Quote:
Originally Posted by user_none
0.7.56 introduces a new feature for 0.8 that I've been working on for over a month now. There is a new toolbar action called "Get Books." Under preferences, Plugins, they're in Store plugins.
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I would love to get input on this feature. From a technical, usable, general standpoint. Let me know what works, what doesn't, what need to be changed.
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Wow, this is potentially very cool! Looking forward to the possibility of having some of the stores I use most (e.g., fictionwise) up there eventually, in addition to the current list!
I gave it a quick whirl. A few initial thoughts and reactions...
First, it would be great to have search refined a little. I searched for a title, but a very long list of books came up with some of the title words in the author field, etc. (since one of the words in the title I was searching for could possibly be a name). It would be useful to be able to search specifically by title or by author - don't know if that's possible. I found what I wanted by sorting the title field - that column sort function does make the current non-specific search much more workable.
Second, the book I was looking for was in four of the stores. I clicked on three of them - B&N, Kobo, and ebooks - and got this error:
calibre, version 0.7.56
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>AttributeError</b>:'QNetworkAccessManager' object has no attribute 'sslErrors'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\search.py", line 175, in open_store
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\bn_plugin.py", line 46, in open
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\web_store_dialog.py", line 18, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\web_store_dialog_ui.py ", line 32, in setupUi
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\web_control.py", line 43, in __init__
AttributeError: 'QNetworkAccessManager' object has no attribute 'sslErrors'
The fourth store was Amazon. Clicking on this opened Amazon in my system's default browser, not the embedded browser. I looked in preferences, but I can't find the options for choosing default vs. embedded browser? EDIT: Wait, I see - it's in each store plugin's customization, and Amazon has no option for opening in the embedded browser. Okay, got it.
If I purchase the book through the window/tab that opened in my system's default browser (Firefox on XP, as it happens), can you explain more precisely what will happen? (I didn't in fact do it, as I don't want to buy the book from Amazon.) Or what happens if I purchase through the embedded browser for that matter? When I click to DL, the book will go right into my calibre library without any need to save first and import, is that right, even if I do it through the default browser? And it will obey the usual import rules? Including regarding metadata (e.g., I don't generally DL any tags from any sources, and I'd like to keep it that way)?
What about with Amazon - I assume you have to select to DL to PC, rather than sending the file to one of your devices or to Kindle for PC?
I've lost track of my numbering... so anyway, finally, the only possible disadvantage to me that I'm seeing right now to using this method to buy books, especially since it benefits calibre's developers, is that I like to keep a backup copy of my original DL in a different directory. So I usually DL to that backup directory and then import to calibre. If I understand this correctly, I'd have to do a separate save-to-disk if I want that. How about the possibility of building in the option for this for those who want it - specifying a backup directory with an automatic save-to-disk as part of the process, assuming there are others who might be interested?