Calibre Companion prerelease 3.3.0b

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

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?

Seems useful. I will add it to the list so I don't forget it.

[kaufman]

Great, thanks. I just thought of another idea.

Right now if you are on the details page, you can see the author, the series, the publisher and the rating.

2 things:

1-It would be nice to see the tags as well.

2-It might be nice if all of those pieces of information were links to the appropriate groupings. So, clicking on the series would take you to a view of that series' books, or clicking on the author would take you to that author's books. And so on.

Useful, or too complicated for the user?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Right now if you are on the details page, you can see the author, the series, the publisher and the rating.

2 things:

1-It would be nice to see the tags as well.

I see the tags just below Pub date and above Languages. You don't? Note that there is no line if there are no tags.

2-It might be nice if all of those pieces of information were links to the appropriate groupings. So, clicking on the series would take you to a view of that series' books, or clicking on the author would take you to that author's books. And so on.

Useful, or too complicated for the user?

This would be nice but it won't happen soon if at all. CC isn't set up to handle this kind of internal linking.

[kaufman]

You are correct about the tags. Not sure how I missed that.

How about instead of an actual link you just did a search for that value. So tapping on "author : Melvile, Herman" would close the detail view, open the grouping bar and do a search for "author:=melvile, herman"

Is that any better?

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by kaufman

How about instead of an actual link you just did a search for that value. So tapping on "author : Melvile, Herman" would close the detail view, open the grouping bar and do a search for "author:=melvile, herman"

Is that any better?

This is exactly what I was thinking! I would love this function as well.

[Purple Lady]

I updated this weekend and I like the auto-close of the grouping pane and moving the commands to the menu for my phone.

I am confused by the new closing of the grouping pane with a swipe - I've been doing this all along so this must be something else.


Nice changes and it's nice to see a dev so involved with the customers. Thanks!

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I am confused by the new closing of the grouping pane with a swipe - I've been doing this all along so this must be something else

You can do this from the left side of the screen now. Very handy for lefties and people who use CC one handed.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

You are correct about the tags. Not sure how I missed that.

How about instead of an actual link you just did a search for that value. So tapping on "author : Melvile, Herman" would close the detail view, open the grouping bar and do a search for "author:=melvile, herman"

Is that any better?

If I can do it (must think about it) then it would "auto-select" that item in the grouping pane and show the results. There would no need to actually open the pane.

My guess is that this should be doable, at least for the standard fields, because there shouldn't be a case where an item exists in book details but not in the grouping database. This isn't true for custom items.

As I said, I need to think about it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I am confused by the new closing of the grouping pane with a swipe - I've been doing this all along so this must be something else.

Before, you could close the grouping pane by dragging the book display pane to the left. A drag/swipe in the grouping pane did nothing. With the change, you can now drag within the grouping pane (not touching the book display pane) to close it.

Nice changes and it's nice to see a dev so involved with the customers. Thanks!

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

If I can do it (must think about it) then it would "auto-select" that item in the grouping pane and show the results. There would no need to actually open the pane.

My guess is that this should be doable, at least for the standard fields, because there shouldn't be a case where an item exists in book details but not in the grouping database. This isn't true for custom items.

As I said, I need to think about it.

That sounds perfect. I'm not sure how it's different from what I originally asked for, but it look like it would be very handy.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

How about instead of an actual link you just did a search for that value. So tapping on "author : Melvile, Herman" would close the detail view, open the grouping bar and do a search for "author:=melvile, herman"

Is that any better?

Originally Posted by kaufman

That sounds perfect. I'm not sure how it's different from what I originally asked for, but it look like it would be very handy.

I interpreted the original request as pushing something like the main view over book details so that the back button would take you to book details. This is so hard as to be effectively impossible.

The second request made it clear that you would go back to the main screen then repaint. This is much easier, in fact not all that different from a fling.

The attached screen capture shows where I am. I think it does what you want.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

The attached screen capture shows where I am. I think it does what you want.

My heart is pitter-pattering like a little school-girl and I am drooling a little, so yea, I think this is what I want. Thanks.

Three questions:

1) What's a fling?
2) Your screen shot doesn't have a rating. Is that because your book didn't have a rating, or is it because you are removing ratings?
3) Will the "read" drop down be optional? I track my reading on the computer, so I would just as soon not see the dropdown if possible.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

My heart is pitter-pattering like a little school-girl and I am drooling a little, so yea, I think this is what I want. Thanks.

Three questions:

1) What's a fling?

A swipe is also called a fling. The word is usually used on something that is scrollable. You "fling" a list by swiping it and lifting your finger while it is still moving rapidly. Swipes are often a slower gesture, the same gesture nonetheless.

2) Your screen shot doesn't have a rating. Is that because your book didn't have a rating, or is it because you are removing ratings?

Ratings are shown if they exist. They will not be clickable for various reasons related to the "stars" display.

3) Will the "read" drop down be optional? I track my reading on the computer, so I would just as soon not see the dropdown if possible.

Unfortunately, no.

You saying that you won't use the read indicator is interesting. I and my wife also track read status directly in calibre ("on the computer" as you say) but we both want to also be able to change it in CC. Why? For example, while on holiday we might each read a book every 1 or 2 days. When we get back, it is a pain to remember what exactly we read and when (the order). Being able to mark it in CC when I finish and have that info transfer to calibre makes the problem go away. I wonder if you might not start using it in the same way?

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

They will not be clickable for various reasons related to the "stars" display.Unfortunately, no.

Totally fine. Often when I am looking at a book, I want to see what else that author has written, or the other books in the series or even the other books in the genre. Never have I looked at a book and said to myself, "what other 4 stars books do I have".

Originally Posted by chaley

You saying that you won't use the read indicator is interesting. I and my wife also track read status directly in calibre ("on the computer" as you say) but we both want to also be able to change it in CC. Why? For example, while on holiday we might each read a book every 1 or 2 days. When we get back, it is a pain to remember what exactly we read and when (the order). Being able to mark it in CC when I finish and have that info transfer to calibre makes the problem go away. I wonder if you might not start using it in the same way?

Its possible, but the issue for me is that I went through calibre and removed all of the custom columns except for one called bookshelf. It is used for organizing books on my Kobo. I got rid of the other ones, because calibre is iffy about storing custom column information in ePubs. That means that if my database ever gets corrupted, I will lose any information from the custom column. So instead, I just have a tag called "Read Recently" to track which books I have read recently. I wouldn't mind being able to add that tag to a book from within CC. I'm not sure tagging them as read from the device is important enough to change my current method for.

If you can't get rid of the dropdown, what's the program going to do for people who don't set up a column for it? You might get a lot of support emails from confused people. Would it be possible to have two nearly identical book details screens, and show the one with the read drop down if they have set that up and the one without it otherwise.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Its possible, but the issue for me is that I went through calibre and removed all of the custom columns except for one called bookshelf. It is used for organizing books on my Kobo. I got rid of the other ones, because calibre is iffy about storing custom column information in ePubs.

Huh? I haven't seen a case in ages where custom column data was not stored in a non-DRMed epub that was exported from calibre using send to device, save to disk, or the content server.

That means that if my database ever gets corrupted, I will lose any information from the custom column.

Again, huh? The standard and custom column data are stored in the file system of calibre's library in the metadata.opf file. Calibre uses that file to rebuild the database. Rebuilding a database never looks into the ebooks. However, if you restore the db by creating an empty library and then adding books, then you might get different behavior.

So instead, I just have a tag called "Read Recently" to track which books I have read recently. I wouldn't mind being able to add that tag to a book from within CC. I'm not sure tagging them as read from the device is important enough to change my current method for.

If you can't get rid of the dropdown, what's the program going to do for people who don't set up a column for it? You might get a lot of support emails from confused people.

We have many customers who have asked for tracking read status of books on CC but don't care about syncing. These people tend to put a lot of books on their device infrequently or to use the content server connection almost exclusively. CC's indicator is stored in CC's db and is persistent, so a no-sync model satisfies them.

Would it be possible to have two nearly identical book details screens, and show the one with the read drop down if they have set that up and the one without it otherwise.

I am considering this from the viewpoint that if I am in for a penny I might as well be in for a pound. Adding yet another option to remove the read stuff from the interface isn't hard, but I still need to convince myself that doing so is worth the inevitable questions we will get asking for "why would I do that?" and "where did the read stuff go?" (The latter happens when someone changes the option then forgets that they did it, something that happens rather more frequently than we would like.)