads
And i love that plugin

My only problem is that I've set some series in Calibre for my books, but it didn't create shelves with the names of the series in the kobo aura when I've made the transfer
Have you a solution for that ? Do i need another plugin to solve this problem ?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Minifish

I have found the file with a button "Attached Files" in the list of the Threads
And i love that plugin

Good that you found it. I should have mentioned that you can do the download and install from within calibre. When you look at the plugins in the calibre preferences, there is a "Get new plugins" button at the bottom. This lists all available plugins that you have not already installed.

My only problem is that I've set some series in Calibre for my books, but it didn't create shelves with the names of the series in the kobo aura when I've made the transfer
Have you a solution for that ? Do i need another plugin to solve this problem ?

Shelf management is done from the KoboTouch driver. I recommend reading Quick Guide to Shelf Management with calibre to see how to do this.

[Lofwyr23]

Any news on all-shelf-sorting?

[davidfor]

Sorry, no. I haven't had much enthusiasm for doing this as the "Date Added" sorting for collections is broken. Hence, it wouldn't work with current firmware. Which also means I have to put one of the devices back a couple of versions to test properly.

[Lofwyr23]

Ah, okay...

Fiddlesticks... Starting to get a little... noisy in my shelves

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Lofwyr23

Ah, okay...

Fiddlesticks... Starting to get a little... noisy in my shelves

I think you triggered the mood needed

Attached is a beta to allow some different ordering in the shelves/collections. It adds four options at the top:

- Series - works like the current version
- Authors - Looks for shelves with the same name as authors
- Others - Shelves that don't fit into either of the above groups
- All - All shelves

Next to these options is a button to get the list of shelves. When this button is pressed, the list of shelves if fetched with the count of books in them.

After this, it works the same as before. You can select shelves and remove them from the list. Then you choose the options at the bottom and press the OK button to update the database.

With this, I have added something in the sorting. The previous sort was simply based on the series index as all books were assumed to be in the same series. But, with the other options, this isn't the case. The sorting uses series name, series index and then title. For books not in a series only the title will be used. That means that books in a series will be together, but books not in series could be between the series. Also, there is no playing with the titles or series names. The sorting is on the name in the database and doesn't remove any articles at the beginning of the name.

I intended to add some other sorts. But, the only one I can think of that is practical and useful is publishing date. I remember discussing this before and there was at least one other suggestion. But, I can't find the posts. If anyone wants to suggest something, I can look at it.

Also, this is only useful for firmware versions that the "Date Added" sort works. I think the last one it did was 3.1.1. Or was it 3.2.0? This is broken in the later firmware. And I was lazy. My testing is with 3.4.1. I checked the results by looking directly at the database. I will check with the correct firmware before release, but I thought I would let others see it so that I can get comments.

Any comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome. Well, bug reports are less welcome, but I would prefer to hear about problems directly rather than by rumour in a couple of months.

[davidfor]

Attached is a second beta with the extra shelf order options. The changes in this are:

- Fixed the series sorting as I wasn't handling the numbers correctly.
- Added an option to sort by series or publication date.
- Tested on a firmware version were the "Date Added" sort worked.

The main change is the extra sort option. The series ordering is the same as before. The publication date ordering uses the date from the database. This is displayed on the details page for the book on the device. Unfortunately, the firmware does not read the publication date from sideloaded books. You need to use the metadata update option to fix this. For books without a date, they are grouped together and sorted by title.

If I don't hear any screams of anguish, this will probably be published over the weekend.

[Lofwyr23]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If I don't hear any screams of anguish, this will probably be published over the weekend.

Eep, sorry, didn't get notifications for this, I'll give it a fling as soon as my cell isthrough with flashing.

If this works as advertised, I'll tackle hug you, finally some overview in the shelves

On a side note, is there a tut on downgrading my Glo to 3.1.1?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Lofwyr23

Eep, sorry, didn't get notifications for this, I'll give it a fling as soon as my cell isthrough with flashing.

If this works as advertised, I'll tackle hug you, finally some overview in the shelves

On a side note, is there a tut on downgrading my Glo to 3.1.1?

The steps I use are in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2726919.

[Lofwyr23]

Ah, sweet. Thanks.

[Lofwyr23]

So, I promised feedback on the shelf sorting.

After giving the feature a fling, I can say, it works for me.

In the beginning it wouldn't take the sorting the way I wanted it, but that was a layer 8 error...

[PeterT]

Any thought of adding option(s) to the plugin to allow easy adding of certain "standard" settings to the "Kobo eReader.conf" file to avoid the issues we tend to see with people editing it via a non Unix aware text editor?

Also, maybe the ability to warn of duplicated shelves during the database backup process.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Any thought of adding option(s) to the plugin to allow easy adding of certain "standard" settings to the "Kobo eReader.conf" file to avoid the issues we tend to see with people editing it via a non Unix aware text editor?

Yes, I have. And I did start looking at it. I got a little stuck on the best way to handle it in the code to make it easy for me. Unless something distracts me, it's the next thing I plan on doing.

Also, maybe the ability to warn of duplicated shelves during the database backup process.

It is running a check on the database now. I suppose that could be extended to do some data integrity checks. There are a couple of other things that would be good to check. That really means I should add an option to run these checks and optionally fix them.

[davidfor]

I have just posted an update for the plugin. This is the official release of the change to the "Order Series Shelves" function.

The change extends what shelves can be ordered. As well as shelves whose name matches the series name, others can be as well. The groups of shelves that can be ordered are:

• Series - works like the current version
• Authors - Looks for shelves with the same name as authors
• Others - Shelves that don't fit into either of the above groups
• All - All shelves

A well as the type of shelves, there is an extra sort option. The shelves can be sorted in publication date as well as series.

With these changes, there has been a change in how this works. Instead of populating the list of shelves when the dialog opens, you need to select from the type of shelves at the top and then press the "Get shelves" button next to them. The plugin will then get the list of shelves and show them with the number of books in each shelf.

After this, it works the same as before. You can select shelves and remove them from the list. Then you choose the options at the bottom and press the OK button to update the database.

With this, I have added something in the sorting. The previous sort was simply based on the series index as all books were assumed to be in the same series. But, with the other options, this isn't the case. The sorting uses series name, series index and then title. For books not in a series only the title will be used. That means that books in a series will be together, but books not in series could be between the series. Also, there is no playing with the titles or series names. The sorting is on the name in the database and doesn't remove any articles at the beginning of the name.

Sorting by the publishing date requires that to be populated for each book. Within the date, the books are order by title. If the publishing date is not set, just the title is used. As the firmware does not read the publishing date from sideloaded books, you will need to set this using the "Update metadata in device library" to set this properly.

Note: This is only useful for firmware versions that the "Date Added" sort works. The last one it did was either 3.1.1 or 3.2.0. Later versions do not sort correctly.

As usual, calibre will notify you of the update in the next hour or so. And any comments, suggestions and bug reports are welcome.