[GUI Plugin] calibre Auto-Updater

[dunhill]

calibre Auto-Updater is a GUI plugin designed to streamline the update process of calibre directly from the interface. Instead of manually checking the website or opening a separate terminal, this plugin automates the download and launch of the official installer across different operating systems.

Main Features
One-Click Update: Triggers the official update process.

Safety First: Automatically closes calibre before updating to prevent database corruption or file-locking issues.

Multi-platform Support: Intelligent behavior for Linux, Windows, and macOS.

I18n Ready: Prepared for translations (currently English base).

Important: Compatibility & Behavior
This plugin is designed exclusively for standard binary/fixed installations.

Critical Notes:
Linux Users: Upon confirmation, calibre will close immediately and your default terminal will open to run the official script. Asking for your root password. This is required to overwrite system files while they are not in use.

Windows Users: The plugin downloads the official .msi installer to your Desktop and launches it.

Flatpak, AppImage & Portable Versions: These formats are not supported for automatic updates. If you use these, the plugin will notify you that a manual update is required.

How it works on each System
Linux (Standard/Official Install)
A confirmation dialog appears with a compatibility warning.
Upon acceptance, calibre closes and your default terminal opens.
The official calibre installer script is executed via wget.
You will be prompted for your sudo password in the terminal.
Once finished, press Enter to close the terminal.

Windows (Fixed Installation)
The plugin downloads the official 64-bit .msi installer directly to your Desktop.
calibre closes and the .msi installer is launched automatically.
The user follows the standard Windows installation wizard.

MacOS
The official .dmg file is downloaded to a temporary folder.
calibre closes and the disk image is mounted automatically using the open command.
Drag calibre to your Applications folder as usual.

Installation
Download the attached calibre_autoupdater.zip file.
In calibre: Preferences -> Plugins -> Load plugin from file.
Restart calibre. You will see a new "Update calibre" icon in your main toolbar.

Version: 1.0.0
Minimum Version: 8.0.0

[dunhill]

Reserved

[JSWolf]

Can you make it show that what's new that you can get from the official website?

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can you make it show that what's new that you can get from the official website?

"I understand! However, the philosophy of this plugin is to keep it as lightweight and 'one-click' as possible. Fetching and formatting the 'What's New' data from the website adds a layer of complexity that goes beyond the current scope. I'll consider adding a direct link to the official changelog in the confirmation dialog for the next version."

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can you make it show that what's new that you can get from the official website?

Does that sound good to you, JSWolf?

[JSWolf]

Can you make it so we get to see what's new without having to go to the website?

[gbm]

Tested on Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon--works.

bernie

Originally Posted by dunhill

"I understand! However, the philosophy of this plugin is to keep it as lightweight and 'one-click' as possible. Fetching and formatting the 'What's New' data from the website adds a layer of complexity that goes beyond the current scope. I'll consider adding a direct link to the official changelog in the confirmation dialog for the next version."

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can you make it so we get to see what's new without having to go to the website?

Thank you for the suggestion! I understand how convenient it would be to see the changelog directly in the plugin.
However, implementing a built-in 'What's New' viewer brings two significant challenges:
Stability: It would require 'web scraping' the official site. If the website layout changes even slightly, the plugin would break, requiring constant maintenance for a secondary feature.
Localization: calibre's changelog is only published in English. To show it to all users, I would need to integrate a third-party translation engine, which adds a lot of complexity and potential privacy/connectivity issues to what is meant to be a lightweight 'action' tool.
To keep the plugin fast, stable, and simple, I've included a direct link to the official 'What's New' page in the confirmation dialog. Most modern browsers will offer to translate that page automatically into your preferred language with one click.
I hope you understand the choice to keep the plugin focused on its main task: updating calibre reliably!
Furthermore, I believe it's important to respect the official website's traffic. By visiting the 'What's New' page directly, users stay connected with the official project, supporting the author's site statistics and visibility.

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by gbm

Tested on Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon--works.

bernie

GBM, thanks for your feedback. I'm hoping for comments from people who use both Windows and macOS in case any settings need fine-tuning. Enjoy!

[BetterRed]

@dunhill - FTR: no need to screen scrape, it's in Changelog.txt at github.

That said, if someone can't be bothered to look at the What's new in their browser (and use its translate feature) they're are unlikely to read its content no matter how its presented.

BR

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@dunhill - FTR: no need to screen scrape, it's in Changelog.txt at github.

That said, if someone can't be bothered to look at the What's new in their browser (and use its translate feature) they're are unlikely to read its content no matter how its presented.

BR

Thanks for the tip about the GitHub Changelog.txt, BR! That's definitely a cleaner source for data.

However, I agree with your second point: if someone isn't willing to click a link to stay informed, they probably won't read the content regardless of the format. For now, I'll stick with the link to the official site to keep the plugin's 'action-oriented' philosophy and support the official project's visibility.

Cheers!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by dunhill

Thanks for the tip about the GitHub Changelog.txt, BR! That's definitely a cleaner source for data.

However, I agree with your second point: if someone isn't willing to click a link to stay informed, they probably won't read the content regardless of the format. For now, I'll stick with the link to the official site to keep the plugin's 'action-oriented' philosophy and support the official project's visibility.

Cheers!

I don't understand the problem Linux users have with calibre installs. As well as installing calibre on two Windows boxes and a couple of portables I also install it an out of date Arch box. All from the Windows computer I am using right now — takes all of 4-6 minutes.

Ditto Sigil… installed 2.75 on the Arch system early this morning… it's being used as we speak. Its about the same distance from me as it is from the Starlink satellites it uses :lol:

BR

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by dunhill

Thank you for the suggestion! I understand how convenient it would be to see the changelog directly in the plugin.
However, implementing a built-in 'What's New' viewer brings two significant challenges:
Stability: It would require 'web scraping' the official site. If the website layout changes even slightly, the plugin would break, requiring constant maintenance for a secondary feature.
Localization: calibre's changelog is only published in English. To show it to all users, I would need to integrate a third-party translation engine, which adds a lot of complexity and potential privacy/connectivity issues to what is meant to be a lightweight 'action' tool.
To keep the plugin fast, stable, and simple, I've included a direct link to the official 'What's New' page in the confirmation dialog. Most modern browsers will offer to translate that page automatically into your preferred language with one click.
I hope you understand the choice to keep the plugin focused on its main task: updating calibre reliably!
Furthermore, I believe it's important to respect the official website's traffic. By visiting the 'What's New' page directly, users stay connected with the official project, supporting the author's site statistics and visibility.

You have to scrape the website anyway tp get the files to download. If the website changes, then the plug-in needs to be updated. No different. As for traffic, that too is no different. Before I download the a new version of calibre, I do look at what's new. So that would be no more traffic to the site then it is now. I would think most people would look at what's new. As for What's New only in English, that's not a problem. Firefox and Chrome both have built-in translation.

Downloading a new version of calibre without seeing what's new means we won't be seeing what's been fixed and what's been added. That tells us what's changed. There is no way I would go an update calibre without reading what's new unless it was a .1 fix. How many others would update without reading what's new? Also, if you send us to the website to read what's new, we may was will just download calibre while we are there and then what use is the plug-in?

[DiapDealer]

I think everyone has been very patient about explaining why the "what's new" idea for this plugin is not in the cards at this time. This plugin won't be for everyone. Very few plugins are. This one might not be for you.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I think everyone has been very patient about explaining why the "what's new" idea for this plugin is not in the cards at this time. This plugin won't be for everyone. Very few plugins are. This one might not be for you.

IMHO, without what's new, it won't be for most people.