[The Older version] Calibre2opds V2 - Page 12

Craysh · 04-20-2010, 03:24 AM

One quick suggestion. Could you add an option under "All Books" to literally list all books? Sometimes my friend likes to peruse his books and decide what to read next.

itimpi · 04-20-2010, 04:39 AM

What advantage does that have over working through each letter in turn as they would end up being listed alphabetically anyway?

Maybe some sort of "random" selection that changes each time the catalog is regenerated might be an idea?

Craysh · 04-20-2010, 12:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itimpi

What advantage does that have over working through each letter in turn as they would end up being listed alphabetically anyway?

Maybe some sort of "random" selection that changes each time the catalog is regenerated might be an idea?

When you have a large amount of books it's frustrating to go back and forth between them. It's just a matter of convenience I guess

dpierron · 04-21-2010, 04:18 AM

So you mean, have the option to disable the "split by letter" feature on the "All books" catalog ?
Did I understand the request correctly ?

Craysh · 04-21-2010, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dpierron

So you mean, have the option to disable the "split by letter" feature on the "All books" catalog ?
Did I understand the request correctly ?

I meant to add an additional option, which lists every book

dpierron · 04-21-2010, 02:33 PM

I don't understand the difference between this new option of yours and the existing "All books" catalog, if it's not a matter of splitting by letter...
Could you please elaborate ?

itimpi · 04-21-2010, 06:11 PM

I think that he is saying that as well as splitting by letter he also wants an "All Books" entry at the top that lists all books without splitting by letter - merely paginating as required.

dpierron · 04-22-2010, 02:52 AM

Ok, that I can do

SirBC · 04-22-2010, 11:58 AM

Thanks for this awesome program!

I also had the same (or at least similar) request regarding making it easier to navigate the catalog. I use the generated catalog so that my family, which is spread out over several cities in the US, can browse and download ebooks. They typically view the catalog using a desktop computer. So while the catalog is easy to navigate on an iPhone, it would be great to have some options to create a catalog that is more easily navigated using a full size browser for those of us using the catalog in this fashion.

Below are a few examples of how this might work. I generated the catalogs using the program Book Collector by Collectorz.com, a program that I used for cataloging my ebooks before switching to Calibre. In the options pages (see screen shots below) you can control pretty much everything, from size of thumbnails to background colors, how many books before paginating, etc. There are also built-in templates to use for the detail view (when you click on a book). The templates are just XML which can be easily edited and shared with other users.

Paged by letter - This catalog is generated with sorting by first letter of authors last name

Paged List - This catalog is generated by paginating after a user selectable number of books, sorted by author. I am using 100

Single Long List - This displays the entire catalog on one page, sorted by Author

These are screen shots of the options for generating the catalog:

dpierron · 04-22-2010, 12:14 PM

Thanks for the praise, and for taking the time to write such a detailed post.

I understand the need of a HTML-centric generation mode. However, this is not the aim of this program : it's called Calibre2Opds for a reason

For the moment, the OPDS catalogs are generated (using the defined options) and then they are processed by a XSLT processor to generate the HTML catalogs.

It may change : I was thinking of rewriting the program in a plugin-driven toolchain, where the output would be generated by a specific plugin, which means that everything would be possible, but also that generating two (or more) different formats would take twice (or more) the time. But even this is not on the shortlist of upcoming features.
I'll keep it in mind, though.

What I can do is try and give you all the features you want, that do not penalize the OPDS catalog generation. They are, not exhaustively, allowing for bigger thumbnails, letting the user choose a XSLT template (or a CSS stylesheet) to customize the generated HTML output, adding the generation date, and finally adding an "All books" catalog not split by letter.

If you have other requests, please state them, and I'll tell if they are reasonable or not

SirBC · 04-22-2010, 12:30 PM

I am probably confusing terminology as I wasn't so much concerned with how the catalog is generated as with how it is displayed. If I had to narrow it down to a "concept", I guess I would say that I would like a "cleaner" way of browsing the catalog with having more covers visible at once by using more screen real estate, an without have to click on links as much as I currently do. Also, I like browsing by book cover, so a display that has a grid view of the books, instead of one column, would be nice.

I personally would not be a fan of an "All books" view if all of the books were on one page, as this could get unwieldy with very large catalogs. I do like the idea of sorting by author, but I prefer it if when you clicked on "C", it would then display the covers of *all* authors whose last name begins with "C" (like this), instead of having to then select each author one by one. I'm not sure if that is possible within the current framework, but that's my whishlist

dpierron · 04-22-2010, 12:40 PM

Or maybe I went a little overboard here

The "browse by cover" with a multiple-column view is totally reasonable, and I can do this with minor changes to the OPDS generation code - or maybe even with no change at all, if my web designer, Brian, comes back from wherever he hides

And the "List by author initial" feature is also something that can be done within the existing framework. It would definitively be a nice addition to the "browse by cover" mode...

Feature requests noted, sir

itimpi · 04-22-2010, 05:00 PM

I have been thinking that another place I wouild rather the split by letter did not take place is under the recent books listings. Once they have been split by date I would like to be able to browse all books within a date section in reverse chronological order without the need to drill down to a specific letter.

dpierron · 04-22-2010, 05:02 PM

Isn't it the case already ? If it's not then it's a bug, because that's how I always intended it - I even took the time to add the date to the book title !

itimpi · 04-22-2010, 05:17 PM

No - if you reach the trigger limit for sub-dividing by letter then that happens as well. If this was not the intention then there is definitely a bug.

It may not always be obvious as if you have not added a lot of books within a date range then you probably do not have enough books within that section to trigger the dividing by letter.

However if i look at a catalog I generated in the last few days as an example I have 77 books in the "This month" section and it gets divided by letter (my trigger level being the default of 75). Other sections like "This week" or "this fortnight" do not reach the trigger level so do not get divided.

04-22-2010, 11:58 AM	#174
SirBC Connoisseur Posts: 56 Karma: 64 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Kindle	Thanks for this awesome program! I also had the same (or at least similar) request regarding making it easier to navigate the catalog. I use the generated catalog so that my family, which is spread out over several cities in the US, can browse and download ebooks. They typically view the catalog using a desktop computer. So while the catalog is easy to navigate on an iPhone, it would be great to have some options to create a catalog that is more easily navigated using a full size browser for those of us using the catalog in this fashion. Below are a few examples of how this might work. I generated the catalogs using the program Book Collector by Collectorz.com, a program that I used for cataloging my ebooks before switching to Calibre. In the options pages (see screen shots below) you can control pretty much everything, from size of thumbnails to background colors, how many books before paginating, etc. There are also built-in templates to use for the detail view (when you click on a book). The templates are just XML which can be easily edited and shared with other users. Paged by letter - This catalog is generated with sorting by first letter of authors last name Catalog With Tall and Wide Thumbnails Paged List - This catalog is generated by paginating after a user selectable number of books, sorted by author. I am using 100 Catalog With Tall and Wide Thumbnails Single Long List - This displays the entire catalog on one page, sorted by Author Catalog With Tall and Wide Thumbnails These are screen shots of the options for generating the catalog:

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04-20-2010, 03:24 AM	#166
Craysh Member Posts: 20 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2010 Device: iPhone, Android, PRS-600	One quick suggestion. Could you add an option under "All Books" to literally list all books? Sometimes my friend likes to peruse his books and decide what to read next.

04-20-2010, 04:39 AM	#167
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	What advantage does that have over working through each letter in turn as they would end up being listed alphabetically anyway? Maybe some sort of "random" selection that changes each time the catalog is regenerated might be an idea?

04-21-2010, 04:18 AM	#169
dpierron calibre2opds guru Posts: 533 Karma: 8792 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Metz, France Device: iPhone, iPad, PRS-650	So you mean, have the option to disable the "split by letter" feature on the "All books" catalog ? Did I understand the request correctly ?

04-21-2010, 02:33 PM	#171
dpierron calibre2opds guru Posts: 533 Karma: 8792 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Metz, France Device: iPhone, iPad, PRS-650	I don't understand the difference between this new option of yours and the existing "All books" catalog, if it's not a matter of splitting by letter... Could you please elaborate ?

04-21-2010, 06:11 PM	#172
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	I think that he is saying that as well as splitting by letter he also wants an "All Books" entry at the top that lists all books without splitting by letter - merely paginating as required.

04-22-2010, 02:52 AM	#173
dpierron calibre2opds guru Posts: 533 Karma: 8792 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Metz, France Device: iPhone, iPad, PRS-650	Ok, that I can do

04-22-2010, 12:14 PM	#175
dpierron calibre2opds guru Posts: 533 Karma: 8792 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Metz, France Device: iPhone, iPad, PRS-650	Thanks for the praise, and for taking the time to write such a detailed post. I understand the need of a HTML-centric generation mode. However, this is not the aim of this program : it's called Calibre2Opds for a reason For the moment, the OPDS catalogs are generated (using the defined options) and then they are processed by a XSLT processor to generate the HTML catalogs. It may change : I was thinking of rewriting the program in a plugin-driven toolchain, where the output would be generated by a specific plugin, which means that everything would be possible, but also that generating two (or more) different formats would take twice (or more) the time. But even this is not on the shortlist of upcoming features. I'll keep it in mind, though. What I can do is try and give you all the features you want, that do not penalize the OPDS catalog generation. They are, not exhaustively, allowing for bigger thumbnails, letting the user choose a XSLT template (or a CSS stylesheet) to customize the generated HTML output, adding the generation date, and finally adding an "All books" catalog not split by letter. If you have other requests, please state them, and I'll tell if they are reasonable or not

04-22-2010, 12:30 PM	#176
SirBC Connoisseur Posts: 56 Karma: 64 Join Date: Nov 2007 Device: Kindle	I am probably confusing terminology as I wasn't so much concerned with how the catalog is generated as with how it is displayed. If I had to narrow it down to a "concept", I guess I would say that I would like a "cleaner" way of browsing the catalog with having more covers visible at once by using more screen real estate, an without have to click on links as much as I currently do. Also, I like browsing by book cover, so a display that has a grid view of the books, instead of one column, would be nice. I personally would not be a fan of an "All books" view if all of the books were on one page, as this could get unwieldy with very large catalogs. I do like the idea of sorting by author, but I prefer it if when you clicked on "C", it would then display the covers of all authors whose last name begins with "C" (like this), instead of having to then select each author one by one. I'm not sure if that is possible within the current framework, but that's my whishlist

04-22-2010, 12:40 PM	#177
dpierron calibre2opds guru Posts: 533 Karma: 8792 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Metz, France Device: iPhone, iPad, PRS-650	Or maybe I went a little overboard here The "browse by cover" with a multiple-column view is totally reasonable, and I can do this with minor changes to the OPDS generation code - or maybe even with no change at all, if my web designer, Brian, comes back from wherever he hides And the "List by author initial" feature is also something that can be done within the existing framework. It would definitively be a nice addition to the "browse by cover" mode... Feature requests noted, sir

04-22-2010, 05:00 PM	#178
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	I have been thinking that another place I wouild rather the split by letter did not take place is under the recent books listings. Once they have been split by date I would like to be able to browse all books within a date section in reverse chronological order without the need to drill down to a specific letter.

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04-22-2010, 05:02 PM	#179
dpierron calibre2opds guru Posts: 533 Karma: 8792 Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Metz, France Device: iPhone, iPad, PRS-650	Isn't it the case already ? If it's not then it's a bug, because that's how I always intended it - I even took the time to add the date to the book title !

04-22-2010, 05:17 PM	#180
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,553 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	No - if you reach the trigger limit for sub-dividing by letter then that happens as well. If this was not the intention then there is definitely a bug. It may not always be obvious as if you have not added a lot of books within a date range then you probably do not have enough books within that section to trigger the dividing by letter. However if i look at a catalog I generated in the last few days as an example I have 77 books in the "This month" section and it gets divided by letter (my trigger level being the default of 75). Other sections like "This week" or "this fortnight" do not reach the trigger level so do not get divided.