[GUI Plugin] Goodreads Sync

[restinginlove]

Originally Posted by dunhill

It is a bit long to do a step by step.
First you have to create custom columns. Once the creation of the customized columns is finished, we accept and Calibre will be restarted, so that these changes take effect, the columns will appear in the last positions, we must possess them, pressing the mouse over the column and move it to their places of choice .
Now we install the Goodreads sync plugin. Once the plugin is installed, Calibre restarts and the Goodreads sync icon will appear in the toolbar.
We click on the icon and touch customize complement.
in that field we put the email address with which we enter Goodreads a screen opens where we have to authorize the plugin with Goodreads, just by touching the button that says Authorize our Goodreads section opens in the browser.
And our Goodreads shelves are automatically added to the plugin.

I leave here below what they have to put on each shelf all by clicking the settings for the shelves of
To read
Actions to add to the shelf:
Actions to synchronize shelf:
e,
Reading (currently reading)
Actions to add to the shelf:
Actions to synchronize shelf:

Read (read)
Actions to add to the shelf:
Actions to synchronize shelf:

I'm not who was asking, but between these screenshots and this older write up I found, this is really helpful!

In goodreads just have the 3 default shelves and an "abandoned" one, and have genres in tags (along with stuff like, "on device" because I didn't realize I could make a y/n column for that and I've just stuck with it) in calibre, as well as mostly genre-specific kobo collections that I sync from calibre, plus one collection called "queue" for 20 or so to pick from next to help with decision paralysis because some of those collections are getting massive. But I also have a few hundred books in calibre/on my kobo and 80% are unread (I know, I'm nuts, and I definitely don't want them all in GR right now or max out the API limits!). So, I'm not doing genre shelving in GR, "queue" is probably more accurately "want to read" than "currently reading" so I can associate it with that, and I usually denote books as being finished when they have a rating and just straight up delete abandoned ones when I finally give up on them. I've been kind of confused and searching the thread, trying to figure out the easiest way to use my current workflow + kobo utilities plugin for progress, and making a separate column seems to be the best bet, and this will really help. Thanks again!

[Squarty]

guys the step by step guide helped me very much,
unfortunely for me the plugin isn't intuitive :/

[Terisa de morgan]

I have a problem now. Before, when I was searching for a goodreads match, if the book I wanted wasn't in the dialog box, I could drag the link and link it with the book. Now, when I drag the link, it is not included in the dialog box anymore, only a forbidden icon appears. I'm using calibre 4.7 for Windows 64 bits over Win 10.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I have a problem now. Before, when I was searching for a goodreads match, if the book I wanted wasn't in the dialog box, I could drag the link and link it with the book. Now, when I drag the link, it is not included in the dialog box anymore, only a forbidden icon appears. I'm using calibre 4.7 for Windows 64 bits over Win 10.

Just tested and it works here. But, it only allows dropping the book in the list. If you drop in on the details, it isn't allowed.

What are you dragging? There is some parsing happening, so there are URLs that do not work. The URL for a book or edition works. The URL for the edition page doesn't. URLs for reviews probably don't as well.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Just tested and it works here. But, it only allows dropping the book in the list. If you drop in on the details, it isn't allowed.

What are you dragging? There is some parsing happening, so there are URLs that do not work. The URL for a book or edition works. The URL for the edition page doesn't. URLs for reviews probably don't as well.

You can see where I'm trying to drop it in the attached picture. And the url is like this:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47315693-murder-by-chocolate?from_search=true&rank=1

Edit: Problem solved, sorry. The first time I browse to the book page, if I select directly the page address, chrome has not include the https part of the link, so it doesn't work. If I unselect the link and select it again, it works. Sorry again, I hadn't thought about that.

[Terisa de morgan]

Another error: After installing calibre 4.8, the plugin doesn't load. The error which is appearing is:

Spoiler:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 157, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 171, in init_iaction
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\__init__.py", line 613, in load_actual_plugin
File "importlib\__init__.py", line 37, in import_module
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 185, in load_module
File "calibre_plugins.goodreads_sync.action", line 32, in <module>
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 185, in load_module
File "calibre_plugins.goodreads_sync.core", line 21, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name RECOVER_PARSER

Edit: Problem is that RECOVER_PARSER is not imported from oeb.base but from oeb.parse_utils.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

You can see where I'm trying to drop it in the attached picture. And the url is like this:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/47315693-murder-by-chocolate?from_search=true&rank=1

Edit: Problem solved, sorry. The first time I browse to the book page, if I select directly the page address, chrome has not include the https part of the link, so it doesn't work. If I unselect the link and select it again, it works. Sorry again, I hadn't thought about that.

That makes sense. I'll check the code later. I might allow the HTTP version just so it doesn't cause problems like this.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That makes sense. I'll check the code later. I might allow the HTTP version just so it doesn't cause problems like this.

Problem is, first time neither http nor https, that was the problem (only goodreads.com/...., chrome issue).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Another error: After installing calibre 4.8, the plugin doesn't load. The error which is appearing is:

Spoiler:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 157, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\ui.py", line 171, in init_iaction
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\__init__.py", line 613, in load_actual_plugin
File "importlib\__init__.py", line 37, in import_module
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 185, in load_module
File "calibre_plugins.goodreads_sync.action", line 32, in <module>
File "site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 185, in load_module
File "calibre_plugins.goodreads_sync.core", line 21, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name RECOVER_PARSER

Edit: Problem is that RECOVER_PARSER is not imported from oeb.base but from oeb.parse_utils.

That changed in the source in the last week or so. It has been in oeb.parse_utils for a while, but, I think Kovid cleaned up oeb.base. I have fixed it and asked for the first post to be updated. I'm not sure why, but I wasn't expecting a calibre release this week.

But, I have attached the updated version, but, with a different version number. You can install this and when the first post is updated you will get the notice again. Anyone about to update to calibre 4.8 either wait until the plugin update happens, or install this temporary version.

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you very much! I'll install it.

[davidfor]

The plugin has been updated to version 1.13.0. This has the following changes in it:

• Fix: Set a default width for the title column in all dialogs.
• New: Use dropdown for editing tag-like columns when editing shelf add and sync actions.
• Fix: Tags in sync/add actions should be comma separated.
• New: Added progress bars for most actions
• Change: Match a change in calibre related to "RECOVER_PARSER".

Most of these have been in the recent betas.

The last one is due to a cleanup in calibre code in calibre version 4.8. If you update to calibre 4.8, the plugin will not be loaded when calibre starts. Unfortunately, this means you will need to update the plugin yourself. It will be available on the plugin installer dialog. The configuration will not be affected by this.

[Rellwood]

Is there a reason why the new updates take longer to update the shelves? It seems like the progress bar is updating book by book. I noticed that without the progress bar the time is much quicker.

[Rellwood]

Any chance that you can allow the plugin to just update a specific shelf with the tag instead of having to go into each tag and choose the shelf, and type (scroll) the tag in.

I set all my shelf tags to go into a specific column. It could be in the preferences as a general sync or add rule.

Column to sync shelves to : #bookshelves
Column to add tags to: #bookshelves
Column to remove tags from:#bookshelves (if I am removing a book from a shelf)

so if a shelf tag can automatically be synced, or added or removed from the column without having to spend time setting up the individual rules for each.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Is there a reason why the new updates take longer to update the shelves? It seems like the progress bar is updating book by book. I noticed that without the progress bar the time is much quicker.

This is at least the third time you have complained about performance of the plugin without actually saying where the problem is. Are you syncing shelves? Or adding to shelves? Or something else? How many books are involved? What evidence do you have for the performance is slower? Timings?

As to the progress bar, it is very unlikely that it is slowing things down. If it is updating for each book, that is because there is a change in the background for each book. If there was a performance hit at the same time I added the progress bars, it is most likely that I was fixing something else and that is slower. But, without knowing exactly where you are seeing the problem, there isn't really a way for me to check.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Any chance that you can allow the plugin to just update a specific shelf with the tag instead of having to go into each tag and choose the shelf, and type (scroll) the tag in.

I set all my shelf tags to go into a specific column. It could be in the preferences as a general sync or add rule.

Column to sync shelves to : #bookshelves
Column to add tags to: #bookshelves
Column to remove tags from:#bookshelves (if I am removing a book from a shelf)

so if a shelf tag can automatically be synced, or added or removed from the column without having to spend time setting up the individual rules for each.

Sorry, I don't know what you want. Unless what you are saying is to use a single column for all shelves and to add/remove the shelf name from that column as the book is added. Is that it?