FBReader Release for the DR1000S

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by allovertheglobe

Where does FBReader store its preferences & library information (beyond the actual book files)?

From post #28:

x:\Programs\.FBReader\

[ghostwheel]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

It doesn't appear to be to difficult to port. I have it running in the emulator.

Amazing! Cool!!

Originally Posted by Adam B.

Now getting it to work with the right file formats is a different issue...

I thought of two solutions (well, maybe hacks...)

First, the ugly one is a script that creates an additional .desktop file for the files you'd like to read, that will then call the program with the right argument. Kind of like starting FBReader, but instead starting it already with the argument saying which file it should display. That would certainly work, and would certainly be ugly. The best would be probably to have all the .desktop files in a different directory than the files so you don't see everything twice.

The second option which I'm not sure will work is to write a plugin for iRex's viewer shell that can start a script when called. But I don't know if this is possible or feasible.

But the first should be easy.
I did this:
One file called Animals.desktop, containing

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Animals
Comment=E-book reader
Exec=/media/mmcblk0p1/Programs/_fbreader/bin/fbreader2
Type=Application
Icon=/media/mmcblk0p1/Programs/_fbreader/share/pixmaps/FBReader.png

And a script called Programs/_fbreader/bin/fbreader2

Containing:

#!/bin/sh

/media/mmcblk0p1/Programs/_fbreader/bin/FBReader /media/mmcblk0p1/Documents/animals.html

Ugly, but it works. It would be easy to make a script that runs over your disk and creates these files automatically....

[ghostwheel]

Did anyone manage to follow a link from one html file to another in FBReader?

I tried putting relative path, absolute path in the html file, nothing seems to work...

[ghostwheel]

I have a strange problem...

It seems once I quite FBReader, I can't start it again. I have to reboot the DR.
I'm not sure if it happens always, but it surely happens often.

A second problem is that sometimes it takes a veeeery loooong time from the time I clicked on an html file in the file dialog till the dialog that asks me for the author etc. comes up. Does anyone know why that is? What is FBReader doing during that time?

[Adam B.]

Originally Posted by ghostwheel

I have a strange problem...

It seems once I quite FBReader, I can't start it again. I have to reboot the DR.
I'm not sure if it happens always, but it surely happens often.

Have you modified the launcher to start with a shell script? This is a problem with scripts and the current content browser.

A second problem is that sometimes it takes a veeeery loooong time from the time I clicked on an html file in the file dialog till the dialog that asks me for the author etc. comes up. Does anyone know why that is? What is FBReader doing during that time?

Do you have a lot of supported files on your memory card? FBReader could be scanning those to add to the library. You should try going into options, and removing the option to automatically scan your library for files.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by ghostwheel

Did anyone manage to follow a link from one html file to another in FBReader?

This isn't possible, since FBReader only supports single-file HTML ebooks. If you have multiple related HTML files (e.g. book chapters) then you need to make an OEB ebook by adding a .opf file (which lists the HTML files among other things), zipping all the related files into one .zip and finally rename it .oebzip. Then links between HTML files in the OEB ebook will work. If you don't want to make an .oebzip, point FBReader to the .opf file for the same effect.

FBReader's ePub capability is a work in progress (it ignores the Table of Contents for example), but if you already have an internal TOC (or any base HTML file that eventually links to all the others) then Calibre on a Desktop PC (Windows, Mac, or Linux) is a good way to get from multiple HTMLs to an ebook. Use it to make an ePub by providing it with the base HTML file (via any2epub on the command line, or select ePub as your desired export target in the GUI).

Note that FBReader can follow external HTML links by invoking a web browser, this does not help on the DR1000S since it has no browser yet.

[allovertheglobe]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

From post #28:
x:\Programs\.FBReader\

DOH. Forgot to "Show Hidden Files"... been a bit distracted by some $^@#& identity theft issues...

[ghostwheel]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

This isn't possible, since FBReader only supports single-file HTML ebooks. If you have multiple related HTML files (e.g. book chapters) then you need to make an OEB ebook by adding a .opf file (which lists the HTML files among other things), zipping all the related files into one .zip and finally rename it .oebzip. Then links between HTML files in the OEB ebook will work. If you don't want to make an .oebzip, point FBReader to the .opf file for the same effect.

Thank you! That was any amazingly detailed post.
In the end I had to do two more steps, I think because of teh format of my html files.

First I used html2oeb to build the opf file, then I had to change all href="content/, by removing 'content/' in the opf file. Then I moved the opf to the content directory, and then I zipped it all up and renamed it oebzip.

But after all that it worked!

[adi]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

For those who aren't familiar with FBReader, it's an ebook reading software with a built in library and support for many formats.

Is there any advange of FBReader if I just want to read pdf files?

Adi

[allovertheglobe]

Originally Posted by adi

Is there any advange of FBReader if I just want to read pdf files?

Nope, but it does make it possible to read a whole bunch of formats that the DR1000 doesn't officially support (yet). Visit the official page for more info.

[allovertheglobe]

So yesterday I settled down for a couple of hours of quality reading time. I started off in FBReader, then switched over to a PDF.

FBReader seems to have this refresh issue (?) where it will refresh every ~60sec or so even if you don't do anything (i.e. just read the page), but that can perhaps not be avoided even if it is somewhat distracting.

However, it carries over on the rest of the reader software as well, so even when reading a PDF, I was getting the same refresh flashes.

And when I switched back to FBReader and opened the options window, everything went haywire once the virtual keyboard came up, flashing back and forth, off and on until after a couple of minutes I had to do a reset...

So for now, I would advise people to only use FBReader by itself, and close it when you're done, rather than switch back and forth.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by allovertheglobe

FBReader seems to have this refresh issue (?) where it will refresh every ~60sec or so even if you don't do anything (i.e. just read the page), but that can perhaps not be avoided even if it is somewhat distracting.

Do you have time showing on the indicator bar? If so, try turning this off (crossed-tools -> Indicator -> Show Time).

[allovertheglobe]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

Do you have time showing on the indicator bar? If so, try turning this off (crossed-tools -> Indicator -> Show Time).

Indeed. Thanks, that took care of it.

I guess this goes right back to the issues that came up when people in the iRex forum requested a clock to be put on the toolbar (even though that could maybe taken care of by doing a local refresh by the system rather than a fullscreen one by a generic app like FBReader?)

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by allovertheglobe

even though that could maybe taken care of by doing a local refresh by the system rather than a fullscreen one by a generic app like FBReader?

FBReader should do a local refresh too, but probably the developers did not have EInk on their radar. An alternative, which might be easy to implement in FBReader, would be to only update the time when turning a page.

[godel10]

In case I want to read a file format that the builtin reader of the device already reads (html, mobi) I am wondering what reader does people think it is better to use: the builtin one or fbreader?

I am concerning about issues like:
1. Comparing the battery consumption (anybody knows?)
2. As far as I have seen fbreader in the DR1000S does not support dictionaries, while the builtin one does.
3. What font makes easier the readeing in the fbreader program? On the other hand, in the buitin reader we cannot change the font (only the size).

But I am sure there are more drawbacks (of each of them) that I do not know about. Which ones?