X-Ray Builder - Windows Application

[Ephemerality]

Originally Posted by bballuk

I've time I try and build X-Ray I get this error...

Error: No terms found on Goodreads.
Error while processing.

EDIT: After trying a few more books finally got one to build xray file. Do you know what causing all others to show above error? The books I'm trying are X-Ray Enabled on kindle site.

Not all books have terms available on Goodreads, although it could just be failing to find them on the page (which book is it?).
I'm assuming you're new to using the builder? In the past, it used data from Shelfari which was more complete depending on how much interest there was in the book.
Shelfari was shut down so now, using Goodreads, we have much less data available to build from. If there are no terms available, you'd have to add them yourself using the "create an xml file of characters" button, though that's obviously harder if you haven't read the book, and you'd likely not be doing this if you'd read the book already.
The program has no connection to Amazon so it doesn't matter if the book is X-Ray-enabled from them or not.

[bballuk]

Thanks for the information, shame that Shelfari was shut down by amazon sneaky of them to shut it down then bring out X-Ray them selves. No worries at least I know it not something I'm doing wrong.

I downloaded a sample of the book off amazon and used X-Ray and even that not too good either. I thought there would be much more information than there was about certain characters.

I wish amazon would just allow you to download the X-Ray files through something like a API and so third party company can use the feature.

Thanks again for the help and for making the software will use of some of my others books. Also on a side note could you not make a X-Ray file from a wikia page? There a lot of wikia pages for certain books and series that have a lot of information and update by fans/readers.

[darrenmcg]

Could you provide a link to a books page, including characters?
A reliable alternative to Shelfari is something that would be REALLY helpful...

[bballuk]

This is the kind of wikia page I was on about I'm not sure if your program can fetch data from them.

Book Page: http://summoner-the-novice.wikia.com/wiki/The_Novice
Characters; http://summoner-the-novice.wikia.com/wiki/Characters
Main Character: http://summoner-the-novice.wikia.com...etcher_Raleigh

They have complete bio and everything on these Fan Wiki's, Wikia is most popular and they normally have them for a lot of series.

The original book I was trying your program with was called, The Dark Ability by DK Holmberg but the goodreads link does not work and there's no wikia page.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/...e-dark-ability

[Ephemerality]

Originally Posted by bballuk

This is the kind of wikia page I was on about I'm not sure if your program can fetch data from them.

For sites like that it's probably easier to manually pull the info from the site and use the Terms Creator. Wikia is a common platform but every page has a lot of freedom on how their page is set up so it'd be hard to set something up to parse them. That's why Shelfari was so nice, every single page was uniform and easily parsed...

BTW, I uploaded a 2.0.19b file. I was informed that 2.0.18 only creates author profiles for Lionel Shriver... whoops

[HawkJacq]

Originally Posted by Ephemerality

For sites like that it's probably easier to manually pull the info from the site and use the Terms Creator. Wikia is a common platform but every page has a lot of freedom on how their page is set up so it'd be hard to set something up to parse them. That's why Shelfari was so nice, every single page was uniform and easily parsed...

BTW, I uploaded a 2.0.19b file. I was informed that 2.0.18 only creates author profiles for Lionel Shriver... whoops

Good Day Ephemerality,

I hope all goes well. I still use your program with overall good results...Great app... But I now have another question. The following book I want to read is the first one I havent been able to find any kind of Character information on the Web...So, obviously creating an X-Ray file is almost useless. The Book is in Spanish, but I found that I can buy it from Amazon, with X-Ray available, in English. Is there a way to Extract the X-Ray information (Characters names and description) so as to translate it to Spanish and build a new file for this version (spanish one)? I know some names may be different but thats not so difficult to check.

Thanks again for your time and help...

[Ephemerality]

Originally Posted by HawkJacq

Is there a way to Extract the X-Ray information (Characters names and description) so as to translate it to Spanish and build a new file for this version (spanish one)? I know some names may be different but thats not so difficult to check.

I haven't used it in a while, but I believe there is an "extract existing x-ray to xml" button along the menu bar. You should be able to grab the X-Ray file that Amazon sends you from the Kindle, use that button to extract it to XML, then edit it either manually (Notepad) or using the Terms Creator menu option if you prefer an interface.
If you run into trouble with it, let me know.

[Ephemerality]

It's been a while, but a new test version has been uploaded (2.0.20b).
Notable changes:

• Tasks are run on a different thread now, so the interface won't lock up when building. There is a cancel button but not every task can be cancelled yet.
• Improved metadata/rawml extraction speed, should be nearly instant now
• Removed options for Shelfari
• Fixed some issues with parsing Goodreads pages (they changed their layout a bit)
• Quotes from Goodreads and will be matched in the book if possible, then added as "notable clips"
• Progress bar shows for some of the more lengthy tasks (like downloading every character for Game of Thrones
• Requires .NET Framework 4.5.1 now

[Marauder1]

I am having trouble with the ASIN not matching. In the past Calibre had an option to Fix the ASIN, but I can no longer find that in my Calibre.
What am I doing wrong?
How to get that function back?

[Ephemerality]

Originally Posted by Marauder1

I am having trouble with the ASIN not matching. In the past Calibre had an option to Fix the ASIN, but I can no longer find that in my Calibre.
What am I doing wrong?
How to get that function back?

You need to have the Quality Check plugin installed in Calibre (should show up along your top bar). Edit the metadata for the book and make sure under IDs, there is a tag like "asin:B000FBFN1U" with the Amazon ASIN there (I think amazon:B000FBFN1U" works also, then in the Quality Check menu do "Fix" and "Fix ASIN for Kindle Fire" (doesn't matter that it says Fire, it probably should just say Kindle).

[Marauder1]

Originally Posted by Ephemerality

You need to have the Quality Check plugin installed in Calibre (should show up along your top bar). Edit the metadata for the book and make sure under IDs, there is a tag like "asin:B000FBFN1U" with the Amazon ASIN there (I think amazon:B000FBFN1U" works also, then in the Quality Check menu do "Fix" and "Fix ASIN for Kindle Fire" (doesn't matter that it says Fire, it probably should just say Kindle).

Thanks!

That is progress, but after fixing the ASIN, X-Ray Builder says I have illegal characters.

[Ephemerality]

Can you post (in spoiler tags) or PM me the build log with the error or a screenshot if it's a message box?

[Marauder1]

Sent you a PM with screen captures.

[Ephemerality]

New version (2.0.21b) posted, mostly just bug fixes but now includes Newtonsoft.Json.dll, so make sure that gets extracted if you're just updating an existing setup.

[akrabi]

Does goodreads have character descriptions like shelfari used to have?

All I could find is character names which is not that helpful.