[Android] Wish List

[DavidTC]

Here's are a few suggestions. I am not sure how easy they are.

First, to explain: I keep wanting to use the 'local folder' cloud storage instead of the CC connection. All my devices have enough room for my entire library, and I already have cloud synchronization of various other directories set up. I would love to just be able to add things and they'd magically get on my device after a slight delay, or I push the widget labeled 'Sync' if I want them sooner.

Yes, I know there's a 'connect at specific times', and I know I can set up Reading Lists to get always make sure all books are on the device...except that assumes I have Calibre always running, and that it syncs before I leave me house. I would much prefer to use Cloud storage...or, rather, synced cloud storage to local folders, like I do for *everything else* on my Androids.

What keeps stopping me is that the Cloud interface is incredibly annoying. First, I can't filter on multiple things, or sort, and the display is not the same, and I have to 'download' the book, and now it's in the *other* interface, etc, etc.

I though, for the longest time, there was a reason this had to be. I mean, it's how the Calibre server works, right? Except...that's not the Calibre server. And I can't figure out any good reasons this limitation makes sense.

Let me dissect my thoughts:

First, sometimes the cloud is a local path.

Suggestion #1: Why not have the option to use the local cloud path *as* the local book path, and instead of 'downloading', the book merely gets added to the database with the path it already has? (And also need to make sure that file doesn't get deleted upon book deletion.) Why does it need to be put *somewhere else*?

Suggestion #2: And then that leads to the obvious idea that if 'downloading' is just adding a database record, why not just automatically do it for *all* the books when 'connecting' to the local cloud folder? CC reads metadata.db, it fills up a database with all those books, tada.

Suggestion #3: And then this leads into my confusion of why CC doesn't do this for *actual* cloud storage, too. CC already downloads metadata.db, so just fill up CC's database with all those book records, and put cloud:blah/whatever.epub as a 'virtual path' in the path field.

And now it's in the *real* CC interface. Not only is this better, but whatever code is generating the 'pseudo-calibre-server interface from metadata.db' that Cloud users get can be removed.

Then when they 'Read' the book, download it and change the path in CC's database.

Possible issues:

1) Sometimes people just want some of their books 'on their device', but frankly, I suspect any complaints in that direction are just people not paying attention to filtering options. (And if it's some sort of 'I want to hide these books in my library from other people', uh, those books should be in a different library, not in one they put in the cloud and hooked CC to!)

2) Virtual paths are going to create some odd interaction with direct connection to Calibre, if people are trying to do both. A book could be listed as on the device, but not actually on the device.

3) The entire library directory synced to CC has some odd dangers, especially if it's then connected directly to Calibre. These can that either can be dealt with...or 99% of them can be avoided by telling users that such a sync should be one-way. (Which is sad, because it sorta excludes the obvious feature of 'marking books read'.)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DavidTC

Here's are a few suggestions. I am not sure how easy they are.

First, to explain: I keep wanting to use the 'local folder' cloud storage instead of the CC connection. All my devices have enough room for my entire library, and I already have cloud synchronization of various other directories set up. I would love to just be able to add things and they'd magically get on my device after a slight delay, or I push the widget labeled 'Sync' if I want them sooner.

[...]

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[jackie_w]

Hi Charles,

Please would you consider the following. Absolutely no rush if it's too late for this development cycle.

For the 'Date published' field if you group-by-first-letters it is equivalent to grouping by millennium which probably isn't very meaningful for most book collections, or is it ? Would you consider making it mean group by decade instead (e.g. 1960-69, 1970-79 etc.) In other words, something like you did for the Pages and Words custom columns.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Hi Charles,

Please would you consider the following. Absolutely no rush if it's too late for this development cycle.

For the 'Date published' field if you group-by-first-letters it is equivalent to grouping by millennium which probably isn't very meaningful for most book collections, or is it ? Would you consider making it mean group by decade instead (e.g. 1960-69, 1970-79 etc.) In other words, something like you did for the Pages and Words custom columns.

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[DavidTC]

Well, my last idea didn't fly, but since then, I've discovered something very interesting: CC reads existing book in its directory when it connects to Calibre, and pulls the metadata from Calibre about those books. This almost lets me do what I want, in that I can point CC's 'Default folder' at a cloud-synced copy of the Calibre database directory, and then initiate a Calibre connection, and tada, it magically finds all the books and gives them records in CC. Eventually. After a really long time.

But this is only for a Calibre connection, and not a local cloud connection.

This shouldn't be too hard for a cloud connection. Please note I'm not asking to update all metadata, which you seem to have concerns about, just *adding* records when the book file is there without a record, exactly like the Calibre wireless device connection.

And obviously add covers the normal way that the Cloud connection adds covers, by grabbing cover.jpg. (Which is why I said this is for *local* cloud connections. Remote connections probably need a prompt, because that is additional data and could be costly.)

Of course, the question is, would anyone but me use this? I think, yes. A good deal of people wish to keep all their books on their device already, and while it might not have occurred to them, the amount of sync tools on Android are pretty large, with all sorts of configuration. No more worries about updating.

Additionally, reading the wishlist, there appear to be a lot of people who want CC to read existing books in its directory, and the solution is always 'connect to Calibre'. I suspect at least a few of those people are using the old 'Set up a folder device inside dropbox, dump all the books in it' trick to get books out (Which is what a lot of people did pre-CC.), at which point they'd benefit to switching to what I described above.

In fact, that is actually where I am coming from. I had a rooted Nook Simple Touch, I had a Dropbox folder as my Device, I had a syncing tool that kept it in sync on my Nook, and all my stuff was magically there whenever I picked up the device. If for some reason it hadn't synced, like I had left it unplugged so the wifi was off, I could find any wifi or even tether it to my phone and quickly sync it.

Now I have a Boox with Android 4 which can run CC, which is *massively* better at sorting and organizing the books (You wouldn't believe the plugboards and crazy templates I had set up for my Nook.) but the fact I have to remember to a) have my computer on and Calibre started, b) get my Boox, c) Fire up CC and connect, d) wait for it to finish, before I can walk out the door with new stuff, is incredibly annoying. (Or my current hack of syncing to a local folder and a local cloud connection to 'Download all', which results in two copies of everything! Heck, I even considering just living with that and making a script to hardlink the files, but then remembered sd cards are FAT32.)

I don't *need* a way to get my library to my device, I've had that covered for almost a decade...I need a program that understands all the Calibre metadata and organizes everything. And CC is the best program to do that by *several orders of magnitude* (Seriously, there is nothing even close. There is basically one other program that can even *conceptually* do this, eLibrary Manager, and it requires building specific queries in advance.), with the only annoyance of having to use non-ideal ways to get books *into* the program. Which I sorta understand, you want the Calibre metadata instead of scanning it from the epub...but I have the Calibre metadata *right there*! You even are already reading it!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DavidTC

Well, my last idea didn't fly, but since then, I've discovered something very interesting: CC reads existing book in its directory when it connects to Calibre, and pulls the metadata from Calibre about those books.

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[mezme]

Question...

One thing that frustrates me is... when I'm using either the local connection or the cloud connection to view my library... and I find a book I want I typically want to download books by the author or within that series (etc). Is there a way to hotlink the author/series fields so that if you were viewing the metadata of one book you could click on the author/series and go to the books within the selected option WITHOUT having to back out of where you are at... and tediously search to find the author/series that you are wanting?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by mezme

Question...

One thing that frustrates me is... when I'm using either the local connection or the cloud connection to view my library... and I find a book I want I typically want to download books by the author or within that series (etc). Is there a way to hotlink the author/series fields so that if you were viewing the metadata of one book you could click on the author/series and go to the books within the selected option WITHOUT having to back out of where you are at... and tediously search to find the author/series that you are wanting?

CC already does that in both the cloud connection and in the local book list. For example, see this screen capture where the author and all the tags are underlined and tappable.

Tap on an item and you go there.

The content server connection cannot do the hotlinking because calibre doesn't provide the mechanisms.

[kaufman]

So I have had this issue for a while, and I wanted to throw it out there to see if it is worth addressing.

Lets say I am looking for a series, and all I remember is the title of one of the books. I go to the grouping drawer and search for the title. I get a match. I open the book details and select the series. What comes up is only the book I searched for because my search filtered the result list. So now I have to manually clear the search, and then search (or just go to) the series to see the whole list of books.

So, what I was thinking is that since you already do things with a long press, what would you think if a long press on an item in the book details did the same thing as a regular press, but cleared out any search filter first?

Thoughts?

[nqk]

Maybe a button "clear filter" or "show all under...." should help.

Or when you tap the search icon, tap on "clear" button, and CC screen stays where it is.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

So I have had this issue for a while, and I wanted to throw it out there to see if it is worth addressing.

Lets say I am looking for a series, and all I remember is the title of one of the books. I go to the grouping drawer and search for the title. I get a match. I open the book details and select the series. What comes up is only the book I searched for because my search filtered the result list. So now I have to manually clear the search, and then search (or just go to) the series to see the whole list of books.

So, what I was thinking is that since you already do things with a long press, what would you think if a long press on an item in the book details did the same thing as a regular press, but cleared out any search filter first?

Thoughts?

Originally Posted by nqk

Maybe a button "clear filter" or "show all under...." should help.

Or when you tap the search icon, tap on "clear" button, and CC screen stays where it is.

I am confused, but that isn't unusual.

Say I take the following steps:

• Long-press a publisher to do a search.
• Tap a book that the search finds.
• Tap the "Series" link in that book.

At this point I see books by that publisher in that series. This is at least one book, the one I was looking at when I tapped the item.

I want to see all books in that series. I can do one of two things.

• In both cases, first open the grouping drawer. The search box still shows the search from the long press and the Series item is highlighted.
• Choice 1: tap the search box and tap Clear. The Series item remains highlighted and CC shows all books in that series.
• Choice 2: With or without clearing the search box, long press the highlighted item in the grouping drawer. The search box contents change and CC shows the results of the new search.

How does these results differ from what you are asking for?

[nqk]

Hmm, I was fast reading and I thought he had the same thought as I did, about the Cloud Connection search. I know certain user would like to keep all books on the device, but I'm on the other side of the road and tend to search and download only the book(s) I plan to read.

1) I search for a book say with title containing "Passenger", CC returns the Level 1 structure as usual. I need to pick one of the options (all items are visible, but many of them contains nothing - I think the empty items should not be displayed) and find Books there, let's say "Passenger to Frankfurt". I tap on it and enters the Book Details.

2) Here, if I tap on a tappable item, like "Detective", CC returns the short list filtered by "Passenger".

3) If I "clear" the search (filter), CC would bring me back to the Level 1 - FULL. This is what I meant in the previous post.

This, actually I intended to ask for, but as you'd said about "massive work", I managed to live without.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

Say I take the following steps:

• Long-press a publisher to do a search.
• Tap a book that the search finds.
• Tap the "Series" link in that book.

At this point I see books by that publisher in that series. This is at least one book, the one I was looking at when I tapped the item.

This works, because all of the items in the series match the publisher. Imagine if your search was title instead. When you tapped on the series name, you would only see that book.

Originally Posted by chaley

I want to see all books in that series. I can do one of two things.

• In both cases, first open the grouping drawer. The search box still shows the search from the long press and the Series item is highlighted.
• Choice 1: tap the search box and tap Clear. The Series item remains highlighted and CC shows all books in that series.

That's interesting. I just tried this and it reset the book list to the entire list of books. Which is what I would have expected (and what seems to me to be correct behavior).

Originally Posted by chaley

• Choice 2: With or without clearing the search box, long press the highlighted item in the grouping drawer. The search box contents change and CC shows the results of the new search.

How does these results differ from what you are asking for?

Ahh, this works, I hadn't thought of this. It is more cumbersome, and it will result in me tapping on the series the first time, and then remembering I have to back out and do a new search.

I would like to refine my request. If it isn't too much effort, would you consider adding an option called "Filter Auto-Reset" with a yes/no/ask. The way it would work would be if I tapped on a details link while a filter was active, before jumping to the new list, it would automatically clear the filter if I had selected yes, behave like it does now for no, and perhaps ask if the filter should be reset with ask.

I am only including the ask for completeness, I would personally set it to yes, so if the "ask" makes it a lot more effort, feel free to skip it.

THoughts?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

This works, because all of the items in the series match the publisher. Imagine if your search was title instead. When you tapped on the series name, you would only see that book.

Yes, but that book has the series you are interested in so clearing the search box shows the rest of the books.

That's interesting. I just tried this and it reset the book list to the entire list of books. Which is what I would have expected (and what seems to me to be correct behavior).

I cannot for the life of me make clearing a search reset the grouping drawer so that all books are shown. Assume you search on a title then tap that book's series in book details. The grouping drawer shows one series, the one for the searched-for title. The book list still shows the one book. If I now clear the search results without tapping in the groups list then the contents of the drawer changes to show all the series in your library but the series previously selected is still selected. The book list changes to show all the books in the originally selected series. This seems to be exactly what you are asking for.

Are you really seeing something else?

Ahh, this works, I hadn't thought of this. It is more cumbersome, and it will result in me tapping on the series the first time, and then remembering I have to back out and do a new search.

Why do you have to back out and do a new search? You might want to clear the search, but if so you could have done that instead of the long-tap. You might want to change the search, but then you are actively using the search box.

I would like to refine my request. If it isn't too much effort, would you consider adding an option called "Filter Auto-Reset" with a yes/no/ask. The way it would work would be if I tapped on a details link while a filter was active, before jumping to the new list, it would automatically clear the filter if I had selected yes, behave like it does now for no, and perhaps ask if the filter should be reset with ask.

I am only including the ask for completeness, I would personally set it to yes, so if the "ask" makes it a lot more effort, feel free to skip it.

THoughts?

I will think about this. On the face of it, it seems reasonable but the devil is in the details.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by nqk

Hmm, I was fast reading and I thought he had the same thought as I did, about the Cloud Connection search. I know certain user would like to keep all books on the device, but I'm on the other side of the road and tend to search and download only the book(s) I plan to read.

1) I search for a book say with title containing "Passenger", CC returns the Level 1 structure as usual. I need to pick one of the options (all items are visible, but many of them contains nothing - I think the empty items should not be displayed) and find Books there, let's say "Passenger to Frankfurt". I tap on it and enters the Book Details.

The problem with filtering empty items is that CC must do a database operation for each one of them to see if it is empty. This is easy to do, but performance might be "interesting". It works quickly on my 2800 book cloud library, so it is worth a try to see what happens with bigger libraries.

2) Here, if I tap on a tappable item, like "Detective", CC returns the short list filtered by "Passenger".

3) If I "clear" the search (filter), CC would bring me back to the Level 1 - FULL. This is what I meant in the previous post.

This, actually I intended to ask for, but as you'd said about "massive work", I managed to live without.

If you asked for this before then I didn't understand you. It seems reasonable not to reset to the top level when you clear the search. Instead I could do what the "main" display already does -- recalculate the category to show all books. I will look at making that happen. There are some moderately difficult problems to solve to make the back button work, so I won't guarantee anything.