[GUI Plugin] Count Pages

[davidfor]

Attached is a beta to add support for downloading the page count from sites other than Goodreads. This was prompted by BeckyEbook's work to add Lubimyczytac.pl. While doing this, I have needed to add extra options for the page count download and I have reorganised the configuration dialog to two tabs. The download options and the general options are on the second tab.

I have also included Nicolas F's French translation.

I have attached a screenshot of the new configuration options. These are:

• A list of available sites to download the page count from. The list has:
  • A checkbox to make the site "active".
  • The order of the list is the order sites will be search.
  • The arrows next to the list are used to reorder the sites.
• Under the list are some options for the menu and the search:
  • "Show download from all sources menu item" - This adds a menu option to try to download the page count from all the sources.
  • "Only show active download source in the menu" - If this is checked, only the download sources marked as "Active" will be displayed in the menu.
  • "Try to download page count from each source" - If this is not checked, when the "all sources" option is used, the sources marked as "Active" will not be used.

I'd like to think the options above make it obvious how this works. But, I'm sure it doesn't And I am very happy to hear suggestions on how to better phrase the options and the tooltips.

What these options give are the following modes for getting a page count:

• Estimate from the book. This is the same as current option.
• Download the page count from a specific web site. At the moment, this is Goodreads and lubimyczytac.pl.
• Download the page count from any of the sites.
• Download the page count from any of the "active" sites.

For both of the last two options, the sites will be checked in the order the are listed at the top of the configuration. The site will only be checked if the book has an identifier for the site, and once a page count has been retrieved, no more sites will be checked.

So, if you have the sites in the order lubimyczytac.pl, Goodreads:

• If a book has an identifier for both sites, when doing an all sources fetch, lubimyczytac.pl will be checked first. If the page count is found, Goodreads is not used. If the page count is not found on lubimyczytac.pl, the Goodreads is used.
• If a book only has the identifier one of the sites, when doing an all sources fetch, only that site will be used for that book.

This should give plenty of flexibility in how to choose where to fetch the page counts from.

As you can see, this beta only has two sites. I have tried to do this in a way that adding more sites is easy. The information I need to do this is:

• Site URL with an indication of where the identifier goes. For Goodreads this is: "http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/%s". The "%s" is where the identifier goes.
• The path through the page source for page count is. For Goodreads this is: "//div[@id="details"]/div[@class="row"]/span[@itemprop="numberOfPages"]/text()". It's not that scary. The main thing I need to know is where on the page the page count is and the surrounding tags.
• A name.
• The identifier name.

As always, if anyone has a problem with the beta, please report them here in as much detail as possible. And any suggestions for better labels for the options will be gratefully received. I'm particularly unhappy with "Active" in the site list, but I can't come up with anything better. "Enabled" isn't right either.

[Nicolas F]

Originally Posted by davidfor

As always, if anyone has a problem with the beta, please report them here in as much detail as possible. And any suggestions for better labels for the options will be gratefully received. I'm particularly unhappy with "Active" in the site list, but I can't come up with anything better. "Enabled" isn't right either.

No problem for me with this beta (yet ).

If you don't like the active label, you could go with what was done for custom column in calibre :
There is no label, only a checkbox in the "name" column, and you could talk about selected sources. I think that it would be easy enough to understand.

[BeckyEbook]

I need more to test a beta version - so far is OK.

• Perhaps instead of a separate column "Active" you can add a checkbox to the column "Identifier". See thumbnail.
  
• The proposal icon to download all sources.
  
• Updated Polish translation.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

I need more to test a beta version - so far is OK.

• Perhaps instead of a separate column "Active" you can add a checkbox to the column "Identifier". See thumbnail.
  
• The proposal icon to download all sources.
  
• Updated Polish translation.

The problem is that it's near impossible to see what you've done because the screen grab is not in English.

[BeckyEbook]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is that it's near impossible to see what you've done because the screen grab is not in English.

No problem.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm particularly unhappy with "Active" in the site list, but I can't come up with anything better. "Enabled" isn't right either.

How about 'Activated' or 'Available' - else https://www.powerthesaurus.org/

BR

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

I need more to test a beta version - so far is OK.

• Perhaps instead of a separate column "Active" you can add a checkbox to the column "Identifier". See thumbnail.

I realised after posting the beta that I should have had the identifier in the list. And the two checkboxes probably work better. But having one at the beginning makes it seem like it is more important. I would tend to interpret it as meaning enable/disable that entry completely.

• The proposal icon to download all sources.

Thanks. I just couldn't find anything suitable yesterday and I my image editing skills a non-existent.

• Updated Polish translation.

Thanks.

[davidfor]

Here is another beta of the plugin. The changes are those that have been discussed:

• Move the "active" checkbox to the Identifiers column.
• Add column and checkbox for "On Menu".
• Remove the "Only show active download source in the menu" option as it is not needed.

I'm considering the need for the "Try to download page count from each source" option. With this checked, all the sites with a check against the identifier will be attempted until the page count is downloaded. If it is unchecked, then only the first site that has an identifier will be used for each book. I'm not sure if the option is needed and it should just use all sites.

[MerlinMama]

Another odd blip that's started happening. Since I tried the Beta you have up, when I run the 'Estimate page/word count' via the shortcut, it works every time. Great! What happens now, is that it does not update in the 'Book details' panel automatically as it did previously. Modifying the count manually updates 'Book details' automatically, it seems to only happen with Estimate, and my tests have it happening with both the shortcut and by directly pressing the button.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MerlinMama

Another odd blip that's started happening. Since I tried the Beta you have up, when I run the 'Estimate page/word count' via the shortcut, it works every time. Great! What happens now, is that it does not update in the 'Book details' panel automatically as it did previously. Modifying the count manually updates 'Book details' automatically, it seems to only happen with Estimate, and my tests have it happening with both the shortcut and by directly pressing the button.

Does it get updated if you select a different book and come back? If so, I think I know where to look. And is this what was happening with your previous report?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by BeckyEbook

No problem.

That looks good. Thanks.

[MerlinMama]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Does it get updated if you select a different book and come back? If so, I think I know where to look. And is this what was happening with your previous report?

Yes, it does.

The previous, the shortcut just wouldn't work after a while and I would need to restart, but when using the Count pages button it would function properly and Details panel would update. That problem hasn't reoccurred since I installed the beta. Since I have no idea what would make it stop working, I can't be certain if completely fixed, but for now it hasn't happened again.

[Terisa de morgan]

I have the same problem with page number and book details (beta). I thought I was imagining things.

[Nicolas F]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Here is another beta of the plugin. The changes are those that have been discussed:

• Move the "active" checkbox to the Identifiers column.
• Add column and checkbox for "On Menu".
• Remove the "Only show active download source in the menu" option as it is not needed.

I'm considering the need for the "Try to download page count from each source" option. With this checked, all the sites with a check against the identifier will be attempted until the page count is downloaded. If it is unchecked, then only the first site that has an identifier will be used for each book. I'm not sure if the option is needed and it should just use all sites.

In my opinion, the new beta option page is more difficult to understand. It's hard to understand what the checkbox in the identifier column is supposed to do.
I think a "Only show selected download sources in the menu" would be far better, with a checkbox at the beginning of the line (like what BeckyEbook did).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Nicolas F

In my opinion, the new beta option page is more difficult to understand. It's hard to understand what the checkbox in the identifier column is supposed to do.
I think a "Only show selected download sources in the menu" would be far better, with a checkbox at the beginning of the line (like what BeckyEbook did).

I'm a little confused. BeckyEbook's screenshot had two checkboxes. One at the beginning and the other in a column called "On menu". My first beta had the single checkbox at the start of the line.

The problem with that is that it confuses concepts: do you show the site on the menu, and do you use the site during the download from all.

The question probably is whether they need to be separated. With the two sites we have, probably not. I'm not going to display or search lubimyczytac.pl except to test that everything works. If there were more sites, that might change. If they are all for non-English books, I won't be using them. If a site is added that gives a better page count for books I have, then I might use them.

In any case, I didn't like the first version I did. I like this version better, but, I'm still not that happy with it.