Use calibre to manage remote calibre library

[aarcane]

I've got a simple setup going, and it's pretty much almost ready. There's only one thing missing, and that's simple management.

I've got a webserver, which I have (currently open for testing) secured with usernames and passwords, and can access from my android products as well as my e-readers (My wife and I have one each). It's running a calibre content server encapsulated in apache. Pretty straight forward stuff.

What I have on my desktop is Calibre client running. I start it, I adjust e-books, edit meta-data, etc... then I want to send it to my "device", which is the remote library. This is all pretty much possible, except that the "Connect to folder" feature doesn't update the metadata.db file.

How can I configure the Desktop Calibre client to update the metadata.db file?
If I can't configure the Desktop Calibre client to update the metadata.db file, is it possible to make this a feature request? Presumably calibre knows how to update this file, and a locking facility can easily be instituted. This is the last piece to turn the integrated server into an awesome all-in-one solution around calibre for me, and others I'm sure!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by aarcane

I've got a simple setup going, and it's pretty much almost ready. There's only one thing missing, and that's simple management.

I've got a webserver, which I have (currently open for testing) secured with usernames and passwords, and can access from my android products as well as my e-readers (My wife and I have one each). It's running a calibre content server encapsulated in apache. Pretty straight forward stuff.

What I have on my desktop is Calibre client running. I start it, I adjust e-books, edit meta-data, etc... then I want to send it to my "device", which is the remote library. This is all pretty much possible, except that the "Connect to folder" feature doesn't update the metadata.db file.

How can I configure the Desktop Calibre client to update the metadata.db file?
If I can't configure the Desktop Calibre client to update the metadata.db file, is it possible to make this a feature request? Presumably calibre knows how to update this file, and a locking facility can easily be instituted. This is the last piece to turn the integrated server into an awesome all-in-one solution around calibre for me, and others I'm sure!

You NEVER use connect to folder on (any) Calibre Library. CTF is for Devices.
2 choices (off the top of me head).
1) set up an Auto ADD folder on the server. Drop the NEW book there.
( I don't think this can be used to update an existing book)
2) VNC and remote control your Calibre.
2.5) rlogin and use the CLI fo GUI-less servers

[aarcane]

Obviously there are more difficult and convoluted solutions. I'm looking to find some way to see calibre libraries through to their logical, simple conclusion, not to make things more complicated than they need to be.

Obviously, this so called "Library" exists only as the data I've exported to it, and in no other way. I think the Python wsgi server filled in some extra details that I never explicitly asked it to. The fact remains that the sole purpose of it's existence is for a single user at a time to connect, export books to, and have those books show up on the wsgi server's opds feed the next time I open it on my phone, tablet, or reader.

I do believe I asked, that if the functionality doesn't presently exist that it be added as a new feature (request) in some way.

Finally; never, I repeat NEVER, use rlogin. NEVER. Never ever ever. Use SSH instead. rlogin is BAD.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by aarcane

I've got a simple setup going, and it's pretty much almost ready. There's only one thing missing, and that's simple management.

I've got a webserver, which I have (currently open for testing) secured with usernames and passwords, and can access from my android products as well as my e-readers (My wife and I have one each). It's running a calibre content server encapsulated in apache. Pretty straight forward stuff.

What I have on my desktop is Calibre client running. I start it, I adjust e-books, edit meta-data, etc... then I want to send it to my "device", which is the remote library. This is all pretty much possible, except that the "Connect to folder" feature doesn't update the metadata.db file.

How can I configure the Desktop Calibre client to update the metadata.db file?
If I can't configure the Desktop Calibre client to update the metadata.db file, is it possible to make this a feature request? Presumably calibre knows how to update this file, and a locking facility can easily be instituted. This is the last piece to turn the integrated server into an awesome all-in-one solution around calibre for me, and others I'm sure!

I solve the same problem using dropbox as a transport. I have 2 calibre servers in the "cloud", both fed from my library on my home machine. Of course, you can use anything you want as the transport instead of dropbox.

One "trick": because the calibre server holds metadata.db open, which in some situations can cause dropbox collisions. In addition, because of how linux holds files open even when deleted, the calibre servers never see library (metadata.db) updates. To get around this I use monit to monitor the timestamp on metadata.db. If it changes, then monit restarts the calibre server (init.d/calibre-server). The calibre init.d script stops calibre, copies metadata.db to somewhere not in dropbox-land, sets $CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH to that file, and then restarts calibre.

As for adding something like a transport to calibre, I strongly suspect that it isn't going to happen. I know that I have no interest in building it. There are already many ways to copy a library from A to B. Calibre doesn't need to provide another one. There is a long-running project to separate calibre into clients with a separate db server, but this won't finish anytime soon.

[hakan42]

Originally Posted by chaley

To get around this I use monit to monitor the timestamp on metadata.db. If it changes, then monit restarts the calibre server (init.d/calibre-server). The calibre init.d script stops calibre, copies metadata.db to somewhere not in dropbox-land, sets $CALIBRE_OVERRIDE_DATABASE_PATH to that file, and then restarts calibre.

Do you mind sharing your monit configuration for restarting the server? I encountered this piece of software for the first time and have a slightly hard time configuring it correctly

The following does not work correctly for me (yet):

check file metadata.db with path /home/calibre/Dropbox/Calibre/metadata.db
        if timestamp > 5 minutes
                then exec "/etc/init.d/calibre-server restart"

[chaley]

Originally Posted by hakan42

Do you mind sharing your monit configuration for restarting the server? I encountered this piece of software for the first time and have a slightly hard time configuring it correctly

The following does not work correctly for me (yet):

check file metadata.db with path /home/calibre/Dropbox/Calibre/metadata.db
        if timestamp > 5 minutes
                then exec "/etc/init.d/calibre-server restart"

I use

check file metadata.db with path ..../metadata.db
  if changed timestamp
     then exec "/etc/init.d/calibre-server restart"

where ..../metadata.db is the full path to the library in the dropbox directory.

[aarcane]

None of this helps with the fact that I don't want to have an exact copy of my desktop's library, but rather I want to push books to and from it like a device, maintaining only the books and series that are
1) in good condition,
and 2) that I'm interested and reading
for 3) Multiple users with both read&write access (provided through separate access points)

[theducks]

Originally Posted by aarcane

None of this helps with the fact that I don't want to have an exact copy of my desktop's library, but rather I want to push books to and from it like a device, maintaining only the books and series that are:

1) in good condition,
and 2) that I'm interested and reading
for 3) Multiple users with both read&write access (provided through separate access points)

point 0 might be possible if you can warrant that a point 3 access will not happen during maintenance. (Use Copy to Library)

point 3 Excludes Calibre which is SINGLE USER Write access
(And Calibre could not care about points 1 or 2, as long as the structure is valid )

[aarcane]

It's been a while and perhaps something has changed since then. Is it yet possible to manage a remote calibre library as described above, and if not, I would like to re-request that the feature be added. There now exist a small number of programs capable of using an in-tact calibre library to create a OPDS catalog, and all are using hacks such as rsync or monit or dropbox to make them function. This is an important feature that is presently lacking.