Calibre database extractor for Stanza

[dpierron]

Hi folks,

You may remember this thread where I explained my setup with Dropbox automagically publishing my Calibre ebook library to the depths of the internet...

Well, I pushed the concept farther, and I developped a tool (heavily based on the cool Calibre2Web script by itimpi) that can extract data from the Calibre library, and use it to generate outputs - a sort of calibredbtool, only one that I can extend

This tool is written in Java, which means that, unlike his ancestor Calibre2Web, it'll run on any Java-enabled platform.

It is hosted on Launchpad and I intend on updating it often, so please join the project and make requests !

I've written a welcome page to explain everything, and there's even a demo HTML catalog available - and also, a demo OPDS catalog, if you want to try it in Stanza (although no downloads of eBook files are permitted in the demo)

There even is a FAQ (although it's a work in progress) and support for asking questions if anything is not clear enough.

As always, I'm ready to help if anyone needs it...

[dpierron]

I uploaded a new release, which adds support for generating authors, series and recent additions catalogs.

[da_jane]

You still need to generate the stanza.xml file, correct?

Edited to add: you do not need to generate the stanza file.

[Leep]

You may remember this thread where I explained my setup with Dropbox automagically publishing my Calibre ebook library to the depths of the internet...

Based on your previous post, I also installed Dropbox and have been using it to get ebooks from my laptop into Stanza on my son's iTouch. Works like a charm. Can you give us some more details on the benefit of using your new tool?

cheers

[dpierron]

da_jane: you found out eventually, but here is the confirmation : there is no need to generate the stanza.xml file, because it is in fact generated by the tool itself, in _catalogs/catalog.xml

Leep: this tool (and the Calibre2Web script it is based on) generates multiple catalogs, broken into smaller lists of books than the default Stanza catalog generated by Calibre. It is useful if you want to access your library, using Stanza, by author, serie, category or if you simply have a lot of books.

[da_jane]

The all books that is generated does not include all my books (and yes, they are in epub format).

[dpierron]

I uploaded a new release (0.0.3), which includes an extensive test mode. Could you please download it, install it wherever you install it usually, and run it with the "--test" parameter, in the calibre library directory ?

Example :

"c:\Program Files\calibredbxtract\bin\calibredbxtract.bat" --test >> test.log

Assuming of course that the tool is installed in c:\Program Files\calibredbxtract ...

This command will generate the test.log file, which is a text file that I'd kindly request you send me... (have a look inside if you're concerned about privacy, but basically it's a list of your books and the complete paths to their folders, along with the list of files that reside in these folders).

If you generate and send me this file, I may be able to track the problem and correct it !

[blysik]

Originally Posted by dpierron

"c:\Program Files\calibredbxtract\bin\calibredbxtract.bat" --test >> test.log

Downloaded 0.0.3, having the same problem. It's only seeing 21 books.

Sending you the test.log shortly.

[dpierron]

Yet another release : this time, I corrected some (important) bugs that will help with finding the missing ePub books, and introduced a test mode to help people who have problems with the tool...

[Beau]

Jane is Da Bomb, and David is Da Man!

Question, Am I still going to have to find a way to deal with the spaces in my titles or is that already built in?

Thanks to you both!

Beau

[iandix]

I have it working now, after a few problems (David did wonders fixing) The spaces in the names have no effect. I have many spaces and and I now have all my books visible.

[da_jane]

To make it even easier for users, you can create a "batch file".

Go to Start -> Run

Type "notepad" in the Run box.

Notepad will open. Paste two lines of code:

First is the pathname to the calibredbxtract bin folder. The easiest way to do this is to copy and paste the path from the address line in a windows explorer window.

If you've placed it in the c:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibredbxtract then the first line of code will be
c:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibredbxtract\bin

The next line of code is where your Calibre library is calibredbxtract.bat +

c:\Documents and Settings\Username\Dropbox\Public\secretname\

Again, there should be two lines of code in your file that look something like this:

cd C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibredbxtract\bin

calibredbxtract.bat C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Dropbox\Public\secretfoldername

Save as "catalogmaker.bat" or something. Has to end with bat.

This creates an executable file and all you have to do is double click on the file to run the command to create your catalogs.

[dpierron]

I released a new version (0.0.5) which corrects the problem reported by Bruce : the tool was missing a lot of books.

Please download it from the project page and report if you find any more bugs.

Also, feel free to register an account at Sourceforge and submit bug reports, and support or feature requests, I'll be happy to implement them !

PS : I've got some nice features in mind, I hope you'll like them
PPS : Jane, I included your helpful explanations in the tool's readme file ; I hope you don't mind !

[dpierron]

Originally Posted by Beau

Jane is Da Bomb, and David is Da Man!

Question, Am I still going to have to find a way to deal with the spaces in my titles or is that already built in?

Thanks to you both!

Beau

Thanks Beau, it flies straight to the heart !
To answer your question (not that I need to, Ian already did) : no, you won't have problems with spaces nor with parentheses ; this tool is smart

[da_jane]

Thanks David! Version 0.0.5 really works beautifully.