Call for imp support in Calibre

[ashkulz]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I think I good solution is to add the infrastructure to allow users to add their own custom OPF -> output format tool via an option to "Add external tool"

Once the infrastructure is in place it will be easy to add profiles for imp and mobi based on impmake and mobigen.

Unfortunately, all my current calibre hacking time is allocated to other things, so the only way this will get done is if someone contributes a patch.

the way I envison it working is via "recipes" for tools. A recipe should define the command line options the tool accepts (at the very least a way to define the output file). Calibre can have a nice GUI to aid in the creation of recipes. Once a recipe is created, calibre will create a generic config dialog (like the LRF config dialog) based on the defined options and a user specified path to the actual binary and then it will be able to run the tool to convert any of the supported iinput formats into the desired output format (calibre already has code to generate an OPF file given an HTML file + metadata). calibre can ship with built-inrecipes for a couple of well known tools like mobigen and impmake.

I think that's a very good approach. That allows us to reuse all the smart XXX -> OPF/EPUB tools already in calibre, and then use something else externally for the rest. Also, now that calibre will be storing the ebooks in a directory structure it will be easier to serve books via impserve.

What I'd like to propose is this:

1. add support for creating tool recipes (via plugins??) and specify which formats they are able to create [with a given OPF as input].
2. add support for the configuration for the above [if they need any], otherwise initially we can just require the creation of a new recipe.
3. add a new type of tool recipe (which should be selectable from the menu) which can be autostarted [obviously this should be configurable] when calibre starts (e.g. for impserve which will serve the ebooks from the ebooks directory, eb1150 for handling the usb proxy). This can be a seperate process or a new thread in calibre itself (I'd prefer the latter approach).
4. add support for the 1100 similiar to the prs500 as it is a "push" USB protocol, unlike the 1150/1200 which requires a proxy (impserve) to get it working.

If that is acceptable to Kovid, then that would mean first-class support for the 1100/1150/1200 [including content creation + serving] which I had hoped to do around a year ago but never got around to do I'd appreciate some pointers on which parts of the code would need to be customized (or maybe we could just mail/chat here or on IRC) to take up the discussion.

[ashkulz]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

But impmake exists only on windows and under wine?

impmake uses SB PubX (bundled with eBook Publisher) via COM, which exists only on Windows. eBook Publisher is also available on OS X, but I don't know if it can be automated (AppleScript?) as I don't have access to a Mac. For Linux, WINE is the only solution.

Originally Posted by scruffy

I think there are a few options...

1) impmake

1a) or maybe using lit2sb (ie the perl script that Nick extracted/tweaked see https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28138 )

1b) or any other tool that needs the SBPublisher.Builder to make an imp.

Since Calibre can generate a opf and a cover image, a reduced version of lit2sb (ie ignoring the lit extract code parts) should suffice. Requires windows for SBPublisher, so it's not cross platform. [That hasn't stopped other tools like PDFRead from this answer, just don't continue on to creating an IMP on non-windows platforms... stop with the html/OPF/Cover, which is near exactly where Calibre stands today.]

2) Convert code (written in VB?) into python from
http://krausyaoj.tripod.com/reb1200.htm
License is open enough to allow using hunks of code wholesale likely, and at the end, hopefully we have a python native imp builder. (subst Perl or other language for Python if you wish.)

3?) rbmake: http://rbmake.sourceforge.net/rbmake.html
Completely opensource, and has the advantage of supporting older Rocket readers. But converting from rb to imp isn't trivial, though... so this isn't really a good answer, since it would require using something else to convert to imp still... but might be worth considering, if someone wanted the older readers to work with Calibre in the future.

All of the tools mentioned in 1 and 2 internally use the SBPubX via COM as no one has managed a complete reverse engineering yet [you'd need to extract the fonts and parse the bitmap NFNT fonts from the DLL + reproduce their HTML renderer -- I've tried it and given it up in front of taking the impmake approach]. For rbmake, it's best if we call the executable like I discussed above.

[kovidgoyal]

On the calibre development page there's a link to a mailing list, I suggest you subscribe to that and we can hold the discussion there (I find IM to intrusive).

I'll give you some pointers on how to write a plugin for impmake. It will basically need to do two things:

1) define a set of options
2) accept a path to an OPF file and a path to an output file and do the conversion.
3) Create a GUI config dialog based on 1)

I'll add an option to calibre to let the user specify his desired output format (and if the plugin exists for it and the user can point to a working binary) all conversion operations will output that format.

[ashkulz]

I've requested to join the calibre-devs team, hope we'll continue the discussion there

[kovidgoyal]

Your request has been approved.

[ashkulz]

I'll be away for a few days -- there's a religious festival going on [ganpati] and I have to visit lots of relatives, so maybe we can resume discussion after that

[kovidgoyal]

Sure, it's been a while since my last ganpati...enjoy

[askyn]

Just wondering if this is still a possiblity of happening?

I use a 1150 and would love a centeral program to use as a library / converstion spot.

Thank you.

[ashkulz]

Nope, I've been a bit busy in real life ... so I haven't really got around to talking with Kovid.

[bookfanmd]

Did anything ever happen with the proposed changes to support .imp? It would be wonderful if .imp was included.

[FizzyWater]

You may be able to use eBook Publisher (from the people who own the hardware for the eBookwise) to convert ePubs (see this thread). So build an ePub in Calibre, then import into eBook Publisher?

They're not prettied up (it doesn't like some of Calibre's ePub coding), but the couple I've made are definitely readable.

[bookfanmd]

Thanks. I just started using the mobi2imp today and will have to check this one out. It would just be so nice if Calibre did it for us.

[Rolnikov]

I think there must have been some developments, because you can output to RB format now from Calibre. (The files seem to crash the REB, though.)