Per-Device layout on synced devices?

[chbla]

Hi there,

I am using Koreader on two E-Ink Devices: Supernote Manta and Inkpalm Mini Pro.

I've synced the books folder in order to have highlights on both devices. I'm also using the Progress Plugin to sync reading progress.

I noticed that if I adapt the layout (margins, font-size) on my Supernote, it seems to get synced to my Inkpalm - resulting in narrow columns and too small fonts.

The settings get saved in the metadata.epub.lua file, along with the highlights. Is there any way I can have global, and per-device settings and remove these custom settings from the file? The only thing I want to share is annotations and reading progress...

Thank you!

[hius07]

With the tomorrow nightly build you will be able to sync the annotations separately of the layout settings.
See https://github.com/koreader/koreader/pull/13372.

[chbla]

Originally Posted by hius07

With the tomorrow nightly build you will be able to sync the annotations separately of the layout settings.
See https://github.com/koreader/koreader/pull/13372.

Oh, that's great, thank you very much!
Is it possible to set this globally? Or do I need to set it per book?

[hius07]

Folder setting is global: a book metadata folder (sdr folder near the book) or one dedicated folder for all annotations export files.

[chbla]

Originally Posted by hius07

Folder setting is global: a book metadata folder (sdr folder near the book) or one dedicated folder for all annotations export files.

Nice, thank you!

[chbla]

Originally Posted by hius07

With the tomorrow nightly build you will be able to sync the annotations separately of the layout settings.
See https://github.com/koreader/koreader/pull/13372.

Quick question - in general this is working, but I noticed two problems:

1) I'm getting sync conflicts because ["pageno"] = 40 is different with different devices. Probably because of the layout.

2) How can I prevent the layout info get synced? I always have to execute a 'profile' because the layout from my Supernote is synced to my Inkpalm...

[hius07]

1) Where do you see incorrect pageno? It's not shown in the interface, and it is updated when exporting highlights.
2) Don't sync the whole sdr folder, sync the annotations file only.

[chbla]

@hius07

regarding 1)
I see it in the files, syncthing is creating a conflict file, see attachment.

I assume that the page numbers differ between my supernote and the inkpalm because they have different sizes - no?
At least the total/current page number at the bottom of Koreader is different, in both.
Also, the filename in the file (as above, results in a conflict.

regarding 2) I'll add a regex then to sync only the annotations file, thanks!

[hius07]

You are right, pageno are different depending on text layout. But KOReader itself doesn't use them, they are calculated specially for export and for KoHighlights program.
And they don't affect annotations syncing.

[chbla]

I see... :/
Unfortunately, then it's still not possible to sync annotations across devices... I thought this might finally work.

[hius07]

Just don't analyze the file content. Put the file to another device and annotations are synced.

[chbla]

Originally Posted by hius07

Just don't analyze the file content. Put the file to another device and annotations are synced.

This only works if you copy over the file manually. It doesn't work if you open the book on both devices (I sometimes read on the inkpalm in the train, and on the supernote at home
- a very common usecase).

It results in two different files that cannot be synced because of the conflict caused by the included filename and page number - although they are not relevant.

Kindle handles this flawlessly...

I don't know anything about book formats, it probably would need to be bound to an absolute, not relative position.

[chbla]

@hius07, I noticed that the pos number are actually absolute.
So the only thing preventing syncing annotations between multiple devices (if not used at the same time) is the pageno and filename, which is not used...
Is there a way around this?

[hius07]

Can you explain in details why pageno/filename prevent syncing?

[chbla]

@hius07,

I will test this again today, from my point of view it should only happen if you do something simultaneously. But somehow syncthing detects conflicts of the files even if timestamps differ.

It seems as this might be a syncthing problem.

I'm wondering though - what other tools use pageno and the filename reference, and if it shouldn't be a device specific label, to avoid problems...