[Device Plugin] Kobo Touch Extended Driver

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mathil

I'm not sure what happened with my plugin installation. I'm using Calibre 3.8 64bit version: everything was working fine until last week, when I sent a book to my Kobo which was automatically converted in .kepub as usual. I open Calibre again today and the plugin is not installed anymore, and when I try to reinstall it, I get this error message:

calibre, version 3.8.0
ERRORE: Install plugin failed: A problem occurred while installing this plugin. This plugin will now be uninstalled. Please post the error message in details below into the forum thread for this plugin and restart calibre.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\dialogs\plugin_updater.py", line 726, in _install_clicked
  File "site-packages\calibre\customize\ui.py", line 461, in add_plugin
  File "site-packages\calibre\customize\ui.py", line 60, in load_plugin
  File "site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 199, in load
  File "site-packages\calibre\customize\zipplugin.py", line 183, in load_module
  File "calibre_plugins.kobotouch_extended.__init__", line 7, in <module>
ImportError: cannot import name KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED

It shouldn't be related to me having updated Calibre, I think, as I did that way before my most recent successful conversion. Could this be related to me having installed the latest Kobo firmware (4.6.9960, Glo HD)?
so much in advance!

Firstly, this has nothing to do with the device firmware version. Plugin installation does not check the devices and if the device is not connected at the time, calibre has no knowledge of what devices you have.

There shouldn't be a problem with the driver. It is working for me under calibre 3.8.0 and I have seen no problems. This sort of error usually means the zip file for the plugin has been corrupted. Or someone has repackaged it incorrectly. What I would do is check in the calibre configuration directory and look for anything strange in the "plugins" directory. If there is a file for the driver. The file name is "KoboTouchExtended.zip". Do this with calibre not running.

If this doesn't fix it, run calibre in debug mode (right-click the preferences button) and do the install. Then close calibre and post the log that gets displayed. Hopefully that will show more about what is going on.

[mathil]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Firstly, this has nothing to do with the device firmware version. Plugin installation does not check the devices and if the device is not connected at the time, calibre has no knowledge of what devices you have.

There shouldn't be a problem with the driver. It is working for me under calibre 3.8.0 and I have seen no problems. This sort of error usually means the zip file for the plugin has been corrupted. Or someone has repackaged it incorrectly. What I would do is check in the calibre configuration directory and look for anything strange in the "plugins" directory. If there is a file for the driver. The file name is "KoboTouchExtended.zip". Do this with calibre not running.

If this doesn't fix it, run calibre in debug mode (right-click the preferences button) and do the install. Then close calibre and post the log that gets displayed. Hopefully that will show more about what is going on.

Thank you for your reply, davidfor I followed your suggestion: the plugin folder had nothing strange inside, and no file for the driver. After checking this, I opened Calibre in debug mode and the driver install worked as it should; rebooting it in regular mode shows it's still there. Everything seems to be working as it should now. I'm not sure exactly what happened... but thank you for your help!

[PeterT]

Haven't other people reported the same issue here in the past? A driver seems to be deinstalled following an upgrade...

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[davidfor]

@mathil: Good that it is working.

@PeterT: Yes, it has been reported before. I was sort of hoping to find some evidence of what was going on.

[Terisa de morgan]

@david, with this new FW (pulled but...), subtitle has its own line at library view/ details view. The only way to populate it, however, is through Kobo Utilities, sending metadata manually. Could it be added in the plugin in the same way the series is added (it will require a template or a custom column, I klnow, but....)

[mathil]

Originally Posted by davidfor

@mathil: Good that it is working.

@PeterT: Yes, it has been reported before. I was sort of hoping to find some evidence of what was going on.

I still have the log generated by Calibre in debug mode, shall I send it to you? If it can be useful.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

@david, with this new FW (pulled but...), subtitle has its own line at library view/ details view. The only way to populate it, however, is through Kobo Utilities, sending metadata manually. Could it be added in the plugin in the same way the series is added (it will require a template or a custom column, I klnow, but....)

The need for a custom column or template is what has stopped me from doing this. I haven't wanted to add to many things like that. I keep thinking about updating the rest of the metadata in the driver. If I do that, it wouldn't be putting the full set of options that he plugin has. It would be all or nothing, but still with series separate. The main reason for hesitating on this is how much time it might take each time the device connected.

The alternative would be to add an option to the utilities plugin to run the metadata update automatically on connect. If I did that, I would have the full configuration the update function has, but as a separate copy of the options. That way you could update just the subtitle automatically, but when using the manual process, use separate choices.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mathil

I still have the log generated by Calibre in debug mode, shall I send it to you? If it can be useful.

Yes, I would like to look at it. I'm not really expecting to see anything, but maybe I will.

[mathil]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Yes, I would like to look at it. I'm not really expecting to see anything, but maybe I will.

I sent you a PM.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mathil

I sent you a PM.

I've had a look. Unfortunately, it doesn't show anything. Whatever was going on seems to have been fixed by this point.

If anyone sees something like this again, I'd like to see a debug log from before attempting to reinstall the plugin. I'd like to see what happens when calibre is started at that point.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The alternative would be to add an option to the utilities plugin to run the metadata update automatically on connect. If I did that, I would have the full configuration the update function has, but as a separate copy of the options. That way you could update just the subtitle automatically, but when using the manual process, use separate choices.

I like your second option, updating subtitle (or comment) automatically, which would help me too (and avoid to have a modified copy of Kobo Utilities as I have now )

[jackie_w]

@davidfor,
FWIW I too would appreciate an option to automatically update metadata on connect.

[compurandom]

Right now, metadata can't be updated until the second time the device connects after a new book is added.

If you automatically update subtitle and comment in the driver, how would you handle this? Scan the entire library for books not updated? Keep a list of new books that need an update? Something else?

Right now, I have a tag on books that have already had their metadata updated and a saved search that both finds books that need to be updated, and books deleted that use to have metadata.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by compurandom

Right now, metadata can't be updated until the second time the device connects after a new book is added.

That is correct.

If you automatically update subtitle and comment in the driver, how would you handle this? Scan the entire library for books not updated? Keep a list of new books that need an update? Something else?

Right now, I have a tag on books that have already had their metadata updated and a saved search that both finds books that need to be updated, and books deleted that use to have metadata.

And this is one of the reasons I've never implemented the metadata update in the driver; it could take to long.

For the series info, the driver is already looking at each book on the device, comparing the series info to the calibre library and updating the device if there is a difference. If I change the driver to update the rest of the metadata, it will be done in the same way: compare the values and only update if there is a difference. There shouldn't be many changes with each connection, but there is a lot of work to do to find them.

There are things that could be done to speed things up. Like, only look at books that have changed since they were put on the device. Or the last time the device was connected (I can't remember if there is a way to determine this). Doing this should improve things, but there are issues such as what happens if you log out of the device and the books get reloaded. Then, the metadata for all the books need to be updated.

But, the biggest reason for not doing this in the driver is that I have already implemented it in the Kobo Utilities plugin. As there is already a way to update the metadata on the device, I haven't felt a great need to add the same function to the driver. And I haven't had felt a great need to have the update run automatically, as I personally don't want it run all the time. I usually make sure the metadata is correct before sending the book to the device. If I feel the need to update it, I sort by modified in the library, select books back to whatever date I think is appropriate and do the update for those books.

I will look at automating the update in the utilities plugin. Maybe I'll add a control for how often to run it. For my purposes, running it once a week is probably enough. Then I'll revisit the driver and see how it fits there. But, if I do it there, I will not put all the function the plugin has. It will be all-or-nothing and no options for non-standard metadata.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by davidfor

And this is one of the reasons I've never implemented the metadata update in the driver; it could take to long.

For the series info, the driver is already looking at each book on the device, comparing the series info to the calibre library and updating the device if there is a difference.

Ahh! Perhaps that's the big delay I sometimes see after syncing books. (It'd sure be nice to have some kind of background job progress update on that!)

Maybe what I want is manual updating of the series info too!

Actually, what would be nice would be a manual trigger that checkes for the missing "already updated" tag and automatically updates and tags those with series and the rest of the metadata.