[GUI Plugin] Overdrive Link

[LilyEvie]

I was wondering if on the next release if you could have "manage discovered books" include the date of when the books have been added. It would be handy to see so I would only have to check out the latest books and not go through all the authors books.

Thank you for your wonderful plugin.

[sweth]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

That's exactly what I do, so I've got it covered.

I've gotten to the point that I feel like I need to reduce the number of updates for availability, with so many libraries and so many books, but it's hard to remember what got updated when. Now, it's just a saved search for #ol_last_checked:>=7daysago.


As I said, low-priority, so whenever (if ever) is fine.

This is what I do as well currently, but in my case there *is* a little advantage to having the update be done automatically if it could be done as a "post-job" hook (i.e. the last thing before actually displaying the results). Specifically, I travel full-time and am often in areas with very flaky internet connectivity (currently posting this from a Costa Rican rainforest...) so searches for more than a few books often die before they can finish; if I update the metadata manually as soon as I start the search, I often end up with books marked as having been recently updated even though the update was unsuccessful. So having the update done automatically but only if the job finishes would be great.

(FWIW I also use two separate fields, one for the last date that I searched for overdrive links, and the other for last date that availability was updated.)

Regardless, thanks again for everything you've done on this plugin. (And if there are things that others could do to help out with developing/maintaining it, please let us know! I'm a perl developer but have been meaning to learn some python for a few years now, and helping out with something like this that I use every week would be a great excuse to finally do so.)

[sweth]

Just started getting the following error when searching Freeding:

Signing in to PGCMLS/F: : Server response error (Sign in failed - Redirected to https://prge.freading.com/users/sdlogin instead of http://prge.freading.com/index)

(I have access via two other libraries and those work fine w/ the plugin, and since the Freeding database is the same regardless of which library you access from, I don't actually need this library's search to work, but thought I should mention it in case other folks are impacted.)

[cc_in_oh]

Is there a way to make the plugin find a pre-order book when searching? By using Overdrive manually I can find the new Michael Connelly book and get on the hold list for it. Some of my libraries don't show it yet so I search manually every day, trying to grab one of the first spots when it shows up. Needless to say, the plugin could be a big time saver if it could do that searching...

(Of course then my next request would be scheduled, recurring search jobs)

Thanks,
CC

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Is there a way to make the plugin find a pre-order book when searching? By using Overdrive manually I can find the new Michael Connelly book and get on the hold list for it. Some of my libraries don't show it yet so I search manually every day, trying to grab one of the first spots when it shows up. Needless to say, the plugin could be a big time saver if it could do that searching...

(Of course then my next request would be scheduled, recurring search jobs)

Thanks,
CC

The plugin does it, for sure

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

The plugin does it, for sure

What's the trick then? My searches don't find it in any of the libraries where it's listed as a pre-order...

[Terisa de morgan]

No trick as I remember. I'll check the options but I think there isn't any special one for this.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

No trick as I remember. I'll check the options but I think there isn't any special one for this.

Can you try it on Connelly's Wrong Side of Goodbye?

Thanks,
CC

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Can you try it on Connelly's Wrong Side of Goodbye?

Thanks,
CC

Found at BPL (Brooklyn Public Library)

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Found at BPL (Brooklyn Public Library)

Thank you for helping me confirm that I was doing something wrong. I had the plugin configured to look only for Mobi/Kindle. Checking epub did the trick...

[jhowell]

I have been busy with other things and am catching up in this thread.

Originally Posted by LilyEvie

I was wondering if on the next release if you could have "manage discovered books" include the date of when the books have been added. It would be handy to see so I would only have to check out the latest books and not go through all the authors books.

The plugin supports an alternate way of avoiding having to review the same discovered books over and over. The "Ignore" button is intended for use if you are not currently interested in a discovered book. You can use "Show ignored" later to see those books if you change your mind.

Originally Posted by sweth

Regardless, thanks again for everything you've done on this plugin. (And if there are things that others could do to help out with developing/maintaining it, please let us know! I'm a perl developer but have been meaning to learn some python for a few years now, and helping out with something like this that I use every week would be a great excuse to finally do so.)

Thanks for offering.

The plugin was created to meet my own needs. Ongoing development is for my own enjoyment. I am not interested in coordinating with others, that would be too much like real work!

Originally Posted by sweth

Just started getting the following error when searching Freeding:

Signing in to PGCMLS/F: : Server response error (Sign in failed - Redirected to https://prge.freading.com/users/sdlogin instead of http://prge.freading.com/index)

I do not have access to that library and am unable to duplicate the problem with others. If you remove the credentials (card number and pin) for that library from the plugin configuration then it will no longer try to sign in.

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Is there a way to make the plugin find a pre-order book when searching?

I'm glad that Terisa de morgan was able to help you with this.

Another trick is to use the "Check for books that can be recommended for acquisition" configuration option. This will find pre-sale books before your library has decided to purchase them. If you recommend a book and the library later decides to purchase it you will automatically get an early position on the wait list. Not all libraries support recommendations, but Brooklyn does.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Thanks, but I think I will wait for one of my libraries to switch over. It will be a lot less work for me that way.

It definitely looks like something in the code to handle the change to the new format isn't 100% right now. I did a "Check current availability of selected books" on a large chunk of the library that had changed over, and the 200 or so books from that library dropped down to less than 30.

I solved the problem by enabling only that library, selected all books, "Unlink selected books from enabled libraries", then "Search for selected books", and everything came back OK.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

I did a "Check current availability of selected books" on a large chunk of the library that had changed over, and the 200 or so books from that library dropped down to less than 30.

Could you describe the problem in more detail?
Which library was this?
Did you make a configuration change when the library switched over?
Did you use the "Check and repair book links" menu choice?
Did the check for current availability remove the links or did they just go missing?
Anything else that may be relevant?

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by jhowell

...

Another trick is to use the "Check for books that can be recommended for acquisition" configuration option. This will find pre-sale books before your library has decided to purchase them. If you recommend a book and the library later decides to purchase it you will automatically get an early position on the wait list. Not all libraries support recommendations, but Brooklyn does.

Thanks for the tip - I tried it but as far as I can tell from that one book none of my libraries support recommendations - I'll ask about it on my next visit...

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Which library was this?

Used to be lion.lib.overdrive.com, and is now lion.overdrive.com.

Did you make a configuration change when the library switched over?

Yes, the plugin warned me nicely the first time I did a search.

Did you use the "Check and repair book links" menu choice?

I didn't think to do this. That's likely the problem. Perhaps you should rename the menu item to something else, since it only applies to migrating Overdrive to the new ID system.

Did the check for current availability remove the links or did they just go missing?

They were removed...there was no "lion" string in the odid identifier.

Since OCLS has the "changing soon" banner up, and others have seen it on BPL, I suspect you'll have plenty to test on soon.