[GUI Plugin] Kindle Collections (old)

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by meme

A new version of the plugin is available. See my signature, or after upgrading to Calibre 0.8.6 just use the new built-in plugin updater feature!

Requires calibre 0.8.6

This should fix the integration with Reading List (the plugin formerly known as Book Sync).

A few pages ago...

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

Seriously, if you guys get together and create something along those lines, I pledge to donate US$25 to each of you the day a working file is posted. I know it's not much, but it's more tangible than gratitude.

Just wanted to let y'all know that I am a woman of my word. Today, a working solution for my request is in place. (Fortunately, it coincided with pay day.) Excellent job from everyone involved, which includes not only Meme and Kiwidude, but also Kovid and the other calibre devs.

I encourage anyone who uses these plugins to donate if you can. Now that the Plugin Updater is integrated into calibre, it couldn't be easier to do so. That goes for calibre too - click on that cute heart button once in a while. It'll make you feel good, and it will make them feel appreciated.

[kiwidude]

@CWatkinsNash - thank you very much, and you are lovely for encouraging others to do so too.

[meme]

@CWatkinNash - Thank you! And of course, if something isn't working or could be better, just come back and beat us up

[meme]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Hi Meme!

First off, thank you, thank you, thank you!

You're welcome.

Second, I have two questions: 1. Using the "Foo" example, is there anyway to set it up so that if the book is in a series collection AND in an Author collection, one can be ignored?

I have the plug in set to create a collection for any series with 3 or more books and any author with 3 or more books - more often then not that creates two collections with the exact same books. Is there away around that without having an incredibly long ignore list?

Sounds like you might be moving into custom column territory, but the book count issue could be tricky - I'll have a look to see what can be done

EDIT: A custom column can be setup to create an entry for a Series if there is one and if not use the Author. But then if you limit to 3 books in the plugin, it may be that if you have only 2 books in a series your custom column will show the series name but the plugin will skip it because it has too few books - and the book won't be put into a collection for the author either. I don't see any obvious way in the custom column template language to count the number of books for a series (but I only just looked) which is what is needed. Otherwise the plugin would have to be updated to support some kind of template language to allow comparisons which is probably a bit much. I'll look again at template language - it may be quite simple or even require another plugin

2. Reading list - To make sure I understand, we no longer have to run the Kindle Collection plugin if our books were already on the reading list prior to connecting the Kindle?

Exactly. Justfire up calibre, add some books to your Reading List, then connect your Kindle - Reading List will send them to your Kindle and then tell Kindle Collections to run Create Collections for you automatically. (This assumes you have enabled that option in Reading List - once you add your device, and set the option to automatically send to device, on the column on the far right of the device entry is a Y/N checkbox for Kindle Collections).

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by meme

Sounds like you might be moving into custom column territory, but the book count issue could be tricky - I'll have a look to see what can be done

EDIT: A custom column can be setup to create an entry for a Series if there is one and if not use the Author. But then if you limit to 3 books in the plugin, it may be that if you have only 2 books in a series your custom column will show the series name but the plugin will skip it because it has too few books - and the book won't be put into a collection for the author either. I don't see any obvious way in the custom column template language to count the number of books for a series (but I only just looked) which is what is needed. Otherwise the plugin would have to be updated to support some kind of template language to allow comparisons which is probably a bit much. I'll look again at template language - it may be quite simple or even require another plugin

So removing the "# of books" restriction would make this doable, without another plugin having to be created? My only concern there would be that I'd end up with almost 200 series collections (I have a lot of first books to see if they & the series pique my interest)

Originally Posted by meme

Exactly. Justfire up calibre, add some books to your Reading List, then connect your Kindle - Reading List will send them to your Kindle and then tell Kindle Collections to run Create Collections for you automatically. (This assumes you have enabled that option in Reading List - once you add your device, and set the option to automatically send to device, on the column on the far right of the device entry is a Y/N checkbox for Kindle Collections).

That is awesome! I've been using the reading list to sync up my newer books - having them go straight into their respective collections is a huge huge plus. Thank you again, your work is very much appreciated.

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

I encourage anyone who uses these plugins to donate if you can. Now that the Plugin Updater is integrated into calibre, it couldn't be easier to do so. That goes for calibre too - click on that cute heart button once in a while. It'll make you feel good, and it will make them feel appreciated.

100% I was so happy when I sent off my donations last month, and I plan to do so again in the future.
Those who can, please help thank the people and support the products that make Library Management, and all it entails, a breeze.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@CWatkinsNash - thank you very much, and you are lovely for encouraging others to do so too.

Originally Posted by meme

@CWatkinNash - Thank you! And of course, if something isn't working or could be better, just come back and beat us up

You're both welcome. It might be a while before I can fully use it - I completely cleaned out my Kindle yesterday morning, and I've only put the bare minimum back on it so far (the books on my Priority lists, actually). I'll load the rest in batches later today, and I'll put the last batch on a list and do a run-through.

I need to reconfigure my Collections settings anyway. I'm changing my system a bit. Again.

In other words, if something isn't working, your beating won't come right away.

[markdek]

What has changed, if anything, w/ 1.7? And if this is documented any where, where? Thxs.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by markdek

What has changed, if anything, w/ 1.7? And if this is documented any where, where? Thxs.

In version history in the first post from this thread:

Version 1.7.0 - 17 June 2011
- Changed create/preview/view to background jobs to avoid blocking calibre and to support Reading List correctly
- Changed collections to merge when multiple Calibre columns have the same collection name
- Added code to refresh collection list in Device Tab after Create (but all collections won't be visible until calibre is updated to correctly show Kindle collections)
- Fixed issue with rare crash if a particular book's timestamp could not be read
- Moved warning about books being manually edited to report instead of dialog
- Removed unnecessary extra call to get device info which confused job percentage complete
- Requires Calibre 0.8.6 - in order to support jobs and syncing correctly

The biggest thing is that it now properly works with Reading Lists' ability to trigger Collections to run after syncing.

[masterebotzki]

Does the font changer work with a kindle 2? I am sorry if this question has been asked already. Thank you for your help.

[trksh22]

This is a great idea. I'm deleting it for now and will reinstall when it has been "dumbed down" some more. I'm just not getting it, it is not as easy as others seem to find it. Collections being created when I didn't request them to be, I add 10 books to a collection on only 5 books show up... I know it's me so I'll wait a bit more. I was hoping that this would be something more like create a folder and drag and drop. It's more like WORD when I can only handle NOTEPAD. I'm sure I'll "get it" in time!

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by trksh22

This is a great idea. I'm deleting it for now and will reinstall when it has been "dumbed down" some more. I'm just not getting it, it is not as easy as others seem to find it. Collections being created when I didn't request them to be, I add 10 books to a collection on only 5 books show up... I know it's me so I'll wait a bit more. I was hoping that this would be something more like create a folder and drag and drop. It's more like WORD when I can only handle NOTEPAD. I'm sure I'll "get it" in time!

If you would list the steps you are taking and the type of collections you would like to create, I am sure there are many users here who would help to dumb down your process for you, or smarten you up???

[trksh22]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

If you would list the steps you are taking and the type of collections you would like to create, I am sure there are many users here who would help to dumb down your process for you, or smarten you up???

Thanks for the awesome offer! I just realized that I could manage collections from my kindle. Rather than doing it book by book, I could just go into the collection and add books that way. Since I have pages of books, I didn't go through it all. I was able to delete the auto-created collections and add the books that didn't add. Some time this week, I'll go through and really read the first post and sort my collections afterwards. If I have questions, I'll be sure to ask! I'd feel better asking questions that I can't find an answer to, not one of those questions where people answer: "reread the first post!" (Hope that makes sense!)

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by trksh22

Thanks for the awesome offer! I just realized that I could manage collections from my kindle. Rather than doing it book by book, I could just go into the collection and add books that way. Since I have pages of books, I didn't go through it all. I was able to delete the auto-created collections and add the books that didn't add. Some time this week, I'll go through and really read the first post and sort my collections afterwards. If I have questions, I'll be sure to ask! I'd feel better asking questions that I can't find an answer to, not one of those questions where people answer: "reread the first post!" (Hope that makes sense!)

It makes sense and since you have not read the 70 pages of this topic you have not seen it mentioned many times to ask your question, we do not mind you re-asking a question that has been covered, why make you read all those 70 pages. But if you want you can also so a search from within this topic. But either way, fee free to ask. This is an awesome tool and once you get the hang of it, you will realize you never want to create another collection on the kindle again.

[meme]

Originally Posted by trksh22

I just realized that I could manage collections from my kindle. Rather than doing it book by book, I could just go into the collection and add books that way. Since I have pages of books, I didn't go through it all. I was able to delete the auto-created collections and add the books that didn't add.

Because the plugin does a few different things it can be a bit confusing. There's no need to delete it to add back later. Most if not all the major functions/updates have been done now (until someone pops up with another great suggestion )

To help when you're ready to try again (by the way thanks for trying and then posting - everyone is more than happy to help around here as you can see ) try this:


First you need to decide if you want to manage your collections directly - like drag and drop on the Kindle, or automatically using the book information in Calibre.


If you want to just edit the collections then just run the plugin's "Edit Kindle Collections Manually" option. You'll get a simple editor you can use to add/remove books from collections - its not drag and drop but its pretty easy to use. This is a direct replacement for manually editing collections on the Kindle itself.


But if you want to have collections created automatically using the information you stored in Calibre then you can use ["b]Create collections on the Kindle from Calibre[/b]. For this you need to use the "Customize" option first in order to tell the plugin what collections to create. It sounds like you tried this and got some collections. But you must be aware that "Create collections" only works with books that are in Calibre. If you have books that are only on the Kindle you have to manually put them in collections - the "Create" function has a customize option that tells it to leave these Kindle-Only collections alone - or import them into Calibre.


As nynaevelan said, if that still doesn't help, just post exactly what you want to accomplish and what steps you are doing to try to get there, and someone will jump in with a tip that will probably get you going quickly.

[cmcanulty]

Everywhere I look for the collections plugin leads me back to this forum and 35 pages of posts. Is there a way to actually download the plugin? Thanks. PS I am using Ubuntu Linux