No library/home menu?

[Olomorn]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought an e-reader (kobo clara hd), and I was rapidly confronted with it's glaring limitations: lack of privacy options, bad highlight management, lack of settings, lack of services, lack of sharing options, weird page numbering, etc.
So I did a bit of web searching and here I am, installing KOreader, and it solves basically every single issues I had with the default system, but also everything that was *not* an issue is now an issue... And I'm kinda mad because KOreader is so good in almost every aspect, except for the library function, which I find kinda ironic for an e-book reader but anyway.
What I mean by "library function" is a menu with all my books in one place that I can filter, sort, display by author, series, etc... It is so pleasant to browse my books on Nickel, and so pleasant to read them on KOreader: without any alternatives, KOreader is probably still the best choice but I really don't understand how a file explorer would be better for an ebook reader that a "library" menu...

I do have a question: is there an alternative to Nickel, that has what I call a library menu? Or maybe a configuration for KOreader that would be closer to what I like?

Sorry for the rant, and the grammar/etc (i'm not english). I don't mean to act angry, i'm just a bit annoyed. Thanks for any suggestion!

[hius07]

Have you tried to turn on Cover browser plugin in Tools - More tools - Plugin management?
Then choose Display mode in the file browser menu.

[pazos]

Originally Posted by Olomorn

I do have a question: is there an alternative to Nickel, that has what I call a library menu? Or maybe a configuration for KOreader that would be closer to what I like?

As far as I know there's no alternative for Nickel and no configuration for KOReader that mimics what you want:

There were some mockups for a "home page" in KOReader, like https://github.com/koreader/koreader/issues/5593 but that doesn't solve your issues.

What you want is a library view and that requires:

1. a daemon that scans files recursively and, for each supported file, gets metadata and a cover and stores that in a database.
2. an UI that lets you navigate the contents of the database.

While 2 could be difficult if you aim to create a refined UI, like nickel, the hard part is 1. KOReader is an aftermarket software and some stuff that Nickel is doing requires an integration at the firmware level.

TL;DR: patches welcome. The coverbrowser plugin contains everything you'll need for that. But the coverbrowser works for the files within a given dir, so it's fast.

What you need is a "button" that scans the whole ereader and updates the database. And press that button each time you made a change (from KOReader filemanager or from your computer or from ...). That would be a nice addition, but could be really slow to scan thousands of files on your device (really really slow on Android)

[Olomorn]

Originally Posted by hius07

Have you tried to turn on Cover browser plugin in Tools - More tools - Plugin management?
Then choose Display mode in the file browser menu.

I didn't know what it is, but it was already activated. But turning it off I actually like it better, I don't like file explorers with big icons. Anyway, it's not visually that I have a problem with KOreader, it really is about *how* I can browse my books.

[Olomorn]

Originally Posted by pazos

As far as I know there's no alternative for Nickel and no configuration for KOReader that mimics what you want:

There were some mockups for a "home page" in KOReader, like https://github.com/koreader/koreader/issues/5593 but that doesn't solve your issues.

What you want is a library view and that requires:

1. a daemon that scans files recursively and, for each supported file, gets metadata and a cover and stores that in a database.
2. an UI that lets you navigate the contents of the database.

While 2 could be difficult if you aim to create a refined UI, like nickel, the hard part is 1. KOReader is an aftermarket software and some stuff that Nickel is doing requires an integration at the firmware level.

TL;DR: patches welcome. The coverbrowser plugin contains everything you'll need for that. But the coverbrowser works for the files within a given dir, so it's fast.

What you need is a "button" that scans the whole ereader and updates the database. And press that button each time you made a change (from KOReader filemanager or from your computer or from ...). That would be a nice addition, but could be really slow to scan thousands of files on your device (really really slow on Android)

I mean, I wouldn't mind having to set a specific "library" folder where I would put all my ebooks, if it's faster. But I understand your point, and if I find the time to get into it I might try doing something about it myself but it's really not something I expect I'll be good at.

[pazos]

There's no such thing as a "library" folder. A library is a flat representation of your books. The filesystem is a hierarchical representation of them.

Putting all your books into a single folder and use the metadata/cover that coverbrowser plugin offers works fine for a few books but don't scale well.

Also, the real benefit of a library is their search capabilities, so you can search Sci-fi books made in the 80's or books with specific tags. You cannot do that on a filemanager (well you could technically but it will be painfully slow).

If you're a calibre user and you want some sort of search metadata capabilities you can try the calibre plugin search. We rely on calibre metadata placed somewhere on the reader so we just need to find recursively for that file and trust that file contents.

[NiLuJe]

IIRC, the + menu (and/or the FM settings) has an option to force a metadata scan. Not terribly useful in practice, though .

[Olomorn]

Originally Posted by pazos

There's no such thing as a "library" folder. A library is a flat representation of your books. The filesystem is a hierarchical representation of them.

Putting all your books into a single folder and use the metadata/cover that coverbrowser plugin offers works fine for a few books but don't scale well.

Also, the real benefit of a library is their search capabilities, so you can search Sci-fi books made in the 80's or books with specific tags. You cannot do that on a filemanager (well you could technically but it will be painfully slow).

If you're a calibre user and you want some sort of search metadata capabilities you can try the calibre plugin search. We rely on calibre metadata placed somewhere on the reader so we just need to find recursively for that file and trust that file contents.

I meant a library folder for the hypothetical fonction that would have to search all the books for the dreamed library view, a folder in which the library view could be sure all the books are in, and so avoid to search in the whole system. This was a refrence to what you said in your previous message :

That would be a nice addition, but could be really slow to scan thousands of files on your device

And a search is not exactly what I am after either, but I'll give it a try to see what I can do.


Anyway it doesn't seem there is a good solution for what I want so I'll have to deal with it.

To be honest I'd be much less annoyed at Nickel if the page number was the actual page of the reader and not what I understand to be the "adobe page number" lol.

Thank you all for your answer anyway! (I'm not going anywhere myself so if you have other ideas I'll take them but don't waste too much time with me lol.)

[Sirtel]

You can get actual reader pages if you use kepubs instead of epubs.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can get actual reader pages if you use kepubs instead of epubs.

Nope. You do not get actual page numbers in Access (software to read KePub). If you mean 1 page = 1 page number, then sorry, that's been broken for some time. Also, the ADE style page numbers that Access once had are gone.

The closest to real page numbers that you'll get are with RMSDK/ePub.