[GUI Plugin] Count Pages - Page 18

kiwidude · 03-05-2012, 12:58 PM

Well, there is your answer then

Nyssa · 03-05-2012, 01:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Well, there is your answer then

But I'm using the Goodreads plugin, and I've never had that problem before, so what am I supposed to do?

kiwidude · 03-05-2012, 01:38 PM

Just because you use the Goodreads metadata plugin doesn't mean that it is guaranteed to always find a match with it. Clearly for those books you have no goodreads id associated with them, so the plugin obviously can't download a page count.

When you do a metadata download (single, not bulk!) pay close attention to the results when you choose them (I am assuming you have multiple plugins enabled) as quite often it can be that the match for goodreads is in a different group to the one "on top". That is why sometimes several "passes" are required, if (like me) you want your books to be linked to multiple websites.

You might find it easiest if you either glance at your book details panel to see if a book has a goodreads link, or add a custom column to show whether you have a goodreads identifier, That way you won't waste your time trying to coutn pages when you don't have an id.

ruddell · 03-06-2012, 10:07 AM

Okay, I'm new to this plugin, but I appreciate the work you put into it! I was wondering if you could answer a basic question. Is it possible to send a .mobi book that has the page number info downloaded from Goodreads to my Kindle over email and store it in the personal documents archive? When I tried to do this from Calibre, it transferred the book with no page number information included, even though the page numbers downloaded correctly from Goodreads (I verified this by transferring the book manually via usb).

Thanks!

kiwidude · 03-06-2012, 10:11 AM

@ruddell - indeed it is not possible via email, only USB.

ruddell · 03-06-2012, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@ruddell - indeed it is not possible via email, only USB.

I was afraid of that. Is it something that could be added to future versions of the plugin and/or calibre, or is it technologically infeasible?

kiwidude · 03-06-2012, 10:57 AM

It is nothing to do with this plugin, since all it does is populate a custom column. This plugin has nothing to do with the actions of sending books externally

.

I don't use email to my Kindle myself so I can only guess at the answer. I would guess that even if calibre were to attach an apnx file to its email, that Amazon strip it out. You could try it for yourself just by manually emailing your Kindle with an APNX file and see what shows up on your Kindle. If Kovid spots this through his heavy eyelids he might comment further, or else do a search of the forums, it is a question that has come up a few times.

ruddell · 03-06-2012, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

It is nothing to do with this plugin, since all it does is populate a custom column. This plugin has nothing to do with the actions of sending books externally

.

I don't use email to my Kindle myself so I can only guess at the answer. I would guess that even if calibre were to attach an apnx file to its email, that Amazon strip it out. You could try it for yourself just by manually emailing your Kindle with an APNX file and see what shows up on your Kindle. If Kovid spots this through his heavy eyelids he might comment further, or else do a search of the forums, it is a question that has come up a few times.

Where is the APNX file located? When I right-click on the book and choose "open containing folder" it shows me 4 files:

metadata.opf
cover.jpg
<bookname>.mobi
<bookname>.zip

(the zip is because it started as a html book file).

kiwidude · 03-06-2012, 12:46 PM

The APNX file gets generated when you send to the Kindle from calibre (assuming you have that option enabled) and will only be found on the device. Or you can use the standalone APNX file generator plugin which is in these forums. Note the latter does not yet support pulling the value from a custom column, so you will get a count that differs from what this plugin generates. However for your purposes so long as it has the right filename it will do just to see what you actually end up with back on your Kindle after the email process.

ruddell · 03-06-2012, 01:30 PM

Okay - I was able to pull the apnx file off the Kindle after sending the book over via usb. I then deleted the book and emailed the .mobi and .apnx files in a single email to the kindle. The book showed up, but the apnx file didn't make it. Oh well - I guess I'll have to stick with USB transfers when I want page numbers.

Zetmolm · 03-09-2012, 06:53 AM

The word count for other formats than epub and mobi works like a charm. I was afraid the on-the-fly conversion would slow down the process a lot, but it doesn't. The plugin worked its way through the fb2 files in my library at a speed of almost 2000 books per hour (on a 4-year old PC).
Thanks again, kiwidude!

kiwidude · 03-09-2012, 08:35 AM

@Zetmolm - cheers for the feedback, glad it is working well for you.

FredLx · 03-16-2012, 11:13 PM

I've noticed something that may be of benefit to this plugin's development for the Kindle. I'm not sure if anyone else has looked into this, but the "pageMap":"(1,a,1)" value that is created in the .apnx file for Kindles apparently defines page offsets. I was able to experiment by using a text editor to change the first "1" up to "9" for nine pages of offset at the beginning of a book. Anymore than that and the binary encoded stuff would be pushed out of place (because of the extra digit) and no page count would appear at all on my Kindle. The second "1" after the "a" may be a reverse offset from the end of the book.

These offsets are very useful for not including things at the beginning and end of the book in a "true" page count (things such as table of contents, foreword, copyright notices, etc.). As many may have noticed, some books sold on Amazon.com from large publishers have this feature already.

From my experimenting, I noticed that, after the .apnx is created and I go in and edit it, that the total page count is reduced by the offset I define. So, for example, if you want an offset of five pages at the beginning of a 250 page book (if Chapter 1 begins on page 5), then you need to change the page count to 255 in Calibre in your pages column before using the plugin to make the .apnx. Then you can go in and change the offset to 5 and your total page count will remain the same.

I hope this information can be helpful to this plugin so that any offset value can be defined in the GUI before the creation of the .apnx when exporting to a Kindle. There are also two spaces for defining an ASIN value in the .apnx file which if the capability to define this value in the GUI was added it would be a nice feature.

kiwidude · 03-17-2012, 01:00 PM

@FredLx - thx for posting the info. It isn't something I have any intentions of incorporating into this plugin at this point though. The APNX files are generated by calibre, not by the plugin, so any changes to support additional information would need to be made to calibre itself.

To be perfectly honest I just can't see a use case for trying to support offsets + # of pages. The reason being as has been said a million times in this thread there is no possible way to come up with an accurate "number of pages" for an ebook. So applying some manual "offset" to what is essentially a fairly "random" sort of number just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Strether · 03-24-2012, 07:20 PM

Have they put the button to activate the page count someplace else in Calibre 0.8.44? Just updated and there's no button to tell Calibre to initiate the count.

Jim

Sorry. Remembered after posting this that you have to unplug your Kindle before you can activate the page count.

03-24-2012, 07:20 PM	#270
Strether Guru Posts: 765 Karma: 2825929 Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Fresno Device: Kindle 1; iPad Air; iPhone 7; Kobo Libra; Kindle Oasis 3	Have they put the button to activate the page count someplace else in Calibre 0.8.44? Just updated and there's no button to tell Calibre to initiate the count. Jim Sorry. Remembered after posting this that you have to unplug your Kindle before you can activate the page count. Last edited by Strether; 03-24-2012 at 07:25 PM.

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03-05-2012, 12:58 PM	#256
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,733 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	Well, there is your answer then

03-05-2012, 01:38 PM	#258
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,733 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	Just because you use the Goodreads metadata plugin doesn't mean that it is guaranteed to always find a match with it. Clearly for those books you have no goodreads id associated with them, so the plugin obviously can't download a page count. When you do a metadata download (single, not bulk!) pay close attention to the results when you choose them (I am assuming you have multiple plugins enabled) as quite often it can be that the match for goodreads is in a different group to the one "on top". That is why sometimes several "passes" are required, if (like me) you want your books to be linked to multiple websites. You might find it easiest if you either glance at your book details panel to see if a book has a goodreads link, or add a custom column to show whether you have a goodreads identifier, That way you won't waste your time trying to coutn pages when you don't have an id.

03-06-2012, 10:07 AM	#259
ruddell Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 20 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Kindle	Okay, I'm new to this plugin, but I appreciate the work you put into it! I was wondering if you could answer a basic question. Is it possible to send a .mobi book that has the page number info downloaded from Goodreads to my Kindle over email and store it in the personal documents archive? When I tried to do this from Calibre, it transferred the book with no page number information included, even though the page numbers downloaded correctly from Goodreads (I verified this by transferring the book manually via usb). Thanks!

03-06-2012, 10:11 AM	#260
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,733 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@ruddell - indeed it is not possible via email, only USB.

03-06-2012, 10:57 AM	#262
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,733 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	It is nothing to do with this plugin, since all it does is populate a custom column. This plugin has nothing to do with the actions of sending books externally . I don't use email to my Kindle myself so I can only guess at the answer. I would guess that even if calibre were to attach an apnx file to its email, that Amazon strip it out. You could try it for yourself just by manually emailing your Kindle with an APNX file and see what shows up on your Kindle. If Kovid spots this through his heavy eyelids he might comment further, or else do a search of the forums, it is a question that has come up a few times.

03-06-2012, 12:46 PM	#264
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,733 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	The APNX file gets generated when you send to the Kindle from calibre (assuming you have that option enabled) and will only be found on the device. Or you can use the standalone APNX file generator plugin which is in these forums. Note the latter does not yet support pulling the value from a custom column, so you will get a count that differs from what this plugin generates. However for your purposes so long as it has the right filename it will do just to see what you actually end up with back on your Kindle after the email process.

03-06-2012, 01:30 PM	#265
ruddell Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 20 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: Kindle	Okay - I was able to pull the apnx file off the Kindle after sending the book over via usb. I then deleted the book and emailed the .mobi and .apnx files in a single email to the kindle. The book showed up, but the apnx file didn't make it. Oh well - I guess I'll have to stick with USB transfers when I want page numbers.

03-09-2012, 06:53 AM	#266
Zetmolm Guru Posts: 615 Karma: 2362786 Join Date: Jan 2010 Device: PocketBook Verse Pro Colour	The word count for other formats than epub and mobi works like a charm. I was afraid the on-the-fly conversion would slow down the process a lot, but it doesn't. The plugin worked its way through the fb2 files in my library at a speed of almost 2000 books per hour (on a 4-year old PC). Thanks again, kiwidude!

03-09-2012, 08:35 AM	#267
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,733 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@Zetmolm - cheers for the feedback, glad it is working well for you.

03-16-2012, 11:13 PM	#268
FredLx Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: Kindle	I've noticed something that may be of benefit to this plugin's development for the Kindle. I'm not sure if anyone else has looked into this, but the "pageMap":"(1,a,1)" value that is created in the .apnx file for Kindles apparently defines page offsets. I was able to experiment by using a text editor to change the first "1" up to "9" for nine pages of offset at the beginning of a book. Anymore than that and the binary encoded stuff would be pushed out of place (because of the extra digit) and no page count would appear at all on my Kindle. The second "1" after the "a" may be a reverse offset from the end of the book. These offsets are very useful for not including things at the beginning and end of the book in a "true" page count (things such as table of contents, foreword, copyright notices, etc.). As many may have noticed, some books sold on Amazon.com from large publishers have this feature already. From my experimenting, I noticed that, after the .apnx is created and I go in and edit it, that the total page count is reduced by the offset I define. So, for example, if you want an offset of five pages at the beginning of a 250 page book (if Chapter 1 begins on page 5), then you need to change the page count to 255 in Calibre in your pages column before using the plugin to make the .apnx. Then you can go in and change the offset to 5 and your total page count will remain the same. I hope this information can be helpful to this plugin so that any offset value can be defined in the GUI before the creation of the .apnx when exporting to a Kindle. There are also two spaces for defining an ASIN value in the .apnx file which if the capability to define this value in the GUI was added it would be a nice feature.

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03-17-2012, 01:00 PM	#269
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,733 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@FredLx - thx for posting the info. It isn't something I have any intentions of incorporating into this plugin at this point though. The APNX files are generated by calibre, not by the plugin, so any changes to support additional information would need to be made to calibre itself. To be perfectly honest I just can't see a use case for trying to support offsets + # of pages. The reason being as has been said a million times in this thread there is no possible way to come up with an accurate "number of pages" for an ebook. So applying some manual "offset" to what is essentially a fairly "random" sort of number just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.