[GUI Plugin] Favourites Menu

[kiwidude]

Changes in this plugin:

• Ensure submenus for plugins can have their states updated by emitting the aboutToShow signal for every plugin that has an associated .menu set for it

The impact for users is that plugins which relied on updating their menu items every time they were opened should now get the same behaviour when placed as a Favourites Menu item. So for instance Quick Preferences will now correctly display the current state of its items.

Other plugin developers can refer to the additional notes I placed on the first post about this. But for the most part you shouldn't need to do anything at all...

[derangedhermit]

Can I use this plugin to replace the main Calibre menu? I would need to:
- Run multiple instances of the plugin
- Rename each one
- Use different icons for each one
- Have different menu items under each one
- Probably some more stuff

Or is there an easier way to rebuild the main menu?

[kiwidude]

Just answering this for any future users that wander in assuming the OP has given up hope of an answer by now...

Originally Posted by derangedhermit

Can I use this plugin to replace the main Calibre menu? I would need to:
- Run multiple instances of the plugin
- Rename each one
- Use different icons for each one
- Have different menu items under each one
- Probably some more stuff

Can't be done without a lot of code hacking. You can only have one instance of a plugin. You would need to make multiple copies of the plugin, give each different names, then do a whole bunch of edits on the code within each to make their internal names unique, point them at unique configuration areas, different images, different top level menu names etc. And then do it all over again whenever I push a new version of the plugin...

As for other options for rebuilding the main menu, all you can really do without hacking the calibre source code is juggle which buttons you want to appear in Preferences -> Toolbar, and change their images. You can't change their text names or the options that appear underneath without serious source code changing however.

[derangedhermit]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Just answering this for any future users that wander in assuming the OP has given up hope of an answer by now...

Life has taught me it is not healthy to give up hope so easily. Thanks for the answer.

[JimmXinu]

FYI, I am not kiwidude and this isn't my plugin. But I'm trying to help out by porting some of the plugins I use regularly while kiwidude is busy.

Attached is a test version that should work for both the existing 1.X calibre and the upcoming 2.X version calibre. 2.x will use PyQt5 which requires changes to virtually all plugins.

This version needs to be tested with the existing calibre.

Brave souls to test with with the beta 2.X version would also be appreciated. Links to the 2.X beta and discussion of the transition (for plugins) can be see at: Attn plugin developers: calibre moving to Qt 5.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

This version needs to be tested with the existing calibre.

Brave souls to test with with the beta 2.X version would also be appreciated. Links to the 2.X beta and discussion of the transition (for plugins) can be see at: Attn plugin developers: calibre moving to Qt 5.

I'm currently running calibre 1.42 32bit on a Windows 7 64 machine. I installed this test plugin. But I'm not sure how to tell for sure if it installed over the previous plugin. I added and removed items to my favourites menu. I launched items from my menu. Everything seems to working fine.

Also, thanks for doing this. I just looked and 21 of the plugins I have installed were created by Kiwidude.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DoctorOhh

Also, thanks for doing this. I just looked and 21 of the plugins I have installed were created by Kiwidude.

It gets even better if you look inside the plugins. Most of us have stolen large amounts of code from him.

[Joanna]

I know the plugin is probably not being actively developed anymore but just two ideas that would be great in my opinion (if anyone feels like implementing them):

- creating subfolders in the menu (very practical for heavy plugin users with very long menus)

- renaming options in submenus (if you add a submenu to Favorites, you can rename it but not its options. The options can be renamed only if added as separate Favorites menu items).

[Katja_hbg]

I am not sure whether this is due to favourite plug-in or the mark-items function but there is a missing refresh.
The number of marked items is shown proper in the context menu of a book also in favourite when the whole menu tree is used (attached screen, see middle).
But it is wrong and also disabled after a change when the menu item is added from sub-menu (same screenshot, see right).

OK the screen is German but icons and numbers are international ;-)

Would be nice to get this fixed as all that features are so helpful for managing books.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Katja_hbg

I am not sure whether this is due to favourite plug-in or the mark-items function but there is a missing refresh.
The number of marked items is shown proper in the context menu of a book also in favourite when the whole menu tree is used (attached screen, see middle).
But it is wrong and also disabled after a change when the menu item is added from sub-menu (same screenshot, see right).

OK the screen is German but icons and numbers are international ;-)

Would be nice to get this fixed as all that features are so helpful for managing books.

Katja_hbg - I wonder how many people include both an individual menu item, and the full menu for the same tool in the Favourites plugin. Not many I would guess - especially not menu items that include a computed variable, such as Mark Books->Show marked books, I can only think of one similar case the Reading List->View submenu items.

The developer of this plugin is no longer active, the active plugin developers may not be very interested in investigating what could be done to address this 'corner case' issue.

However, if you want to see at a glance how many books are marked, a better solution might be to have the top level menu item (Mark Books) show that number. That would require a change to the Mark Books tool - you could request an enhancement at Bugs : calibre. I imagine quite a few calibre users would get value from it.

BR

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Joanna

I know the plugin is probably not being actively developed anymore but ...

- creating subfolders in the menu (very practical for heavy plugin users with very long menus)

I actually dropped by to make a similar request to this one from Joanna. Looking for somewhere to stash my collection of scalpels and forceps.

@Joanna - an option to create sub menus (flyout folders) in calibre's context menu's would also suit me (maybe even better). What say you?

BR

[Katja_hbg]

©betterred

I do not «both an individual menu item, and the full menu».
This is only for the screen as a picture describe it better than only words.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Katja_hbg

©betterred

I do not «both an individual menu item, and the full menu».
This is only for the screen as a picture describe it better than only words.

@Katja_hbg - so, I wonder how many people have an individual menu item that includes a computed variable on their Favourites list, such as Mark Books->Show marked books, I can only think of one similar case the Reading List->View submenu items.

My emphasis highlights the underlying issue, but the rest of what I said before remains the same.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The developer of this plugin is no longer active, the active plugin developers may not be very interested in investigating what could be done to address this 'corner case' issue.

However, if you want to see at a glance how many books are marked, a better solution might be to have the top level menu item (Mark Books) show that number. That would require a change to the Mark Books tool - you could request an enhancement at Bugs : calibre. I imagine quite a few calibre users would get value from it.

The Mark Books feature was added to calibre long after this plugin last had any functional maintenance done on it, and after its developer became inactive. It's a generic problem with 3rd party plugins/extensions; there are dozens of Photshop plugins and Firefox extensions that no longer work - hundreds even.

BR

[JimmXinu]

New Test Version

As you may have heard, Calibre on Python3 betas are now available.

Which means plugins need to start being transitioned to Python3 also.

Attached is a (hopefully) Python3 compatible update to this plugin.

2019-12-19

- Changes for Python3.

Please let me know if this version works for you or not, especially on the Py3 beta.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

New Test Version

As you may have heard, Calibre on Python3 betas are now available.

Which means plugins need to start being transitioned to Python3 also.

Attached is a (hopefully) Python3 compatible update to this plugin.

2019-12-19

- Changes for Python3.

Please let me know if this version works for you or not, especially on the Py3 beta.

I cannot speak about the Py3 part, but the test version is working on 4.8.