Content Server Facility

[kotechaprashant]

I am using Content server. Also configured my resources to access the library with remote devices.

While accessing through net I want to open the books in library instead of download.. how can it be made possible?

Thanks in advance

[eschwartz]

And why not just open it in calibre itself?

There is no way to manipulate the library from the web interface. Kovid has a long-term goal to make this possible, I believe as part of a multi-user capability, but there is no estimate of when he may be able to accomplish that. It will most likely be years.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by kotechaprashant

While accessing through net I want to open the books in library instead of download.. how can it be made possible?

There is an EPUBReader addon for Firefox that would in effect make it seem like the epub was opening without downloading. I'm not sure how the addon works. Check out the EPUBReader Mobileread forum for more info.

The only other solution that comes to mind is to remote in to the computer with calibre and run the calibre-viewer remotely.

[cybmole]

there's only 2 ways for data to travel from computer A to computer B. and then be displayed

1 download i.e. copy the whole file
2. streaming, i.e. copy the data a bit at a time, as needed

for a single e-book, I fail to see any circumstance where 2 is better than 1.

I can appreciate wanting to stream a 1Gb video, but why stream a 200kb ebook ???

PS as epub is actually a zipped format, where do you propose the unzipping needed for streaming takes place- how does the target PC get permission to use the source PCs CPU & temp storage etc resources for unzip?

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by cybmole

PS as epub is actually a zipped format, where do you propose the unzipping needed for streaming takes place- how does the target PC get permission to use the source PCs CPU & temp storage etc resources for unzip?

Where does it get permission to access the source PC's storage in the first place? And start transferring files? It doesn't use AS MUCH of the CPU power, but nevertheless...

Answer to both -- from the server running on the source PC.

[cybmole]

I disagree- If I try to open a zip file on a remote PC across homework, the zip is copied to a temp location on my PC & processed here.
a typical network configuration only will give you read access to the remote PC, a lax one may give you read/write file access but only a very unsafe one it will allow you to execute processes on the remote PC ( as is needed for an unzip) That would be horribly dangerous
so I don't believe you can create a setup where a remote PC can be told to unzip an epub without also opening a door for possible malicious .exe operations.

but hey, tell me there's a safe workaround if there is one...

[theducks]

The only way(s) I know to NOT transfer the whole book at once is to:
1) VNC/RDC to the host (remote desktop usage)
2) Have a specialized Book Web Server (or use only HTML books like found at Baen)

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by cybmole

I disagree- If I try to open a zip file on a remote PC across homework, the zip is copied to a temp location on my PC & processed here.
a typical network configuration only will give you read access to the remote PC, a lax one may give you read/write file access but only a very unsafe one it will allow you to execute processes on the remote PC ( as is needed for an unzip) That would be horribly dangerous
so I don't believe you can create a setup where a remote PC can be told to unzip an epub without also opening a door for possible malicious .exe operations.

but hey, tell me there's a safe workaround if there is one...

That is assuming that your average web server just gives the browser free access to the server PC, which is not even remotely true.

What happens is that the server is willing to do certain things if asked to do so, does do, then hands the results to the browser. For example, transferring html webpages, but also accepting uploads or converting uploaded epubs or hundreds of other things. A ridiculously large portion of the internet is designed around the idea of running programs at the request of a remote browser, and that's without even getting into the idea of cloud computing....

Webscripting languages revolve around the idea of running programs on the server PC at the behest of a client PC. When you view this webpage right here, the MobileRead server grants a subprocess the right to interpret php code which reads and writes to a database, at your request. And if you upload an attachment, the server has given you the right to store files on it.

[cybmole]

ok - so you are describing proper servers, I am describing peer-to-peer PCs on a network.

I assume the OP is running some "server" software on a normal PC which I guess falls somewhere between the two.. if I run something like plex media server on my home network and request a video stream to my PS3, then plex on the "server" PC will do all the conversion work, and it's CPU will get hammered.. but you don't stream epubs....

anyway I still don't see the benefit, or the time saving, of not downloading the whole eobok file- we're talking kilobytes, not Gigabytes

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by cybmole

ok - so you are describing proper servers, I am describing peer-to-peer PCs on a network.

I assume the OP is running some "server" software on a normal PC which I guess falls somewhere between the two.. if I run something like plex media server on my home network and request a video stream to my PS3, then plex on the "server" PC will do all the conversion work, and it's CPU will get hammered.. but you don't stream epubs....

anyway I still don't see the benefit, or the time saving, of not downloading the whole eobok file- we're talking kilobytes, not Gigabytes

Pretty easy to set up a proper server, really... You install it like any program. And the server explicitly allows certain things to be done on behalf of the client, depending on the server and configuration, even here. Peer-to-peer fileshares are totally different, yes. And the Content server has nothing to do with them, as it is a server, not a networked drive.