CC Prerelease V3.4.0h

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by chaley

I specifically do not allow backing up to the SD card. It won't do good things on Kitkat and later, especially given that Android would delete the backup if the app is deleted. Given that Kitkat is now 45% of our installed base (and growing quickly) I made the decision to force putting the backup in main memory, a place that won't disappear. The user can move it to an SD card or stick it in some cloud storage folder.

Hmmm ... well OK. But then what about easier navigation to the external card for storing books and formats?

I have KitKat 4.4.4 on both my Nook tablets. They are Cyanogenmod builds, and I've never had any problems storing backups or media on the external card. My Titanium Backup app backs up directly to the external card.

I know it's not something I would need to do often, but during the times I did have to reinstall CC in the past, having to manually enter the full path to the external card was a pain.

--Pat

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by PatNY

Hmmm ... well OK. But then what about easier navigation to the external card for storing books and formats?

I have KitKat 4.4.4 on both my Nook tablets. They are Cyanogenmod builds, and I've never had any problems storing backups or media on the external card. My Titanium Backup app backs up directly to the external card.

My understanding is that the Cyanogenmod build turns off the SD card "protections" that standard Kitkat puts in place. That's why you can store your files anywhere on the SD card and most people can't.

What Chaley has done so far is to make it easier to get to the folder that will work on everyone's device, but not to get to an arbitrary directory that will only work on a small subset of devices.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

I have KitKat 4.4.4 on both my Nook tablets. They are Cyanogenmod builds, and I've never had any problems storing backups or media on the external card. My Titanium Backup app backs up directly to the external card.

I know it's not something I would need to do often, but during the times I did have to reinstall CC in the past, having to manually enter the full path to the external card was a pain.

If those builds do not advertise themselves as Android 4.4 then when you define a book folder you get a dialog like this:

The marked button opens a dialog pre-filled with "/". If you select that then you can navigate down to your SD card.

If the builds do advertise themselves as Android 4.4 then that button is replaced with an "SD card" button. I can't show this because I don't have a device with an SD card. Press that button and you are taken to the CC private folder on the SD card. You can then navigate up to see the rest of the SD card.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by chaley

... If the builds do advertise themselves as Android 4.4 then that button is replaced with an "SD card" button. I can't show this because I don't have a device with an SD card. Press that button and you are taken to the CC private folder on the SD card. You can then navigate up to see the rest of the SD card.

Wow, I never knew that was there. I get the "Use SD Card" button, then a warning message, then the ability to navigate up or anywhere else on the external card if "OK" is chosen. So it already does everything I wanted it to do.

Was that there 7 months ago, which is when I think I last installed CC on one of my devices? I only recall having to painstakingly enter a full path to the external card manually.

At any rate, a belated thanks for implementing the easier navigation, whenever it was done. Both CC and Calibre have evolved so far and so fast that I have trouble keeping up with all the changes!

--Pat

[jackie_w]

The Backup/Restore seems to work nicely ... which is just as well because when I tried to 'OK' a minor adjustment on the BD 'Choose items to display' screen careless fat fingers nudged that big ol' 'Reset list' button instead ... Suffice to say, the new Restore function was flawless.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

Wow, I never knew that was there. I get the "Use SD Card" button, then a warning message, then the ability to navigate up or anywhere else on the external card if "OK" is chosen. So it already does everything I wanted it to do.

Was that there 7 months ago, which is when I think I last installed CC on one of my devices? I only recall having to painstakingly enter a full path to the external card manually.

It first showed up in CC prerelease 3.3.4d on 15 May 2014, general release on 22 May.

At any rate, a belated thanks for implementing the easier navigation, whenever it was done. Both CC and Calibre have evolved so far and so fast that I have trouble keeping up with all the changes!

--Pat

So do I! If I didn't have my detailed source control change log I wouldn't remember anything about what happened when.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

The Backup/Restore seems to work nicely ... which is just as well because when I tried to 'OK' a minor adjustment on the BD 'Choose items to display' screen careless fat fingers nudged that big ol' 'Reset list' button instead ... Suffice to say, the new Restore function was flawless.

I think I will add some space between the buttons at the bottom and that reset button. It will actually put a bit of space between the scrolling list and the buttons so even if the button is half-scrolled onto the screen there will be a gap.

I will also look at making the button more normal sized. At the moment it fills the list, and on a non-phone that is probably a bit of overkill.

[kaufman]

I was just playing around with the display and found something.

If you open up the list and change a few things and then select "Cancel", it exits and doesn't apply your changes.

But if you select "reset list" and say cancel, it does apply the changes.

Also, this is a tiny thing, but it drives the OCD part of my brain crazy. Could you please change "Authors:" to "Author(s):" on the Book Details page?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

I was just playing around with the display and found something.

If you open up the list and change a few things and then select "Cancel", it exits and doesn't apply your changes.

But if you select "reset list" and say cancel, it does apply the changes.

Yes, I can see why it does that, and it is a mistake.

Also, this is a tiny thing, but it drives the OCD part of my brain crazy. Could you please change "Authors:" to "Author(s):" on the Book Details page?

No.

Doesn't the same thing apply to the other singular/plural fields such as Tags? Identifiers? Languages?

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

Doesn't the same thing apply to the other singular/plural fields such as Tags? Identifiers? Languages?

Yes, and thank you very much for pointing it out to me. I hadn't noticed it before because those are lower down on the screen. But yes, it does. And now those are picking at my brain too.

Well, I have hidden Languages, so I don't care what you do with that one.

[kaufman]

Or, since you know how many there are, just show the singular form of the label if there is only one of the item and show the plural form otherwise. I wouldn't ask, but you were laughing at me.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by chaley

No.

Doesn't the same thing apply to the other singular/plural fields such as Tags? Identifiers? Languages?

I think there is a difference -- by author there is usually one author for a book, but sometimes there are more.

By tags and identifiers and a bunch of other things, there is no default assumption that there only be one -- any number is as likely as any other.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Or, since you know how many there are, just show the singular form of the label if there is only one of the item and show the plural form otherwise. I wouldn't ask, but you were laughing at me.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I think there is a difference -- by author there is usually one author for a book, but sometimes there are more.

By tags and identifiers and a bunch of other things, there is no default assumption that there only be one -- any number is as likely as any other.

We had this code lying around to take care of this in the header text in the grouping drawer, so I did it for all the labels that have singular or plural forms and can have more than one item.

Interesting to note: "Series" is singular and plural in English, but in other languages like French one uses two different words. The other code had already accounted for that possibility.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

We had this code lying around to take care of this in the header text in the grouping drawer, so I did it for all the labels that have singular or plural forms and can have more than one item.

That's great. Just reading this has made my eye (mostly) stop twitching.