Calibre 0.7 + Apple iDevices (Archived)

[ChristopherTD]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I may be wrong but if I were going to use two devices I would minimize my variables by going to Preferences - Plugins - Device interface Plugin and disable the plugin for Apple devices and just use the Connect to iTunes feature from now on to send books from calibre to iTunes.

This should give you a clean iTunes interface to both devices without calibre accidentally stepping on the process.

Now that is an excellent idea. Last night I repopulated iTunes using the Connect to iTunes feature (which I spotted for the first time).

Thanks again for a super-effective suggestion!

[pthwaite]

yes, thanks, and I may do this it's just I do daily use the Calibre news recipe getter for putting various newspapers etc on my iPad before I get up. I'm usually leaving in a rush as I need to cycle a fair distance to and from work and could do without the iTunes hassle.

But certainly the issues is related to multiple "i" devices.

[satbuster]

It would be really neat if there were some more options to handle book series and the display from within iBooks. The mapping of the series to the Genre field that makes it appear as a Category in iBooks is really nice.

But it would be nice if there was some way to sequence them.

It would be neat, I think, if the book title (iTunes->Get Info->Info->Name) could optionally have " - Book n of m" appended if the book is part of a series in Calibre.

Incredible would be if there was a way for us to define/override the mapping ourselves using python somehow from within Calibre (like Advanced->Tweaks).


Great iPad integration nevertheless

[satbuster]

Made some minor changes to the OSX portions of the relevant code and came up with something that works for me. Would have made it configurable but the UI code is a bit weird.

$ bzr diff src/calibre/devices/apple/driver.py
=== modified file 'src/calibre/devices/apple/driver.py'
--- src/calibre/devices/apple/driver.py    2010-09-21 04:08:52 +0000
+++ src/calibre/devices/apple/driver.py    2010-10-03 12:36:39 +0000
@@ -2623,14 +2623,16 @@
                 fraction = index-integer
                 series_index = '%04d%s' % (integer, str('%0.4f' % fraction).lstrip('0'))
                 if lb_added:
+                    lb_added.name.set("%s (Book %d)" % (metadata.title, integer))
                     lb_added.sort_name.set("%s %s" % (metadata.series, series_index))
-                    lb_added.genre.set(metadata.series)
+                    lb_added.genre.set("%s - %s" % (metadata.series, authors_to_string(metadata.authors)))
                     lb_added.episode_ID.set(metadata.series)
                     lb_added.episode_number.set(metadata.series_index)
 
                 if db_added:
+                    db_added.name.set("%s (Book %d)" % (metadata.title, integer))
                     db_added.sort_name.set("%s %s" % (metadata.series, series_index))
-                    db_added.genre.set(metadata.series)
+                    db_added.genre.set("%s - %s" % (metadata.series, authors_to_string(metadata.authors)))
                     db_added.episode_ID.set(metadata.series)
                     db_added.episode_number.set(metadata.series_index)

[GRiker]

@satbuster: I'm looking at modifying the iTunes driver to use the metadata plugboard feature, as that will be user-configurable.

G

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by satbuster

It would be really neat if there were some more options to handle book series and the display from within iBooks. The mapping of the series to the Genre field that makes it appear as a Category in iBooks is really nice.

But it would be nice if there was some way to sequence them.

It would be neat, I think, if the book title (iTunes->Get Info->Info->Name) could optionally have " - Book n of m" appended if the book is part of a series in Calibre.

Incredible would be if there was a way for us to define/override the mapping ourselves using python somehow from within Calibre (like Advanced->Tweaks).


Great iPad integration nevertheless

Take a look at the first post in this thread, in the 'Metadata mapping' section, describing how the plugboard integration will work iTunes in 0.7.23. You'll be able to transform the title, except for "Book n of m", as 'm' is unknown. But you can do 'Book n'.

G

[GRiker]

The Apple iTunes driver in 0.7.23 now supports metadata plugboards. In plain English, that means that you can change a book's metadata during a download. A common use is to add the series name to a book's title as displayed in iTunes/iBooks. See the first post in this thread for examples (click the spoiler button labeled 'Metadata Mapping and Plugboard Transforms').

Another change in the driver: the <dc:language> is no longer forced to 'en'. Plugboards may be configured to add a <dc:language> element with your choice of language.

G

[garcle]

I would liek to help out by updating the user manual in accordance witht he latest version updates.
Let me know if this is somethign that would be possible.

[kovidgoyal]

Sure, the user manual files are all here:

http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~kovid/c...alibre/manual/


They are all files with the .rst extension. Just click on any one to view/download it, update it and send me the updated version. You should probably start with gui.rst as it is the most outdated.

[Lonniec3]

Hey Guys,

This is my first post. I hope it's in the right place.

One question: When is the iPad app going to be in the App Store?

What a joy it would be to not have to load up calibre on my iMac to mark a book Read, sync, or even download from my iMac.

I think I remember a Date Read column in calibre, but with the recent updates, I fear it has disappeared.

Lonnie in Panama

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Lonniec3

One question: When is the iPad app going to be in the App Store?

Never

The iPad iOS would not allow an app like Calibre to function on the iPad .

That means that you are limited to using the iPad as a reading device .

[Lonniec3]

Interesting! Would you mind explaining your reasoning, please?

Lonnie in Panama

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Lonniec3

Interesting! Would you mind explaining your reasoning, please?

Lonnie in Panama

The main reason a Calibre iPad App won't happen is because the developer, Kovid, has stated he isn't interested in supporting such an App.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

The main reason a Calibre iPad App won't happen is because the developer, Kovid, has stated he isn't interested in supporting such an App.

It is a lot more than that! I am not all sure it would even be technically possible. Reasons I can think of off-hand, any of which are likely to be deal-breakers are:
- You would have to get the vast number of libraries that Calibre uses also ported to the iOS environment.
- The application would have to be developed in xCode to be allowed onto the iPad. I am not sure that Python can be converted to this, let alone the supporting libraries.
- I do not expect Qt would port, so the GUI would need to be completely redone.
- The iPad is severly memory constrained, so the current implementation would have to change radically.
- The mutli-tasking of apps on iPad is severely constrained so that major architectural changes would be required.
- Performance would be abysmal because of the limited processing power.

I am sure there are others, but that seems a large enough list to me.

It is possible that as the iOS system evolves that some of these may disappear in the future. Also some of these restrictions may not apply to Jailbroken devices but that would not be an acceptable requirement I do not think.

[ChristopherTD]

I have encountered a problem with 1 book. Now it may be related to the book, or it may be related to iTunes 10.1 (beta).

I sent 2 other books without incident, but this particular one didn't work. Any ideas?


Anyway, here is the error message:

ERROR: Error: Error communicating with device


unicode' object has no attribute 'isoformat'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 69, in run
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 376, in _upload_books
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/apple/driver.py", line 924, in upload_books
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/apple/driver.py", line 2023, in _get_fpath
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/apple/driver.py", line 2564, in _update_epub_metadata
File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/metadata/epub.py", line 237, in set_metadata
File "site-packages/calibre/ebooks/metadata/opf2.py", line 423, in __set__
File "site-packages/calibre/utils/date.py", line 105, in isoformat
AttributeError: 'unicode' object has no attribute 'isoformat'