Beta test of major new features

[kovidgoyal]

Released 0.6.95 with a fix for a bug that made 0.6.94 unusable with dates before 1900

[Starson17]

I'm running 0.6.95. Going into Preferences with a folder connected causes a partial folder disconnect (similar to the earlier random folder disconnect bug). You can't disconnect (disconnect option not there), nor can you reconnect (connect option is there, but doesn't work). Forcing a quit of Calibre works.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Starson17

I'm running 0.6.95. Going into Preferences with a folder connected causes a partial folder disconnect (similar to the earlier random folder disconnect bug).

Fixed in next release.

[chaley]

Not so distant early warning ...

The next beta release will change how user-defined tag categories (not user-defined columns) are stored, in order to make them available to the calibre server. The effect: tag categories you have defined will go away, and you must create them again.

If this is intolerable for someone, please let me know. One can hand edit the configuration files and preserve the user-defined categories, but the process isn't completely trivial. I would rather work with individuals than try to post general instructions.

[speakingtohe]

Hi I am not sure if the not so distant early warning applies to me.
I have two custom columns/fields
One is yes/no and the other is text,column shown in the tag browser.
I use these to define whether a file is formatted ok and as a short tag saying what the problem is.(ie. page numbers, flow, just butt ugly but possibly fixable etc.)
I have about 4000 entries in these fields so would be a bit put out if they disappeared but would of course survive.

Just curious as to whether I will be affected as I am sure I can figure out a way to deal with the problem if necessary.

Thanks for the custom fields BTW I find them extremely useful

Helen

[chaley]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Hi I am not sure if the not so distant early warning applies to me.
I have two custom columns/fields.

No. The warning applies to user-defined tag categories, not custom columns.

Thanks for the custom fields BTW I find them extremely useful

You are welcome.

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by chaley

Not so distant early warning ...

The next beta release will change how user-defined tag categories (not user-defined columns) are stored, in order to make them available to the calibre server. The effect: tag categories you have defined will go away, and you must create them again.
.

So, my extensive library (well over 2K ebooks that I have been collecting for years) where I created tags that show read, not-read, home paper back, home hard back, encyclopedia, dictionary, school use, etc. on nearly every ebook is now going to be gone?

Can you walk me through how to keep them? If not, I think I'll just stay at the current release, although there may be upcoming things I would have liked.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

So, my extensive library (well over 2K ebooks that I have been collecting for years) where I created tags that show read, not-read, home paper back, home hard back, encyclopedia, dictionary, school use, etc. on nearly every ebook is now going to be gone?

No. Tags are not being touched. Only the user-defined categories are.

This feature appeared with the beta. If you haven't upgraded, there is no problem. If you have upgraded, then you will be affected only if you pushed the 'Manage categories' button, created new categories, and then populated them with items from other categories.

Apologies for the confusion.

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by chaley

No. Tags are not being touched. Only the user-defined categories are.

Whew! Thanks for the quick update.

[mezme]

I was looking at the "custom fields" and which options are available. How hard would it be to include a custom field that had an incremented value field attached to it? IE: a second "series" field? Obviously this can be faked out by just entering a text field "pern [000]" but hey --- I didn't think it would hurt to ask

This would be extremely useful for books that have a numbered series and also belong to a collection which is numbered. For example when entering Anne McAffrey's Pern series... the PERN books have specific series "The Chronicles", "Dragonriders", "Renegades" etc.... but then you also have a specific reading order if you want events to happen sequentially which crosses all of those series.

[speakingtohe]

I would like a drop down list field with user defineable items.
I know we have drop downlists in the edit nmetadata screens but not really in the Gui
And what I really want is one like Excel has that you can change the items, but not when entering data.

Everything is ok as is, just food for thought

[GRiker]

As of 0.6.96b, calibre supports the iPad in both OSX and Windows. You can use Send to device to transfer epubs directly to your connected iPad via iTunes.

This is a beta release of the iPad driver with the following caveats:

• This is a beta release of the driver built on top of a beta release of calibre. It has not been exhaustively tested, but I've been using it with no data loss. I don't expect it will put scratches on your iPad screen, but if it does, you were warned.
• The driver was tested with OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard), Windows 7, and a 3G iPad.
• You must have iTunes installed on your system, as calibre talks to the iPad through iTunes. You should install the latest version of iTunes, which is 9.1.1.(12) as of this writing. If in doubt, download the most recent version from apple.com. Fyi, 9.1.1.(11) was the last version pushed out by Apple's automatic software upgrade system, to get 9.1.1.(12) you currently need to manually download it. To check your installed version, click iTunes|About iTunes in the iTunes menu.
• There will be no Linux support in this driver, as there is no Linux version of iTunes.
• The driver transfers only epubs to iBooks via iTunes. PDFs transfers are not supported, nor are any of the 3rd party ereader apps ... only epubs to be read in iBooks.
• If you have a cover assigned in calibre, it will be used in iTunes and in iBooks as the book's cover, superseding any cover defined within the epub.
• There is a bug in the current version of iBooks (1.0.1) when updating a book that's previously been added to iBooks. If you change the cover art in calibre, then send the updated book to the iPad, the original cover will still be shown in some iBooks browser views instead of the updated cover. The only fix that I've found is to reinstall iBooks on the iPad. Apparently iBooks is caching covers and not properly updating them, even though iTunes correctly shows the updated cover. Minor annoyance.
• iPhone and iPod Touch will be supported when iBooks is available for them, probably when version 4.0 OS is released.

Using iPad as a Reader with Calibre

• I suggest syncing your iPad with iTunes before connecting your iPad to calibre for the first time. Making sure that you're up to date with syncing will make transfers go more quickly.
• In iTunes Preferences|Advanced, check Keep iTunes Media Folder organized and Copy files to iTunes Media Folder when adding to Library. You may not be currently be using these settings, but these settings are how the device driver's been tested. The second item 'Copy files ...', is mandatory, because calibre generates a temporary copy of the exported epub when sending it to iTunes. The permanent copy must be stored in iTunes, because the temporary copy provided by calibre is ... temporary.
• In iTunes, with your iPad connected, select your iPad in the Devices section. In Summary|Options, uncheck Manually manage music and videos.
• Launch calibre. When a connected iPad is detected, calibre will launch iTunes minimized if it's not already running.
• Set Preferences|General|Preferred output format to 'EPUB', and Preferences|Conversion|Page Setup|Output profile to 'iPad'.
• The first time you connect your iPad to calibre, calibre will be caching metadata and thumbnails as it scans iTunes and iBooks, which will make subsequent connections much faster.
• The iPad 'Reader' icon will be shown next to the 'Library' icon, indicating that calibre is talking to the iPad. Click it to see books on your iPad.
• To copy books from calibre to your iPad , select the book(s) to transfer from your Library, then click Send to device.
• iTunes/iBooks supports a single Category tag. If you have multiple tags assigned to a book in calibre, the first tag beginning with an alpha character will be used. Special tags like '[Project Gutenberg]' or '+' are ignored.
• Recipes and catalogs may be downloaded to the iPad.
• While calibre is running, it's best to do all iPad-related actions through calibre rather than iTunes. Minimizing iTunes while calibre is running will reduce the temptatation to interfere.
• Syncing is initiated after clicking Send to device or Remove books in the Reader view. In some cases, the syncing operation between iTunes and your iPad will continue after calibre is done with its part. Watch the screen on the iPad to know when the sync is done.
• Unlike some other readers, the iPad may be used while connected to the computer. This means that you can open your downloaded books in iBooks after the syncing is complete while the iPad is still connected to calibre. You don't need to eject the iPad until you want to disconnect the iPad from your computer.
• You can copy books from your iPad to your computer using Save to disk, but be aware that all epubs acquired through the iBooks store are encrypted with Apple's Fairplay DRM, and thus not readable anywhere but on your iPad. Also, be aware that iTunes makes copies of purchased books during sync operations, so there's really no need to create a separate backup copy of your iBooks purchases in calibre.
• iBooks stores epubs on the iPad in uncompressed form for performance reasons. As a result, you will notice that the size of the book shown in calibre's Library window (and iTunes) is smaller than the size of the book on the iPad.
• iTunes is not shut down upon exiting calibre. I'll leave that to you.

Known Issues

• The driver currently sends comments from calibre to iTunes, however the automation interface to iTunes limits the transferred text to 256 characters. This is a limitation of the automation interface, and there's nothing that I can do about it. I'll leave the truncated transfer enabled for now, but if there are too many bug reports I'll turn it off.
• If you use calibre to delete a book that you purchased through the iBookstore (free or paid), iTunes will pop up a dialog asking you to confirm. This does not happen with books transferred from calibre.
• If you bring up a modal dialog in iTunes, for example 'Get Info' to examine the book's metadata, the iPad will appear to disconnect in calibre after a short time. As soon as you close the modal dialog in iTunes, the connection will be restored in calibre.
• If you Remove books on your iPad, they will still be shown as On Device (i.e., checked) in the main Library window. This is a known issue with calibre and will be resolved.
• If your iPad does not show as a connected device, I'll need to know its USB device id. Post the output from this command:

  calibre-debug -d

  In particular, I need to see the portion describing your connected iPad. It should look similar to this:

  ['0x5acL',
    '0x129aL',
    '0x1L',
    u'Apple Inc.',
    u'iPad',
    u'2f75d15ef9386376e10064d7a5701f47b2128aeb']]

G

[itimpi]

Sounds great - I cannot wait until you produce the Windows version of the driver as I do not have a Mac. In the meantime syncing books via iTunes will have to suffice

A few questions:
- After books have been transfered by Calibre will they subsequently show up in iTunes as being present on the device?
- You mention comments/descriptions not being usable in iBooks (yet anyway). However will they be visible in iTunes as that would still be better than nothing. I am sure long term they will be wanted.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by itimpi

- After books have been transfered by Calibre will they subsequently show up in iTunes as being present on the device?

Yes

Originally Posted by itimpi

- You mention comments/descriptions not being usable in iBooks (yet anyway). However will they be visible in iTunes as that would still be better than nothing. I am sure long term they will be wanted.

I'll add them.

G

[tlrowley]

Where is 6.96? I only see 6.95 on the beta download page, and I'm very interested in trying out the iPad support.