Managing multiple libraries in Calibre

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just FYI, the server in calibre 3.0 requires a modern browser. I doubt very much that a Qt WebKit based browser would work (the browser engine in Qt WebKit is several years old).

Rather than make a pre-emptive strike against Chrome as my calibre-library browser, I'll wait for the version 3.0 release - unless you tell me that Chrome won't work with it

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Qupzilla has handled everything I've thrown at it. (In an earlier version, I changed the user agent string it sent to say it was Chrome, and all worked as expected.

I was inaccurate in my earlier post. Qupzilla is now based on QtWebEngine
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Dennis

That wont work anymore. By modern browser I mean things like flexbox, IndexedDB, service workers, etc. which Qt WebKit does not support. Qt WebEngine will be fine, in fact I use a Qt WebEngine based browser I wrote as my main browser as well: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/vise

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That wont work anymore. By modern browser I mean things like flexbox, IndexedDB, service workers, etc. which Qt WebKit does not support. Qt WebEngine will be fine, in fact I use a Qt WebEngine based browser I wrote as my main browser as well: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/vise

I'm confused. Do you mean QtWebEngine is inadequate, and therefore the browser you wrote won't work with Calibre server?
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Dennis

[kovidgoyal]

I meant Qt WebKit is inadequate and that Qt WebEngine is fine -- as proof of that I mentioned that I use a browser based on Qt WebEngine as my main browser -- so the calibre server will most definitely work with it

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Rather than make a pre-emptive strike against Chrome as my calibre-library browser, I'll wait for the version 3.0 release - unless you tell me that Chrome won't work with it

Since you've mentioned using Firefox as your primary browser, I'll make a different suggestion - use Firefox.

The trick is that you aren't limited to one Firefox instance.

When you install Firefox, it installs in two parts in two locations. The actual program code goes in a system directory intended for such things. In Windows, that will be a subdirectory of Program Files. But your personal data, like your bookmarks, history, installed extensions, and customization go into a profile directory. Where this is will vary by OS and OS version. Firefox will create a default profile for you there when you install it, but you aren't limited to it.

If you run Firefox in Profile Manager mode (firefox -p), you'll get the dialog that will let you create a profile, give it a name, and specify where it will be created. You can then run Firefox using that profile, with "firefox -p <profilename>" I've found it convenient to have different Firefox profiles customized for different tasks.

You can have more than one instance if Firefox active at a time, as long as each uses a different profile. (The first Firefox instance to use a profile locks it.) To have two instances open at a time, add the -no-remote directive to the command line, like "firefox -no-remote -p <profilename>"

So you can have a Firefox instance customized to communicate with Calibre Server at the same time you have a production instance running for standard browsing.

(I actually have my Firefox profile on a ramdisk. I made a zip archive of my desired profile, which unzips to the ramdisk. I used Profile Manager to create a profile that would use it, pointing to the version on the ramdisk as the profile location. "firefox -p ramdisk" runs FF using the ramdisk profile. The copy on the ramdisk gets zipped back when I'm done to catch changes made in that session. Works fine, and is quick.)
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Dennis

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Since you've mentioned using Firefox as your primary browser, I'll make a different suggestion - use Firefox.

The trick is that you aren't limited to one Firefox instance.

I know, I normally run two Firefox instances with different profiles plus a vanilla profile as needed.

The main reasons I use Chrome for my calibre server activities today, are a) visibility - I like having something unique on task bar that says, metaphorically at least, 'I am calibre server', b) I want the freedom to kill off all instances of Firefox without disturbing my Calibre Library/Evernote/Calibre Server trptych - and vice versa

The main reason I'm thinking of using something 'obscure' like Edge, Midori etc, is that I sometimes want to use Chrome for gadgets like Readium, and some sites just work better in Chrome.

The '-no-remote' option may not be suitable for me because I drive Chrome's access to calibre-server via commands embedded in Evernote notes.

A common scenario runs like this:

• Assume, I have my Main library open in the Calibre Library Manager and I have an urge to see what I have for the current book's Author in my Journals and Media libraries.
• So, I click on the author name in the Book Details sidebar, that opens that authors note in Evernote - because I slapped the relevant evernote note URI into the Author Link field.
• In the authors Evernote note there are links to commands that access that authors books (assuming there are any) on my three libraries, e.g.
  

  %localappdata%\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe 
  http://ip-address:port_number/browse/matches/authors/nnnn

• I click on the links to view the list of books for that author in the Journals and Media libraries. Note : the 'ipaddress:port number' identifies the library, and the 'nnnn' identifies the author - its the row number in the authors table

BR

[annulen]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Just FYI, the server in calibre 3.0 requires a modern browser. I doubt very much that a Qt WebKit based browser would work (the browser engine in Qt WebKit is several years old).

It depends on what version of QtWebKit is being used. Use this one to get up-to-date engine:

https://github.com/annulen/webkit/re...g/qtwebkit-tp3

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by annulen

It depends on what version of QtWebKit is being used. Use this one to get up-to-date engine:

https://github.com/annulen/webkit/re...g/qtwebkit-tp3

Interesting, it is good to see that development on Qt WebKit is continuing. At some point I will look into updating the version og Qt WebKit bundled with calibre. But it's going to have to wait until post calibre 3.0 (when calibre gets compiled with a C++11 capable compiler on all platforms).

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

. . . you might want to look at Qupzilla. It's an open source browser based on Webkit and Qt, and available for a lot of things, including Windows, Linux, OS/X and OS/2.

@DMcCunney - I 'installed' the portable version, works fine in my scenario, in fact better than chrome. Assuming nothing goes skew-whiff over the next couple of days, qupzilla will replace chrome as my calibre-server browser

Thanks a lot for the tip - BR

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@DMcCunney - I 'installed' the portable version, works fine in my scenario, in fact better than chrome. Assuming nothing goes skew-whiff over the next couple of days, qupzilla will replace chrome as my calibre-server browser

Thanks a lot for the tip - BR

You're quite welcome.

Qupzilla is something I found looking for the lightest weight browser available.

One machine here is an ancient (circa 2005) Fujitsu Lifebook p2110 notebook. It was a pass-along from a friend who upgraded but loved it and didn't want to simply throw it out.

It has a 787mhz Transmeta Crusoe CPU (and older attempt at power saving), a 40GB IDE4 HD, ATI Mobility graphics powering a 1280x800 screen, and a whopping 256MB RAM, of which the CPU grabs 16MB off the top for code morphing. The person who gave it to me said it was "Slow slow slow." No surprise: it came to me with WinXP Pro SP2 installed, and XP wants 512MB RAM bare minimum to think about working. I took 8 minutes to simply boot, and longer to actually do anything.

It became a test bed to see what performance I could wring out of ancoient hardware without throwing money at it. I reformatted and re-partitioned the hard drive, installing Win2K Pro SP4 on an NTFS slike, Ununtu and Puppy Linux on two ext4 8GB slices, and FreeDOS on a 2GB FAT32 slice, multi-booting through Grub2. WinNT actually runs in 256MB RAM. Ubuntu required a custom install to get adequate performance. Puppy is intended for low end hardware. FreeDOS flew.

Browsing was an issue. Under 2K, I used IE6 on the rare instances I wanted it to connect to the outside world. Puppy bundled Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1 as combo browser and email, but SM 1.1 was increasing behind in standards support, and would not get updated. SeaMonkey 2.x could not be built small enough. I didn't even try to run a current Firefox - it would take 45 seconds to simply invoke, and was perceptibly sluggish when up. Chrome and Opera loaded faster, but I didn't care for Opera. Qupzilla was one of an assortment of Webkit based browsers, was small enough and efficient enough, and was currently maintained and supported. It was also cross-platform and ran on other things I had.

The Fujitsu is largely retired now, but it was fun to configure and I learned things in the process.
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Dennis