[The Older version] Calibre2opds V2

[chyron8472]

Originally Posted by itimpi

You still did not answer the question about what version you are running!

I certainly no longer get popups with the latest version (2.3).

Aha! I was running 2.1. Not sure why, as I only started using this the other day...

Running 2.4 beta 3 now. That seems to have fixed my issue.

[chyron8472]

Okay, now that I thoroughly feel like an idiot, I have a small issue in 2.4 beta 3:

The bullet images next to Authors, Tags, Series, etc. are present when browsing in Firefox, but not on my Kindle (I get a broken image placeholder). However, the book cover images and thumbnails work fine.

[itimpi]

I suspect that is because for optimal performance they are encoded as binary in the HTML that is downloaded and the Kindle browser does not know how to handle that. I will have a word with David Pierron (who does the programming) about whether they could (perhaps optionally) be external links.

[sdspieg]

[I apoogize if this has been addressed, but a search in this forum didn't yield anything]
Is there a way to JUST update NEW Calibre entries (i.e. not to regenerate all of them)? I have a large calibre e-doc collection (>6000 documents/books) and happily use calibre2opds with dropbox (and then Aldiko on my Android phone). But it is a big hassle to always update and synchronize all the files calibre2opds creates across a few computers. Yet I haven't found a way to do this only incrementally. Did I overlook something? Or is there another solution? Thanks.

[KLStringer]

Hello, I'm new to the whole Calibre thing and was trying to set it up in a client/server environment which it doesn't like and in my quest to find an ebook management system that is friendly to a client/server environment I was pointed in the the direction of Calibre2opds. Before I send a couple more days trying to set up something that can't do what I need to do with it I have a few questions for anyone who might know the answers.

I have over 20GB of manuals and training material in various formats that I want to make downloadable over The Internet in an end-user selectable format so that they can read them on their personal ebook reader or PDA. I have an Apache web server already running and want to ingrate with it so that the library is just another link on the home page that is accessible after the user logs in.

I guess my question is can Calibre2opds be deployed in this manner and how do I configure it? Do I need to first install Calibre load it with the material, create catalogs, etc, then install and configure Calibre2opds to integrate the library with my existing web site? Or is Calibre2opds a standalone product install it, point to where I want to database created, point the web site to the database, import my material, and then?

[KLStringer]

Well I've answered at least one of my questions, I'll need to have a working install of Calibre somewhere I can use the GUI at.

[dpierron]

Hi KLStringer,

Calibre is a different product than calibre2opds ; the former is used to maintain a database of ebooks and their metadata, the latter uses the database (alongside the ebooks files) to generate a static catalog in OPDS (xml) and html formats.

So, provided you can share a few directories between your "production" machine (the web server) and your "gui" machine, you absolutely can use Calibre and calibre2opds in the way you described.

On the "gui" machine (either Linux with a WindowManager, OsX, or Windows) you can run Calibre and make it generate its database in a shared directory of the webserver machine. Then you can run calibre2opds on the gui machine, and make it generate the catalogs on the same shared directory of the webserver machine.
Finally, you have to setup Apache so it serves this shared directory on the internet, and voilà : your catalog and ebooks are online.

Hope it helps,
David.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by KLStringer

Well I've answered at least one of my questions, I'll need to have a working install of Calibre somewhere I can use the GUI at.

Calibre2opds has its own 'home' site at https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Calibre2opds

Hopefully the documentation available there will answer most of your questions. If not please ask any questions you feel are not answered, and as well as trying to provide the answers I will also try and improve the documentation to include them for future reference.

[KLStringer]

Thanks for the responses guys, I've been reading Calibre2opds wiki and have Calibre building the database if I run into anything I can't figure out or find an answer to I'll be sure to ask.

[KLStringer]

Ok I've installed Calibre, created a database and converted a couple books to epub but keep getting an error when I try to run the rungui.cmd for calibre2opds (see attachemnt). I read the how to create a catalog post but where do I find the catalog it creates? There's nothing but a bunch of folders and a metadata.db file in my library. I'm guessing that I need to fix the error before I can have calibre2opds create a catalog that I can host?

• EDIT: Fixed the error by copying javaw.exe to the calibre2opds folder
• How do I limit it to create a catalog of just a few select books?
• Small issue when I view the html files in _catalog from the server the database is on I get the book covers when I browse the library, when I view the web page from the web server I don't get the book covers. I think this may be because I only linked to the _catalog folder.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by KLStringer

[*]EDIT: Fixed the error by copying javaw.exe to the calibre2opds folder

You should also be able to fix this issue by ensuring that JAVAW.EXE is on the system search path. We hear of other people who encounter this problem, but many do not. It is not clear what the factor is that causes the problem for some and not others.

[*]How do I limit it to create a catalog of just a few select books?

Calibre2opds is not really set up to do this. The closest you can come is to specify tags that need to be present for a book to be added to the catalog. Depending on exactly what youa re trying to achieve that may meet your requirement?

[*]Small issue when I view the html files in _catalog from the server the database is on I get the book covers when I browse the library, when I view the web page from the web server I don't get the book covers. I think this may be because I only linked to the _catalog folder.

Probably. The web server needs to have access to the full Calibre library as the covers (and books) are referenced by URL's that are relative to the catalog folder and are based on the assumption that the catalog folder is in the root of the calibre library.

[Coleccionista]

I've tried 2.4.beta3 and found a couple of odd things (bugs?)

First, I indicate the catalog to be created at H:\foo, (basefolder) and _catalog as name.
calibre2opds puts the author folders one level above the _catalog and in the process of creating the catalog deleted all the previous contents of H:\foo without warning.

Also the catalog got created but the first time all the covers appeared as red X (missing) in the browser , I created the same catalog again and the second time covers appeared. :-?

Other than that I'd like the folder structure to have one top-level "index.html" and then subfolders so you don't have to go through "subfolder_name/index.html" or create a intermediate /index.html to load the "subfolder_name/index.html"

Thank you for the program anyway, calibre catalog in HTML (with no calibre running) is definitely a good thing to have.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Coleccionista

First, I indicate the catalog to be created at H:\foo, (basefolder) and _catalog as name. calibre2opds puts the author folders one level above the _catalog and in the process of creating the catalog deleted all the previous contents of H:\foo without warning.

Ny 'basefolder' I assume that you were using one of the modes where you specify a destination folder? If so which one so I can look further?

I do not think that existing files/folders at that level should have been deleted but there may be a raeson depending on what mode you were using. I will have a word with Dave Pierron about this. It is normal to delete any non-catalog files at the catalog folder (which from your description was not the issue) so that you do not accumulate obsolete files at this level. However maybe a warning should be displayed anyway that the existing contents of the catalog folder are going to be lost if not part of the new catalog.

The level above the catalog folder is assumed to hold all the book files in the same structure as the calibre library. This means that the catalog can actually be generated 'in-situ' with an existing calibre library as all the catalog related files are one level down.

Also the catalog got created but the first time all the covers appeared as red X (missing) in the browser , I created the same catalog again and the second time covers appeared. :-?

There has already been a report of this. I have not peresonally had time to try and reproduce it, but it is definitely a bug.

Other than that I'd like the folder structure to have one top-level "index.html" and then subfolders so you don't have to go through "subfolder_name/index.html" or create a intermediate /index.html to load the "subfolder_name/index.html"

Are you talking about this being at the level above the 'catalog' folder? If so that should be easy enough to add. Thinking about it you can probably simply create a shortcut at that level. If calibre2opds does not delete any files at that level they would then stay in place. If you are thinking about something else, then please explain what it is you are actually looking for. It is not normallyan issue as people seem to have been quite happy to have _catalog/index.html as the last part of the start URL

[Coleccionista]

Ny 'basefolder' I assume that you were using one of the modes where you specify a destination folder? If so which one so I can look further?

Yes, I was using "Publish Mode", the one with the NAS icon.

Are you talking about this being at the level above the 'catalog' folder? If so that should be easy enough to add. Thinking about it you can probably simply create a shortcut at that level. If calibre2opds does not delete any files at that level they would then stay in place. If you are thinking about something else, then please explain what it is you are actually looking for. It is not normallyan issue as people seem to have been quite happy to have _catalog/index.html as the last part of the start URL

I was talking exactly of what you say. I've created an index.html that uses the load-refresh meta tag to go to _catalog/index.html. Just thought that a better folder structure should have index.html in the base folder with all the rest of the files in different subfolders.
I understand now that this is done to help the usage in the "calibre mode" but maybe it can be tweaked when you choose "Publish" mode

[sdspieg]

Originally Posted by sdspieg

[I apoogize if this has been addressed, but a search in this forum didn't yield anything]
Is there a way to JUST update NEW Calibre entries (i.e. not to regenerate all of them)? I have a large calibre e-doc collection (>6000 documents/books) and happily use calibre2opds with dropbox (and then Aldiko on my Android phone). But it is a big hassle to always update and synchronize all the files calibre2opds creates across a few computers. Yet I haven't found a way to do this only incrementally. Did I overlook something? Or is there another solution? Thanks.

Can anybody please take another look at this?

Thanks