[GUI Plugin] Open With

[kiwidude]

@atjnjk - thx for suggesting that option. I didn't want to encourage users to go poking around in the config file and manually changing stuff for the obvious reasons but I'm glad it is working for you.

I've never used Calibre portable myself, I just have Calibre installed on each machine and any executables in the Open With menu installed at the same place on each to avoid the problem.

[ptom]

Sweet, that's exactly what I was looking for, an easy to change path description. Perfect, many thanks!

[kiwidude]

Changes in v1.4:

• Rewritten for new plugin infrastructure in Calibre 0.7.53
• Add Bliss application for Windows to shortcut list (new users/default reset only)

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Support skinning of icons by putting them in a plugin name subfolder of local resources/images

[tilia]

When I tried to use the plug-in with a library with an 'å' in the folder-name I got the following error:

Spoiler:

calibre, version 0.8.4
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>UnicodeDecodeError</b>:'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 0: unexpected end of data

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.open_with.action", line 165, in open_with
File "calibre_plugins.open_with.action", line 182, in launch_app
File "subprocess.py", line 672, in __init__
File "subprocess.py", line 841, in _execute_child
File "subprocess.py", line 608, in list2cmdline
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 0: unexpected end of data

I thought I'd used the plugin with this library before, and couldn't understand why it stopped working a few days ago, but I've probably just opened the books up directly in sigil. And then I thought it was okay again, but that must have been because I'd switch to the other library, the one that doesn't have any strange letters in the name...

Not exactly a big problem, reading the error-message instead of just hoping it would go away made me think of the 'å' in the name, and removing the offending letter made the plugin work. I use english in my installation of calibre, but for some reason I used norwegian when naming the library.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by tilia

When I tried to use the plug-in with a library with an 'å' in the folder-name I got the following error:

Spoiler:

calibre, version 0.8.4
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>UnicodeDecodeError</b>:'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 0: unexpected end of data

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.open_with.action", line 165, in open_with
File "calibre_plugins.open_with.action", line 182, in launch_app
File "subprocess.py", line 672, in __init__
File "subprocess.py", line 841, in _execute_child
File "subprocess.py", line 608, in list2cmdline
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xc3 in position 0: unexpected end of data

I thought I'd used the plugin with this library before, and couldn't understand why it stopped working a few days ago, but I've probably just opened the books up directly in sigil. And then I thought it was okay again, but that must have been because I'd switch to the other library, the one that doesn't have any strange letters in the name...

Not exactly a big problem, reading the error-message instead of just hoping it would go away made me think of the 'å' in the name, and removing the offending letter made the plugin work. I use english in my installation of calibre, but for some reason I used norwegian when naming the library.

You could use Caliber to Copy your Existing Library to a New one that does not have a name issue.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by tilia

When I tried to use the plug-in with a library with an 'å' in the folder-name I got the following error:

How do you get that character in your folder name in the first place? Is it from a very old version of Calibre or something? As if I put such a character in my author name, it gets translated to "a" for saving on the file system as the folder name. Or is this something that is operating system language dependent? Though I thought Calibre takes great pains to attempt to achieve universal file/folder names for people sharing with multiple OS's...

What happens if you just rename the author using the tag browser (append a character to it)? If you then hit O to open the folder does the folder name now have a name that does not use international characters?

[tilia]

I mostly read english ebooks, so not many of my books has special characters in the name, so hadn't noticed, but just checked, calibre renames the folders for authors and titles to international characters for me as well. But it doesn’t change the name of the database folder. Maybe because my installation of Win7 is in norwegian, and don't have a problem with 'æøå'.

As I said, easy to fix, I just renamed my library folder (from with-in calibre), so that there where no special characters in the name, and that made the plugin work. It's such a nice little plugin

The library folder is from when I first started using calibre early this year. Calibre has never had any problems with it. I have two separate libraries that I switch between, and for instance copying from one to the other hasn’t been a problem. It's just when I started using the Open with plugin I got an error. I don't use the norwegian translation of calibre, but there is some norwegian in metadata and columns, and that’s never been a problem, so I haven’t thought too much about which language I use when naming things.

[kiwidude]

Aah, sorry I did not realise where in the path the problem was, of course being a parent of the calibre library all you could do is move your library which you have done. Glad you are now sorted.

[jackie_w]

Now that Calibre has the ability to have 2 versions of a format, e.g. EPUB and EPUB_ORIGINAL, is it time to consider which version is being opened for editing when using this plugin (and possibly others)?

I don't have a strong feeling about the 'right way' to deal with this issue but thought I'd raise it for consideration. It appears that some users have already run foul of editing the EPUB version then running another conversion from EPUB_ORIGINAL to EPUB which has overwritten their edit.

Perhaps, at least, a warning message about which version is being edited would be helpful when there are 2 formats.

[kiwidude]

Hi jackie_w,

I'm not really sure it applies to this plugin to be honest. I think of EPUB_ORIGINAL as a second class citizen, it is just something that (sometimes) exists as the result of a conversion (for myself I have it turned off as don't want the functionality). In terms of what will actually get sent to devices etc, it is only the EPUB that is of relevance. Hence that a plugin like Open With only operates on that same "end product" format is something I am quite happy to live with.

The whole point of "ORIGINAL_xxx" as I understand it is that it is for preserving your original format just in case your conversion comes out pants. Hence it should remain untouched, and plugins like Open With shouldn't be working with it anyways.

Thats my 2p anyways

[jackie_w]

Fair enough. I guess only time will tell whether the average user understands what ORIGINAL_xxx is for. Early indications appear to show that some think it's some kind of backup and learn the facts the hard way. Let's hope it's just teething problems.

Odd really. The feature to not destroy the original in a same-format-conversion is something that's been mentioned quite a lot in the past. Now we've got it some people are complaining. No good deed goes unpunished

[kiwidude]

True about the no good deed thing. Though imho it should not have been enabled by default, and it should have a less buried configuration setting than in tweaks (which I am not a fan of as a way of managing configuration anyways but that is another story).

It applies an immediate extra level of "confusion" when someone does a conversion until they work out what its lifecycle is and when they might want to use it. But then I am biased towards not using the feature, and as I equally am not getting involved in supporting user queries about it and I can turn it off then it really isn't my problem

[Artha]

Can it be linked somehow to the edit metadata window?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Artha

Can it be linked somehow to the edit metadata window?

Why ?