Calibre and Dropbox

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Stephjk

Thanks for the reply, but the problem I have is more to do with accessing calibre from my dropbox on my android tablet. There are several apps out there to access calibre on android but I really wanted advice about which would best suit accessing via the dropbox.

You are NOT accessing Calibre on Dropbox.
Calibre is a program that runs on Windows/ MAC/ Linux

You may be accessing the Library folder, which is not recommended as you can break your Library if any change is made.

[Stephjk]

Originally Posted by theducks

You are NOT accessing Calibre on Dropbox.
Calibre is a program that runs on Windows/ MAC/ Linux

You may be accessing the Library folder, which is not recommended as you can break your Library if any change is made.

So, the best thing is to just forget about accessing it via my android and use it through the laptop then?

Sorry if I appear a bit dense but I have much to learn!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Stephjk

So, the best thing is to just forget about accessing it via my android and use it through the laptop then?

Sorry if I appear a bit dense but I have much to learn!

Dropbox is a (cloud) file server. You need to have a Calibre server running to make use of the Management features. There are 2 paths built into Calibre (it must be CONFIGURED and left running to use):
1) Content server that allows a standard Browser to (Read) access the Library (Network router configuration needed for WAN access)

2) Wireless connection server. This integrates with Calibre Companion that runs on the Android device. , You still need a Reader program like Moon+

[Stephjk]

Originally Posted by theducks

Dropbox is a (cloud) file server. You need to have a Calibre server running to make use of the Management features. There are 2 paths built into Calibre (it must be CONFIGURED and left running to use):
1) Content server that allows a standard Browser to (Read) access the Library (Network router configuration needed for WAN access)

2) Wireless connection server. This integrates with Calibre Companion that runs on the Android device. , You still need a Reader program like Moon+

Thank you

[eschwartz]

You can also use calibre2opds to create a catalog for your calibre libreary which will fit in your library folder and just offer you links to download your books. It is specially designed to operate together with calibre, and will not change any of calibre's files.

[Rachel]

I access my Calibre library in my Dropbox folder on my android tablet. I open Dropbox, go to my library folder which holds all the author folders in alpabetical order. I navigate to the author I want (the hardest step as there is no index running down the side as there is on my ipad version of the Dropbox app), open the folder and then choose the book folder I need. Once that is open I select the file (epub in my case, but you might be using a different format depending on your reading app). Dropbox then asks me which app I would like to open the file in. I select Aldiko and the book downloads very nicely, ready for me to read. None of this changes the files in my Calibre library, so doesn't pose problems.

Having said all of that - I agree with eschwartz that creating a calibre2opds catalog is better because it has more organisation than the Dropbox folder ie you can search by author, title, tag etc. I would always do that for preference, but sometimes I want to read a book I haven't yet added to my catalog, and then I go through the process I describe above.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Rachel

Having said all of that - I agree with eschwartz that creating a calibre2opds catalog is better because it has more organisation than the Dropbox folder ie you can search by author, title, tag etc. I would always do that for preference, but sometimes I want to read a book I haven't yet added to my catalog, and then I go through the process I describe above.

When you add the book to calibre, just run the calibre2opds again, it will recognize your previous usage and just check for updated stuff, then merge that with your current calibre2opds catalog.

Do you use the command line much?
The rungui.sh (for linux/mac) or rungui.cmd (for windows) that you double-click to start calibre2opds has a run.sh/run.cmd file with it, for running automatically with a saved profile.

Running that instead, will make it invisibly run with the last settings you used. Very useful for updating your calibre2opds catalog. Just remember to always run it right after you add books to calibre. If you want, you can even scedule a task for it to run daily or whatever.

Here are the directions: Automatically updating calibre2opds catalogs

[Rachel]

Thank you for the link. I made an unsuccessful attempt at this some time ago - perhaps I'll try again. I usually launch it from a desk top icon so will have to work out the command line method. I have 5000 books so the catalog takes a while to run which will make me think about the frequency with which I do it.

[eschwartz]

Create a shortcut from the run.cmd file, and move the shortcut to your desktop. That icon automatically runs it via the command line.
If you need multiple profiles, look at this: Calibre2opds - Command Line
Otherwise, just use a shortcut.

[Rachel]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Create a shortcut from the run.cmd file, and move the shortcut to your desktop. That icon automatically runs it via the command line.
If you need multiple profiles, look at this: Calibre2opds - Command Line
Otherwise, just use a shortcut.

I've entered the path to the rungui.cmd file in the action tab of the installer, entered a time in the triggers and completed everything else relevant I can see, but I can't make this run. I've tried reading the instructions from the link you gave, but they're double dutch to me - should I be creating something in the command window? I just find them very confusing.

I think the manuals are written by really clever people for other people who know what they are doing, and not for those of us who don't really have any knowledge, but need to follow simple instructions!

[eschwartz]

If all you need to do is click something to update your catalog, use Windows Explorer to go to the install folder, right-click on run.cmd (NOT rungui.cmd) and select Create Shortcut. Drag the resulting "Shortcut to run.cmd" to your Desktop and click that instead of the usual calibre2opds launcher when you just want to update. Launching from that will, instead of opening up the usual GUI for setting everything up, merely open a Command Prompt window with a bunch of text scrolling down, representing the program.

To schedule the task with the Windows Task Scheduler, well, I've never actually used it (I got converted to linux first!), but I can offer the following possibly helpful link: HowToGeek.com - Using Windows Scheduled Tasks. The important thing to remember is the right path to the right file (I noticed you said you used the rungui.cmd - that opens up what you usually use. The run.cmd file is the one you need to make it run.)

Also I looked around on Google, and it seems that if use a batch script (meaning a .cmd or .bat file) without specifying the

Start in (optional): _______________

field as being the folder that contains the .cmd file, it will mysteriously fail. (But a program, using a .exe, works just fine.) As we are using a .cmd here, make sure that that box contains "C:\Program Files\calibre2opds" or wherever calibre2opds was installed to.

[Frenchdummy]

Hi, Sorry to annoy you but don't you have copyrights problems using Calibre2opds with dropbox ? At Dropbox, they warn me, mailing they will suspend my account if I don't delete my library. ( not all but some files ) I, then don't use anymore Dropbox for ebooks (I own or not)
In counterpart I found an URL.asia that host some epub files. Don't know if they are legal or DRMized. (FR, EN) Pm to get it

[eschwartz]

There's a notice on calibre2opds.com about that -- If you own the books, then there should be no copyright issues. Unless you are sharing that folder with the world.
Dropbox only warns you if you have ebooks in your dropbox that are in a shared folder, and someone complains to the Dropbox team, "Hey this guy is illegally distributing the book I wrote!" And that will only happen if 1) You make that folder public, and 2) You publicize the link, and people start noticing.
This is all speculation, both on my part and by whoever shared his story on the calibre2opds.com blog.
What I know is this:
I have lots of DRM'ed ebooks in my dropbox, but only I can access them, and nobody has complained.
If storing your calibre library isn't a problem, then using calibre2opds shouldn't be any worse.
Unless you are using the DeDrm plugins, your books should still be locked to a particular device, in which case you could blog the link and it still doesn't matter -- only you can use it, so the rights-holder won't care.
In any event, any copyright problems have nothing to do with either calibre or calibre2opds or Dropbox, but rather, it is a problem if you distribute copyrighted content.

[itimpi]

It is also worth noting the calibre2opds has an option to 'encrypt' the filenames of pages in the catalog. This makes it less likely that someone could 'guess' the URL of a catalog page. Ideally one should have more robust protection for any files exposed to the internet, but this is better than nothing.