[GUI Plugin] calibre Auto-Updater

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

The actual error message would be a lot more helpful than "still causing a crash". The error could have moved to a new point in the code for all we know.

Here is the crash.

calibre, version 9.5.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>AttributeError</b>:type object 'QStandardPaths' has no attribute 'DownloadLocation'

calibre 9.5  embedded-python: True
Windows-11-10.0.26200-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '11', '10.0.26200')
Python 3.14.2
Windows: ('11', '10.0.26200', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeACSM (0, 0, 16) && Gather KFX-ZIP (from KFX Input) (2, 29, 0) && DeDRM (10, 0, 15) && Package KFX (from KFX Input) (2, 29, 0) && Apple Books covers (1, 1, 1) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 8) && BookFusion Plugin (0, 8, 1) && Calibre Auto-Updater (1, 1, 0) && Calibre Config Reports (4, 1, 0) && Count Pages (1, 14, 6) && Current Paths (3, 0, 0) && Diaps Editing Toolbag (0, 5, 0) && EpubCheck (0, 2, 6) && EpubMerge (3, 2, 0) && EpubSplit (3, 12, 0) && Favourites Menu (1, 3, 2) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 10) && Generate Cover (2, 3, 7) && Hyphenate This! (0, 1, 4) && KFX metadata reader (from KFX Input) (2, 29, 0) && From KFX (2, 29, 0) && KFX Input (2, 29, 0) && Set KFX metadata (from KFX Output) (2, 18, 0) && KFX Output (2, 18, 0) && Kindle hi-res covers (0, 5, 1) && KindleUnpack - The Plugin (0, 83, 8) && Kobo Metadata (1, 12, 1) && Kobo Utilities (2, 27, 1) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 9) && Palette Switcher (1, 1, 1000) && Quality Check (1, 14, 7) && Reading Goal (2, 0, 9) && Reading List (1, 15, 7) && ScrambleEbook (0, 6, 0) && StoryGraph (2, 0, 8) && TextDiff (1, 3, 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre_plugins.calibre_autoupdater.action", line 54, in ejecutar_actualizacion
  File "calibre_plugins.calibre_autoupdater.action", line 84, in actualizar_windows
AttributeError: type object 'QStandardPaths' has no attribute 'DownloadLocation'

[DiapDealer]

OK, that's my bad. I forgot that PyQt6 requires full enums. No shortcuts allowed. the line in question should actually read:

descargas = QStandardPaths.writableLocation(QStandardPaths.StandardLocation.DownloadLocation)

But something is still wrong. Once you click the OK button, Calibre closes and immediately complains that the installer is not valid. The calibre-setup.msi file HAS been created in Downloads, but it's only 3Kb in size. I think the "https://download.calibre-ebook.com/64bit" url is being redirected to an actual filename that urllib.request is not following. The urls for the other platforms actually end in file names.

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

OK, that's my bad. I forgot that PyQt6 requires full enums. the line in question should actually read:

descargas = QStandardPaths.writableLocation(QStandardPaths.Sta ndardLocation.DownloadLocation)

But something is still wrong. Once you click the OK button, Calibre closes and immediately complains that the installer is not valid. The calibre-setup.msi file HAS been created in Downloads, but it's only 3Kb in size. I think the "https://download.calibre-ebook.com/64bit" url is being redirected to an actual filename that urllib.request is not following. The urls for the other platforms actually end in file names.

If I'm checking, that's exactly what's happening on Mac, for example. The plugin downloads a renamed file, e.g., calibre-update.dmg, when in reality, from the website, it downloads calibre-9.5.0.dmg.

[DiapDealer]

Merely a case of the Windows download url being incorrect. It should be "https://calibre-ebook.com/dist/win64"

Changing that and the above enum issue got it working on my Windows 10 test machine.

[DiapDealer]

Looks like the macOS url should be "https://calibre-ebook.com/dist/osx" and then create the generic name to be saved as you do with Windows.

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Looks like the macOS url should be "https://calibre-ebook.com/dist/osx" and then create the generic name to be saved as you do with Windows.

Thanks for the help debugging this!"
next version v1.1.1

[DiapDealer]

No problem. I can't test the macOS version. It looks like you're doing something a little different when running the installer on macOS. On Windows it's os.startfile(dest) (if dest exists) and on macOS it looks like you're using subprocess.Popen on the downloaded .dmg. Hopefully someone can confirm it's working on macOS.

[dunhill]

New Update: Version 1.1.1
I've just uploaded version 1.1.1 with some critical fixes for Windows and macOS.
What's New:
Improved Path Detection: Now using QStandardPaths to dynamically find the Downloads folder. This solves the "folder not found" error for users with OneDrive backup enabled or non-English system paths.
Redirection Fix: Updated the download URLs to ensure the installer is downloaded correctly (fixing the 3KB file issue).
macOS Stability: Better handling of the .dmg file to prevent "damaged image" errors on newer versions like Tahoe.
Clearer Instructions: Updated the confirmation dialog to be more explicit about which calibre installations are supported.
Special Thanks:
A huge shout-out to DiapDealer for the invaluable suggestion regarding QStandardPaths and the PyQt6 enum syntax. Your feedback helped make this plugin much more robust for the community!

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

No problem. I can't test the macOS version. It looks like you're doing something a little different when running the installer on macOS. On Windows it's os.startfile(dest) (if dest exists) and on macOS it looks like you're using subprocess.Popen on the downloaded .dmg. Hopefully someone can confirm its working on macOS.

I'm sharing the file with people using Macs to see the new behavior.

[dunhill]

Tested and working on MacOS! Enjoy!

[JSWolf]

I downloaded calibre via the plugin and I did an md5sum of both installers and they matched.

[kovidgoyal]

Just FYI if you are running upgrades on macOS and windows, they can be fully automated you dont need the user to perform manual steps. Google how to use msiexec to automate msi installation and for macOS you can use hdiutil and ditto to automate copying. See the update-on-ox script in calibre for an example.

Similarly on Linux you can prompt the user for their sudo password and then pipe it in to STDIN to automate. Of course Linux is a total mess of custom setups some people may not use sudo preferring an alternative, others may have setup passwordless sudo and so on and so forth.

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just FYI if you are running upgrades on macOS and windows, they can be fully automated you dont need the user to perform manual steps. Google how to use msiexec to automate msi installation and for macOS you can use hdiutil and ditto to automate copying. See the update-on-ox script in calibre for an example.

Similarly on Linux you can prompt the user for their sudo password and then pipe it in to STDIN to automate. Of course Linux is a total mess of custom setups some people may not use sudo preferring an alternative, others may have setup passwordless sudo and so on and so forth.

Thank you so much for the tips, Kovid! I really appreciate you taking the time to point me in the right direction.
Automating the installation via msiexec and hdiutil sounds like the perfect path to make the experience seamless. I will definitely look into the update-on-osx script for inspiration.
For now, I'll focus on making sure the download process is 100% stable across all platforms with the current manual steps, and then I'll start working on full automation for the next major release. Thanks again!

[PeterT]

On Windows 11 I've been just using the built-in winget command to check for and install updates.

[JSWolf]

I have some ideas for updated to the plug-in that would make it much more useful.

Allow us to select a directory we want to put the installer in and name the installer based on the version number. Putting is in the Windows Downloads directory with a fixed name is not a good idea. We would not have an older version should we want to go back. Also, I'd rather be able to clean out the downloads directory when I want.

There have been some minor cases where something wasn't working and the only solution was to go to the previous version.