CC Prerelease V3.4.0e & V3.4.0f

[chaley]

CC prereleases V3.4.0e and V3.4.0f has been published and will available soon to people who are members of the CC prerelease program.

V3.4.0f: rapid release to fix an important problem.

• [BUG FIX]Fix creation of a badly structured database on a new CC install. Upgrades were fine.

V3.4.0e: This release has new functionality and bug fixes.

This prerelease contains the following new features and changes over CC V3.4.0d:

• Add ability to choose the fields to display and their order in book details.
• Add ability to define two user-defined sorts, set up in Settings/Sorting. The user-defined sorts can be used as group auto-sorts.
• Two new sorts: Is Read, and Date added to CC.
• Add "display text" to grouped custom columns, as in "#genre/Genre". The text after the slash will be displayed wherever the group is used. Note that this value is ignored in book details because book details has the values set in calibre.
• In book details, make custom columns that are grouped clickable. Groups are made clickable only if the group is not hidden in the grouping drawer.
• [OTHER]Flash the book line in the book list when tapped so you know that CC heard the tap.
• [OTHER]Do not "linkify" items in book details if the underlying group is hidden in the grouping drawer.
• [BUG FIX]Change how sorts were stored to avoid having problems if the order of grouped columns is changed in settings. This is the reason existing auto-sorts are reset.
• [BUG FIX]Enable the "home" button on the action bar for the sub-preferences screens. This works only on Android Honeycomb and later.
• [BUG FIX]Make wireless disconnection more robust when CC and calibre get confused about which program is sending what.

NOTES:

• Because of a change in how sorts are represented internally, any group auto-sorts set up in V3.4.0d are lost.
• This release has many internal changes needed to support the new features. These changes could cause regressions in base functionality. Be sure to let us know if you run across something that no longer works correctly. In particular, let us know if the headings in book details don't correspond to the data.
• This release has a database schema upgrade, which is a fast upgrade. It does not have a database content upgrade. The upgrade creates the new Date Added to CC field and initializes it to the current Date Updated value for the book.
• This prerelease completes the planned changes for this cycle. I fully expect there to be further changes/prereleases as we receive comments and bug reports, but I do not expect to add any more significant features. Of course, I have said that before.

[PatNY]

Charles, thanks for the great new features!

Noticed the new prerelease this morning and was excited to see the ability to hide and custom sort items on the book details page. I've only used it for a little while now, but it appears to be working as expected with no problems. I really love this new feature.

I did notice something about the sort has changed. I use "Date Added (CC)" almost exclusively, and in the past that sort was retained even after using group filters. But now when I filter something by a group, then go back to view all the books, the previous sort selection is lost. Is there a new thing I have to choose or do to maintain it?

--Pat

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

Charles, thanks for the great new features!

Noticed the new prerelease this morning and was excited to see the ability to hide and custom sort items on the book details page. I've only used it for a little while now, but it appears to be working as expected with no problems. I really love this new feature.

Glad it is working.

Things get a little iffy when books come from different libraries with different custom column configurations. If you have any like that, please make sure that the selection menu makes sense and it works for you.

I did notice something about the sort has changed. I use "Date Added (CC)" almost exclusively, and in the past that sort was retained even after using group filters. But now when I filter something by a group, then go back to view all the books, the previous sort selection is lost. Is there a new thing I have to choose or do to maintain it?

--Pat

Ahhhh.... ooops.

This is a side consequence of the internal changes. If you had ever set up an autosort for a group then the "wrong" value is remembered. The fix is to go to settings and change all of autosorts to None. Ignore that it claims that the value is already None. Instead, tap each group (or at least the ones you use) and explicitly set the autosort to None.

Fortunately this won't happen if an autosort had never been set, which is the case for the general public.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by chaley

Glad it is working.

Things get a little iffy when books come from different libraries with different custom column configurations. If you have any like that, please make sure that the selection menu makes sense and it works for you.

I do have books in CC from different calibre libraries, but so far all my custom columns are consistent throughout these libraries, so I can't verify that for you.

This is a side consequence of the internal changes. If you had ever set up an autosort for a group then the "wrong" value is remembered. The fix is to go to settings and change all of autosorts to None. Ignore that it claims that the value is already None. Instead, tap each group (or at least the ones you use) and explicitly set the autosort to None.

Fortunately this won't happen if an autosort had never been set, which is the case for the general public.

AFAIK, I've never set up an autosort for any group. But I went into settings and checked "none" under autosort for all the groups as you instructed, and now the sort for the main view is remembered. Thanks.

[kaufman]

Love the new release. The best app on my phone continues to get even better. Only thing left is "more details in the list view with large covers" and its perfect.

I haven't found any issues yet, but I do have a couple of small things.

1) The "fast upgrade" took about 30 minutes. Would it be possible to show the book x of y process here as well as in the notification? Might be useful.

2) For book details, why do you have the "choose items to show" as a separate menu item? Wouldn't it make more sense to put it in the "Book Details" section of the settings menu? I actually used the app for several months before I found out that there was a menu to show there. The option might be more discoverable on the settings menu. also, it might be nice to have a "reset to default" option for people who mess it up by accident.

3) I noticed the following today right before I hid all the dates in the details screen:



Are these dates in different formats because of something I did, or because of something you did? Do you need an option for date format?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Love the new release. The best app on my phone continues to get even better. Only thing left is "more details in the list view with large covers" and its perfect.

I am looking at how to do that. It isn't at all straightforward. I am almost certainly pushing it to the next cycle.

1) The "fast upgrade" took about 30 minutes. Would it be possible to show the book x of y process here as well as in the notification? Might be useful.

Hmmmm....

All that time had to be in the copying of the date changed column to the updated column. In my testing that took less than 10ms/book, so I expected the upgrade to run at 100 books/second. Apparently I am wrong. Unfortunately I don't see any way around it except leaving the value empty, which would mean that all existing books would have a null creation date.

There is no way to provide a progress bar because the changes are all done internally by the DB manager when the DB is opened.

2) For book details, why do you have the "choose items to show" as a separate menu item? Wouldn't it make more sense to put it in the "Book Details" section of the settings menu? I actually used the app for several months before I found out that there was a menu to show there. The option might be more discoverable on the settings menu. also, it might be nice to have a "reset to default" option for people who mess it up by accident.

It is there because it must have access to the correct custom column definitions, which 1) are available only in a book and 2) can change from book to book. It might be possible to add it to settings, but as it would need to be disabled if settings wasn't called from the book details screen I don't see much advantage. After all, if one taps the menu to get to settings in book details then you see the new menu line.

I suppose I could add a "comment" to the book details settings section saying that changing the fields shown in book details is done from book details. But again, given that people will almost certainly decide to change what is shown while looking at book details, that "comment" wouldn't be useful because they would see the menu line.

As for reset to default: yet again we run into the Android rule that there can be no more than three buttons on a dialog. I gnash my teeth about this all the time. I could do what I did with the read date dialog and add a "link" at the bottom to reset, but that would take real estate. Also, it isn't clear what a reset should do if different custom column setups have been encountered. Should it reset only the columns in the current book? Should it uncheck the listed columns that aren't in the current book? Or do something else?

3) I noticed the following today right before I hid all the dates in the details screen:

Are these dates in different formats because of something I did, or because of something you did? Do you need an option for date format?

Dates that come from calibre also come with the calibre date format that you probably set there (but perhaps not). Dates that come from CC are displayed as you see them, conditioned (I think) by the user's locale. It has been like this for some 18 months, so I don't see much call for adding another option, which would then likely turn into an option per date.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

I suppose I could add a "comment" to the book details settings section saying that changing the fields shown in book details is done from book details. But again, given that people will almost certainly decide to change what is shown while looking at book details, that "comment" wouldn't be useful because they would see the menu line.

I searched in the settings menu twice before I decided it must be only when viewing book details. I was looking for it because I knew it was one of the changes, but if it was a comment would let people know it is available. If I didn't know it was available, I wouldn't have thought to look at the menu in book details.

[chaley]

How is this? The comment text does nothing if tapped.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

How is this? The comment text does nothing if tapped.

Looks good.

[kaufman]

I like it.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am looking at how to do that. It isn't at all straightforward. I am almost certainly pushing it to the next cycle.

Something to look forward to. Excellent.

Originally Posted by chaley

It is there because it must have access to the correct custom column definitions, which 1) are available only in a book and 2) can change from book to book.

I keep forgetting that some people might have their custom columns on a book by book basis. I have three custom columns, and they exist in every book in my library.

I think your solution to just show a message telling people where to find it is a good compromise. The other thing you could do would be to have a function to do a custom column finding scan. Then you would have the entire list of them and could just have one "select details view" at the library level. Probably not worth the effort.

[kaufman]

By the way, I have a small request that I am perfectly happy to move to the wish thread if it is too much trouble, but I wanted to mention here in case it wasn't. Would you be willing to add an option to select the app orientation to be:

1) Free (ie Match system setting)
2) Portrait only
3) Landscape only

I use the app in bed a lot and I regularly have to turn off screen rotation to keep it in portrait mode. I would prefer to have it always stick to portrait mode.

I know you said you were done with functionality changes, but you spoiled me on the last release with all your extra effort, plus you owe me for all the abuse I got in the 3.4.0d release.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

By the way, I have a small request that I am perfectly happy to move to the wish thread if it is too much trouble, but I wanted to mention here in case it wasn't. Would you be willing to add an option to select the app orientation to be:

1) Free (ie Match system setting)
2) Portrait only
3) Landscape only

I use the app in bed a lot and I regularly have to turn off screen rotation to keep it in portrait mode. I would prefer to have it always stick to portrait mode.

I know you said you were done with functionality changes, but you spoiled me on the last release with all your extra effort, plus you owe me for all the abuse I got in the 3.4.0d release.

This is possible but it is a pain, because the code must be put into every "activity" (screen) that the app uses. However, not so much of a pain that doing it is unthinkable.

Is locking orientation something others in the community would want, or is kaufman all alone in this? (Must keep up the abuse, you know. )

[theducks]

Originally Posted by chaley

This is possible but it is a pain, because the code must be put into every "activity" (screen) that the app uses. However, not so much of a pain that doing it is unthinkable.

Is locking orientation something others in the community would want, or is kaufman all alone in this? (Must keep up the abuse, you know. )

I just turn off the (Android) auto rotation, but I could see locking in one plane as is good after playing Multipies Puzzles (paid version)

[Dhevi]

I didn't even know I wanted to be able to select what fields to display in book details until this pre-release and I'm loving it.

I've not experienced any problems yet.

A question: has there ever been any thought to allowing users to select cover size in book details: none to allow the user to opt out of displaying any cover?