[GUI Plugin] Overdrive Link

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The plugin takes into account both the release date and the number of holds for pre-release books. If you have found a specific case where this is not being done let me know and I will try to fix the plugin. You can check the job log after an availability check to see all of the factors that went to the the wait weeks calculation for each book.

That's great - thanks for the info and sorry for incorrect assumption. In my case the release date is too soon to affect the estimated wait, so it's most likely working correctly.

I am still assuming that the plugin has no way of knowing the actual number of copies that will be available for a pre-release book so the estimate uses 1? It will be interesting to compare results after the release...

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

I am still assuming that the plugin has no way of knowing the actual number of copies that will be available for a pre-release book so the estimate uses 1? It will be interesting to compare results after the release...

OverDrive makes available the number of copies purchased by the library. It is possible that some libraries may purchase additional copies around the time of release if there is a large hold queue for the book.

[cc_in_oh]

3 of my libraries had to be reconfigured - I tracked down new addresses and branch ID's and ran the check and repair links, but then 2 of the 3 were duplicated in the metadata ID's.

Re-running the availability check seems to have cleaned it up - is that the normal workflow to complete reconfiguration?

Thanks,
CC

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

Re-running the availability check seems to have cleaned it up - is that the normal workflow to complete reconfiguration?

The new OverDrive sites have several internal changes that affect the plugin.

Library host names change, usually be removing ".lib" from the middle of the name. This changes the library ID used in the plugin and it must be changed manually in the configuration. Each book link also contains this ID. Use the "Check and repair book links" menu choice to fix them.

Branch ID numbers have also changed and must be manually fixed in the configuration. These are not part of links so no further action is needed for these.

The identifier associated with each book has also changed. The old OverDrive uses a UUID for each book, such as 476F5018-6E8F-43A2-AC79-92F279308114. The new OverDrive uses an integer, like 2650947, instead. This is the most difficult change to deal with because each book link contains these identifiers.

Searches done after the switch over return the new-style identifiers, but old-style identifiers will still be contained in book links created previously. Fortunately OverDrive still accepts the old-style UUIDs for now when accessing the web page for a book. This allows book links created before a library switched over to the new format to still function.

If the "Check current availability of selected books" menu choice is used on a book with links containing old-style book identifiers then it will determine the corresponding new identifier and update those links to the new style.

I also recommend using the "Update current availability of books with new links" configuration option since this will cause availability checks to be done automatically, migrating the links in the process.

[cc_in_oh]

Thanks for the detailed info, and for the great work keeping the plugin compatible with the changes. I had to re-read my earlier posts to remember how to get the library links, so I thought it might be worth suggesting a mention in the help file?

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Starting with version 2.0.0 of the plugin if a library owns no copies of a book it should not show at all under wait weeks and the book should be unlinked. If the library later obtains more copies then a new search will be required to link it again. If you have any specific cases of it not working that way let me know and I will try to fix it.

Brooklyn Public Library
Author: Stephen Coonts
Title: Fortunes of War

There are a bunch more by the same author. "Update Availability" doesn't clear out the existing link or change the availability. Unlinking the book then searching again puts it right back.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

"Update Availability" doesn't clear out the existing link or change the availability. Unlinking the book then searching again puts it right back.

Thanks. I was wrong about how it is working now.

I will go with your prior suggestion and change it to show an "XX" wait for that case in the next plugin release.

[eschwartz]

During the 2.0.0 upgrade (I think), the right-click toolbar menu lost a lot of functionality. Ideally (IMHO) it would be more or less a clone of the main toolbar OverDrive menu (which IIRC it was identical before), but currently it seems to remain in some sort of default-ish state. Maybe it just isn't aware of the current book context for some reason? But I also see a reference to Project Gutenberg (which I don't have configured)...

I particularly noticed, because I can no longer right-click on a book to see what OverDrive libraries it can be borrowed from or recommended to.

I don't think that would have been deliberately changed ?? so could you please fix that?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

During the 2.0.0 upgrade (I think), the right-click toolbar menu lost a lot of functionality. ...

I am unable to duplicate this problem in my environment, calibre 2.71 64-bit under Windows 10. When I right-click a book I see "Overdrive" among the menu choices and when I move the cursor to that I see the same menu as I do when I click on the plugin icon.

The plugin generates its menu on-the-fly when it is about to be displayed. This is done by connecting to the "aboutToShow" signal of the menu using the Qt API. When the menu isn't expected to be shown a default menu is in place which exists to allow keyboard shortcuts to be associated with the plugin. That may be what you are seeing for some reason.

[eschwartz]

calibre-git 2.71.r46.gf8c1dd4 on 32-bit Linux here, and that (default menu) is indeed what I am seeing for some reason, but I have no idea why.

I figured that wasn't deliberate. Any idea why that might happen?

Tonight I can try testing it with an earlier version of the plugin... (I actually have a bunch of plugins archived in git because $reasons.)

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Any idea why that might happen?

Tonight I can try testing it with an earlier version of the plugin...

I have no idea of what might be causing this. If you find out anything in your testing of earlier versions please let me know.

[eschwartz]

I can now confirm something retarded is happening, because 1.43.0 still (now?) has the same problem.

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I will go with your prior suggestion and change it to show an "XX" wait for that case in the next plugin release.

Some of my personal issue has been solved by contacting BPL and letting them know about the books in question. They are in the process of purchasing new copies of the books. The last time I told them about similar issues, it took about a week before they showed up again.

[nabsltd]

I'm not sure how you calculate the wait time, but I'll throw out some thoughts about how to maybe make the numbers better fit reality.

For example, at one library, I see three different books that I was considering placing on hold, and both have a wait time of "02@" in the plugin. All have no other people waiting, but one has only 1 library copy, one has 2, and the third has 3. Granted, worst case is that every copy of all three books were checked out a few seconds ago, and they are all kept the maximum time. But, statistically, the book with three copies is much more likely to be available sooner...on average, I should get it in 1/3 of the max checkout time.

I noticed you already do some of this, in that a book with 2 copies at the library, none available, and one person waiting gives a 3-week wait, while a book with 1 copies at the library, none available, and one person waiting gives a 4-week wait.

The second thing I noticed is that it seems you assume that the max checkout is 2 weeks at all libraries. I have several with a max checkout of 3 weeks, and that was the default when I first created the account, so I suspect that many people would have left it there. If I want the book as fast as possible, but don't want to waste holds at a lot of libraries, the max checkout time makes a big difference when deciding which library to use.

For this, I don't even care if you can scrape the data from the website...I'd be willing to manually enter the max checkout time as part of the library config.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

I'm not sure how you calculate the wait time, but I'll throw out some thoughts about how to maybe make the numbers better fit reality.

The wait weeks value is meant to be a rough estimate. There are too many unknowns for it to be accurate.

An average of 2.5 weeks per loan is assumed regardless of library. Loans in progress are assumed to have half of this time remaining. Results are rounded up.

I could improve the algorithm to make some cases more accurate statistically, but I am not inclined to spend my time doing so.