Genre subfolder when sending to nexus7

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crazybrit

So I got it working. I must admit, I find the distinction between connecting to the content server and connecting as a wireless client to be confusing. It seems the later gets the metadata and the former gets the actual titles. Unfortunate that it needs to be a two step process. I assume it's necessary to do both each time you want to sync newly added titles to the android device? Is there an ordering?

There is confusion.

The content server connection is a "pull" connection. CC is in charge, asking calibre to send books. When you ask for a book, it and its metadata are transferred. Because of the way the connection/protocol works, nothing else is transferred.

The wireless device connection is a "push" connection. Calibre is in charge. You send books from calibre. Again, metadata and the book are sent. However, the WD connection does much more because it is considered by calibre to be a calibre "device". Calibre updates the metadata for all the books on the device, and it sends to the device a description of all the custom columns currently in use in that library. It can also sync any book files on the device that have changed since they were last sent. It is the sending of the column descriptions that was required before you could do things in CC that requires knowledge of custom columns.

So under "grouping drawer" settings I added "#genre" to "make groups for custom columns" which triggered a database update.

Now I see the following:

< genre
   computers.algorithms
   computers.architecture
   fiction.classic

I guess I was expecting a tree like:

< genre
   computers
      algorithms
      architecture
   fiction
      classic

I understand that the '.' separated notation is calibre's.

So then I selected "Hierarchical Groups" in "grouping drawer" and checked #genre, which triggered another database update but nothing changed in how it's being presented.

It's not a big deal, as clearly it's letting me see the sub genres in dotted notation. I was just curious.

CC shows hierarchies as one level. To enable hierarchies you must both select the column in hierarchical groups and turn on group by first letters for that column/group.

[crazybrit]

Originally Posted by chaley

There is confusion.

Hardly surprising

It is the sending of the column descriptions that was required before you could do things in CC that requires knowledge of custom columns.

Ok, that makes sense. So this should be a one time only operation (unless I change the columns). So for a subsequent update I can use one of the two methods (push or pull).

CC shows hierarchies as one level. To enable hierarchies you must both select the column in hierarchical groups and turn on group by first letters for that column/group.

Via "choose groups that show first letters"? This didn't leap out as the obvious solution to my problem.

I didn't mention (previously) that I also have a category called "DIY" (house repair books; no sub genres).

So now I see:

< Genre
     computers. [2 items, 6 books]
     D [1 item, 1 book]
     Fiction. [1 item, 2 books]

I'm assuming for some reason you need DIY to become a hierarchy (under D) because the other two are hierarchies. From an (my) end user perspective this isn't entirely intuitive even though I can maybe see why technically it was done.

I really like the fact that it allows me to "choose reader" as I find for PDFs that some readers do a better job for some documents. I thought I'd read somewhere that it wasn't able to invoke the Kindle reader, but that seems to work fine for me, maybe stale info.

Thanks for your help!

[eschwartz]

IIRC, the Kindle reader is only a problem on the Kindle Fire tablets, because it uses a different Android app than the appstore one and doesn't have an API for launching books. And chaley figured out a sort-of-workaround for that.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crazybrit

I really like the fact that it allows me to "choose reader" as I find for PDFs that some readers do a better job for some documents. I thought I'd read somewhere that it wasn't able to invoke the Kindle reader, but that seems to work fine for me, maybe stale info.

Thanks for your help!

Kindle for Android works sort-of on non-kindle devices such as your N7. The FAQ answer Using Kindle for Android with Calibre Companion discusses this. Bottom line: CC can start the kindle reader, but it cannot open the book.

On "real" Kindle devices, CC can open the book in the reader but it cannot position the book at the last reading position. Instead the book is reset to the beginning.

[crazybrit]

Originally Posted by chaley

Kindle for Android works sort-of on non-kindle devices such as your N7. The FAQ answer Using Kindle for Android with Calibre Companion discusses this. Bottom line: CC can start the kindle reader, but it cannot open the book.

That's weird. My previous comment was because I'd tried to read a PDF. It pops up a "choose reader" dialog, one of the options was "Amazon Kindle". In this case it opens the PDF fine. But it can't do the same for a MOBI title. CC doesn't think there is a reader installed. I'd installed the Nook reader hoping it would be able to read epubs, CC invokes it but it doesn't open the book.

I guess I'll have to go back to Moon but I'm used to changing pages using the right-left swipe of the Amazon Kindle. Moon purports to support this but I can't get it to recognize the gesture reliably.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crazybrit

That's weird. My previous comment was because I'd tried to read a PDF. It pops up a "choose reader" dialog, one of the options was "Amazon Kindle". In this case it opens the PDF fine. But it can't do the same for a MOBI title. CC doesn't think there is a reader installed. I'd installed the Nook reader hoping it would be able to read epubs, CC invokes it but it doesn't open the book.

I guess I'll have to go back to Moon but I'm used to changing pages using the right-left swipe of the Amazon Kindle. Moon purports to support this but I can't get it to recognize the gesture reliably.

Did you read the FAQ answer about K4A? K4A does not advertise that it can handle .mobi, but it does advertise it can handle .pdf. Amazon chose to do this for some reason, probably related to their walled garden. In addition, K4A cannot even open a .mobi if the book file is not in one of the folders K4A uses. That is why the FAQ answer talks about moving the kindle format files to one of the folders that K4A can use, usually /kindle.

As for the nook reader, I don't know. My guess is yet again they have tried to ensure that a user cannot get out of their own ecosystem.

There are several readers that follow android standards. Some are moon+, fbreader, mantano, and cool reader. Aldiko, kobo, amazon, and apparently nook do not.

[crazybrit]

Originally Posted by chaley

Did you read the FAQ answer about K4A? K4A does not advertise that it can handle .mobi, but it does advertise it can handle .pdf.

*YES* but it didn't mention anything about PDF. Just it's inability to open mobi.

I'd seen the comment "After having changed the storage folder, the next time K4A is started it will import the books you have sent to Calibre Companion so you can read them". So this will allow you to open a book from within the K4A interface but without the genre structure (I'd already previously done this using Calibre's ability to send titles of different formats to different folders on the device) but it's still not going to let you open the title from CC as I presume it still can't invoke K4A.

So I'll have to find an alternate reader than can handle mobi and epub. Sounds like I'll have to get used to moon's gesture support.