[GUI Plugin] FanFicFare

[version365]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Basically, it is stripping the book title from the chapter title and then making them look better. But, it also tries to make sure nothing is lost.

Awesome.. it would be great too!

I'd always assumes "x.xx" meant "not enough votes".

I don't think so.. because I have seen the little red 'H' (which means the story has a rating of minimum 4.50) in stories where the rating is shown x.xx

I'll fix it.

thanks..

[AndersW]

Is it possible to edit what gets written to the error column? I personally don't consider "Not Overwriting, web site is not newer" to be an error and would like it if it could just skip over it when updating instead of taking time to write it to the error column.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by AndersW

Is it possible to edit what gets written to the error column? I personally don't consider "Not Overwriting, web site is not newer" to be an error and would like it if it could just skip over it when updating instead of taking time to write it to the error column.

The download 'comment' (as it is called internally) can come from several sources: from the plugin code (which can be translated to different languages), from the core FanFicFare code, and from exceptions that come up from the underlying calibre and python layers. So there are no convenient limits on what could appear in that column.

So rather than adding a bunch of FanFicFare code to allow user customization of what is written into the optional error column, I suggest you use a custom composite column in calibre to hide the output messages you don't want to see and then look at that instead.

See attached for the whole column (assuming the original custom column is named #error), and here's the template for easy copying:

{#error:re(Not Overwriting\, web site is not newer.,)||}

I will also mention in passing that I recommend to all users downloading to EPUB and using 'Update EPUB' mode to reduce the amount of network traffic (IE, not downloading chapters 1 through (N-1) again every time there's a new chapter). Calibre is very good at converting to all the other formats FFF can output. Better than FFF in many cases.

[Jade Aislin]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

New Version Released

Version 2.3.0 - 20 Mar 2016

- Add support for 'This story has not been validated' in base_efiction_adapter

I have not been paying attention to the forums lately. What exactly does this do? Because I have a number of stories from KirkSpockArchive that I get that error for.

example: http://ksarchive.com/viewstory.php?sid=1914

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Jade Aislin

I have not been paying attention to the forums lately. What exactly does this do? Because I have a number of stories from KirkSpockArchive that I get that error for.

example: http://ksarchive.com/viewstory.php?sid=1914

eFiction has a story state where a story has been created (or at least, an id number has been assigned for it), but it isn't visible. The site will report Access denied. This story has not been validated by the adminstrators of this site. I've honestly no idea how (or why) such stories would become known to people to try and download.

The Base eFiction adapter code didn't handle that particularly gracefully. So it's been improved to report it a bit more clearly.

The ksarchive.com adapter doesn't use the Base eFiction adapter code, so it doesn't apply. The ksarchive.com adapter was already handling it pretty much the same way Base eFiction does now.

tl;dr: Don't worry about it.

[AndersW]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

The download 'comment' (as it is called internally) can come from several sources: from the plugin code (which can be translated to different languages), from the core FanFicFare code, and from exceptions that come up from the underlying calibre and python layers. So there are no convenient limits on what could appear in that column.

So rather than adding a bunch of FanFicFare code to allow user customization of what is written into the optional error column, I suggest you use a custom composite column in calibre to hide the output messages you don't want to see and then look at that instead.

See attached for the whole column (assuming the original custom column is named #error), and here's the template for easy copying:

{#error:re(Not Overwriting\, web site is not newer.,)||}

I will also mention in passing that I recommend to all users downloading to EPUB and using 'Update EPUB' mode to reduce the amount of network traffic (IE, not downloading chapters 1 through (N-1) again every time there's a new chapter). Calibre is very good at converting to all the other formats FFF can output. Better than FFF in many cases.

My problem isn't that it is visible. My problem is when I have 3 good and 27 bad updates. It insists on updating all 30 stories despite only have 3 to update, and only 2 actual errors.

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

I've honestly no idea how (or why) such stories would become known to people to try and download.

It's kind of a bug in eFiction's mail-notice function, actually. The way I understand it (without having seen eFiction's code):

Scenario 1: You have fav'ed Story X, which has 10 chapters. Author submits chapter 11. Notice is sent, but the chapter is held back pending admin review. You click on the notice's link: you have an "access denied" message for that chapter.

Scenario 2: You have fav'ed Author Y. Author submits new story. Notice is sent, but story is held back... well, same thing.

Personally, when that happens I just use FFF's "slice" URL suffix feature to select all but the last chapter. It usually works.

N.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by AndersW

My problem isn't that it is visible. My problem is when I have 3 good and 27 bad updates. It insists on updating all 30 stories despite only have 3 to update, and only 2 actual errors.

You declaring that something is not an error doesn't automatically make it so. And I sense that my usual pep talk on the benefits of email update notices won't do any good either.

However, figuring out a way to suppress a couple of outputs without throwing more regular expressions at the problem was moderately interesting, so I went ahead and did it. The new option defaults to checked so the behavior doesn't change unless you check the setting.

New test version posted (direct link)

2016-03-22
- Add 'Save All Errors' checkbox for plugin save-errors column.

If unchecked, these errors will not be saved:
Not Overwriting, web site is not newer.
Already contains X chapters.

[AndersW]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

You declaring that something is not an error doesn't automatically make it so. And I sense that my usual pep talk on the benefits of email update notices won't do any good either.

However, figuring out a way to suppress a couple of outputs without throwing more regular expressions at the problem was moderately interesting, so I went ahead and did it. The new option defaults to checked so the behavior doesn't change unless you check the setting.

New test version posted (direct link)

2016-03-22
- Add 'Save All Errors' checkbox for plugin save-errors column.

If unchecked, these errors will not be saved:
Not Overwriting, web site is not newer.
Already contains X chapters.

Works wonderfully. Thank you.

[Chrystalline]

I've got four stories I can't download. Errors every time. The only thing I can figure out that they have in common is that at least one chapter has out-of-control bold and/or italics, but I don't know whether/why that might cause the error. It's not IP blocking, because other stories from the same site work just fine at the same time, and it's not random, because I've tried them off and on for weeks now. Obviously it's not urgent, but I can't think of what other variables to try.

FFF Log:

Spoiler:

Error
Hamlet's Ghost
Jinxed-Wood
'NoneType' object has no attribute 'next_element'
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1503179/1/
Error
Pirates of the Caribbean: The African Star
ErinRua
'NoneType' object has no attribute 'next_element'
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/1541759/1/
Error
After the End
Sugar Quill
'NoneType' object has no attribute 'next_element'
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/282139/1/
Error
A little of your time
Serpentina
'NoneType' object has no attribute 'next_element'
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/524807/1/

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Chrystalline

I've got four stories I can't download. Errors every time. The only thing I can figure out that they have in common is that at least one chapter has out-of-control bold and/or italics, but I don't know whether/why that might cause the error. It's not IP blocking, because other stories from the same site work just fine at the same time, and it's not random, because I've tried them off and on for weeks now. Obviously it's not urgent, but I can't think of what other variables to try.

I agree that these are probably coming from poor HTML. Which is a surprise--ffnet's draconian input rules usually prevent that.

In all four cases it's the code searching for images in the chapter text that's failing.

I'll look at that more to see what could be done to prevent it failing, but in the mean time you can work around it by adding this to your personal.ini:

[fanfiction.net:epub]
include_images: false

Ffnet stories don't have in-line images (so no loss there), but they can have cover images. The downside of this workaround is that it will prevent using the story cover image if there is one.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

...
I'll look at that more to see what could be done to prevent it failing, but in the mean time you can work around it by adding this to your personal.ini:
...

If you'd only found one story or one author with this problem, I'd probably have suggested asking the author to fix it. But since you've found 4 different stories all by different authors, it's prevalent enough to address in code. (The HTML problem is repeated mismatched open/close tags. IE, <b>text</strong> or <i>text</em>.)

This change catches the exception and logs a message about it but continues processing, albeit without images for the chapter in question.

New test version posted (direct link)

2016-03-28
- Add exception for bad HTML breaking img finding.

[ThatLibraryRat]

Hello

Is it possible to use calibre while the plugin is communicating with the net?
(When it's checking and importing stories)
It would be great to be able to be able to put the status bar to the side and do some tag editing/sending to the reader in the same time. Though I don't know if it's just my calibre who froze or if it's general.
Or to know why calibre portable needs to go to lock down to do that. 'cause I have this weird picture of FanFicFare being 007 and the fics the ultrasecret documents (need of concentration to acquire and bring them back, maybe).

So, I'm curious. Sorry if your eyes are crossing trying to decrypt my post =$

Anyway, thanks again for the wonderful plugin and your hard work!

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by ThatLibraryRat

Is it possible to use calibre while the plugin is communicating with the net?
(When it's checking and importing stories)
It would be great to be able to be able to put the status bar to the side and do some tag editing/sending to the reader in the same time. Though I don't know if it's just my calibre who froze or if it's general.

There's an option checkbox you can use to get updates to existing ebooks to get metadata in the background.

But FFF cannot do the initial metadata lookups for new stories/URLs in the background because it needs to be able to interact with you in some cases. That's a design limitation of Calibre itself.

[ThatLibraryRat]

Arg, goldfish syndrome. Memory failure.
Thank a lot!!! =$