Firmware Update Kindelabra: Kindle Collection Manager

[teegee543]

Originally Posted by WS64

I installed the windows zip somewhere and run Kindelabra.exe

It told me "Errors occurred" and to see Kindelabra.exe.log for details.

Here it is:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "Kindelabra.py", line 8, in <module>
File "gtk\__init__.pyc", line 40, in <module>
File "gtk\_gtk.pyc", line 12, in <module>
File "gtk\_gtk.pyc", line 10, in __load
ImportError: DLL load failed: Die angegebene Prozedur wurde nicht gefunden.

(the last sentence tranlates to "the named procedure could not be found")

And I really don't know where the gtk subdir should come from.
There is a library.zip in the folder which has such a directory, but extracting this one also to the kndelabra dir does not help, same message,

Can you try installing GTK+ and see if that solves your problem?
http://www.gtk.org/download.html

[WS64]

I have downloaded the GTK+ Bundle.
It's a zip, what do I do with its content? There is no "Installing"...

[teegee543]

Originally Posted by WS64

I have downloaded the GTK+ Bundle.
It's a zip, what do I do with its content? There is no "Installing"...

Windows users who are having problems, could you try installing the following files? Then download the Linux version, unzip it, and double-click Kindelabra.py to run the program. These files install the graphical interface my program uses.

http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7/python-2.7.msi
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.7.exe
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.7.exe
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.7.exe
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gtk-win/

[WS64]

I give up.

I downloaded the linux version, but Kindelabra.py also tells me just
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "D:\Kindelabra-0.1\Kindelabra.py", line 8, in <module>
import gtk
ImportError: No module named gtk

I also added the GTK/bin path to the PATH variable, all to no avail.
This software is not made for me.

[FF2]

At the moment, WS64, I'm with you. While I have python installed for some Tivo software, I don't recall the py version. And now there are too many files in his/her list for further installation. I did download that gtk thingie but like you, have no idea where it goes.

I'll wait for a bit more user friendly install.

[jlmwrite]

Originally Posted by teegee543

Windows users who are having problems, could you try installing the following files? Then download the Linux version, unzip it, and double-click Kindelabra.py to run the program. These files install the graphical interface my program uses.

http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7/python-2.7.msi
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.7.exe
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.7.exe
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/binar...in32-py2.7.exe
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gtk-win/

I already had a Python environment installed, but the Linux script wouldn't work any better than the Windows installer, and GTX files wouldn't install either. I had to install 2.7 as advised above, then installed those GTX files, and poof! Kindelabra is up and running.

teegee, you might just be my newest, bestest friend...

I'll post a short review of the software in a bit when I've had a chance to play with it. Obviously the comparison will be with the promising but seemingly abandoned Kindle Collection Manager.

[teegee543]

Thanks for the feedback so far, everyone. I'm sorry the Windows version didn't work out very well, but I hope things will go more smoothly going forward. I've posted instructions on how to run the Linux version in Windows and both Linux and Windows versions will run the same files in the future. I've made a quick point update to support unicode filenames. I'll also be looking for a better way to package and install the required files for Windows users.

[Lordblacknail]

The program runs for me, I am running Win7 64, but I can't figure out how to load any files to it. I created a collection file, in the program, and it shows me the contents of the different folders, but I can't see how to get them loaded into the program. Nor the files on the Kindle. It seems to be working, but without knowing what to press to make it actually do something, I am only guessing that it works.

[teegee543]

Originally Posted by Lordblacknail

The program runs for me, I am running Win7 64, but I can't figure out how to load any files to it. I created a collection file, in the program, and it shows me the contents of the different folders, but I can't see how to get them loaded into the program. Nor the files on the Kindle. It seems to be working, but without knowing what to press to make it actually do something, I am only guessing that it works.

Try selecting your Kindle folder containing your "documents" and "system" folders and it should load the files and collections on your Kindle. What my program does is let you click the arrow buttons to add or remove books from the collections listed on the right side once your Kindle is loaded by selecting your Kindle folder.

[wdreamsmaycome]

Originally Posted by aroland

This sounds great! Do you have plans to make a mac version?

shouldn't it just be a case of d/loading gtk and pygtk from macports and running this as-is? has anybody tried it yet?

[jlmwrite]

Ok, I've been playing with Kindelabra for a bit, and it looks promising. Some suggestions, observations, and questions:

• Two of my collection names appear in the 'Collections' column but don't have the books in that collections listed under 'em. Don't know how you can troubleshoot that but they are valid collections and show up in Kindle Collection Manager as well as on the Kindle itself
  
• One folder name on the Kindle column has the name 'News' and has a Grisham book under it instead of the folder it is really in, but I don't have any collections or folders named 'News' (verified by examining the folder names directly thru Windows). Again, don't know how you can troubleshoot that one.
  
• How about making tooltips that float above the icons? The arrows are fairly self-explanatory but not all the icons are.
  
• Perhaps you could incorporate a very short help file into your proggie; would eliminate a lot of unnecessary posts here later on.
  
• I assume you have to eject and restart the Kindle after writing the updated JSON. Perhaps a button to write/eject be helpful. I'm not going to make any changes to my file structures just yet until I know the first two issues I pointed out are valid or not.
  
• Where is the backup file stored on the PC, and is this done automatically? And how would one utilize that to restore a boo-boo (or a wiped or new Kindle)?

teegee, you are certainly on the right track. I think you have the underpinnings of what may be one heck of a great piece of software. Remember, you are the developer and not everyone automatically knows what you had in mind with a given button or icon. You don't have to dumb things down, but do give at least a hint.

I'll be happy to be a beta tester!

[paspas]

i have probed in ubuntu 10.04 and it works ok. Only one thing i miss it is an explication over the buttons, what do eveyone

Thank you

[NiLuJe]

@jlmwrite: I'm guessing the 'missing' books are DRM'ed Amazon books?

@teegee543 > In case you were wondering why, that's because they're not using the same SHA1 hash as pdocs, but are more or less using their ASIN number. Supporting that would be awesome .

[jlmwrite]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

@jlmwrite: I'm guessing the 'missing' books are DRM'ed Amazon books?

Yup, sure are! Most of my 600 odd books (especially the collections) are older, non-DRM'd books but the missing ones I referenced are DRM. Nice catch!

[teegee543]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Keep it coming.

@jlmwrite:
- Button tooltips are in the latest version
- Backup files are automatically created each time your press save in your Kindle's "system" folder (for example, 20101119032901-collections.json.backup)
- I'm not sure why you'd have an erroneous 'News' folder, could you PM me more information about your file structure and perhaps send me a directory listing?
- I'll compile a help file probably after I get most of the kinks out of my program. I'm hoping most questions can be answered by the interface itself

@NiLuJe: do you know where i can find more information about getting the ASIN for a file? Also, could someone PM me a pastebin with their collections.json containing some DRMed files that aren't showing up?

@wdreamsmaycome: can anyone let me know if they get my program to work on a mac? The main dependency you need to resolve is PyGTK. Thanks!