[GUI Plugin] Goodreads Sync

[davidfor]

Sorry, the plugin doesn't support A simple problem with doing this is, which shelf do you store the position for? My books are all on at least two shelves, so which position should the plugin store?

[davidfor]

For books that are in the currently reading shelf, Goodreads displays them on the home page. From there, you can update your progress as you read the book and add a comment if you want to.

As you read a book on the Kobo e-ink eReaders, the percent read is maintained on the device. And my Kobo Utilities plugin can fetch the percent read into the calibre library for the book.

Can anyone see where this is going?

Yes, I have added a function Goodreads Sync plugin to update the Goodreads progress from calibre. This will send your reading progress to Goodreads. And if you want, you can add a comment. The progress can be either the percent read or the pages read.

To use this function:

1. You will need a custom column to store the progress in. This needs to be an integer.
2. Open the plugin configuration and set:
   1. Select the option to display the "Update reading progress" menu option
   2. Select your reading progress column
   3. Deselect the "Reading progress is percent" option if you are using page numbers for the progress.
   4. Save the changes to the configuration
3. As you read your book, update the progress column. For Kobo users, you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to automatically fetch this when the device is connected.
4. To update the progress on Goodreads:
   1. Select the books that you are reading
   2. Select "Update reading progress" from the plugins menu
   3. A dialog will be displayed with the books showing the new reading progress and if the book is matched to a book on Goodreads.
   4. For books not matched, select them and press the "Search Goodreads" button to match the book.
   5. If you want to post a comment with the update, click in the "Review" column for the book and press F2. Then type the comment. If you do this, the comment is not stored in calibre.
   6. When ready, press the "Update Progress" button.
5. The plugin will communicate with Goodreads and display a message in the status area when finished.

You will see the latest status on the homepage. To see all the updates for a book, look at the books page and click on "view all x status updates" in the "My Review" section.

I have been using this for a couple of weeks with no problems. If anything is going to be broken, it is the page count option. I have not used it as much as the other options. If anyone uses this and has any problems, please report them. Suggestions for improvements are also welcome. And that does include improvements to the instructions or text used for the menu and options.

There are two things this doesn't do. When you first start reading a book, it does not move the book to the "currently-reading" shelf. And it doesn't move it to the "read" shelf when you finish the book.

This has been done without any involvement from kiwidude. If people like it, I will talk to him about an official release. If nobody is interested, that's OK to. It serves my purposes, so it I'm happy with it.

[dgparryuk]

Genius, i was only thinking about something like this the other day

[auspex]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Sorry, the plugin doesn't support A simple problem with doing this is, which shelf do you store the position for? My books are all on at least two shelves, so which position should the plugin store?

I agree the plugin doesn't support it, but I don't see the relevance of books being on multiple shelves. When you sync from a shelf, you sync from a shelf, so it doesn't matter how many shelves the book is on, we still get data relevant to a book from that shelf.

Anyway, I like the idea of updating the position from your e-reader better: I was planning to put that into my Sony utilities, but now I don't need to

[crissman]

I have a possible option suggestion.

Hopefully I am not making a fool of myself b suggesting this but after crashing with trying out the window 10 preview (x3) and having to restore everything back to what is was the only thing I did find time consuming and lacking was the ability to restore the goodreads sync to how I had it.

I have more the more then 30 shelves and I need to edit each shelf and sync options which takes a considerable amount of time. It would be great to have some sort of Export/Import option that would make this so much faster.

Thanks

[auspex]

You don't need an export option: the settings are stored in JSON under the calibre config directory: plugins/Goodreads Sync.json

So if you have backups...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by auspex

I agree the plugin doesn't support it, but I don't see the relevance of books being on multiple shelves. When you sync from a shelf, you sync from a shelf, so it doesn't matter how many shelves the book is on, we still get data relevant to a book from that shelf.

Anyway, I like the idea of updating the position from your e-reader better: I was planning to put that into my Sony utilities, but now I don't need to

Did I misinterpret the original request? I thought it was about position in the Goodreads shelf, not the current position in the book. If it is the latter, then it would probably be doable, though I prefer the other direction

For the position within the shelf, unless they just want the position in one particular shelf, it's a bit more difficult. Knowing why it is wanted could affect how to do it.

[crissman]

Originally Posted by auspex

You don't need an export option: the settings are stored in JSON under the calibre config directory: plugins/Goodreads Sync.json

So if you have backups...

Thanks, That I didn't know. Will go and look into it. I appreciate your help greatly. I think you will have just saved a huge amount of time.

Crissman

[auspex]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Did I misinterpret the original request? I thought it was about position in the Goodreads shelf, not the current position in the book. If it is the latter, then it would probably be doable, though I prefer the other direction

For the position within the shelf, unless they just want the position in one particular shelf, it's a bit more difficult. Knowing why it is wanted could affect how to do it.

LOL. Obviously, I think you misinterpreted , but I have to admit on a second reading your interpretation seems likely - but in that case I'm fairly certain the Goodreads API doesn't have a way to tell you that (but it's a good while since I read through the API, so I could easily be wrong).

[todivefor]

I am obviously doing something wrong with this plugin. I have a goodreads icon on my top. If I select a book and click the icon everything works as expected. When I connect my Nexus 7 (with Calibre Companion or USB), the icon disappears. If I right click on a book, the goodreads context menu item is inaccessible.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by todivefor

I am obviously doing something wrong with this plugin. I have a goodreads icon on my top. If I select a book and click the icon everything works as expected. When I connect my Nexus 7 (with Calibre Companion or USB), the icon disappears. If I right click on a book, the goodreads context menu item is inaccessible.

IIRC this plugin syncs your calibre library with your Goodreads shelves. Why are you trying to use it while connected to your tablet? It doesn't matter go to Preferences - Toolbar and add what you want to the the connected toolbars or menus.

[todivefor]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

IIRC this plugin syncs your calibre library with your Goodreads shelves. Why are you trying to use it while connected to your tablet? It doesn't matter go to Preferences - Toolbar and add what you want to the the connected toolbars or menus.

Thank you. Worked perfectly. See next post for reason for this.

[todivefor]

Originally Posted by davidfor

For books that are in the currently reading shelf, Goodreads displays them on the home page. From there, you can update your progress as you read the book and add a comment if you want to.

As you read a book on the Kobo e-ink eReaders, the percent read is maintained on the device. And my Kobo Utilities plugin can fetch the percent read into the calibre library for the book.

Can anyone see where this is going?

Yes, I have added a function Goodreads Sync plugin to update the Goodreads progress from calibre. This will send your reading progress to Goodreads. And if you want, you can add a comment. The progress can be either the percent read or the pages read.

To use this function:

1. You will need a custom column to store the progress in. This needs to be an integer.
2. Open the plugin configuration and set:
   1. Select the option to display the "Update reading progress" menu option
   2. Select your reading progress column
   3. Deselect the "Reading progress is percent" option if you are using page numbers for the progress.
   4. Save the changes to the configuration
3. As you read your book, update the progress column. For Kobo users, you can use the Kobo Utilities plugin to automatically fetch this when the device is connected.
4. To update the progress on Goodreads:
   1. Select the books that you are reading
   2. Select "Update reading progress" from the plugins menu
   3. A dialog will be displayed with the books showing the new reading progress and if the book is matched to a book on Goodreads.
   4. For books not matched, select them and press the "Search Goodreads" button to match the book.
   5. If you want to post a comment with the update, click in the "Review" column for the book and press F2. Then type the comment. If you do this, the comment is not stored in calibre.
   6. When ready, press the "Update Progress" button.
5. The plugin will communicate with Goodreads and display a message in the status area when finished.

You will see the latest status on the homepage. To see all the updates for a book, look at the books page and click on "view all x status updates" in the "My Review" section.

I have been using this for a couple of weeks with no problems. If anything is going to be broken, it is the page count option. I have not used it as much as the other options. If anyone uses this and has any problems, please report them. Suggestions for improvements are also welcome. And that does include improvements to the instructions or text used for the menu and options.

There are two things this doesn't do. When you first start reading a book, it does not move the book to the "currently-reading" shelf. And it doesn't move it to the "read" shelf when you finish the book.

This has been done without any involvement from kiwidude. If people like it, I will talk to him about an official release. If nobody is interested, that's OK to. It serves my purposes, so it I'm happy with it.

I can't get this to work. I get error:

calibre, version 2.3.0
ERROR: Goodreads Failure: The request contacting Goodreads has failed. Please try again.

URL: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status.xml
Response Code: 422
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<errors>
<error>Percent must be greater than or equal to 0</error>
</errors>

"-1" is in my progress col. I am actually at 78%.

What am I missing?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by todivefor

I can't get this to work. I get error:

calibre, version 2.3.0
ERROR: Goodreads Failure: The request contacting Goodreads has failed. Please try again.

URL: http://www.goodreads.com/user_status.xml
Response Code: 422
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<errors>
<error>Percent must be greater than or equal to 0</error>
</errors>

"-1" is in my progress col. I am actually at 78%.

What am I missing?

The function I added send the progress from calibre to Goodreads. If you are at 78% in the book, you need to set the column to 78 and then try again.

But, I need to add some value testing to make sure the plugin skips anything that is no zero or greater.

[todivefor]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The function I added send the progress from calibre to Goodreads. If you are at 78% in the book, you need to set the column to 78 and then try again.

But, I need to add some value testing to make sure the plugin skips anything that is no zero or greater.

My mistake. I thought it was extracted from the ebook.