Access to Calibre while traveling

Klippy · 03-30-2015, 01:33 PM

I am going to be gone for a couple of months and will not have my laptop with me. I will however have my reading device and internet access. Is there anyway I can access Calibre while I am away over the internet? Thanks in advance for your help!!!!

eschwartz · 03-30-2015, 01:35 PM

See my sig!

theducks · 03-30-2015, 03:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Klippy

I am going to be gone for a couple of months and will not have my laptop with me. I will however have my reading device and internet access. Is there anyway I can access Calibre while I am away over the internet? Thanks in advance for your help!!!!

Put your Library on a pen/flash drive

Code:

You can attach some flash drives to Apple’s $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit. (If you have an iPad with a Lightning connector you’ll additionally need Apple’s $29 Lightning to USB Camera Adapter.)

darryl · 03-30-2015, 08:32 PM

As per the post by eschwartx, I'm using calibre2opds to access my calibre library from outside my home. I have it set up on my QNAP NAS rather than using Dropbox, and it works very well.

I would add to theducks common sense suggestion that you can buy relatively inexpensively a usb stick with dual connections, one to a conventional usb port and one to the connection for mobiles which I think from memory is a micro usb. You would need to check that your device supports both the connector and will work with the device.

However, I think calibre2opds is the answer for you.

itimpi · 03-31-2015, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darryl

As per the post by eschwartx, I'm using calibre2opds to access my calibre library from outside my home. I have it set up on my QNAP NAS rather than using Dropbox, and it works very well.

I would add to theducks common sense suggestion that you can buy relatively inexpensively a usb stick with dual connections, one to a conventional usb port and one to the connection for mobiles which I think from memory is a micro usb. You would need to check that your device supports both the connector and will work with the device.

However, I think calibre2opds is the answer for you.

Glad to see someone who likes and recommends calibre2opds

I use it in a similar way although in my case I use a Raspberry Pi running in headless mode to host the calibre2opds generated site. I guess the Raspberry Pi is small enough that if I really wanted to I could take it with me when travelling

darryl · 03-31-2015, 03:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itimpi

Glad to see someone who likes and recommends calibre2opds

I use it in a similar way although in my case I use a Raspberry Pi running in headless mode to host the calibre2opds generated site. I guess the Raspberry Pi is small enough that if I really wanted to I could take it with me when travelling

Calibre2opds is perfectly suited for what I wanted to do. At one stage I was thinking about putting it on a Raspberry Pi myself, but in my circumstances the NAS makes far more sense. Raspberry Pi's are very versatile devices and excellent value.

BetterRed · 03-31-2015, 04:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by theducks

Put your Library on a pen/flash drive

Code:

You can attach some flash drives to Apple’s $29 iPad Camera Connection Kit. (If you have an iPad with a Lightning connector you’ll additionally need Apple’s $29 Lightning to USB Camera Adapter.)

- an alternative gadget is this ==>> AirStash® Wireless Flash Drive

Is there a Calibre Companion look-alike for IOS. If not just dump all the books on a couple of flash drives (one for a spare) and read with your regular IOS reader. And give your laptop a holiday for a couple of months too.

I hate relying on wide area comms or phone service when I'm away, and international roaming charges can easily break the bank.

BR

itimpi · 03-31-2015, 05:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BetterRed

- an alternative gadget is this ==>> AirStash® Wireless Flash Drive

Is there a Calibre Companion look-alike for IOS. If not just dump all the books on a couple of flash drives (one for a spare) and read with your regular IOS reader. And give your laptop a holiday for a couple of months too.

I hate relying on wide area comms or phone service when I'm away, and international roaming charges can easily break the bank.

BR

I have not tested it (I may purchase one just so I can), but I would think that you could use calibre2opds to create a web site (using the Publish mode) on that drive that would contain all your files plus the web pages to access them from your iPad. I guess it just depends on how good the web server it claims to support actually is and how big a SD card you need to purchase to hold your Calibre library (I have a BIG library).

EDIT: Just decided I liked the look of this, so I have ordered myself one.

I will report back on success/failure with using it in conjunction with Calibre2opds.

Klippy · 03-31-2015, 10:59 PM

Thanks for all of the advice and suggestions. I'm going to have to decide which will work better for me. You all are the greatest help!

HarryT · 04-01-2015, 05:06 AM

Can you really rely on an unattended server to stay up for several months when you're away? It would seem to be a lot safer to have your books with you. Pretty much all modern reading devices allow you to store 1000+ books on them - is that not sufficient for your needs?

chaley · 04-01-2015, 05:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Can you really rely on an unattended server to stay up for several months when you're away?

Mine has not crashed in 4 years. The longest it has been up without me rebooting it is 6 months. However, we might not be talking about the same thing. My server is an inexpensive VPS in a data center (Linode), so someone in the center manages power and fixes the hardware.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

It would seem to be a lot safer to have your books with you. Pretty much all modern reading devices allow you to store 1000+ books on them - is that not sufficient for your needs?

This is in fact what I do. I run the server for my family and for making new books easily available to my various devices. When traveling I carry my library with me.

HarryT · 04-01-2015, 05:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chaley

Mine has not crashed in 4 years. The longest it has been up without me rebooting it is 6 months. However, we might not be talking about the same thing. My server is an inexpensive VPS in a data center (Linode), so someone in the center manages power and fixes the hardware.

Sure. That's very different to running a Calibre server on a home PC.

itimpi · 04-04-2015, 10:17 AM

I just received my AirStash, and I can confirm that it DOES nicely support a Calibre Library and an associated Calibre2opds generated catalog. All files on the device are exposed through an HTML interface (rather like Dropbox used to do for the Public folder but on the AirStash instead) I can access the catalog and download books from the AirStash on my iPad using both a browser (for the HTML catalog) or an OPDS aware reader (e.g. Marvin) for the OPDS/XML catalog.

Just for the record since it also appears as a WebDAV compatible device I have not had any problems playing media off it either in infuse (my favourite iOS media player). From what I can see all apps that can access WebDAV devices seem to work fine. I also like the fact that it can set up to automatically connect to 'known' WiFi networks (e.g. your home one) so that in such locations you do not need to configure the iPad to connect directly - you can do it via your home network.

Overall I am reasonably impressed and it is going to do everything I was expecting/hoping it would do.

03-30-2015, 01:33 PM	#1
Klippy Enthusiast Posts: 31 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Ipad	Access to Calibre while traveling I am going to be gone for a couple of months and will not have my laptop with me. I will however have my reading device and internet access. Is there anyway I can access Calibre while I am away over the internet? Thanks in advance for your help!!!!

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03-30-2015, 01:35 PM	#2
eschwartz Ex-Helpdesk Junkie Posts: 19,421 Karma: 85400180 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)	See my sig!

03-30-2015, 08:32 PM	#4
darryl Wizard Posts: 3,108 Karma: 60231510 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Oasis, Huwei Ascend Mate 7	As per the post by eschwartx, I'm using calibre2opds to access my calibre library from outside my home. I have it set up on my QNAP NAS rather than using Dropbox, and it works very well. I would add to theducks common sense suggestion that you can buy relatively inexpensively a usb stick with dual connections, one to a conventional usb port and one to the connection for mobiles which I think from memory is a micro usb. You would need to check that your device supports both the connector and will work with the device. However, I think calibre2opds is the answer for you.

03-31-2015, 10:59 PM	#9
Klippy Enthusiast Posts: 31 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2011 Device: Ipad	Thanks for all of the advice and suggestions. I'm going to have to decide which will work better for me. You all are the greatest help!

04-01-2015, 05:06 AM	#10
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383099 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Can you really rely on an unattended server to stay up for several months when you're away? It would seem to be a lot safer to have your books with you. Pretty much all modern reading devices allow you to store 1000+ books on them - is that not sufficient for your needs?

04-04-2015, 10:17 AM	#13
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	I just received my AirStash, and I can confirm that it DOES nicely support a Calibre Library and an associated Calibre2opds generated catalog. All files on the device are exposed through an HTML interface (rather like Dropbox used to do for the Public folder but on the AirStash instead) I can access the catalog and download books from the AirStash on my iPad using both a browser (for the HTML catalog) or an OPDS aware reader (e.g. Marvin) for the OPDS/XML catalog. Just for the record since it also appears as a WebDAV compatible device I have not had any problems playing media off it either in infuse (my favourite iOS media player). From what I can see all apps that can access WebDAV devices seem to work fine. I also like the fact that it can set up to automatically connect to 'known' WiFi networks (e.g. your home one) so that in such locations you do not need to configure the iPad to connect directly - you can do it via your home network. Overall I am reasonably impressed and it is going to do everything I was expecting/hoping it would do.

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