Calibre Portable?

[AprilHare]

I work in an environment where I cannot install software.
I can, however, run software from memory stick.
Might it be possible to have a "Calibre Portable" for 32 bit Windows, in the vein of applications such as the ones here http://portableapps.com/apps?

[rcuadro]

You mean like this:
http://portableapps.com/node/20518

Keep in mind that that version of Calibre is not "officially" maintained

[itimpi]

It is easy enough to run Calibre from a USB stick. I have posted my batch file to do this from Windows several times. You should be able to find a thread with it attached if you search the forum. If you do not find it then leave a message here and I will upload it again (I am not at my PC at the moment so cannot do this immediately).

I believe that the only dependency is the appropriate version of the MSVC runtime must be present on the host machine, but it normally would be.

EDIT: Got to my PC, so I have attached the batch file.

[erangel]

Thank you for the file itimpi. You save me a lot of time.

In case anyone uses this with a path including spaces the line

START Calibre /belownormal --with-library %CALIBRE_LIBRARY_DIRECTORY%

must be replaced by

START Calibre /belownormal --with-library "%CALIBRE_LIBRARY_DIRECTORY%"

[BookJunkieLI]

Forgive what may be a stupid question but how exactly do I use the batch file? Do I install Calibre on the USB stick like I would if it was on a standard hard drive? If there is a set of directions somewhere feel free to simply point me towards them. I've tried doing searches and come up with posts that either have nothing to do with what I'm looking for or hint at what I need like this one. Thanks.

[itimpi]

Have you read the comments embedded in the batch file? If a particular one is unclear, in what way?

One of the comments mentions the Calibre binaries folder on the USB stick. That can be populated either by installing Calibre directly to that folder or by copying the contents from an install to the hard disk.

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Have you read the comments embedded in the batch file? If a particular one is unclear, in what way?

One of the comments mentions the Calibre binaries folder on the USB stick. That can be populated either by installing Calibre directly to that folder or by copying the contents from an install to the hard disk.

Honestly I didn't understand most of it. I'm not a programmer nor do I pretend to be. I copied the Calibre2 and CalibreLibrary directories from my computer to the USB drive. I created a directory called CalibreConfig but I don't know what to put in it as I can't find a similar drive on my computer. When I try to run the batch file I get the following Error message:

Python function terminated unexpectedly
(3,'The system cannot find the path specified') (Error Code: 1)

I did find that by double-clicking the Calibre icon in the Calibre2 directory I can get it to run from the USB drive.

[itimpi]

I assume that you put the batch file on the USB stick? It expects the folders it refers to to be relative to the location of the batch file.

When you copied the calibre2 folder onto the USB stick did you keep that name (you implied that you did)? If so then change the references in the batch file to CalibreBinaries to be calibre2 instead (or rename the calibre2 folder on the USB stick to be called CalibreBinaries to match the batch file)

Do not worry about the CalibreConfig folder being empty, it will be automatically populated by Calibre as you set your preferences in Calibre. You would have an equivalent folder called 'calibre' somewhere in your user profile, but as long as you are prepared to start with default settings for preferences then you might as well start with the CalibreConfig folder being empty. It is important that your preferences are stored in this folder as otherwise they would be stored locally on each machine which means they would not follow you as the USB stick is moved around.

The batch file has a Pause command in it just before attempting to Start Calibre and it displays the settings that are about to be used. You should check that these correspond to the folder names on the USB stick before proceeding to try and load Calibre.

Hope this description helps?

[atjnjk]

This is my modified file: CalibreRun.bat
You can try these steps:
-Create 'Calibre2Portable' folder (or whatever name you like) on your USB stick.
-Copy the .bat file to that folder.
-Create 'Data' folder in 'Calibre2Portable'.
-Create 'Config', 'Library' folders in 'Data'.
-Copy 'Calibre2' folder to 'Calibre2Portable'.
-Copy files in 'CalibreLibrary' to 'Library'.
-Copy files in installed Calibre's config folder to 'Config' (you can open that folder by opening installed Calibre, click Preferences>Advanced>Open Calibre configuration directory)
If you don't want to copy intalled Calibre's configuration to portable one, you can leave 'Config' folder empty
-Start Calibre Portable by running .bat file. (always start with the .bat file)

Note: I don't know why but Calibre Portable's viewer can't remember window size, other settings are saved.
If you can start Calibre Portable and don't want to hit enter everytime starting it, use a text editing program and remove these lines from the .bat file:

echo "Press CTRL-C if you do not want to continue"
pause

[BookJunkieLI]

Originally Posted by itimpi

Hope this description helps?

Thanks so much for your help!

I modified the CalibreBinaries to Calibre2 and I did have to change this line:
SET CALIBRE_LIBRARY_DIRECTORY=U:\EBOOKS\CalibreLibrary to
SET CALIBRE_LIBRARY_DIRECTORY=%cd%\CalibreLibrary in order to get things working properly but it is working!

I can finally work on my collection whether I'm at work, at home on my desktop or on my laptop. Yay!