Pocketbook Annotations Viewer and Tools (AVATeR), need testing

[wold]

I'm looking for Pocketbook users, who want to test a Windows app with PocketBook tools. And a future Linux one.

It mainly concerns:
- 4K support
- USB device detection
- win11 support

What is it?
A set of tools for PBs. Central is an interactive annotation viewer/exporter. Also included are tools from (my) 'pocketbooktools' plugin, but these are pretty basic. They involve:

- backup DBs and files
- send system (dict, fonts) files to device / restore these from backup (except e-books)
- check database integrity
- merge/fix annotations for an e-book (in case an e-book got re-loaned)



Requirements
- Pocketbooks, likely only firmware 6.x.
- Windows 8+ 64-bit. Windows 7 might work.
A working Linux version exists, save one minor issue.

Download
Downloads are available below (basic HTML page, no ads, no JS).

https://www.syncoda.nl/software/avater/
https://www.syncoda.nl/software/avat...html#downloads

Changelog

Spoiler:

0.9.7 Mar 18th
- Faster annotation importing
- Faster row resizing
- Stop stretching the last column
- Various fixes/changes

0.9.6 Mar 13th
- Improved search filter responsiveness
- Added filter presets to date/page filter
- Sorting fixes + added custom sort mode indicator
- Improved saving column sizes
- Various fixes/changes

0.9.5 Mar 1st 2022 (first public release)
- fixed devicelabel issue with unmirrored device
- skip mount delay on startup
- fixed switching to localmirror after enabling

0.9.4 Feb 25th 2022
- fixed changing datadir in settings
- fixed config text encoding issue with serial keys
- improved data sharing in key points
- various fixes

0.9.3 Feb 23th 2022
- improved HTML export formatting
- added help viewer and buttons
- added debug logging options
- added checking/sanitizing of input values (backuplabel, preferences)
- various fixes

0.9.2 Jan 31th 2022
- extended MergeFix with UI dialog
- Added device counter
- various fixes

0.9.1
- Added exporter sorting choice
- Improved USB ID handling
- various fixes

0.9.0
- Improved handling of (dis)connection/disconnected devices
- Implemented archive loader (WIP)
- various fixes

0.8.0
- Improved annotation filter and export routines
- various improvements/fixes

0.7.0
- Reworked filesystem to use STD
- Added context menus
- various improvements/fixes

0.6.0
- First working Windows version with USB detection

0.5.0
- Implemented multiple reader support
- Implemented USB detection (linux)

0.4.0
- Integrated Annotation Viewer in GUI

0.3.0
- Added drive-based device selector (main only)

0.2.0
- Implemented tool-button GUI window (Linux)
- Ported Annotation Merge/Fix tool

0.1.0
- First build
- Ported backup routine and annotation HTML exporter

To install
Unzip the .7z archive, and run either .bat file to start the .exe. Portable mode stores everything in the app dir.

Privacy
On first start, the program will ask permission to check for updates. The update checks only a version number, downloading is done by visiting the website in your browser.

---

Any comments or requests are welcome.

[wold]

Known issues
- 0.9.7: uploader final dialog always reports an operation was "cancelled", despite being successful. This warning can be ignored. Fixed in 0.9.8

Hashes for archives (SHA-1)
-No download links-

Spoiler:

0.9.7 (Intel/AMD 64-bit) .7z archive (9.4MB)
- SHA256 e9c7e0a7cd3588141ae2af27684a5475b9a43a95c74f623ccd 6f440af7b72f34
- SHA-1 987c06ef963ed5762470e09713c44b44382985d0

0.9.7 (Intel/AMD 64-bit) .zip archive (13.5MB)
- SHA256 dff15dc5005ee6f062d2a32ccb6b5a7057c0c9d0d5df3ef5a0 3c207d77e51915
- SHA-1 b193f8006658a337c0d38c0f0ae9b2883dee3892

0.9.5 (Intel/AMD 64-bit) .7z archive:
- SHA256 647d1f149e02a7f8cf2befd93e13b527d655b90cbb8f0a3767 613a877b5258c8
- SHA1 816be8643b08bcd3856bfe4873ec443b30a49496

0.9.5 (Intel/AMD 64-bit) .zip archive:
- SHA256 89e2b3ef1354ccf3d9a21453e570ca1358c06ae270c80635cd 6408ac3f80f139
- SHA1 5b2c988625f160f14c8cd6445375ac8ab98d5497

[Huwaetzel]

First of all, great, this is a great initiative and the first version is very promising.
What I like:
- Interactivity. Have not fully tested yet, but this allows keep annotations "clean" at the end. Great would be, if one could also extend the own comment given, not the highlighting itself.
- The many different formats to export. Everybody is different and while I am preferring more text/markdown, others may prefer csv
- General stability

Ideas for improvement:
- I am using an InkPad Color. Keeping that color coding I am used to would be great

I am happy to test the Linux version. My systems are all based Debian or Ubuntu. Windows is only used in the few cases I can not prevent using it

[wold]

Originally Posted by Huwaetzel

First of all, great, this is a great initiative and the first version is very promising.
What I like:
- Interactivity. Have not fully tested yet, but this allows keep annotations "clean" at the end. Great would be, if one could also extend the own comment given, not the highlighting itself.
- The many different formats to export. Everybody is different and while I am preferring more text/markdown, others may prefer csv
- General stability

Thanks for testing! Great to know it runs OK elsewhere.

Editing comments is a todo. Deleting will likely be added first.
One hurdle is the local mirror setup. A solution for now is to keep the reader connected for editing, so both DBs can be updated.

A json export option was planned, but it was dropped to finish the first release. Markdown wouldn't be too complex to add.

Ideas for improvement:
- I am using an InkPad Color. Keeping that color coding I am used to would be great

Interesting. Implementing that would require the colour names that PB uses in the DB. I know about 'yellow', and blue being 'cian' [sic].
Might you be willing to check those in your DB?

I am happy to test the Linux version. My systems are all based Debian or Ubuntu. Windows is only used in the few cases I can not prevent using it

Stay tuned. A working .deb installer was made at one point.
Can you use Flathub? It removes the need for distro-specific releases.
Still, for Linux the part that monitors USB devices needs work, the main thing keeping it from release.

[Huwaetzel]

Hi, about the colors, I looked into my db and found the following dolors: green, magenta, cian, yellow, red,blue

about flathub: Yes, for the time being happy to test with a flathub package

[wold]

Originally Posted by Huwaetzel

Hi, about the colors, I looked into my db and found the following dolors: green, magenta, cian, yellow, red,blue

about flathub: Yes, for the time being happy to test with a flathub package

Thanks for the color codes (nice you managed to find them )

An update is in the works, It improves row resizing, the Windows USB monitor and local mirror rechecking.
That will need wrapping up first (these things really tend to snowball...), at 2 weeks max.
Colors & flathub are next on the list.