[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[jvaio]

Hello,

I've been successfully using Kobo Utilities to update metadata for 1,5 year.

The past days (I don't know how many, maybe since the last day's update), it doesn't update the tags. It just says "Books updated=0".

I have decided to change up my tags and about 300 aren't updated.

It does update changes in summary.

It's something weird, because the new tags are visible in the Device Tags in Calibre, and they show books in them. But the books themselves aren't shelved in the device (see in the attached image).

I have tried uninstalling and installing KU, disconnecting and reconnecting the KL2, powering it off and on. The Automatic Management of Calibre in enabled, but I don't think that it has ever worked. I have NickelMenu installed for months.

Is there anything I can do to update my device?

TIA

[DNSB]

Did you update to calibre 8+ and were you using the Kobo Touch Extended driver? If so, that driver is now blacklisted since it's functions are now part of the KoboTouch driver. Sadly, the configuration from the KTE driver is not transferred over to the KoboTouch driver and you will need to do so manually.

You can find the KTE configuration file at C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\calibre\device _drivers_KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED.py.json with the following three lines being of most interest for creating collections:

  "collections_columns": "#finished",
  "collections_template": "",
  "create_collections": true,

[jvaio]

Yes, I use Calibre 8.3.

I located the json files you mentioned.

There are two:
(1) device_drivers_KOBOTOUCH.py
(2) device_drivers_KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED.py

In the first file, the "create_collections" was on false. I edited it, but nothing has changed.

I pasted the code you provided in both the files and, then, I used #tags (which was already the default) with capital and no capital letter.

Is it supposed to have the "#finished"? It still doesn't work.

Unless I am doing something else wrong.
After pasting the code, I should use Update Metadata from KU, correct?

The Calibre's bulit-in auto management doesn't work for me.

[jvaio]

I indeed use Calibre 8.3.

I had installed the Kobo Touch Extended driver, but I wasn't (knowingly) using it. I used to inplug the KL2, replug it, and use the Update Metadata from KU.

I located the file you suggested. There are two files there:
(1) device_drivers_KOBOTOUCH.py
(2) device_drivers_KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED.py

In the first, the "create_collections" functions was false. I wrote true, but it still didn't work.

I tried to change the "tags" in "collections_columns": to
"Tags"
"#tags"
"#Tags"
"#finished"

but nothing seems to work.

Unless I'm doing something else wrong.
After changing the files, I still use the Update Metadata in KU, correct?
The Calibre's automatic metadata management never worked in my computer.

[PeterT]

You don't update the values in those files directly. Instead you use the driver configuration in calibre itself to make changes.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jvaio

I indeed use Calibre 8.3.

I tried to change the "tags" in "collections_columns": to
"Tags"
"#tags"
"#Tags"
"#finished"

but nothing seems to work.

FWIW, the lookup name for calibre's tags is "tags", the one you didn't try.

Unless I'm doing something else wrong.
After changing the files, I still use the Update Metadata in KU, correct?
The Calibre's automatic metadata management never worked in my computer.

You should work out why automatic metadata management and the built-in kobo collection management don't work. They do work for (tens of?) thousands of users, including me.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

FWIW, the lookup name for calibre's tags is "tags", the one you didn't try.

the lookups are case-sensitive? Did not know.

[DNSB]

What @PeterT said. The reason for looking at those files is to allow you to see what your configuration was. As for automatic metadata management? It has always worked for me. I've attached a set of screenshots of my setup. The User Kobo viewer for EPUB books is checked to convert to .kepub.epub on the fly.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

the lookups are case-sensitive? Did not know.

They can be. As said in the calibre API and error dialogs:

The lookup name must begin with a '#'. All remaining characters must be lower case letters, digits or underscores. The character after the '#' must be a letter. The lookup name must not end with the suffix '_index'.

There may be some cases such as search that aren't case sensitive, but I would be astonished if that is true in very many places.

For example, this python template works:

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
	db = context.db.new_api
	return str(db.field_for('tags', book.id))

This one doesn't:

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
	db = context.db.new_api
	return str(db.field_for('Tags', book.id))

[Enebat]

Sorry, I got the thread mixed up.

[Enebat]

thanks a lot!

[ownedbycats]

Have there been any changes to how Kobo Utilities fetches % read? On reader, I leave in-progress fanfics on the last page (99%) to keep the reading position. Then I have action chain that checks for fanfics 99% read > sets percent to 100% > restore to device.

I've been doing this some years now. But recently I find that KU fetches 100% instead of 99% and messes up chain. Changes in rounding, might be, or something else.

[DNSB]

As far as I can, there have been no changes in that part of the code in Kobo Utilities for a while now.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Have there been any changes to how Kobo Utilities fetches % read? On reader, I leave in-progress fanfics on the last page (99%) to keep the reading position. Then I have action chain that checks for fanfics 99% read > sets percent to 100% > restore to device.

I've been doing this some years now. But recently I find that KU fetches 100% instead of 99% and messes up chain. Changes in rounding, might be, or something else.

Maybe it is a rounding problem. One such eBooks, try baking up a screen and see what happens.

[Majutsushi]

I can't think of any change that could have caused this. It would probably be helpful to see a debug log where this is getting updated for a book.