Plugin ideas... add yours here

[Philosopher]

I posted about this above (#689 - not sure how to put a link to a particular comment) - but realized that perhaps not having its direct plug-in description in the title - may mean it is overlooked.

So I post it again hoping it won't be lost in the chaos - and may generate some thought and discussion.

[Philosopher]

I also posted about this above (#689 - not sure how to put a link to a particular comment) - but realized that perhaps not having its direct plug-in description in the title - may mean it is overlooked.

So I post it again hoping it won't be lost in the chaos - and may generate some thought and discussion.

[BetterRed]

@Philosopher - you'll only get a response here if someone wants to develop a new plugin or modify an existing one to do what you want. Optional Plugins are not developed within the main calibre development stream, Most have been developed by someone who wanted the functionality, and they only make it into the Plugins list if that person is prepared to add new features and respond to user queries.

The fact that no one has responded to your post 689 is probably an indication that no one with developer skills has a similar need.

Have you read this ==>> Introduction to plugins It contains further links to detailed documentation on creating plugins

BR

[Philosopher]

... perhaps no one was interested (I hope not - I think those are two good ideas - I only wish I had the capacity to develop such - its not my speciality ... although I try and learn a little as I go alone - perhaps one day ).

But after I read the thread - I saw how my original post's title as well as its content as provided may not be easy for someone to get the point/purpose of the suggestion.

I also wonder if my last two - separating them and titling them to be specific - also may not be the best, as I did not include any of the description, but simply referred BACK to the original post (wish I could have figured out how to link it).

I was not wanting to repeat myself. But maybe I should have. Not sure.

Just wanting to make sure if anyone INTERESTED in these two ideas - actually NOTICES the posts.

On a side note: for my edification - do you think those two ideas are not worth pursuing? Or was this more of a general response?

[BetterRed]

@Philosopher - to get link for a post right click the post number.

I think your first idea was was discussed a few years ago - can't recall details but I think Starson17 was involved in discussion, he/she might have started it - search for Starson17's threads in calibre forum

Re your second idea - I do all my metadata editing in the booklist, so I have the PIs 'at my fingertips'. The inaccessibility of PI's in metadata edit was a factor me adopting this approach, but the major one is that I don't like the form-filling model of entering data.

BR

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Philosopher

I posted about this above (#689 - not sure how to put a link to a particular comment) - but realized that perhaps not having its direct plug-in description in the title - may mean it is overlooked.

So I post it again hoping it won't be lost in the chaos - and may generate some thought and discussion.

The big problem with this is that the metadata editor doesn't support plugins. It would require the work to be done in calibre to add the menu and support plugins. You probably should make a feature request. See http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....-what-can-i-do for details.

And to add a reference to a previous post, there is a "Quote" button in the bottom right of each post. Click that and the text from the post will be included in the post writing box,

[rracoon01]

I am assuming this idea is for a plugin, if not please someone point me in the right direction.

I have several batch files that manipulate my calibre DB via the command line interface. I use them frequently and wish I could simply launch them from within Calibre instead of having to jump out, navigate to where they are located (no I don't want them on my desktop) and launch them.

Has anyone done a plugin to put an icon on the toolbar for launching external batch files. I don't see the need for one icon for each batch file, but maybe an icon with a browser to locate an external file (could even be .exe or whatever) and a remembered list of recently launched programs.

Since Calibre launches background jobs all the time, this does not seem like it would be too difficult. I have forgotten most of all the programming skills I ever had (very old system programmer) and have no Python experience at all so I don't know where to start. I suppose I could try if someone would point me in the right direction.

Thoughts anyone?

[eschwartz]

Maybe look at modifying the Open With plugin?

[m0e]

Hi. Most of my ebooks library and collections are hosted on my dropbox and mega.co.nz cloud storage because of my limited HDD space in my laptop and every time I try to sync new books to my Kindle DXG, I have to download them from my cloud storage to my laptop then to my Kindle. It'd be great if someone can make a plugin that integrates with Dropbox and Mega(mega.co.nz)

[TheTruthBetween]

A plugin to import from Google Docs would be awesome. I do a lot of writing with a friend and that's how we write together, and it would be awesome to be able to put the share link into Calibre and update it (thinking like how FanFicFare works).

If there already is a Google Docs plugin that I somehow overlooked, please let me know!

[eschwartz]

Why not share the library via Dropbox? Not Google Drive, because unfortunately Google Drive will silently modify filenames with parentheses and break calibre.

You'll need to be careful that you sync before and after running calibre, or you could get edit clashes.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by TheTruthBetween

A plugin to import from Google Docs would be awesome. I do a lot of writing with a friend and that's how we write together, and it would be awesome to be able to put the share link into Calibre and update it (thinking like how FanFicFare works).

Something that pulls a copy of one of Google Docs' 'Download as' formats into calibre should be possible, but would presumably require OAuth2 to authenticate to Google to get non-public documents.

Then there's the question of what you want from it once it's in calibre.

Using a randomly selected public document (the most recent I happened to look at), none of the 'Download as' formats convert cleanly to epub in calibre. But that may have to do with all the tables.

I think downloading 'updates' only would be some where between very difficult and impossible given that fact it's a full document that could be changed anywhere. So it would have to be a complete download every time.

You could get very nearly the same effect with 'Download as' and an auto-add directory in calibre.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Why not share the library via Dropbox? Not Google Drive, because unfortunately Google Drive will silently modify filenames with parentheses and break calibre.

I think you're thinking of files stored in Google Drive while the question seems to be about a document in Google Docs. And isn't using a cloud service to store your library still officially discouraged?

[eschwartz]

Cloud storage is officially discouraged in the sense that if you don't know what you are doing it can bite you. Otherwise it is perfectly safe.

I get the Google Docs vs. Google Drive thing. And in fact they are the same thing, as GDocs is part of GDrive. Also I am suggesting an alternative collaboration workflow.

[TheTruthBetween]

*is easily confused* Uh... Okay, so, I have a Google account, and create docs, and set them to shared where anyone who has the link can edit, and my friend and I both edit the doc.

What I would love is something where I could put the share link into calibre and download the doc. And, like FanFicFare, could update it by overwriting the entire thing (because we often go back and edit past scenes for typos and grammar) if the "edited on" date is different in Docs than in calibre. As I'm referring to straight text (with minor formatting, i.e. italics and bold) I imagine it would be rather easy to convert to epub. (That said, I don't actually know how any of this works.)

[jecilop]

I'd love to be able to import certain Amazon listing data such as:

• Printed Length
• Release Date (ie, future releases available for pre-order)
• Number of customer reviews
• Amazon customer review rating

Bonus:

• If it could denote if available on Audible (I think there is a plug-in out there that does this part, but I'm not sure. Still, it would be good if contained in an Amazon Metadata Plug-in.)
• A column for the currently listed Kindle Price.
• Actual publication date (could also be early Release date if Amazon provides that way).

These would be imported into existing and/or custom columns (which could be created via customization of the plug-in). Checkboxes turn those custom columns on/off if you don't want to use that feature.

I know Calibre already has the ability to specify the import of Amazon data on publication date and rating, but it would be nice for what I'm thinking of to have this ability available for specific use via a plug-in so as not to have to touch other metadata at the same time.

Thoughts on this, anyone? I'd love to have the ability to create it myself, but alas I currently do not.