Calibre Companion prerelease 3.3.0b

[chaley]

CC prerelease 3.3.0b has been published and will available soon to people who are members of the CC prerelease program.

This prerelease contains the following enhancements and bug fixes over CC prerelease 3.3.0a:

• Add the identifiers field to book details. Make "known" identifiers clickable. Clicking an identifier attempts to open it in the default browser.
• Improve performance of swiping in book details to change the book being displayed.
• [BUG FIX] Don't close the grouping pane when grouping by first letters and a letter is clicked.

If you have already installed CC 3.3.0a then this prerelease does not require a database upgrade.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by chaley

Add the identifiers field to book details. Make "known" identifiers clickable. Clicking an identifier attempts to open it in the default browser.

This is not really a feature I'll be using myself, but it seems to work OK. When I click the ISBN it correctly takes me to the equivalent worldcat.org entry (if it exists) in my browser and correctly back to CC after closing the browser.

Originally Posted by chaley

Improve performance of swiping in book details to change the book being displayed.

Am I right in thinking the 'live' swipe area is the book cover? If so this may explain why I was getting so many 'missed' swipes yesterday. Anyway, it does seem better with this release It is still possible to try to go too quickly and sometimes if a swipe is missed the next couple of swipes will also be missed. Perhaps the speed of the device is a factor. My phone's 2-yrs old now.

Originally Posted by chaley

[BUG FIX] Don't close the grouping pane when grouping by first letters and a letter is clicked.

I don't know if this is deliberate. If the grouped item is Title, the group pane still closes after clicking on a first letter. The other grouped items work as advertised.

[kaufman]

Got the newer release fixes all the issues from yesterday. Found something new. If you are at the beginning of the list of book and swipe left, it says "start of list and" goes to the list of books. If you are at the end and swipe right, it gives an error and a "calibre companion has stopped".

[kaufman]

Just to be clear, I mean if you are on the book details at the beginning of a list and the end of the list.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Am I right in thinking the 'live' swipe area is the book cover? If so this may explain why I was getting so many 'missed' swipes yesterday. Anyway, it does seem better with this release It is still possible to try to go too quickly and sometimes if a swipe is missed the next couple of swipes will also be missed. Perhaps the speed of the device is a factor. My phone's 2-yrs old now.

Well, today I learned something. Swipe detection in Android is not at all easy.

Without going into too many technical details, when using the suggested implementation a swipe was accurately detected only if it began in "empty" space, such as next to the cover. If it began on anything else, e.g., text, then detection was very problematic and the swipe was lost. To work properly, one must instead use a magic incantation implementation that steals touches for non-empty things, analyzes them, and them passes them down if they aren't interesting. I have done this and now swipes seem to work reliably no matter where they start and end.

I don't know if this is deliberate. If the grouped item is Title, the group pane still closes after clicking on a first letter. The other grouped items work as advertised.

Yes, it is deliberate, because first letters for titles are leaf nodes. If the assembled multitudes feel that this is the wrong behavior, I am willing to change it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Got the newer release fixes all the issues from yesterday. Found something new. If you are at the beginning of the list of book and swipe left, it says "start of list and" goes to the list of books. If you are at the end and swipe right, it gives an error and a "calibre companion has stopped".

I can repeat this using the cover view when the last line of the view is not full. This will be fixed in the next beta release.

The error does not happen when using the list view.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

Yes, it is deliberate, because first letters for titles are leaf nodes. If the assembled multitudes feel that this is the wrong behavior, I am willing to change it.

Please don't change it. 😊

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by chaley

Well, today I learned something. Swipe detection in Android is not at all easy.

... To work properly, one must instead use a magic incantation implementation that steals touches for non-empty things, analyzes them, and them passes them down if they aren't interesting.

We beta testers are here to encourage your learning process - use it or lose it. I love to watch other people work, I'm picturing you in a Gandalf hat with a cauldron.

Originally Posted by chaley

Yes, it is deliberate, because first letters for titles are leaf nodes. If the assembled multitudes feel that this is the wrong behavior, I am willing to change it.

No need to change it for me. I like it the way it is. The multitudes may not agree.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

I have done this and now swipes seem to work reliably no matter where they start and end.

Can you also do this for closing the grouping drawer? Right now you have to be on a blank spot to close it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Can you also do this for closing the grouping drawer? Right now you have to be on a blank spot to close it.

Not sure. The issue is that the items on the grouping drawer are clickable, and I am not certain that the incantation can deal with that.

I will try.

[kaufman]

Thank you. The app gets better all the time. You have added every one of my suggestions except one. You really should add a button to allow people to send tips to you. It's crazy to get something this great for only $3.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Thank you. The app gets better all the time.

You are very welcome.

BTW: I was able to make swipes in the grouping drawer work much better. Not only did the magic method improve swipe detection, but it also made accidental triggering (tapping) of items while swiping much less frequent.

You have added every one of my suggestions except one.

My record keeping is having a senior moment. What is the missing suggestion?

You really should add a button to allow people to send tips to you. It's crazy to get something this great for only $3.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

My record keeping is having a senior moment. What is the missing suggestion?

It's the tip button. I can live without it, but you really deserve it. 😊

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

It's the tip button. I can live without it, but you really deserve it. 😊

Thanks for the kind words.

The problem with such a button is that it will offend some people. Their point of view is "I paid for it, and now I am being asked for more". You can see this attitude with pay-for apps that also use advertizing. In addition, a lot of people think that the current price is too high, evidenced by emails we have received and the fact that almost one third of our users run pirated versions of CC instead of paying for it.

Bottom line: we would rather bask in the pleasure of satisfied users than have to deal with negativity.

[kaufman]

Well, then bask away.

By the way, I thought of a small idea that might be nice...

Right now when you group by first letter, you tell the number of books under that letter. It would be very nice to see the number of groups as well. So instead of showing

A (42 books)

You could show

A (12 Authors/42 books)

Or

D (13 Tags/55 books)

What do you think?

On the subject of the beta, I have tried a bunch of the ID tags with no failures in linking. Very nicely done.