[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by buffaloseven

So...I seem to be able to copy annotations from a book but I'm not able to backup the annotation file. This is using a .kepub.epub from jgougen's plugin. Ideas?

That's because there aren't any annotations files for those books. To explain.

Annotations are stored in two places depending on the book type and where the book is.

All books get the annotations stored in the database. For purchased kepubs, this is synced to the Kobo server. The calibre "Fetch annotations" and the utilities plugin "Copy annotation" read the database.

For epubs and PDFs on the main memory, the annotations are also stored in the annotation files. These are read by the device each time the book is opened and replace whatever is in the database. For all other formats, and for anything stored on the SD card, the annotations files aren't created.

This means the copy annotations files function isn't as useful as it first seems. When I first wrote it, the extended driver didn't exist and it was something I could quickly add to achieve at least a partial annotations backup. The annotations area is something I know is lacking but haven't had any good ideas to improve it.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Looking at the log, you basically dismiss everything except in progress books? I can't see anything wrong there and testing that works OK on my Glo.

Could you try something? On the Dismiss tiles dialog, select your usual options except the new and finished books. And have it create the trigger. Once you have done this and disconnected, open a shelf and a book from it, and tell me if the shelf gets added to the home screen. There shouldn't be any difference, but there might be. If the shelf tile does get displayed, open a book from the home screen that is listed after the shelf tile. When you return to the home screen, is the shelf tile still there?

Ok, did that, and yes, Shelf and Library still show up. And they stay there, even after opening a book as you describe, until I dismiss them.

[dgvirtual]

I have noticed that when I upload cover, the covers in .kobo/images/ directory do get replaced (I have opened those with Gimp to make sure they are really updated), but the reader still shows the old covers in many places (like the main screen, or the book list). The only place where I consistently see the new cover image is the image of the currently read book while the device sleeps.

I have also tried to search the device to see if there are other thumbnail/image files that are added when I add the book, that the Kobo Utilities plugin perhaps fails to replace upon cover upload. Nothing.

Another interesting thing is that the images in .kobo/images seem to be not necessary for an image to be displayed on the default view of the reader. This is the whole process of how I found it out:

I created a book; I uploaded a book to the reader, disconnected it, saw the covers. Then I reconnected the reader, inspected the .kobo/images directory and found there the three thumbnails of the book. Then I recreated the cover in Calibre, updated the epub file, and reuploaded the updated epub to the device, and then uploaded the covers using the Kobo utilities plugin. The files in .kobo/images got updated. Detached the device, and still saw the default screen with the old thumbnail of the book. Then I deleted the book from the device. Reconnected it, and reuploaded the book. Disconnected. And saw on the title page the old cover again! Got really angry, reattached the device to computer, went into he .kobo/images dir and found there no thumbnails for the book!

I suspect (although I cannot check that) that the smaller image thumbnails get stored as binary data in the Kobo library database. Could it be so? If so, is there a way for the Kobo utilities to also update the database?

By the way, I am using Kobo Glo with firmware 2.8.1

[davidfor]

The problem is that the firmware caches cover images in memory. The simplest way to show this is to change the cover images for one on the home screen and then power off. When you power on again, it will be using the new covers. You can get the mix of different versions of covers because they get loaded into memory when needed. If you don't open the library list, it won't load the cover size for the list. If you replace the covers, the new version will get used when you go to the library list.

[DNSB]

Perhaps I took removing tiles from the home screen a touch too far. After dismissing all that DavidFor's KoboUtilities would dismiss, I was left with two tiles on the home screen -- 1 finished book and the reading stats. Dismissed the reading stats and then, out of curiosity, dismissed the finished book.

I now have a light grey tile with "Reserved for your next great read" in slightly darker grey and Add a book on tab at the bottom. Tapping it brings up Add a Book.

Always something new to learn.

Regards,
David

[davidfor]

The plugin has been updated to fix a couple of problems with older database versions. These would give errors related to the ratings when storing or restoring the reading position or updating the metadata. This would probably only affect a Touch that was running 1.9.x firmware version.

As usual, calibre will show the update in the next hour or so.

[dgvirtual]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The simplest way to show this is to change the cover images for one on the home screen and then power off. When you power on again, it will be using the new covers.

You are right, I did a power-off - power-on cycle and now I see new covers everywhere. Thank you for pointing this out.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Perhaps I took removing tiles from the home screen a touch too far. After dismissing all that DavidFor's KoboUtilities would dismiss, I was left with two tiles on the home screen -- 1 finished book and the reading stats. Dismissed the reading stats and then, out of curiosity, dismissed the finished book.

I now have a light grey tile with "Reserved for your next great read" in slightly darker grey and Add a book on tab at the bottom. Tapping it brings up Add a Book.

Always something new to learn.

Regards,
David

That sounds like something I would do

Helen

[davidfor]

Me, I'd never do that. Accidentally deleting them all using SQL, that's a different matter

[jgoguen]

Did you meet little Bobby Tables too?

http://xkcd.com/327/

[ikkuh2000]

Can someone please explain to me how I can make collections where the books are in right order from 1 till x.

Example, Wheel of Time serie, on my kobo glo they will be a in a different order, even when I gave them a number in the serie.

[jgoguen]

Kobo doesn't allow sorting by series anymore. You can fake it by using metadata plugboards to put the series name and number in the title, then sort by title on the device.

[davidfor]

As jgoguen said, there isn't a way to sort by the series info. I keep hoping it comes back. The plugboard is a simple way to do it.

You can fake it with a shelf with a little work. The shelves can sort by "Date added". If you add the books one at a time to the shelf in the correct order, the "Date added" sorting should do what you want. Sending the books one at a time from calibre

It is on my list of things to do in the plugin. I should be able to set the timestamp that is being used. But, when I played with it a little while ago, it didn't work consistently.

[davidfor]

I have just updated the plugin. There are two changes.

There is small change to handling line heights. This is preparing for a change in a future firmware.

The main change is to add function to try an fix the duplicate shelves. When run, this will display a list of all the shelves with the number of copies and timestamps to show when the oldest and newest were created. Pressing the OK button will mark the shelves for deletion in the device database. When the next sync to the Kobo server is done, these records should be removed and the server updated to prevent the shelves being resent to the device.

There are some options when doing this:

• For the "Shelf to keep" you can choose either the newest or oldest shelf.
• "Purge duplicate shelves" will delete the records for the duplicates from the database. This will mean the shelves are no longer listed in the shelf list, but, it will not signal to Kobo to delete the shelves on the server. It is possible that on the next sync, the duplicate shelves will be recreated.

The "Fix Duplicate Shelves" option is under the "Database" menu item.

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.

[davidfor]

I have just updated the plugin with one new function and a couple of smaller changes. They are:

• New: For shelves that match a series name, change the date added to order by series order.
• New: Add "Lock margins" checkbox to reader settings to set the right margin the same as the left
• New: Add "Update config file" checkbox to reader settings to write the options to the "Kobo eReader.conf"

The main change is the shelf sorting for series. What this does is to use the "Date Added" sort in shelves for the series order. After the new function is used, go to the shelf on the device and select "Date Added" and the books will be displayed in series order. Or reverse order if you chose that.

When you select this function in calibre, it displays the list of all shelves on the device whose name matches a series. It also displays the number of books on the shelf for the series. You can remove shelves you don't want to sort from the list, and set whether you want them in ascending or descending order. Once you have done this, press the OK button to make the changes. The plugin will go through each shelf on the list, and change the timestamp stored for the "Date Added" to put the books in the desired order.

Not all the books on the shelf will be sorted. The rules used are:

• Any book on the shelf that doesn't have a series name or has a different series name will be skipped.
• If the book doesn't have a series number, it will be skipped.
• The series_number in the database is actually a string. Kobo usually use something like "#1", rather than just "1". Sometimes they use other strings. I have seen "#3 Part 1". The plugin uses the first number it can find for sorting. If a number can't be found, the book is skipped.

This works very will if you have the Kobo Touch driver or extended driver configured to set the series information and create shelves for the series.

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.