Why would I want to add ebooks to Calibre without copying the source file?

[leclezio]

Hello,

When looking for an answer to the question "How to add ebooks to Calibre without copying the source file", it appeared that some long term users of Calibre were unable to find any valid reason for someone to desire that option.

Here is an example :

I've been using Calibre for several years and until today I didn't need anything more than what was provided by the software.

Lately I decided to share my library with someone else via Dropbox (we rarely open Calibre, so it's easy for us to never use Calibre at the same time).

Why : It's a fantastic way to share a library and fasten its cleaning (adding tags, categories, ratings to the books etc).

I came to the realization today that Calibre was right now the best program to manage my manga library as well.

Why : 1. I'm on Mac, and Calibre deals well with the zip files while allowing me to put more metadata on mangas than other specialised managers like Ehon. 2. Having everything (epubs + mangas) in one place is more convenient. 3. The person I share my library with can have a look at my mangas as well.

But I have 70Go worth of mangas, and not enough Dropbox space. But I do want to allow the person I share my library with to be able to look at which mangas I own.

Which is why I would have enjoyed the option of adding a book without copying the source file.

What's the point, if the other person can't have access?: 1. He will have access to the main information about the mangas, and ask me later to send them specific mangas. 2. It allows me to keep the physical locations of my manga library and ebook library separate (which is more convenient for me), while, as said before, allowing me to browse my reading list of mangas on Calibre.

What I'm going to do is that I will add all my mangas to Calibre, but mass delete the copied source files after making sure that the metadata of all volumes are correctly updated.

Why this post: I just wanted to share my experience, because I think the original request of an option allowing to add an ebook to Calibre without copying the source file is not just a case of too-lazy-to-understand-how-Calibre-works as some members of this forum seem to believe.

At the end of the day, even if I have to work around its normal behaviour, Calibre works for me and I'm satisfied with the program, while still thinking that such an option wouldn't be just catering to the stupid.

Please don't tell me to develop my own software (I've seen this kind of response in Calibre forums), I was just trying to be helpful.

Cheers.

[kovidgoyal]

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/cust...ment-variables

[fidvo]

Any reason why you couldn't just have Calibre create a catalog and upload that?

[leclezio]

Originally Posted by fidvo

Any reason why you couldn't just have Calibre create a catalog and upload that?

That would require to have all my mangas in my library already (which is possible only if I put them in a secondary library not hosted on Dropbox), and I would have to update it every time I add a manga.

Calibre content server looks like another attractive solution, but is useful only if you can have a machine running all the time, which is not my case.

With my solution (which is from another user of this forum, I didn't think it up), The library is updated each time I put a manga, and I just have to periodically think of doing a .zip/.cbz search in my Calibre library and delete the files.

Not only I (and my friends) get to browse my manga library anytime, but I can keep my mangas 1. On my external disk 2. Organized by title and not author.

@kovidgoyal : thanks for your answer, but I'm sorry I don't see how the environment variables can help me here? Is it about moving the metadata.db (of a dedicated manga library for example)?

[BetterRed]

@leclezio - I do something similar with one of my libraries for similar reasons.

Rather than leaving the 'book' with no formats I drop an empty text file into book details.

When a friend wants a book, they open the book folder, drag the title - author.txt file to their mail client, drop it as an attachment and send it to me, with a suitable 'pretty please can you send me this' message

BR

[eschwartz]

I believe Kovid was suggesting use "CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH" to store the database in dropbox, and just share that but not the books. Your friend will see what books are listed, and all your metadata etc. but dropbox won't try to store 10's of GBs of books, so your friend will just have to ask you for them. Showing the formats doesn't hurt.

If all you want is to show your friend your library, maybe a better option is a one-way sync that copies the db to dropbox daily, and overwrites the db if necessary. Your friend will just get a copy of the db and that will avoid any clashes. Your real database never gets touched by dropbox, no matter what.

[leclezio]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I believe Kovid was suggesting use "CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH" to store the database in dropbox, and just share that but not the books. Your friend will see what books are listed, and all your metadata etc. but dropbox won't try to store 10's of GBs of books, so your friend will just have to ask you for them. Showing the formats doesn't hurt.

If all you want is to show your friend your library, maybe a better option is a one-way sync that copies the db to dropbox daily, and overwrites the db if necessary. Your friend will just get a copy of the db and that will avoid any clashes. Your real database never gets touched by dropbox, no matter what.

Thanks for the clarification, and good idea, I'll look into the one way sync. Thanks.