[Old Thread] Towards calibre 0.8 - Page 3

meme · 04-17-2011, 02:14 PM

Just curious - what difference does it make if the functionality you want is a plugin or built-in to calibre, other than making it more easily accessible to more people?

user_none · 04-17-2011, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meme

Just curious - what difference does it make if the functionality you want is a plugin or built-in to calibre, other than making it more easily accessible to more people?

Nothing. Components within calibre are plugins. The only difference is if it's distributed as part of calibre or though another manner.

user_none · 04-17-2011, 06:12 PM

0.7.56 introduces a new feature for 0.8 that I've been working on for over a month now. There is a new toolbar action called "Get Books." Under preferences, Plugins, they're in Store plugins.

As the names suggest this feature bring store integration to calibre. For the 0.8 release I've included 14 different stores. They are a mix of big box, independent, public domain and free sources. The idea behind this feature is to allow users to easily acquire new books.

The integration varies with the majority of them being the source's website in an embedded browser. Unfortunately most of them don't allow for more integration.

Using the embedded browser allows me to detect ebook downloads. When an ebook is selected to download it will be downloaded using calibre's job system and automatically added to the current library. A tag with the store name is added to the library entry.

Each store plugin can be customized. Right now the tags added to downloaded books can be modified. Also, if you don't want the store's opening in the the embedded browser you can select to have them opened in the system's default web browser.

The big feature of the store integration is search. Every store supported by calibre is supported by the store search dialog. The search dialog returns a number of common information: cover, title, author, price, store. I plan to extend this to also include DRM status and formats before the 0.8 release.

I do not plan on adding any new store before the 0.8 release. However, once 0.8 is out I will be taking requests for other stores. Kovid has also put me in charge of the store code in case anyone wants to implement their own store plugins.

Kovid and I have come to an agreement regarding the store integration. This will extend to anyone else. Affiliate programs are allowed to be used. About half of the store's in I've added use affiliate urls (most of the pay ones). The distribution is 70% to the plugin author / maintainer and 30% to the calibre project (distributed to Kovid).

One thing I want to make clear this feature is designed for users. The goal is to make it easier for people to get books into calibre. That will be taken into consideration above all before any new stores are accepted.

Also, as I said that 70% of revenue goes to the author / maintainer. If someone creates a store and doesn't want to maintain it (shouldn't be much maintenance) then I will change the affiliate url to someone who is willing to put in the work. With this feature I hope that it is useful and helpful for calibre users. I also hope that these initial stores will allow me to generate enough income to work on calibre full time. New store plugins will be accepted on a first come first serve basis and I will not prevent anyone from making money on this feature aside from the above usefulness consideration. For example a store that doesn't implement search will be automatically denied.

I would love to get input on this feature. From a technical, usable, general standpoint. Let me know what works, what doesn't, what need to be changed.

markdek · 04-17-2011, 06:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meme

Just curious - what difference does it make if the functionality you want is a plugin or built-in to calibre, other than making it more easily accessible to more people?

I trust the "Creator of Calibre" (see the OP) more regarding keeping Calibre revisions compatible with this plugin, or a "Collection" plugin. Updates for Calibre come really really fast.......not sure if this can cause problems w/ older plugins?

.

DeadMan · 04-17-2011, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by user_none

As the names suggest this feature bring store integration to calibre. For the 0.8 release I've included 14 different stores. They are a mix of big box, independent, public domain and free sources. The idea behind this feature is to allow users to easily acquire new books.

Very nice, thanks for this. Will you be adding options to the Stores Plugins so that we can enter our username/passwords so it can autolog us in to our selected stores?

user_none · 04-17-2011, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DeadMan

Very nice, thanks for this. Will you be adding options to the Stores Plugins so that we can enter our username/passwords so it can autolog us in to our selected stores?

I never thought about this. I've added it to my todo list.

DeadMan · 04-17-2011, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

What's new

A new feature Get Books that allows you to search for a book in calibre and get a list of stores that sell/distribute the book. Clicking on a result allows you to buy the book from the store, or download it directly, in the case the book is free. To enable this feature go to Preferences->Toolbars and add the Get Books icon to your toolbar. For details see here
A new, completely rewritten metadata download system. You can now choose from amongst multiple downloaded covers, and bulk metadata downloads now run in the background. Also, the download process is much more customizable.
A new edit metadata single dialog, with multiple layouts, chooseable from Preferences->Behavior.

Thanks Kovid! New metadata editor layout is excellent! And so is the cover selector.

Now if I could only get you folks to add a drop box for pseudonym(s). So when, say, an Asimov book is selected, the pseudonym area would show the list of alter ego's (Paul French in this case).

JBlyth · 04-17-2011, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

I think JBLyth was after the "other" tweak values that they deleted. That would be these two:

Code:

bool_custom_columns_are_tristate = 'yes'
grouped_search_terms = {}

Thanks Kiwidude,

That is exactly what I needed!

Cheers
John

jesscat · 04-17-2011, 09:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by user_none

0.7.56 introduces a new feature for 0.8 that I've been working on for over a month now. There is a new toolbar action called "Get Books." Under preferences, Plugins, they're in Store plugins.

...

I would love to get input on this feature. From a technical, usable, general standpoint. Let me know what works, what doesn't, what need to be changed.

Wow, this is potentially very cool! Looking forward to the possibility of having some of the stores I use most (e.g., fictionwise) up there eventually, in addition to the current list!

I gave it a quick whirl. A few initial thoughts and reactions...

First, it would be great to have search refined a little. I searched for a title, but a very long list of books came up with some of the title words in the author field, etc. (since one of the words in the title I was searching for could possibly be a name). It would be useful to be able to search specifically by title or by author - don't know if that's possible. I found what I wanted by sorting the title field - that column sort function does make the current non-specific search much more workable.

Second, the book I was looking for was in four of the stores. I clicked on three of them - B&N, Kobo, and ebooks - and got this error:

calibre, version 0.7.56
ERROR: Unhandled exception: AttributeError:'QNetworkAccessManager' object has no attribute 'sslErrors'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\search.py", line 175, in open_store
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\bn_plugin.py", line 46, in open
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\web_store_dialog.py", line 18, in __init__
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\web_store_dialog_ui.py ", line 32, in setupUi
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\web_control.py", line 43, in __init__
AttributeError: 'QNetworkAccessManager' object has no attribute 'sslErrors'

The fourth store was Amazon. Clicking on this opened Amazon in my system's default browser, not the embedded browser. I looked in preferences, but I can't find the options for choosing default vs. embedded browser? EDIT: Wait, I see - it's in each store plugin's customization, and Amazon has no option for opening in the embedded browser. Okay, got it.

If I purchase the book through the window/tab that opened in my system's default browser (Firefox on XP, as it happens), can you explain more precisely what will happen? (I didn't in fact do it, as I don't want to buy the book from Amazon.) Or what happens if I purchase through the embedded browser for that matter? When I click to DL, the book will go right into my calibre library without any need to save first and import, is that right, even if I do it through the default browser? And it will obey the usual import rules? Including regarding metadata (e.g., I don't generally DL any tags from any sources, and I'd like to keep it that way)?

What about with Amazon - I assume you have to select to DL to PC, rather than sending the file to one of your devices or to Kindle for PC?

I've lost track of my numbering... so anyway, finally, the only possible disadvantage to me that I'm seeing right now to using this method to buy books, especially since it benefits calibre's developers, is that I like to keep a backup copy of my original DL in a different directory. So I usually DL to that backup directory and then import to calibre. If I understand this correctly, I'd have to do a separate save-to-disk if I want that. How about the possibility of building in the option for this for those who want it - specifying a backup directory with an automatic save-to-disk as part of the process, assuming there are others who might be interested?

user_none · 04-17-2011, 10:04 PM

Quote: