CC V5 alpha test

[chaley]

I plan to start the alpha test of CC V5 near the end of this week (near 11/12 Feb). I suspect that some of you who are signed up to be alpha testers will want to forgo the privilege this time. It is also possible that some of non-testers might want to join.

The high points:

• CC V5 no longer supports Gingerbread or Honeycomb. The first supported Android version is 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, API #14).
• From a functional point of view V5.0 doesn't change much. The major change is incorporation of Google's "Storage Access Framework", permitting you to store your library in arbitrary folders on an SD card. This works on Android 5 (Lollipop) or later. The existing "Kitkat" hack is now necessary only on Kitkat (Android 4.4).
• There are a very large number of "technical" changes. CC was completely revamped to use Google's new compatibility packages and tools, during which I touched almost everything. This is the main reason for the alpha test -- it is possible that there are places where I didn't make the right changes.
• Using the new libraries brings along some cosmetic changes. For example, the Settings screen now looks more "normal". Button placement in dialogs follows the "Material Design" guidelines. The action bar looks a bit different. The e-ink corrections seem to be less radical. After a week of using the alpha version I am still discovering these small changes. And no, these changes aren't optional.

I will send an email to the alpha group to remind you that you are subscribed. If you stay subscribed then you will be offered the alpha update when I release it. If you want out then let me know by PM.

[kaufman]

Very excited to start using this. How stable is it? Am I going to be reinstalling my library every couple of days?


I'm not sure how doable this is, but have you considered using the App backup functionality in Marshmallow? It probably doesn't pay to use it for the library, but at least you could automatically backup settings. I would be happy to test this for you if LG ever releases the Marshmallow update for my V10.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Very excited to start using this. How stable is it? Am I going to be reinstalling my library every couple of days?


I'm not sure how doable this is, but have you considered using the App backup functionality in Marshmallow? It probably doesn't pay to use it for the library, but at least you could automatically backup settings. I would be happy to test this for you if LG ever releases the Marshmallow update for my V10.

I'm going to use the backup for settings and db that already exists in CC. On my Kindle HD 8 I have my book files backed up on the external sd card already.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I'm going to use the backup for settings and db that already exists in CC. On my Kindle HD 8 I have my book files backed up on the external sd card already.

2 issues:

1) I don't think Android backup works that way. I think the programmer has to program in what gets automatically backed up. I don't think we can to pick.

2) I think the amount backed up is limited to a fairly small amount. If you have a large library, it won't fit even even if it is programmed to be backed up.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by kaufman

2 issues:

1) I don't think Android backup works that way. I think the programmer has to program in what gets automatically backed up. I don't think we can to pick.

2) I think the amount backed up is limited to a fairly small amount. If you have a large library, it won't fit even even if it is programmed to be backed up.

I'm confused.
1. I know Android doesn't work that way - that's why I said I would use CC to backup the settings and db.

2. If you are talking about Android backups again, I know they suck. It's one of the biggest reasons I root and use Titanium backup.

CCs books wouldn't be backed up either way which is why I did that myself. You choose where to store your books in CC so automated backup processes can't back them up.

[chaley]

@kaufman & @Purple Lady: The marshmallow automatic backup attempts to backup everything in the "private" area. For CC this is settings and the database. The books are not automatically included.

The major problem I have, other than that I have failed to make it work at all after hours of attempts, is the limit in size. The maximum it can handle is 25 MB. On my test system the DB is 3.5 MB for 80 books. If this scales (and it should) then the auto-backup will start failing at around 500 books. For me, it is unacceptable to "promise" that something is being backed up when it easily might not be.

CC's backup works. You can store the backup in a folder that is synced to the cloud or copy the backup to an SD card. I know that this doesn't deal with the user who "forgot to make a backup" and the problem of a device that dies, but then neither does the auto-backup if the library is of any reasonable size.

If I could ever make it work at all then I could experiment with automatically making a CC backup and storing that in the android backup area. CC's backups are compressed and much smaller than the raw data. Unfortunately, given that it won't work on my only Marshmallow device there isn't much hope of going there.

BTW: I have found that is is very convenient to use "connect/sync book" to repopulate the books folder after a wipe. When I restore CC's DB all the books are "missing". I then run sync books (sometimes it takes 2 times) and CC fetches all the books from calibre without further intervention.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Very excited to start using this. How stable is it? Am I going to be reinstalling my library every couple of days?

One of the "lucky" things is that the library changes mostly affect the UI, permissions, and process control. There have been no changes in the DB code, and I don't expect to make any. In my testing I have had CC refuse to start, sometimes crash, and sometimes not work, but I haven't had a case where the DB was corrupted or the book files were damaged.

It is possible that something will go wrong with the permissions stuff and CC will fail to open a book folder, effectively making the books "missing". This has happened during testing. After fixing the problem so that the folder could be opened the books came back.

There is also the "minor" issue of Marshmallow's changes to Android's general permission structure. When running on Marshmallow CC checks on startup to ensure that it has permission to read/write device storage and dies if the user doesn't grant it. However, if a user revokes that permission while CC is running then "bad things" will happen, but I don't know what I can do about that.

Sometimes I wonder what Google is thinking. Trying to write apps where the permission environment can radically change while the app is running is ludicrous. They say that they didn't want to ask about permissions during install because "that is too much work", so instead they force every app to do it at runtime. Grrr...

[kaufman]

Well, my database is 318MB, so I think I will be too big, even if I use smaller covers.

Is there any way you could put the settings in the private area, and the database somewhere else? Or is all data automatically in the private area?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Is there any way you could put the settings in the private area, and the database somewhere else? Or is all data automatically in the private area?

It is theoretically possible to exclude specific files in the private areas from the auto-backup, but I wonder about the point. Is doing an auto-restore of settings but not the database worth much? This was the basis of the complaint that lead to putting the db into CC's backups. Settings don't change frequently. The database does.

And anyway, as I said I haven't been able to make it work at all, so all of this is pure speculation.