[Old Thread] Towards calibre 0.8

[kiwidude]

@nyn - that was also reported above by jesscat and user_none replied saying they are looking into it.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@nyn - that was also reported above by jesscat and user_none replied saying they are looking into it.

Sorry I must have missed it, guess that's what I get for only skimming instead of fully reading it.

[chaley]

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.

Does this handle geographic restrictions?

For example, I cannot buy from Amazon.com or B&N.com because I live in the UK. I can buy from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.fr, as well as a host of UK bookstores. I would rather not see results from stores that cannot sell to me.

BTW: I would be interested in adding some of the UK stores if no one else is doing it (don't want to waste my time). The list would be something like Foyles, Waterstones, WH Smith, Tesco. I can also do amazon.co.uk if your affiliate ID doesn't work with them, which seems like it would be the case from reading their policies.

[user_none]

Originally Posted by chaley

Does this handle geographic restrictions?

Noish. It doesn't disable the store or use say Amazon UK instead of Amazon.com when you search. However, Amazon will know where you are and take the appropriate action. So anything you search for using the Amazon plugin won't show a price. Just like if you went to the website and searched there.

Originally Posted by chaley

BTW: I would be interested in adding some of the UK stores if no one else is doing it (don't want to waste my time). The list would be something like Foyles, Waterstones, WH Smith, Tesco.

Be my guest. Use the current plugins as examples (be sure to read the Amazon one I have a long set of comments that you will need to know) and I've commented the base classes fairly well. Plugins are flexible and you can do pretty much what ever you want. See MobileRead for a non embedded browser example. You're only limited what the store (read the affiliate agreement) allows.

Originally Posted by chaley

I can also do amazon.co.uk if your affiliate ID doesn't work with them, which seems like it would be the case from reading their policies.

Mine does not. With Amazon each .tld site requires a country specific affiliate login. I have no plans to deal with non-US, "automated" affiliate programs. The whole declaring foreign income on my taxes or dealing with country specific tax codes doesn't sound fun to me.

[Sweetpea]

First: I love the new look of the meta data editing screen. I always thought the last one was too crude (for lack of a better word).

The store plugin is handy as well. However, I do get an error there. It looks like it's only ManyBooks that gives the error:

calibre, version 0.7.56
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>TypeError</b>:QNetworkProxy.setUser(QString): argument 1 has unexpected type 'NoneType'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\search.py", line 175, in open_store
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\store\manybooks_plugin.py", line 37, 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 34, in __init__
TypeError: QNetworkProxy.setUser(QString): argument 1 has unexpected type 'NoneType'

[ldolse]

A bit of feedback on bulk metadata download dialog. Since we now have to confirm a dialog, this dialog would be a lot more useful with some minor button changes:

• Get Rid of Yes/No
• Have buttons for download covers, download metadata, download all, and cancel (no change for the configure button)

This would basically save a user from having to use a mouse to navigate the submenu for cover vs. metadata only download. Just hit ctrl-d, tab to your selection, hit enter.

[meme]

In the new Edit Metadata screen no tooltips appear for info/add/remove book, although there is one for set cover.

[theducks]

I give to the new Cover download interface showing the Current Cover AND any found.
Could we NOT highlight the cover (hard to see the colors that way), but only use the cover info, underneath, for selection?

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by meme

In the new Edit Metadata screen no tooltips appear for info/add/remove book, although there is one for set cover.

Fixed.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@Kovid - could the identifiers field in the Basic Metadata screen have a clear button on it?

And perhaps make it multiline or something? As when you have a long stream of ids (amazon, google, isbn, goodreads) you both cannot see the isbn (which is usually what you are after) and it is a little fiddly to edit/select?

I'm not convinced that editing identifiers is a common enough activity to devote so much real estate to it. I could have a "Manage identifiers" dialog, like the "Manage tags" dialog.

And I added code to sort the list of identifiers, ensuring isbn is always first.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I'm not convinced that editing identifiers is a common enough activity to devote so much real estate to it. I could have a "Manage identifiers" dialog, like the "Manage tags" dialog.

And I added code to sort the list of identifiers, ensuring isbn is always first.

It is probably the clearing that is more common than individual editing, I don't anticipate users frequently wanting to manually overtype a goodreads id for instance.

If your metadata is messed up from a previous retrieval and you want to do a title/author based search you need to clear that field. And there is no provision for clearing it on the bulk metadata dialog - as it was I had to do it from doing individual edit dialogs and then manually selecting/clearing.

Putting isbn first sounds good, thanks. And +1 for the suggestion above of changing the bulk download dialog to avoid having to go into the submenus to download only metadata without covers etc.

[The Terminator]

Will all my old plug-ins still work?

[kovidgoyal]

So which would you prefer, a clear button or a manage identifiers button?

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by theducks

I give to the new Cover download interface showing the Current Cover AND any found.
Could we NOT highlight the cover (hard to see the colors that way), but only use the cover info, underneath, for selection?

This only happens on linux, I've added a workaround ensuring the cover is always rendered on top of the selection rect on linux.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

So which would you prefer, a clear button or a manage identifiers button?

My personal opinion - a clear button since I think that is the more frequent action if you are retrying metadata searches.

You have got ISBN at the front now so editing that alone is trivial. Goodreads Sync has its own menus for setting and clearing goodreads ids. And I can't think of a use case for a user editing ASIN, google or whatever other identifiers go in there, so avoiding the need for yet another popup dialog sounds good to me.