[GUI Plugin] FanFicFare

[JimmXinu]

If there's a specific "update old chapters" function, I don't remember it.

What I would do is: Use Calibre's Edit book feature on the epub, remove those two chapter files, then update in FFF.

[JimmXinu]

2026-10-25
- Plugin: Show book title in BG job title when only one.
- Add use_series_page_metadata option, defaults false.

Originally Posted by whiteowl

Is it possible to change that universal title to something like "Downloading from <URL>"? It would be even better to show the book name, it should be available after reading metadata, but a simple URL would also be enough.

Only changed for single download jobs.

Originally Posted by penumbria

I use FFF and EpubMerge to download anthologies from AO3. I have been running into two issues lately. First, some of these anthologies are huge, like 100+ entries.

This turned out to be both easier and harder than expected. The harder part was needing to parse all of the metadata available, not just the number of chapters. Otherwise the merged anthology might have less metadata than before.

Warning
I re-wrote most of the metadata parsing code for OTW(AO3) doing this. I checked what I could find stories for, but it's possible I broke something. Keep an eye on your AO3(etc) metadata.

And a number of entries are just not present in the list form. For that reason, I made it optional. Turn it on with:

[archiveofourown.org]
use_series_page_metadata:true

From plugin-defaults.ini:

[base_otw]
...
## Plugin only.  OTW(AO3etc) only.  When downloading/updating a series
## anthology, use the metadata found on the series page(/series/)
## without fetching each story's metadata as much as possible.  This
## way, lengthy series where only a few or one stories have new
## chapters can avoid fetching the individual story pages for
## metadata.  Limitations: Cannot collect bookmarktags,
## bookmarkprivate, bookmarkrec, subscribed, markedforlater,
## bookmarksummary, or collections from series page.
#use_series_page_metadata:false

[JimmXinu]

RoyalRoad is not working. They've implemented javascript blocking that FFF isn't able to bypass.

Further discussion of this issue on github: https://github.com/JimmXinu/FanFicFare/issues/1444

[ernand]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

If there's a specific "update old chapters" function, I don't remember it.

What I would do is: Use Calibre's Edit book feature on the epub, remove those two chapter files, then update in FFF.

Oh, I think I confused the function with that new one about update_preserve_deleted_chapters? Just thought it was the same function, since the chapter still got "updated" and a few things changed in the text.

[LordXamon]

So is there no way to fix or circumvent the Page not found or expired in Browser Cache error with AO3?

[wildfire070]

Any success with using camoufox with FFF to download from AO3 without having to do the browser cache method?

[CrazyIAS]

I last used the plugin on October 16th, and it updated from Royalroad just fine.
It's throwing an error now, and I'm not sure if I need to change my settings or if something else has changed.

Error log copied from the app:

Status | Title | Author |Comment |URL
Error | Archdruid Alchemist |Joey Pevey |'NoneType' object has no attribute 'text'|
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/193299

[applegaa]

Originally Posted by CrazyIAS

I last used the plugin on October 16th, and it updated from Royalroad just fine.
It's throwing an error now, and I'm not sure if I need to change my settings or if something else has changed.

Error log copied from the app:

The answer to your question is literally 4 comments up.

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

RoyalRoad is not working. They've implemented javascript blocking that FFF isn't able to bypass.

Further discussion of this issue on github: https://github.com/JimmXinu/FanFicFare/issues/1444

[culytera]

Originally Posted by LordXamon

So is there no way to fix or circumvent the Page not found or expired in Browser Cache error with AO3?

My now preferred method for cache downloads is to have a separate browser solely for AO3 downloads. Since I prefer my Firefox to not save its cache on disk, I instead have Calibre set to open Waterfox. I just needed to set the Change the programs that are run when opening files/URLs (ID: openers_by_scheme) tweak to this:

openers_by_scheme = {'http*': 'C:/Program Files/Waterfox/waterfox.exe %u'}

And of course, in personal.ini, I have the path set to this:

[defaults]
browser_cache_path:C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Waterfox\Profiles\<profile_name>\cache2

You can find that path by navigating to about:cache in the address bar and copying the path in Storage disk location under disk.

[JimmXinu]

New Test Version Posted

2026-10-28
- Update bundled certifi to 2026.10.23
- Plugin only: use_camoufox option using Calibre recipes.py Browser.
- adapter_royalroadcom: Fix for dateUpdated in new UI, thanks VictorVow(#1445)
- adapter_royalroadcom: Increase default sleep time.

RoyalRoad

As discussed in #1444, RR started blocking with a javascript 'proof of work' system that FFF on its own couldn't handle.

Camoufox

I'd been procrastinating about using Calibre's Camoufox support for a bit, this convinced me to try a little harder. And it appears to work.

It's optional and you have to turn it on. If you have the BrowserCache settings on, those take priority, so turn them off:

[www.royalroad.com]
use_browser_cache:false
use_camoufox:true

The very first time you try to use Camoufox in Calibre, Calibre will silently download and install it for you. So first download with it may take a long time.

Anubis

The javascript 'proof of work' system is called anubis and FFF's camoufox support has special code to detect it and wait for camoufox to finish it. But weirdly, I'm not seeing it today on RR

Other sites

Honestly the part I'm most excited about: In my testing, use_camoufox works with AO3 and ffnet, too. I gave up on ffnet so hard I didn't even try it with camoufox until day 2 of working on it.

Note it does not work for me on SB and I've put basically zero time into figuring out why. I don't need it for SB, I was just checking.

Plugin Only

This is currently a plugin only feature, depending on Calibre's install and management of Camoufox. If it goes well, I will look into direct Camoufox support for CLI.

In the meantime, you can use Calibre's CLI to run the FFF plugin as a CLI, but using Calibre's python environ, to get Camoufox support:

calibre-debug -r FanFicFare -- <FFF options, urls, etc>

[MorbPtact]

I just tried the latest test version, and got the old 403 client error
HTTP Error in FFF '403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36950'(403)

If it's just me, it may be because I tried resetting my certificates yesterday, though I don't think that could cause a 403 error, can it?

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by MorbPtact

I just tried the latest test version, and got the old 403 client error
HTTP Error in FFF '403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/36950'(403)

If it's just me, it may be because I tried resetting my certificates yesterday, though I don't think that could cause a 403 error, can it?

Is that with or without the new use_camoufox option? It works for me using use_camoufox.

[MorbPtact]

Ah, with adding it I then get a certificate error
<urlopen error The camoufox browser failed: <urlopen error [SSL: CERTIFICATE_VERIFY_FAILED] certificate verify failed: Missing Authority Key Identifier (_ssl.c:1082)>>
it seems like use_ssl_unverified_context:true doesn't help for camoufox. is there a workaround for that?

[JimmXinu]

That's an oddly specific issue. Is your setup unusual?

I have FFF using a singleon pattern so only one camoufox browser is started per process while using separate tabs within that browser for different downloads.

There is an verify_ssl_certificates option, but I don't think I could set it differently for different sites and I'm reluctant to do it across the board, even as a setting. Plus I'm not sure where I would even put that setting.

[applegaa]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

That's an oddly specific issue. Is your setup unusual?

I have FFF using a singleon pattern so only one camoufox browser is started per process while using separate tabs within that browser for different downloads.

There is an verify_ssl_certificates option, but I don't think I could set it differently for different sites and I'm reluctant to do it across the board, even as a setting. Plus I'm not sure where I would even put that setting.

I just downloaded and installed the new test version, and it's working fine on Royal Road for me.

It's also mostly working for ScribbleHub, although I'm seeing some failed chapters amongst the successful one.

EDIT: Possibly unrelated, as I had given up on ScribbleHub rather than using cache, but all four stories I tested switched the chapter order to Descending instead of Ascending.

Also, every ScribbleHub update so far that has new chapters has ended with a failed chapter. The number of successful chapters has ranged from 1 to 8.