[Conversion Plugin] KFX Input

[stefano.sb]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The author is unknown and the file name is being used as the title under device view, indicating that calibre is unable to read the metadata from that book.

I have no idea what is going wrong since that problem does not occur with the equivalent book on my Kindle. I will need more information in order to look into this further.

According to your previous log when your Kindle is connected, the main filename for that book is:
D:\documents\The Importance of Being Earnest (English Edition)_B004UJCNKC.kfx

There should also be a folder named "The Importance of Being Earnest (English Edition)_B004UJCNKC.sdr" in D:\documents. Inside that there should be a folder named "assets" containing a file named "metadata.kfx". That is where the book's title and author are stored. Let me know if this file is not found where expected. If you can zip that file and add it as an attachment to a post here then I will take a look at it. (It contains nothing specific to your device/account and none of the book's content. Also that book is no longer under copyright anyway.)

Thanks jhowell.

Metadata.kfx is located correctly in "/documents/The Importance of Being Earnest (English Edition)_B004UJCNKC.sdr/assets"

It's Attachted to this post. I notice that another kfx ebook has an author "Unknown". I think that the problem is not the particular ebook...

Stefano

[stefano.sb]

..... I don't known if it could be usefull but I have tried to add the same ebook (The Importance of Being Earnest..) from device but using azw3 format downloaded form Amazon site.

I have always an "Unknown" author before and after...

Stefano

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stefano.sb

Metadata.kfx is located correctly in "/documents/The Importance of Being Earnest (English Edition)_B004UJCNKC.sdr/assets"

It's Attachted to this post. I notice that another kfx ebook has an author "Unknown". I think that the problem is not the particular ebook...

Your metadata.kfx file is identical to the one on my Kindle for the same book, so that is not the problem.

I will think about this some more and try to come up with more ideas about what might be going wrong.

[stefano.sb]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Your metadata.kfx file is identical to the one on my Kindle for the same book, so that is not the problem.

I will think about this some more and try to come up with more ideas about what might be going wrong.

Thanks again jhowell for the check.

I have tried to rename metadata.calibre->metadata.calibre.back and driveinfo.calibre->driveinfo.calibre.bck to force Calibre to recreate them.

I have re-connected the Kindle and now a lot of ebooks have the author with an "Unknown" value (not only ebooks with kfx format) and few of them has the last piece of the title into author field!!!

Is there the possibility to "reset" all calibre preferences to their default value? Can I start Calibre with all plugins disable? Is there another way to debug the initial kindle recognize process?

There is surely something wrong....

Stefano

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stefano.sb

I have re-connected the Kindle and now a lot of ebooks have the author with an "Unknown" value (not only ebooks with kfx format) and few of them has the last piece of the title into author field!!!

The only other thing to check is make sure that "Read metadata from files on device" is checked in the device configuration. (Right click the Device icon and select "Configure this device".)

If that does not help then I suggest raising this issue in the Devices sub-forum. Someone there may have further suggestions.

[stefano.sb]

Originally Posted by jhowell

The only other thing to check is make sure that "Read metadata from files on device" is checked in the device configuration. (Right click the Device icon and select "Configure this device".)

If that does not help then I suggest raising this issue in the Devices sub-forum. Someone there may have further suggestions.

UPDATE: Using Calibre Portable version always it was fine.... so

1) I have deleted calibre configuration directory (Preferences->Miscellaneous->Open calibre configuration directory)
2) I have uninstalled Calibre 64
3) I have re-installed Calibre 64

Now it works!

Stefano

[jhowell]

Version 1.15.0 - 16 Apr 2019

Handle transparent color found in some books. (Fixes "Unexpected style definition: color: $349")

Handle new local symbol format used by Kindle Create version 1.24. (Fixes "Invalid local symbol created: ...")

Handle special case of drop cap sometimes produced by Kindle Create. (Fixes "story xxx has dropcap_chars 1 with dropcap_lines 0")

Improve conversion of complex floated content.

Improve conversion of dimensions presented as points in KFX that were originally specified as pixels.

Improve determination of default font and language.

Use KFX "layout hints" to provide semantic information in some class names.

[Timboli]

@jhowell - Thanks.

[stefano.sb]

Hi jhowell, thanks for new release!

... a little question... In Calibre On Device view for the ebook attached to this post (it's a DRM free ebook) i see "Una Vita" as title. After adding it into Library I see "Una Vita (Italian Edition)". Do you know why is there this difference?

• Preferences->Adding books->Read metadata from contents rather then filename is checked
• Device->Configure this device-> Read metadata from files on device is checked (but it's the same if unchecked)

Stefano

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stefano.sb

... a little question... In Calibre On Device view for the ebook attached to this post (it's a DRM free ebook) i see "Una Vita" as title. After adding it into Library I see "Una Vita (Italian Edition)". Do you know why is there this difference?

KFX has two ways of storing metadata, the original metadata fragment and the newer book_metadata fragment. The KFX Input plugin always uses the newer value if it is present. The device view in calibre is based on older code I wrote and uses whichever happens to be first in the metadata.kfx file.

Sometimes the information in these two places differs for reasons that are unclear to me. In the file you uploaded the metadata fragment has the title as "Una vita" and the book_metadata fragment has it as "Una vita (Italian Edition)", resulting in this difference.

At some point the code in calibre should probably be updated to eliminate this difference.

(Added: And perhaps both should eliminate a "xxx edition" suffix.)

[stefano.sb]

Originally Posted by jhowell

KFX has two ways of storing metadata, the original metadata fragment and the newer book_metadata fragment. The KFX Input plugin always uses the newer value if it is present. The device view in calibre is based on older code I wrote and uses whichever happens to be first in the metadata.kfx file.

Sometimes the information in these two places differs for reasons that are unclear to me. In the file you uploaded the metadata fragment has the title as "Una vita" and the book_metadata fragment has it as "Una vita (Italian Edition)", resulting in this difference.

At some point the code in calibre should probably be updated to eliminate this difference.

(Added: And perhaps both should eliminate a "xxx edition" suffix.)

Thanks to jhowell, your answer is clear as usual !!! :thumb up:

The side effect is that after adding a KFX ebook with this "difference" the On Device and In Libray flags are not checked. I have to manually update the ebook title in Calibre and update the metadata on the Kindle device ...

Can we suggest that Kovin update the old code in Calibre? What do you think about it?

Stefano

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stefano.sb

Can we suggest that Kovin update the old code in Calibre? What do you think about it?

I will submit a patch to calibre for this, but it may be a while before it becomes available.

(added: The patch has been submitted.)

[stefano.sb]

Originally Posted by jhowell

I will submit a patch to calibre for this, but it may be a while before it becomes available.

I know that it wouldn't be the best solution but it would be possibile to add a flag to the KFX input configuration to choose which method it uses to read the metadata of a KFX ebook? ("old" or "new")

If no, do you know if there is a way in Calibre to run an action after adding an ebook? Template functions/language?

Stefano

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by stefano.sb

I know that it wouldn't be the best solution but it would be possibile to add a flag to the KFX input configuration to choose which method it uses to read the metadata of a KFX ebook? ("old" or "new")

I am not interested in making this sort of change. Very few books have this issue since the old-style metadata is no longer used in more recently published books.

Originally Posted by stefano.sb

If no, do you know if there is a way in Calibre to run an action after adding an ebook? Template functions/language?

I know that you can configure rules for changes to author names and tags that will be applied when a book is imported. I do not know of any way to manipulate the title.

[hollowpoint]

Installed and used. Thanks, good work.