Feature Request

[PermaTourist]

Since Calibre keeps track of the unique hardware ID of individual devices (in a driveinfo.calibre file on each device - e.g.

{"device_store_uuid": "305c6bb2-676a-4c31-a65a-e0d7c838812e", "prefix": "/media/disk/", "device_name": "Kobo Reader", "calibre_version": "0.7.50", "location_code": "A", "last_library_uuid": "096e45b3-d298-44d1-9393-63f22fe9eb58", "date_last_connected": "2011-03-18T22:02:59.604058+00:00"}

and

{"device_store_uuid": "948b1d5d-7415-40f7-bf23-15fd7d0100a0", "prefix": "/media/disk/", "device_name": "Kobo Reader", "calibre_version": "0.7.50", "location_code": "A", "last_library_uuid": null, "date_last_connected": "2011-03-25T19:39:57.104684+00:00"}

and

{"device_store_uuid": "c2a830cb-cb36-4ec9-abfd-033103b58e54", "prefix": "/media/KOBOeReader/", "device_name": "Kobo Reader", "calibre_version": "0.7.50", "location_code": "main", "last_library_uuid": null, "date_last_connected": "2011-03-25T19:39:57.093929+00:00"}

)

as well as whether the device is the reader itself or a card (see location_code, above), would it be possible to read in that device_store_uuid and use it to reference a new field (perhaps named something like "OnMedia"), ideally with the option of letting the user (re)define the actual contents of the new field (i.e. "SD-A", "Card01", "4G_Card", etc)?

Failing that, could that ID be exposed via the template system so a user could point it at a custom column?

If I were familiar with Python, I'd have a go at doing it myself, but...

[kovidgoyal]

Those aren't unique hardware ids, they're random numbers generated by calibre.

As I said before many storage cards/ebook reader devices do not have accessible unique ids. Heck many ebook readers dont even have usb serial numbers. For some reason you chose not to believe me.

[Manichean]

Even assuming a crappy standard pseudorandom number generator, shouldn't numbers of that length be random enough for practical purposes? Thus allowing an implementation of such a feature?

[PermaTourist]

That's the same question I was going to ask. In the same vein, why bother creating those numbers if they aren't going to used for something?

[chaley]

I added them because I felt like it. I will take them out if that makes things clearer.

[PermaTourist]

I have a single Kobo reader, and (currently) 2 SD cards dedicated to it. What I would like to be able to do is have Calibre keep track of which books are on which card, and display that information.

I started out by asking if there was a way to accomplish that already, and if so, if someone would be kind enough to point me to instructions on how to do so:

It would be Really Nice(tm) if Calibre could differentiate automagically (and display it), but failing that, I'd be fine with doing a custom column and populating it if there was a way to distinguish between SD cards from within Calibre, so I could store different genres to different cards (Tech vs Reference vs SciFi vs ...).

If Calibre can already do that, could some kind soul point me at instructions/directions?

I was told that Calibre doesn't distinguish between SD cards.

My next thought was to see if there wasn't some way of working around the situation - perhaps a unique file would work; maybe by filename, or a special meta tag within a dummy epub. So while looking into that possibility, I saw the driveinfo.calibre files, and looked inside them. Comparing the files between the two SD cards and the Kobo, each looked to have a unique number. Kovid, it is NOT that I chose not to believe you - it was a case of trying to find a different way of addressing the problem. Very well, then - the numbers are NOT globally unique hardware numbers.

Given their size, however, could they not be treated as unique? Particularly when only a limited number of such cards are being used by a single person, with a single reader? If you feel a need to disavow any actual randomness, then I (for one) wouldn't have any problem with that - I'm quite willing to take my chances against a collision between two 32-character strings.

I would think that I can't be the only person that would like to have the ability to keep different books on different SD cards for my reader; I am trying to find a way to achieve that goal, and thus add functionality to Calibre. Toward that end, I would be quite happy if I could get even a little support (some encouragement or suggestions would be nice; a relatively minor edit would be wonderful):

Failing that, could that ID be exposed via the template system so a user could point it at a custom column?

[Manichean]

Don't you think asking once is enough? You've been answered in the other thread you created on the topic already, the answer is not likely going to change the second time.

[PermaTourist]

Very well, then.

[kovidgoyal]

I'm certainly not interested in implementing this, but if anyone else wants to work on it, I'll review the patch.

Though really, it would be nice to know why you want to put different books on different SD cards. In this day and age of networked and very cheap storage, what's the point?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

I added them because I felt like it. I will take them out if that makes things clearer.

Thank you for the laugh.

I came to work this evening to find a Data Center HVAC failure. I just now finished the write up and reading this helped relieve some of the stress that I didn't realize was there until I laughed.

Funny bone karma to you.