Content server: download all search results, all in this series, all by this author..

[cybmole]

can any of those be done or does content server offer only download a single book or sync the entire library ?

do I need to connect as wireless device in order to push a collection ( i.e. a calibre series) onto a dedicated shelf in CC ?

I am looking to set up a tablet music documents file collection for material purchased from truefire. Each truefire lesson pack has a set of 30-50 pdf files , consecutive numbered, which relate to a purchased video lesson set. I can add each set as a series to calibre but i want each set of PDFs to appear on a shelf in CC for simple access on KF.
( until such time as truefire produce a proper android app of their own )

I can live with truefires' default naming system but I want to add these in bulk not individually,
so what is the slickest way to bulk add & then maintain please
( e.g. I may want to add extra tags in calibre & copy those over also, at a later date )

[cybmole]

update - so I added 130 "books" ( 2 x sets of 50, 1 x set of 30)individual pdf sheets via the wireless device route.
I now have those on KF & tagged & I've kept them out of the KF documents infrastucture by changing the CC default directory.
( on my previous test, I let them go to documents on KF, but then I found that deleting a file from KF documents view also deleted CC's copy which was unwanted)
so now, if I connect as wireless device & switch to device view I see an empty column called "collections"
how do I/ can i populate that please ?
& my related previous question is still puzzling me, If I change the author, or add a tag for one of these sets in calibre, how do I then sync that change via CC, or is it easier to delete & resend. ( as they are single sheets, there is no "last page read" issue to worry about

PS -my very first plan was not to clutter my main calibre library with these sheets, instead I was to send via cloud drive, then have CC scan for & shelve them. But anything sent via cloud is hoovered into some arcane storage system & cannot be found by searching all of android storage. I peek into documents folder via ES explorer shows only lots of gobbbledook html files. But doument sideloaded via US from calibre CAN be seen, so it seems that KF indexes it ( & can delete it) but does nto otherwise mess with it . is there a for dummies explanation for how KF handles books & documents which arrive via the various possible routes

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

can any of those be done or does content server offer only download a single book or sync the entire library ?

The download all menu is enabled (it will work) for categories where the calibre server can send all the book ids. This includes almost all categories except search results. For example, if you navigate to an author in the content server then CC will enable the download-all menu item.

do I need to connect as wireless device in order to push a collection ( i.e. a calibre series) onto a dedicated shelf in CC ?

No, although I am wary of the word "collection". If you use download-all while looking at a series then all the books will be downloaded and the series will appear in CC's grouping drawer.

I am not sure what you mean by "collection". If you mean Kobo- and Sony-style collections then see below.

I am looking to set up a tablet music documents file collection for material purchased from truefire. Each truefire lesson pack has a set of 30-50 pdf files , consecutive numbered, which relate to a purchased video lesson set. I can add each set as a series to calibre but i want each set of PDFs to appear on a shelf in CC for simple access on KF.
( until such time as truefire produce a proper android app of their own )

Many ways to do this, including tags, series, a custom column, a unique author, or a unique publisher. All of these are available in CC's grouping drawer.

I can live with truefires' default naming system but I want to add these in bulk not individually,
so what is the slickest way to bulk add & then maintain please
( e.g. I may want to add extra tags in calibre & copy those over also, at a later date )

Give them some piece of unique metadata such as a tag, a series, a value in a custom column, a publisher, or an author. Once you do that then you can push them all using the wireless device connection or you can pull them all using the content server. However, as you mention that you want metadata to be updated (your tags example) then you should use the wireless device connection, via which CC's copy of calibre's metadata is automatically updated.

Originally Posted by cybmole

update - so I added 130 "books" ( 2 x sets of 50, 1 x set of 30)individual pdf sheets via the wireless device route.
I now have those on KF & tagged & I've kept them out of the KF documents infrastucture by changing the CC default directory.
( on my previous test, I let them go to documents on KF, but then I found that deleting a file from KF documents view also deleted CC's copy which was unwanted)
so now, if I connect as wireless device & switch to device view I see an empty column called "collections"
how do I/ can i populate that please ?

In general you don't. That column is there to support Sony and Kobo collections because those devices do not support operating on base calibre metadata.

If you *really* want to use Sony-style collections (I don't recommend it), then see the FAQ answer I am a Sony user and I want my collections. What do I do?.

Note: there is no facility of any kind in CC to support collections/shelves in the kobo or any other reading app.

& my related previous question is still puzzling me, If I change the author, or add a tag for one of these sets in calibre, how do I then sync that change via CC, or is it easier to delete & resend. ( as they are single sheets, there is no "last page read" issue to worry about

You connect as a wireless device, let CC and calibre do their thing, then disconnect. CC's metadata is now up-to-date.

My suspicion is that a lot of these difficulties arise because you are mostly using CC as a transport, not as a book organizer/calibre metadata repeater, the "job" CC was designed to do. Because of this the metadata inside the books is important because that is what your apps see. Most CC users don't care about the metadata in the book because CC operates directly off the metadata in calibre's db. Of course, this hypothesis could be bogus, but I don't think so given your previous posts about using calibre cloud, using the kobo app as your primary organizer, and using CC's content server connection as a calibre cloud backup.

PS -my very first plan was not to clutter my main calibre library with these sheets, instead I was to send via cloud drive, then have CC scan for & shelve them. But anything sent via cloud is hoovered into some arcane storage system & cannot be found by searching all of android storage. I peek into documents folder via ES explorer shows only lots of gobbbledook html files. But doument sideloaded via US from calibre CAN be seen, so it seems that KF indexes it ( & can delete it) but does nto otherwise mess with it . is there a for dummies explanation for how KF handles books & documents which arrive via the various possible routes

From CC's perspective this workflow is flawed, putting aside the problem that you can't find the documents. CC really really wants to get metadata from calibre, not from inside books. Because of this, CC will scan for books only when you connect as a wireless device, and will actually send the books (other than epub) up to calibre for analysis. Much of the time calibre cannot figure out what the book is so you end up with books named I1237 and the like. CC works much better if you push the books over the wireless device or pull them using the content server, because in both cases CC has access to calibre's metadata and ignores the metadata (if any) inside the book.

[cybmole]

thanks for replies. this is a separate project to my "read books in kobo app" activity.

This is organizing teaching materials to use on tablet.
I have lots of purchased music lesson packages and as explained above, each package comes with a collection of (mostly) single page PDFs, one pdf per video, many videos & pdfs in each named package.. The best way that I can see to organize them on tablet is to treat them as books & use calibre + CC to tag & organize. There is no metadata in the PDFs, but I can set an author in calibre. then I can open sheets as needed in adobe viewer on tablet.

( if instead I just send/copy them into Kindle Fire documents, I get an unmanageable mess! , with no ability to tag & organize)

I think I am there now, using connect as wireless device & bulk moving them.

I think I now have it all set so that if I tap a pdf on CC shelf, it opens in adobe - if I go "back" from that" I am back at the shelf & can open a different item. so that's all I need for now.

can I check one final possible misunderstanding. If I am in content server & I navigate to a specific author, then I tap download all. What does "all" mean in that contact., all by that author or all of calibre library ?




I think I am there now, using connect as wireless device & bulk moving them.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

thanks for replies. this is a separate project to my "read books in kobo app" activity.

You are welcome.

can I check one final possible misunderstanding. If I am in content server & I navigate to a specific author, then I tap download all. What does "all" mean in that contact., all by that author or all of calibre library ?

"All" means all the books in the category you are looking at. In your example it means all books that calibre thinks has that person as an author.

To be more precise, it means all books in that category that are not "checked": that have not already had at least one format downloaded. "All books" means the books you see if you scroll through the category from beginning to end.

I think I am there now, using connect as wireless device & bulk moving them.

Glad it is working for you.

To answer a question that I saw somewhere, connecting as a wireless device will update CC's metadata to match what is in calibre at that moment. "Metadata" includes everything you see in calibre, including tags, authors, custom columns, covers, dates, etc. However, no book file is touched, so the metadata inside the books is not updated. There has been some discussion in the wish list thread about whether CC should ask calibre to send book files that have changed since they were last sent, and I am considering that.

Sometimes it is convenient to change metadata while CC is connected, usually because you are there and noticed the error. Because the metadata exchange is done at the moment CC connects, changes made later while connected are not immediately transferred. You can work around this by clicking on "Device" and choosing "Update cached metadata on device", which causes calibre to send changed metadata to CC. Alternatively you can disconnect and reconnect, but that is slower.

[cybmole]

update: FYI, I compared putting PDF files into Kindle Fire documents folder, with keeping them in some other folder known only to CC.

to do this I copied a sample PDF file from where CC had stored it , into the documents folder , using ES explorer ....


1. if I open the copy in KF documents, then KF decides to use it's own pdf viewer, [that seems to be a "take it or leave it" attitude - although I have adobe viewer on the tablet I don't get offered the chance to use it.]

2. if the PDF is in some other folder & I tell CC that I want to read it - then it opens in adobe viewer app, which I think is a better app., & thus the better option...
But I don't think the adobe app can keep a list of recent documents, and the newly viewed file is not now placed on the carousel, so it's harder to return to a recently viewed file - I have to go back into CC & re-open it from there ? ( unless the adobe bookmarks function is for doing this ? )

I have not tested having CC download PDFs to documents folder & then ask CC to open the file - what is CC designed to do in that situation - use Kindle viewer or offer a choice ?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by cybmole

I have not tested having CC download PDFs to documents folder & then ask CC to open the file - what is CC designed to do in that situation - use Kindle viewer or offer a choice ?

CC will ask the system what apps can handle PDF. It will then enquire of the amazon app if it can open the PDF where it is. Of it says yes the the amazon app is added to the candidates list. If the candidates list is longer than one then you are asked which one you want to use.