Thread: [GUI Plugin] Manage Sony x50 Reader Book List
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Old 02-10-2011, 10:22 AM   #1
kpw
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Posts: 80
Karma: 12933
Join Date: Feb 2011
Device: Galaxy Note 8, Sony PRS-650, Sony PRS-600
[GUI Plugin] Manage Sony x50 Reader Book List
I've decided to take a shot at developing a Calibre plugin, so I've put one together to help manage the Book list on the Sony x50 reader Home screen. The default Sony behaviour is to display the 3 most recently loaded books, but I'd like to have more control in what books show up there.

Incidentally, there is a standalone application that enables this as well that has been posted in the Sony Reader forum (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=107826), and the application is excellent. However, I wanted to have something that is integrated with Calibre, and I also wanted to extend the functionality specific to my use cases.

If anyone is interested in this functionality, I've put together a simple User Guide with installation, usage, and configuration information, as well as a description of the main use cases that I was trying to address. I've attached that below in both EPUB and PDF format, but I will repeat some of the information here for convenience.

Main Features
  • Home page Books list
    • You can interactively select books from one of the Calibre device book lists (Device, Card A, Card B) to set books for the book list.
    • [NEW v1.2.0] You can automate selection of books by configuring Calibre library queries from which books will be chosen.
    • You can automate selection of books for the book list by configuring collections from which books will be chosen.
    • You can control the strategy controlling how books will be chosen from the sources, for cases where a source contains more books than will fit on the book list (i.e. more than 3).
    • You can control the sort order for books in the book list.
  • [NEW v1.2.0] Unread Books collection
    • You can interactively select books from one of the Calibre device book lists (Device, Card A, Card B) to add books to or remove books from the reader unread books collection.
    • You can automate selection of books for the reader unread books collection by configuring Calibre library queries which will be synchronized with the unread collection.
    • You can automate selection of books for the reader unread books collection by configuring collections which will be synchronized with the unread collection.
  • You have access to a full UI for managing configuration options.
  • You can configure separate distinct sets of options for easy management of multiple readers for different people, each having their own favourite way of using the book list.

Version History
Spoiler:

1.2.11 September 30, 2014 Fix regression: 'QLabel' object has no attribute 'activated'.

1.2.9 September 27, 2014 Migrate to Calibre 2.x.

1.2.8 October 21, 2011 Fix Unread Books collection issue that may occur when using this feature in conjunction with the PRS+ support for the same.

1.2.7 September 11, 2011
  • Handle scenario in a better way where books are added through the OS before reader connects to Calibre and before reader firmware processes the books.
  • Change library query support so that queries are not subject to Library View restrictions (i.e. queries work against the full Calibre library).
  • Add support for plugboards so that library query result matching to device books takes plugboard metatdata manipulation into account.

1.2.6 September 6, 2011 Fix issues that cause plugin failure when books are deleted from the reader using Calibre or directly from the file system while reader is connected to Calibre.

1.2.5 September 2, 2011 Ensure Books List entries remain in place semi-permanently (they will stay there for a year or until you choose other books to replace them). In this way, the Books List will not be overwritten when you add new books to your reader.

1.2.4 August 27, 2011
  • Code cleanup.
  • Fix issue in Ubuntu where "author sort" for book author wasn't being preserved when using the "Use author sort for author" setting.
  • Add warning dialog when invoking "Set Unread List" action to make user aware the action is resetting your Unread Books collection. Hopefully, this will avoid someone inadvertently wiping out the list when "exploring" functionality. Warning can be turned off in the dialog, and enabled/disabled in the plugin customization (in the "Unread List" tab).

1.2.3 August 25, 2011 Test version of plugin that got released with a new version number.

1.2.2 August 20, 2011 Fix plugin so that it handles user input that includes accented character (or any non-English text).

1.2.1 August 4, 2011 Minor update to use better default values for library query (i.e. default query will execute without error and is specific to the context)

1.2.0 July 31, 2011
  • Enable configuration of Calibre Library queries, in addition to the current collection sets, for book selection. Query expressions can be anything that you can enter in the main Calibre UI search field. Examples: 'tag:read', '#reading:yes', 'search:"My Short List"'
  • Add new features to allow management of the Sony x50 reader Unread Books collection. Options include:
    • Manually add books to or remove books from the unread collection by selecting books in the device book list views (Device/Card A/Card B).
    • Synchronize the reader unread collection with Calibre Library queries or collection sets.
  • User guide has been updated to cover the new features.

1.1.1 April 12, 2011 When updating book date/timestamp and timezone values, use the most recent updated book as the reference point rather than the computer date/time and timezone. This addresses issues that occur when there are discrepancies between the device and computer with regard to these values. One significant situation where this can occur is when a non-North American user has a PRS-950, which only allows North Americna timezones to be set.

1.1.0 April 2, 2011
  • Restructure plugin to make use of newly introduced Calibre plugin API. NOTE: The new API is only available in Calibre version 0.7.53 or greater, so to use this version of the plugin, you need to move to this level of Calibre as well.
  • Rework the preference store mechanism to use the recommended approach rather than the legacy approach I was using previously. The plugin should automatically migrate any existing configuration, so this should be transparent.
  • Added new feature to allow explicit management of profile order. The configuration dialog now includes "Up"/"Down" buttons for the profile list to control how profiles are presented to the user when using the "Book List" action.
  • Updated documentation to include new feature in preceding bullet.

1.0.6 March 18, 2011 Ensure cache entry date value is formatted properly on non-English installations

1.0.5 March 16, 2011 Account for DST when setting tz timesone offset value

1.0.4 February 28, 2011 Use locale neutral version of strptime to fix date parse error on non-English installations

1.0.3 February 27, 2011
  • Add check to make sure cache file has not been updated separately before saving book timestamp updates. That way, the file shouldn't get updated with stale data.
  • Change order of processing to ensure read/write of cache does not get interrupted by user interaction. This should minimize the possibility of the cache file being updated separately.
  • Fix date sort bug.
  • Restructure code for style consistency and to separate code out into separate .py files for better organization.

1.0.2 February 23, 2011 Fix regression introduced in 1.0.1 which can result in JSON error loading configuration string

1.0.1 February 11, 2011 Restructure code to ensure deferral of module loading

1.0.0 Febrauary 10, 2011 Initial release


Installation
  1. Install plugin
    Spoiler:
    • Download attached plugin zip file (SetSonyBookList.zip).
    • Go to Preferences->Plugins->Add a new plugin.
    • Select the downloaded plugin zip file.
    • Apply the changes.
  2. Add action button to toolbar
    Spoiler:
    • Go to Preferences->Customize the toolbar.
    • Select option The main toolbar when a device is connected.
    • Move the Book List action to the Current action list from the list of Available actions. Position the new action to your liking.
    • Apply the changes.

Configuration and Usage
  • I'll let you refer to the User Guide for detailed information on usage and configuration (or more detailed, anyway).
  • Out of the box, without any configuration, you can use the plugin to interactively select books from the Calibre device book list (i.e. first bullet in the Main Features section). For other features, you will need to configure accordingly.

Known (or Potential) Issues
Spoiler:
  • If you choose a periodical to include it in the book list, it won't appear. I need to figure out how to ignore these.
  • I haven't figured out a way of differentiating the PRS-600 from a PRS-x50, so that means you can run the plugin against a PRS-600. It won't really do anything useful, but it shouldn't break anything either.
  • I think this should work with the PRS-900, as I understand it has the same UI as the x50 series, but I don't have one to test with.
  • My date/timezone approach is working for the scenarios I've tested on my reader, but I'm not convinced it's bullet-proof... I've seen much discussion in the forums about how much grief this has caused folks. The main side effect (as far as I can tell) if the timestamp in the cache file for a book gets out of sync with the timestamp on the actual book file is that the Sony Reader will reprocess the record when it boots up and you may lose the "author sort" value if you've enabled that.


A Note on Testing
Spoiler:
  • I've tested with the following:
    • Calibre 0.7.44
    • Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit
    • Windows Vista Home Premium, 64 bit
    • Windows XP
    • Sony PRS-650 with ~400 books
    • Memory stick and SD card
    • Sony PRS-600 - not very useful as the UI doesn't have the Books list, but it doesn't seem to break anything
    • Kobo Original (non-wifi) - i.e. detects that Kobo is not a Sony and pops up an error dialog


Under the Covers
Spoiler:
  • The plugin does not update anything in the Calibre Library. The only file updates that occur are on the device.
  • The files that are updated are the following:
    • For each book that is chosen to appear on the Books list, the book file (e.g. EPUB file) modification date is updated (i.e. the Python equivalent of a "touch"). This is what the reader uses to populate the Books list.
    • For each chosen book, the corresponding record in the media.XML or cache.XML file (for main memory and card respectively) is updated to synchronize the date with the new book file timestamp.
    • [NEW v1.2.0] For books that are added to or removed from the reader Unread Books collection, the corresponding record in the cacheExt.XML file is updated so that the book record "opened" attribute is set appropriately.
    • You may want to take a backup of the media.XML and/or cache.XML and cacheExt.XML files if you are worried.


Thanks all.

Karl
Last edited by kpw; 09-30-2014 at 08:37 PM. Reason: Update to version 1.2.10
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