Capturing a GUI event

[AlPe]

Hi,

is there a way of capturing a GUI event (like "the user clicked on button X" or "the user sent book to device") to trigger the execution of some code (after the "default" action has been completed)?

[kovidgoyal]

You can do pretty much anything you want in a plugin. plugin code executes in the same context as normal calibre code, so anything normal code can do, you can do.

If you have some specific event you want to track, ask about it.

[AlPe]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I would like to modify a custom metadatum field for a library entry whenever I "send to device" it. So far, I understand that I can achieve that by writing a device plugin, but I have multiple eReaders and I do not want to write a plugin for each of them. Hence, my original request.

I am still confused on how can I capture the "send to device" event, in order to trigger the execution of my own code. I looked at the plugins in the official index, but I was not able to identify one which might do something similar to what I need. Would you mind suggesting one, please?

[kovidgoyal]

I doubt there's any existing plugin that does that. You will basically need to hook into the books_uploaded function defined in gui2/device.py

The easiest way is to simply replace that function with your own, something like

self.original_books_uploaded = self.gui.books_uploaded
self.gui.books_upload = self.my_books_uploaded

def my_books_uploaded(self, job):
self.original_books_uploaded(job)
# do whatever you want to do

There maybe some function binding issues you will have to deal with, basically ensure that self is the right object in every context. A bit of googling about python monkey patching should tell you how.

[AlPe]

Got it, thanks.