[GUI Plugin] FanFicFare

[SilentShadow123]

Originally Posted by steltek

As an example for you, here is the setup of my personal.ini section for A03:

[www.archiveofourown.org]

 ##Anti-AI CSS setting follows:
use_workskin:true
 #slow_down_sleep_time:2
 #always_login:true
 #username:XXXXXX
 #password:XXXXXX
 #is_adult:true
use_browser_cache:true
 #browser_cache_age_limit:128.0
use_browser_cache_only:true
open_pages_in_browser:true

Any lines preceded by a # are remarked out and not used, but can be easily enabled if needed by editing the section to remove the # and saving the edited personal.ini . I've found I very rarely need the remarked options.

As I have it currently set up, FFF will only use the browser cache on the system default browser, and will open the pages in the system default web browser as needed. I do it this way as I've found this to be the most consistently stable way to do it over time.

You don't have to use the login/password options to log in to A03 for most downloads, but for problematic ones (i.e. padlocked stories) simply staying logged into your A03 account in a tab in your system default browser will almost always take care of any issues without having to mess with the login/password options.

In general, I recommend clearing the browser cache in your system default browser periodically (or when you experience problems). Further, if you do clear the cache, make sure to load a webpage in the default browser after clearing the cache (any random page will do) before attempting to use FFF. FFF will sometimes throw browser cache errors and not work when the browser cache is totally empty, and loading a page into the cache prevents this from happening.

The only other thing you need to do is make sure you have the correct browser cache path set. Windows and Mac tend to be fairly straightforward to locate based upon the FFF Wiki. Linux can be less so depending upon whether you are running your default browser from a browser actually installed directly in your Linux distro versus a browser running from a flatpack (i.e. the browser cache for flatpacked browsers is usually in a completely different location path than it is for installed browsers).

Thanks, I appreciate it. I've already managed to get the Browser Cache Method working for both Fanfiction.net and AO3 where I can see it actively collect the cache and open the tabs. It's made updating fanfics so much easier.

However, for AO3, I'm noticing a certain problem with the restricted works (blue lock) that I can't seem to figure out. I searched through, and I also don't see it addressed anywhere in past forum posts. Please feel free to redirect me to the solution if there is one.

Essentially, when I first open the fanfic url using FFF, it will navigate to the chapter index, and then to the chapter(s) I want downloaded. However, then FFF says that it can't be downloaded because it was "skipped" as, for example, it "already contains 1 chapters." I've also tried this with fanfics with multiple chapters, and the same thing happens where it says "already contains x chapters" where x is the total chapters for the fanfic. This is completely false, as I've failed to find the same fanfiction in my backups and calibre library. Do you happen to know why it's falsely saying this and skipping the download? Is there a bypass for this?

Edit: Using Overwrite Always fixes the issue, but if anyone can tell me, I'm still curious to know why this is happening when fetching cache for AO3 fanfics and if there's a fix. Thanks!

[steltek]

Originally Posted by SilentShadow123

Thanks, I appreciate it. I've already managed to get the Browser Cache Method working for both Fanfiction.net and AO3 where I can see it actively collect the cache and open the tabs. It's made updating fanfics so much easier.

However, for AO3, I'm noticing a certain problem with the restricted works (blue lock) that I can't seem to figure out. I searched through, and I also don't see it addressed anywhere in past forum posts. Please feel free to redirect me to the solution if there is one.

Essentially, when I first open the fanfic url using FFF, it will navigate to the chapter index, and then to the chapter(s) I want downloaded. However, then FFF says that it can't be downloaded because it was "skipped" as, for example, it "already contains 1 chapters." I've also tried this with fanfics with multiple chapters, and the same thing happens where it says "already contains x chapters" where x is the total chapters for the fanfic. This is completely false, as I've failed to find the same fanfiction in my backups and calibre library. Do you happen to know why it's falsely saying this and skipping the download? Is there a bypass for this?

Edit: Using Overwrite Always fixes the issue, but if anyone can tell me, I'm still curious to know why this is happening when fetching cache for AO3 fanfics and if there's a fix. Thanks!

In general, I keep FFF's output for the "Default If Story Already Exists" option set to "Update Epub Always". If I have a problem on AO3 that clearing the browser web cache and then closing/reopening the browser won't fix, I simply delete the fic and re-download it as it is usually far less effort to do so than trying to figure out what went wrong (especially when the problem that might have caused it is no longer happening on AO3).

And, as I previously stated, the simplest solution I've found for dealing with AO3's restricted stories is to ignore FFF's login options altogether and just keep a web browser tab logged into my AO3 account website at all times.

For this to work, though, you have to be logged in to your AO3 account in the default system browser being used to download into the browser cache. FFF should open what it needs for each fic separately in new tabs (worst case, generally 3 tabs at most per fic -- one for the fic navigation page, one for the first chapter of the fic, and a 3rd including the contents of the entire fic).

It is likely that missed chapters resulted from AO3 website issues -- while most of the big ones have been resolved for now, there are still random website glitches that occur - both Cloudflare related and not - all the time. FFF is usually very good about alerting you about fic downloads which have missing chapters before you update a fic.

And, finally, so far as I know FFF only updates the epub files it creates. If you have an epub in Calibre created or obtained from another source, FFF will not normally update it unless you do some sort of manual editing on it to make it compatible with FFF.

[DevilsReject97]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Maybe I will investigate adding an intermediate setting that keeps chapters that have succeeded, but still stops on first failure.

I wanted to see if you were still thinking about this? Or even an option to check box to keep them? Can't speak for others but I think it would be a huge help.