[GUI Plugin] FanFicFare

[JimmXinu]

I don't use Twitter.

OTOH, their Invitation Code blocking is less than iron clad. I can peek behind the curtain a bit.

From a brief initial look, FFF will not be able to use Browser Cache on the new version -- the chapter text is flagged no-cache when it is served. If the levels of CloudFlare blocking applied are similar to today, FFF may not be able to read ffnet in future.

Other things I notice right away:
- The level of 'everything is javascript' is extremely high. Like, each page is +80% Javascript and maybe 20% HTML--story and author links are all JS clickables, not actual HTML links.
- It looks like the story ID numbers are changed to an 18 char alphanumeric and there's a similar new chapter ID.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

From a brief initial look, FFF will not be able to use Browser Cache on the new version -- the chapter text is flagged no-cache when it is served. If the levels of CloudFlare blocking applied are similar to today, FFF may not be able to read ffnet in future.

Do you think an anti-FFF measure? It seems... calculated.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Do you think an anti-FFF measure? It seems... calculated.

I doubt it. We are, for the most part, a relatively small community of casual users.

CloudFlare has a business model because of all the AI trainers and other harvesters repeatedly scraping the entire web (plus DDoS attackers). I suspect we fall somewhere between 'minor offender' and 'collateral damage'.

And while I'm not a big fan, making every web site some kind of in-browser application has been the popular trend for years now. FFnet hasn't significantly updated their site in what, twenty years? They're just finally refreshing, I expect.

[ownedbycats]

I honestly though it was running on somebody's duct-taped server in a basement somewhere.

[MidnightRose]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Basically, no. That would need specific code and I'd need to see several users asking for it before I'd consider it.

That makes sense. I just figured there was a chance that some CSS stuff migh have been possible in user.ini.

I guess I'll just block very specifically the like 9 individual covery images this one author has in every single end of chapter author notes.

Actually.... come to think of it, I think there's a possible bug there? Unless it's intentional.

On the website, the images are all just a line of thumbnail sized images, but FFF seems to make each one a full page.
This is the webnovel in question.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by MidnightRose

I guess I'll just block very specifically the like 9 individual covery images this one author has in every single end of chapter author notes.

You can edit the ePub. Unless you use Overwrite, FFF shouldn't touch the previous chapters (except the TOC).

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by MidnightRose

That makes sense. I just figured there was a chance that some CSS stuff migh have been possible in user.ini.

I guess I'll just block very specifically the like 9 individual covery images this one author has in every single end of chapter author notes.

Actually.... come to think of it, I think there's a possible bug there? Unless it's intentional.

On the website, the images are all just a line of thumbnail sized images, but FFF seems to make each one a full page.
This is the webnovel in question.

The images are displayed smaller due to height / width attributes on the <img> tags. Those attrs are discarded by FFF. You could keep them using keep_html_attrs (search for keep_html_attrs and add_to_keep_html_attrs), but that would apply to all tags.

Another option is to force those img display sizes like:

[www.royalroad.com]
add_to_output_css:
 div.author-note-portlet img {
    width:100px;
    height:150px;
 }

FYI, FFF looks for images with identical URLs and only keeps one copy of each, while still displaying it in different places. So you at least only have one copy of each image per epub. I didn't check every chapter of this story, but the first few share images.

When they are the same images, but with different URLs, you could set dedup_img_files:true.

Spoiler:

From defaults.ini:

## If set true, FFF will compare image all files(of the same size)
## looking for identical files with different URLs.  fiction.live is
## the only site currently(Sep2020) known to benefit from this.
## (Images with the same URL are always detected and only one copy
## kept.)
#dedup_img_files:false

[Far_Pen_6884]

I'm seeking troubleshooting help with an issue I'm experiencing with Calibre. I'm not sure whether to ask for help here or start a new thread. Given the extensive length of this thread (737 pages), it seems that everyone is asking for help in the same place. However, I think it might be easier to keep track of the conversation if I create a new thread.

Here's the issue I'm facing:

I've been trying to download a fic using FanFicFare, but each time I do, Calibre freezes. I've attempted this five times, and every time, Calibre hangs for around 20 seconds before it starts downloading. During this hang, I see a system message saying, "Calibre is not responding. You may choose to wait a short while for it to continue or force the app to quit entirely."

I'm using a new Calibre library and have documented all the configuration steps as I set it up. Any insights or suggestions on how to resolve this issue would be greatly appreciated.

https://gist.github.com/8ullyMaguire...91ae44cf1eef55

[ownedbycats]

It's normal. I posted about it a while ago:

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

No, that happens to me too. It takes a while for FFF to do its thing, but Windows considers an application hung when it goes five seconds without reading the event queue and whites it out.

The usual solution to this is to move heavy tasks off to a second thread, and FFF does that with 'use background metadata' option on "update existing fanfiction book." I think there were mentions some difficulties in implementing it elsewhere, but I may be misremembering.

So suggest to go get a drink or something and come back.

[ownedbycats]

Downloading this series: https://archiveofourown.org/series/4838692

This story says 23 on series page, but 22 when downloaded in FFF. Know why?

[JimmXinu]

Number 22 is missing. So 22 entries, but highest is 23. Presumably 22 is not public or was deleted or something.

[John Maverick]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

I don't use Twitter.

OTOH, their Invitation Code blocking is less than iron clad. I can peek behind the curtain a bit.

I send you a PM with a Invitation Code for the beta site of ffnet that I got for entering said beta site. It seems it'll expire in 24 hs.

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

From a brief initial look, FFF will not be able to use Browser Cache on the new version -- the chapter text is flagged no-cache when it is served. If the levels of CloudFlare blocking applied are similar to today, FFF may not be able to read ffnet in future.

Other things I notice right away:
- The level of 'everything is javascript' is extremely high. Like, each page is +80% Javascript and maybe 20% HTML--story and author links are all JS clickables, not actual HTML links.
- It looks like the story ID numbers are changed to an 18 char alphanumeric and there's a similar new chapter ID.

Yeah, the new site seems pure JS everywhere, or at least in the story chapters.

[supergg]

Hello.
I have a little problem, i'm trying to download numerous .epub from an author (like 250+ epub files), but calibre only download 70 of them.

I think i know the "problem" : on the website, the author page show the first 70 stories, but if i want to have all of them listed, i need to click on a "Show More" button. (4 times in total.)

The problem is that, clicking on that button does'nt change the web adress, so when i download the stories using this same web adress, it only downloads the "first" page (the 70 first stories), not knowing that there is more page available.

Any ideas/solutions to that? Or am i facing a limit do the website?

Worst case scenario, i can download them manually, but that would take quite a bit of time ^^

Thank you for your time.

[JimmXinu]

That's more than I recommend downloading at one time anyway. Doing lots of downloads at once is a good way to get blocked by the site. For most sites, I recommend doing batches of 20-30 with an hour or two in between batches.

Instead of using the 'Get Story URLs from Web Page' feature, you can highlight then drag (or copy/paste) each page onto/into FFF's Story URLs dialog, or even onto the FFF button in Calibre.

Without knowing what site you're talking about, I cannot tell you anything more.

[supergg]

Thank you JimmXinu, i will follow your recommandation and download them one by one.