[iOS] Wish List

[chaley]

This thread is for discussing what you would like to change in iOS CC. This post is reserved for future use.

[American_Desi]

Requests:
1) Add Box support (www.box.com) for cloud downloads. Box gives more free space by default than Dropbox and OneDrive
2) Add ability to download multiple books at a time, say, by downloading all by books by series, by author, etc.
3) Is there a way to selectively sync certain series to one's cloud provider, given the limited space these providers give you? If not, would like to see one.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by American_Desi

2) Add ability to download multiple books at a time, say, by downloading all by books by series, by author, etc.

This is already a feature in Android. When connected to the cloud at any point if I go into the menu I have the option to download all. So it is easy to download all books of a series or all books by a given author. Since I don't have an apple device I don't know it a similar option is hiding out of sight in one of the menus.

Originally Posted by American_Desi

3) Is there a way to selectively sync certain series to one's cloud provider, given the limited space these providers give you? If not, would like to see one.

This is a calibre question. In calibre you can create a blank library and using the "copy to library" feature you can selectively copy any series, author or book to a separate library. Once that is done sync your smaller library to the cloud.

[chaley]

Moderator Notice
Under the assumption that these requests are for CC iOS, I created an iOS Wish List thread and moved the posts to it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by American_Desi

Requests:
1) Add Box support (www.box.com) for cloud downloads. Box gives more free space by default than Dropbox and OneDrive

Given that the Android version already supports Box, this must be an iOS request.

Although Steve does all development and makes all decisions for CC iOS, I suspect he won't put Box high on the priority list because Box is not popular on Android CC (for which I do all development). The following two pie charts give the numbers. Box is 5.5% of 20%

[Steve_Haley]

At the moment, all development work on iOS is going to focus on bug fixing. Once that's done, I can look at new features. But realistically, it's going to be a while before I have the time to do anything new.

Originally Posted by American_Desi

Requests:
1) Add Box support (www.box.com) for cloud downloads. Box gives more free space by default than Dropbox and OneDrive

Indeed, as chaley wrote, this can't be a high priority for now based on how few people would use it.

2) Add ability to download multiple books at a time, say, by downloading all by books by series, by author, etc.

Assuming this is referring to connecting by the cloud connection or content server, I do intend to add the ability to queue multiple downloads. On Android it works by long-pressing on a row, which starts the download in the background. It would probably be something like that on iOS as well.

3) Is there a way to selectively sync certain series to one's cloud provider, given the limited space these providers give you? If not, would like to see one.

DoctorOhh answered this well.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Steve_Haley

Assuming this is referring to connecting by the cloud connection or content server, I do intend to add the ability to queue multiple downloads. On Android it works by long-pressing on a row, which starts the download in the background. It would probably be something like that on iOS as well.

Android also has a "Download all" menu item that queues the books in the list. The default format is downloaded, and any books already on the device are skipped.

[jukin]

The ability to download multiple books on iOS as on Android must be a higher priority. It a complete pain to only be able to download one book at a time. For some people, including me, it is unusable on iOS

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jukin

The ability to download multiple books on iOS as on Android must be a higher priority. It a complete pain to only be able to download one book at a time. For some people, including me, it is unusable on iOS

For people who might pass by, this post is referring to the iOS Content Server and Cloud connections. The Wireless Device connection supports sending to your device in one operation as many books as you wish.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by chaley

For people who might pass by, this post is referring to the iOS Content Server and Cloud connections. The Wireless Device connection supports sending to your device in one operation as many books as you wish.

I was kind of wondering about that since I could have sworn that I had downloaded up to 500 at a time.

[thinkblot]

My iOS Calibre Companion wish list feature is the ability to download only metadata and not the actual epub files.

I use Marvin and have no problem accessing an epub file (once I choose one to read). The problem is that I need to go to Calibre on my computer to see all of the books (and my reading list, my wish list, etc.) in order to choose my next book to read. I was hoping that iOS Calibre Companion would allow us to see/browse/organize our ebooks without actually having those files on our device (somewhat similar to Pocketpedia by Bruji). This way I could browse my reading list and choose my next book to read (even if travelling or away from my computer) and I could see a list of books I already own or my wish list when visiting a bookstore.

I’m not sure if it is possible to implement this feature or if it is a worthwhile feature for everyone (or only those like me who have purchased an iPad with, regrettably, a very small amount of disk space!). But I find that because I can keep so few actual ebook files on my device, I’m not really benefitting from the cool features this app (like searching by custom column, collections, etc.) because I rely on using cloud connection to download just the next book or two I intend to read.

I know you guys are busy with new jobs and fixing bugs that are way more important than new features, but I thought I would post here because I haven’t seen anyone mention it before and it would really be such a useful feature for me. I’m curious if others would benefit from this as well.

Thank you guys for all of your hard work!! And good luck in your new jobs (I’ve been following these threads for a while but never made an account until today).

[slantybard]

I have the following feature requests:

1. Being able to change the number of books seen in list view. For example, list view only shows 6 books at most on an iPhone 6/7 plus. There's a lot of room to make the list readable for 10+ books.
2. Customize what info or order of info shown on the metadata screen. Ie choose to see or not see certain info like "path" or to have the comments show under the cover instead of at the bottom.
3. Ability to swipe between book metadata screens without going back to the list. Ie like the next/previous buttons in the edit window of calibre.

Thank you so much for all the work you have done. I'd be happy to contribute a donation for development time/costs.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by thinkblot

My iOS Calibre Companion wish list feature is the ability to download only metadata and not the actual epub files.

This is actually a common request for exactly the reasons you gave.

Although the connection between a book and the metadata is deeply baked into CC+calibre, there is a good workaround that solves the space issue. Instead of sending the "real" book, send an (almost) empty txt file. These take up almost no space on your device and satisfy the linkage requirement. For more info on how easily to do this, see our FAQ How can I use CC as a catalog, not for reading?.

Thank you guys for all of your hard work!! And good luck in your new jobs (I’ve been following these threads for a while but never made an account until today).

Thanks for the nice words.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by slantybard

I have the following feature requests:

1. Being able to change the number of books seen in list view. For example, list view only shows 6 books at most on an iPhone 6/7 plus. There's a lot of room to make the list readable for 10+ books.
2. Customize what info or order of info shown on the metadata screen. Ie choose to see or not see certain info like "path" or to have the comments show under the cover instead of at the bottom.
3. Ability to swipe between book metadata screens without going back to the list. Ie like the next/previous buttons in the edit window of calibre.

Thank you so much for all the work you have done. I'd be happy to contribute a donation for development time/costs.

FWIW, Android CC has all of these. They were slowly added over the more than 4 years of development as people like you made suggestions.

It will take a while for iOS CC to catch up.

[thinkblot]

Originally Posted by chaley

This is actually a common request for exactly the reasons you gave.

Although the connection between a book and the metadata is deeply baked into CC+calibre, there is a good workaround that solves the space issue. Instead of sending the "real" book, send an (almost) empty txt file. These take up almost no space on your device and satisfy the linkage requirement. For more info on how easily to do this, see our FAQ How can I use CC as a catalog, not for reading?.

Thank you!! I will look into this idea

Edit: This works really well - and all of my books actually fit onto my tiny iPad! Thanks!!