V5.0.0 alpha channel release

[nqk]

Dear Chaley,

On Cloud Connection, if I open book detail page and long-press on an item, say author name, or series or any other items, CC goes back to the basic grouping structure (Newest, Series, Title etc.) with the text like "Author: Author X" on top. I expect it shows a list of matching books, not this. Is it an intended feature?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by nqk

Dear Chaley,

On Cloud Connection, if I open book detail page and long-press on an item, say author name, or series or any other items, CC goes back to the basic grouping structure (Newest, Series, Title etc.) with the text like "Author: Author X" on top. I expect it shows a list of matching books, not this. Is it an intended feature?

Nope. It is a regression that I will fix.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Substituting an underscore for a period is simply not working for me. I have tried with new books, old books, Dropbox, internal sd, external. See screenshot of template editor.
Attachment 146446

I am not sure what you mean or what I am looking at.

In CC V5 alpha 4, the only time a period is replaced with an underscore is if the period is the first letter in a path segment. I see lots of periods in the test result in that image. I also see a few underscores but I don't know what characters they are replacing. If I have to guess it is a colon.

Note that in CC V4, periods also were not replaced with underscores.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

I think I found a bug, but I don't know if it it related to the new version or if it has been around for a while.

I hit the connect button and selected "wireless/sync books" and the program went back to the book list. I figured I had missed the menu popup and went back and did it again. It started the connection, but then after a while, I got a failure popup (or rather pop-under) from the first connection.

This is (I think) a new problem related to the compatibility library removing the mini progress spinner from the action bar.

CC now opens a "waiting for calibre" box as soon as you tap connect. This prevents tapping Connect until either the connection succeeds (when Connect changes to Disconnect) or fails.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Content Server always started via GUI.
May not be able to do any testing for a few days. WiFi is down and stuck with trying to type on phone.

I looked over the code and it (mostly) does what I think it should.

Assume that book "Title 1", "Ima Author" is not in CC. Further assume that the path template stored in calibre's wireless device driver is "{title} - {author} CAL". If no options are checked in Settings / file names then connecting to the content server and pulling the book results in the path "Title 1 - Ima Author". If the "Use calibre's file name" is checked then connecting and sending the book results in "Title 1 - Ima Author CAL".

I am changing what happens if "Use CC templates everywhere" is checked, with the goal of making the behavior more consistent. In addition, the "Replace existing book files" option can now be checked only of "Use CC templates everywhere" is checked.

Finally, I am changing the "default" CC template (the one used for cloud and content server downloads if no file name options are checked) to "{title} - {authors} ({id})" to prevent possible name clashes (the reason calibre uses that template).

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am not sure what you mean or what I am looking at.

In CC V5 alpha 4, the only time a period is replaced with an underscore is if the period is the first letter in a path segment. I see lots of periods in the test result in that image. I also see a few underscores but I don't know what characters they are replacing. If I have to guess it is a colon.

Note that in CC V4, periods also were not replaced with underscores.

I thought it was supposed to replace the period if it was the last position in a path segment. I thought that was what all my earlier problems were from.

In the screenshot, you can see that the first_author is J. A. Konrath so first_author_sort would be Konrath, J. A. but it is Konrath, J. A with the period dropped.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I thought it was supposed to replace the period if it was the last position in a path segment. I thought that was what all my earlier problems were from.

In the screenshot, you can see that the first_author is J. A. Konrath so first_author_sort would be Konrath, J. A. but it is Konrath, J. A with the period dropped.

Ahhh, now I understand.

I needed to "fix" the "trailing period in a folder" problem. Clearly CC cannot allow such periods. I had two choices for a fix. The first would be to change the period to something, i.e., an underscore. The second would be to do what calibre itself does, which is to remove all trailing periods. I decided that doing the same thing as calibre makes the most sense, so CC alpha 4 removes the trailing periods.

This decision also seems to correspond with what ES File Explorer did when it copied your book folders to the SD card. It removed the trailing period(s).

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

Ahhh, now I understand.

I needed to "fix" the "trailing period in a folder" problem. Clearly CC cannot allow such periods. I had two choices for a fix. The first would be to change the period to something, i.e., an underscore. The second would be to do what calibre itself does, which is to remove all trailing periods. I decided that doing the same thing as calibre makes the most sense, so CC alpha 4 removes the trailing periods.

This decision also seems to correspond with what ES File Explorer did when it copied your book folders to the SD card. It removed the trailing period(s).

Ok. CC at some point did replace the period with an underscore. I have a lot of folders from May of last year with an underscore and some from November that simply dropped the period.

[chaley]

V5.0.0.5 has been released.

Change log:

• Change the default template to {title} - {authors} ({id}) to ensure that books cannot overwrite each other in the rare case that two books have the same title and author. This is also calibre's default template. The default template is used by the content server and cloud connections if no options are checked in Settings / File names.
• Reorganize the Settings / File name preferences screen to put Use templates ... on top.
• Only allow setting the Rename files option when using templates. If you have set this option in a previous alpha release I recommend that you go to Settings / File names so CC can ensure that the rules are being respected.
• Use CC's notification when receiving books over the wireless connection, in addition to the existing uses (database upgrade and bulk download in the cloud and content server).
• Updated language: Vietnamese
• [BUG FIX]Don't use a "left over" template as the default if the "Use templates ..." setting is unchecked, but preserve such a template in case the option is rechecked later.
• [BUG FIX]Fix regression where tapping on an item in cloud book details did not take you to that item, instead going to the top-level display.
• [BUG FIX]Show a progress dialog when attempting to connect as a wireless device, preventing multiple attempts to connect.
• [BUG FIX]Small fixes in file handling in the content server connection when using templates.

[DoctorOhh]

I'd like to thank you for the extra-large cover option. I didn't notice it until the 5.xx alpha releases, but the Extra Large size cover option is exactly what I was looking for. Using extra large, portrait stretch to fit in the cover grid allows me a 3x3 grid display. Previously the Large option, square box preserve aspect ratio gave me a 2x3 display.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by chaley

V5.0.0.5 has been released.

Change log:

• Change the default template to {title} - {authors} ({id}) to ensure that books cannot overwrite each other in the rare case that two books have the same title and author. This is also calibre's default template. The default template is used by the content server and cloud connections if no options are checked in Settings / File names.
  

If one were to have the book ID in the filename, then if the book were transferred to another Calibre library -- or if it were deleted in the library and re-added as a new book -- then it would fail to sync anymore with CC, right?

I have multiple Calibre libraries and do frequently transfer books among them. I also occasionally delete and re-add the book back to the same library.

So, given my habits, it appears I should not go with the new default. Up to now I have been using just the Title and Author, and it appears I should stick with that. (Note: I am very careful to avoid having identical titles in my libraries.)

Even given the simplicity of using just Title and Author, there appears to be various options in CC settings to achieve that? To be sure I have it set up optimally, can you recommend precise settings I should use for both Calibre and CC going forward to achieve consistent file names. Being able to sync bookmarks and reading positions across multiple devices with Moon Reader is important to me.

--Pat

[kaufman]

2 Issues:

1) Ever since the 5.0 update, my wireless connections have been somewhat flakey on connection. It usually take me a couple of failures before it successfully connects.

2) My Calibre library is stored in a folder that syncs to dropbox and is replicated on two computers. I recently changed the cover size on my CC library and the next time I connected, it transferred all of the covers. When I got home, and synced again, it transferred them all again. I don't know if the is a 5.0 issue, but its there now.

3) I have a third issue that I haven't determined the cause of yet, but occasionally, I will go back to the no grouping state, and it will not reset the sort back to the proper one. I'll keep playing with this and report it when I figure out when it happens.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

If one were to have the book ID in the filename, then if the book were transferred to another Calibre library -- or if it were deleted in the library and re-added as a new book -- then it would fail to sync anymore with CC, right?

I have multiple Calibre libraries and do frequently transfer books among them. I also occasionally delete and re-add the book back to the same library.

So, given my habits, it appears I should not go with the new default. Up to now I have been using just the Title and Author, and it appears I should stick with that. (Note: I am very careful to avoid having identical titles in my libraries.)

Even given the simplicity of using just Title and Author, there appears to be various options in CC settings to achieve that? To be sure I have it set up optimally, can you recommend precise settings I should use for both Calibre and CC going forward to achieve consistent file names. Being able to sync bookmarks and reading positions across multiple devices with Moon Reader is important to me.

--Pat

First, note that the new default comes into play only if you have checked no boxes in Settings / File names and you use the content server or cloud connection. With no boxes checked the wireless device is given the file name by calibre, which computes it using the template in the wireless device settings. The calibre template by default has ({id}) in it.

If you check the use template box then the template you enter will be used everywhere in CC. The template in calibre is ignored. Given the situation you describe it is a good idea to remove the ({id}) from the template.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

2 Issues:

1) Ever since the 5.0 update, my wireless connections have been somewhat flakey on connection. It usually take me a couple of failures before it successfully connects.

I don't have an explanation for this. The connection code didn't change, but that doesn't mean much. Send me a debug log next time it fails.

2) My Calibre library is stored in a folder that syncs to dropbox and is replicated on two computers. I recently changed the cover size on my CC library and the next time I connected, it transferred all of the covers. When I got home, and synced again, it transferred them all again. I don't know if the is a 5.0 issue, but its there now.

This problem has been there for a long time.

It happens because the metadata cache is per machine. Updating the covers on the device does not update the last_modified date in the metadata, so the metadata from the device is not sent up to calibre when you connect to the second machine (home in your case). The cache doesn't know that the covers have already been sent, so it sends them again and updates the cache.

Perhaps putting the cache into dropbox would fix it. Doing that would require you adding some hard links (junctions) from appdata/Local/calibre-cache to some folder in Dropbox. And note that other stuff is cached, so I can't guarantee that there won't be "consequences".

3) I have a third issue that I haven't determined the cause of yet, but occasionally, I will go back to the no grouping state, and it will not reset the sort back to the proper one. I'll keep playing with this and report it when I figure out when it happens.

Thanks!

I wouldn't be surprised if this can happen if you tap on items in book details. That implicitly resets the grouping to "something", and it might not do the right thing with sorting.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

Perhaps putting the cache into dropbox would fix it. Doing that would require you adding some hard links (junctions) from appdata/Local/calibre-cache to some folder in Dropbox. And note that other stuff is cached, so I can't guarantee that there won't be "consequences".

I wouldn't bother. Most people don't resend large chunks of metadata over and over, so the hassle the occasional time someone doing this does when working on two machines isn't worth you putting effort into moving the cache around.

Originally Posted by chaley

I wouldn't be surprised if this can happen if you tap on items in book details. That implicitly resets the grouping to "something", and it might not do the right thing with sorting.

It might be, as I do that all the time. Such a great feature.

I'll keep playing and see if I can track it down.