[GUI Plugin] FanFictionDownLoader

[ILB]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

@ILB - That story works fine for me. What's your OS? There have been some possible issues reported with some stories when using Linux.

Windows Vista

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

If either of you could gather the debug output (run calibre as 'calibre-debug -g' from command line and save the output) and post it for me, that would help a lot, too.

How exactly do I do that?

[JimmXinu]

Version 1.5.36 - 18 Jun 2012
(1.5.35 skipped)
- Better error handling for bad image_max_size parameter.
- Fix issue with fanfiction.net covers and non-epub formats.
- Fix series# with javascript and different warning#s. geturls w/javascript.

As usual, there may be a delay before calibre notices the new version. You can get the latest by going in and telling calibre to install it again.

[ILB]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Version 1.5.36 - 18 Jun 2012

Thanks! That fixed my problem.

[TrulyInnovative]

I figured I'd ask about this: Any chance of getting support for the The Stargate Novel Archive:

http://www.shahrazad.net/~sgnovels/

I don't know how easy the site would be to parse and the fics are in .txt format rather than html. If it's not very easy, no big deal, the fics can be downloaded by hand quite conveniently anyway.

[cryzed]

I was wondering: why don't you consider hosting your plugin on Bitbucket? You might not like it as much as Google Code (although I can't see possible reasons for that) but code contribution will be way easier and more possible contributors would find the project. It's all about the minimum of effort required to contribute, and the lower you set that barrier the more people will help.

[JimmXinu]

I didn't create the initial project, so I've never considered pros and cons of other project sites. There'd have to be a much more compelling reason than 'more possible contributors' to overcome inertia.

[iatheia]

Originally Posted by TrulyInnovative

I figured I'd ask about this: Any chance of getting support for the The Stargate Novel Archive:

http://www.shahrazad.net/~sgnovels/

I don't know how easy the site would be to parse and the fics are in .txt format rather than html. If it's not very easy, no big deal, the fics can be downloaded by hand quite conveniently anyway.

My rule of thumb is "Can you add a story automatically without having to email it to the administrators so they would have to create a separate page page for it by hand?"

If you know any websites that satisfy this criteria, I'll happily work on them, but this one would be a bit too painful to claw metadata from.

Originally Posted by cryzed

I was wondering: why don't you consider hosting your plugin on Bitbucket? You might not like it as much as Google Code (although I can't see possible reasons for that) but code contribution will be way easier and more possible contributors would find the project. It's all about the minimum of effort required to contribute, and the lower you set that barrier the more people will help.

It isn't as though it is that hard to get involved in the project right now. I got in without even knowing anything about Python because I wanted for a certain site to be supported and none of the developers at the time were particularly interested.
Also Google allows us to have an easily accessible web interface for the code, which is pretty nifty.

[cryzed]

@JimmXinu what could possibly be more important than more contributors? More contributors equals faster and better development. And did you try using Bitbucket for other projects yet? The general ease of use/interface is really worth it, you might want to check it out and give it a proper thought instead of down-right refusing the thought with some strange ultimatum (what could possibly be more "compelling"?).

Again, I'm not trying to be an asshole, just honestly trying to help this project somehow, but this isn't the first time you shut me down without even thinking about my suggestion.

@iatheia to you I direct the same concerns: Did you actually take a look at Bitbucket? It's the leading and most popular website for DVCS code hosting in regards to Mercurial, of course it would also have an "easily accessible web interface for the code" which is, by the way, far superior to that of Google Code's. This is of course only a single feature, some other features that might raise interest are: easy forking of projects and thus collaboration, the possibility to create a branch within the project which acts a website (hosted directly by bitbucket.org) when properly configured and e.g. being able to comment on every commit/line freely. Some more features can be seen here (bottom).

[iatheia]

There is a saying that "seven nannies cannot keep a child attended."
More 'potential' contributors listed != better and faster code, especially if they don't want to do anything. Jim and I are managing pretty well so far, with more than 50 sites supported so far, and bug fixes generally within a day of the reporting.
If you have any code you want to submit, that much is pretty easy to do. We'll always appreciate helpful hands.
What you offering is an alternative to what we already have. We have an established community of people as well as an established location, and it is going to be too bothersome to move for some vague reason like "the grass is greener over there".

Quoting you, by the way,

If there was just more participation on BitBucket..., alas, there don't seem to be many people fitting the niche of having a Kindle, reading fanfiction on FanFiction.Net and being able to program Python.

It doesn't actually makes it sound like there would be more interest there.

[cryzed]

What I said is totally unrelated to your project though: 1) As you said you already have an established community and contributors and 2) your project is entirely different from mine: As you said you support 50+ fanfiction sites and you are developing a plugin for Calibre, meaning it's not limited to the Kindle or even E-Book readers.

Last but not least "more interest" wasn't the only reason I listed when I made the suggestion. But well, I can't force you to anything you don't want to do and it seems pretty clear that you've already made up your mind and that my arguments won't change that. Good luck and I wish you all the best with your continued development then.

Somewhat offtopic: I actually am keeping a private copy of this repository with a "cryzed" branch on Bitbucket with the changes I suggested months ago for the design and the parsing of fanfiction.net and fictionpress.com stories -- so personally I am very happy now with how the plugin behaves and I was able to obsolete my own solution in favor for it, thanks for your hard work; I really appreciate it.

[TrulyInnovative]

Originally Posted by iatheia

My rule of thumb is "Can you add a story automatically without having to email it to the administrators so they would have to create a separate page page for it by hand?"

If you know any websites that satisfy this criteria, I'll happily work on them, but this one would be a bit too painful to claw metadata from.

Thanks for that rule of thumb, I'll keep that in mind. And no worries about this particular site, I really appreciate all the work you and JimmXinu have done for this great plugin!

[SleepSeeker]

Hello, I'm wondering if fanfiction.net had another update done? i can't seem to download any stories. I even went to the just in page and tried to download new stories with just 1 chapter. And it can't even download those. I would appreciate any help.

[Firedancer885]

Originally Posted by SleepSeeker

Hello, I'm wondering if fanfiction.net had another update done? i can't seem to download any stories. I even went to the just in page and tried to download new stories with just 1 chapter. And it can't even download those. I would appreciate any help.

You are not the only one. I think there was an update. Jimm, could you take a look at it?

[BaconButty]

All Fanfiction.net story updates come up with the same error message:

"Nothing to download - coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, NoneType found."

sample URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6611650/29/

Thanks for your help.

[JaneD]

Originally Posted by BaconButty

All Fanfiction.net story updates come up with the same error message:

"Nothing to download - coercing to Unicode: need string or buffer, NoneType found."

sample URL: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6611650/29/

Thanks for your help.

I came here to post this too. Looks like they recently underwent a site redesign and story purge.