Way to bypass client-server architecture ?

CdR54 · 12-11-2013, 10:59 AM

Hello,

I'm a newcomer on this forum.
I'm French (nobody's perfect) so please forgive my poor English when necessary.
I'm a librairian in a professional school and our informatician has installed Calibre on the server dedicated to the library.

I've read the previous posts on the subject and I acknoledged that a client-server version might be developped someday.

https://www2.mobileread.com/i/smiliesadd1/help.gif In the meantime, I encounter the following problem, which I submit to you :
- I can add books in Calibre since my informatician has given me a distant access to the Server via a "TSE" (in French) session.
- however, users cannot see the new books on Calibre until it has been restarted.
- the informatician tried to install on the server a software that kills running applications so that I could restart Calibre from my PC, but I do not have the proper rights to do so.

Something I don't understand is that whe we firt installed it (but in file in which there were already e-books, which caused troubles so...), I didn't have this problem.

So it becomes really boring to have to ask him to restart Calibre many times a day.

Would anyone have an idea to solution please ?

https://www2.mobileread.com/i/smiliestext/thankyou.gif for you help.

kovidgoyal · 12-11-2013, 11:12 AM

You can force a running calibre instance to shutdown and restart like this:

calibre -s && calibre

Alternatively, you can get a running calibre instance to refresh its database by doing some change to the database with the calibredb command, for example

calibredb add_format 1 file.txt && calibredb remove_format 1 txt

Replace 1 witht he id of some dummy book in the library.

aleyx · 12-11-2013, 12:26 PM

Can you tell us how the users access Calibre? Do they also run TSE sessions and open Calibre, or do they access Calibre's Content Server (from a web browser)?

If they run the full Calibre from TSE, there's your problem: only one instance of Calibre can modify the database at a time.

chaley · 12-11-2013, 01:00 PM

Assuming that your server is running linux and that your calibre content server is a separate process from the interactive calibre you use to add books, you can use monit to look for changes to the database and restart calibre. This technique requires no user interaction at all. I have used it for years.

aleyx · 12-11-2013, 01:39 PM

TSE (short for Windows Terminal Server Edition) implies a Windows server. Unfortunately. That, and French schools are not exactly brimming with Linux servers on the administrative side... Although I admit that it would many lives many times easier.

CdR54 · 12-13-2013, 04:37 AM

Hello,

Calibre's Content Server is accessed from web browsers.

I'm afraid I don't understand : "Replace 1 witht he id of some dummy book in the library."
What does "dummy book" means please ?

As I've not sufficient knowledge to try your suggestions, I'll wait till Monday for our informatician to come back and see what he can do.

In the meantime, thank you for your answers.

To Kovid : Calibre is really nice. Just one regret, that we ca
Have a nice week-end

CdR54 · 12-13-2013, 04:44 AM

Sorry, I "Entered" too quickly

To Kovid : "..." that it is not possible to search on multiple criterium at the same time, or to search/narrow the results of a search; for instance, after having asked for such type of books, it is not possible to search into the results. I'm not sure I was clear...

Anyway, thank you for the job you did in the first place.

aleyx · 12-13-2013, 07:35 AM

A "dummy book" is just a book with no real content: for exemple, create an empty text file (in My Documents: right click, "new/Text Document"). In Calibre: click "Add book", select your empty text file, and hop! A dummy book. Of course you can then edit its metadata, to give it a title such as "Dummy book for database manipulations purposes".

About the content server: if you users access Calibre from their browser, then they should be able to see new books as they're added (well, they first have to refresh the page, of course). I just tested it here, and it works for me. So if your users can't, it's weird...

About the searches: there's three ways to do it.

1) Complete your search in the search bar: after having looked for "formats:epub", add to the search bar for your other criteria: "formats:epub and date:>2013-12-01" for example.

2) Keep the CTRL key down while you click on the tag browser items. That will chain your criteria with "OR" instead of "AND" though, so you just have to correct that in the search bar afterwards. (It'd be cool if doing CTRL+SHIFT chained with AND...)

EDIT: And of course it already can: Alter tag browser -> Search type when selecting multiple items -> Match all of the items.

3) If you have reccurring searches that often returns the same batch of books that you the want to further filter, you may want to create Virtual Libraries.

CdR54 · 12-20-2013, 03:25 AM

Hello,

Thank you very much for your suggestions.

Our informatician hasn't had time so far to try Kovid's solutions.
In the meantime, the updating doesn't work by itself, no matter F5 in the web browsers.

The advanced search writing does work, thank you
The "CTRL way" doesn't select several items at a time but opens new windows instead.

Someting else I don't understand : the database accounts only a hundred books so far ( x differents formats) and +/- 50 authors but it takes CALIBRE nearly 10/15 minutes to load. The server is a new one so that shouldn't be the explaination.

Anyway, I'll be on holidays this evening so it'll wait till next year.
Till then :

MERRY CHRISTMAS to each of you
and a HAPPY NEW YEAR

Yours

JLW

itimpi · 12-20-2013, 06:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CdR54

Hello,
Someting else I don't understand : the database accounts only a hundred books so far ( x differents formats) and +/- 50 authors but it takes CALIBRE nearly 10/15 minutes to load. The server is a new one so that shouldn't be the explaination.

That is certainly strange. It should only take seconds.

theducks · 12-20-2013, 08:31 AM

Even on clunky old XP, a 5K+ book Library loads in well under a minute from a Rotating PATA (or USB2) disk.
Something is hindering Program and/or Library file access

Check your PATH environment variable (they do get trashed

)

open a command prompt and type : Set Path (return)
You should see 2 replies. the PATH is the one to look at.

12-11-2013, 10:59 AM	#1
CdR54 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: none	Way to bypass client-server architecture ? Hello, I'm a newcomer on this forum. I'm French (nobody's perfect) so please forgive my poor English when necessary. I'm a librairian in a professional school and our informatician has installed Calibre on the server dedicated to the library. I've read the previous posts on the subject and I acknoledged that a client-server version might be developped someday. https://www2.mobileread.com/i/smiliesadd1/help.gif In the meantime, I encounter the following problem, which I submit to you : - I can add books in Calibre since my informatician has given me a distant access to the Server via a "TSE" (in French) session. - however, users cannot see the new books on Calibre until it has been restarted. - the informatician tried to install on the server a software that kills running applications so that I could restart Calibre from my PC, but I do not have the proper rights to do so. Something I don't understand is that whe we firt installed it (but in file in which there were already e-books, which caused troubles so...), I didn't have this problem. So it becomes really boring to have to ask him to restart Calibre many times a day. Would anyone have an idea to solution please ? https://www2.mobileread.com/i/smiliestext/thankyou.gif for you help.

12-13-2013, 07:35 AM	#8
aleyx Addict Posts: 245 Karma: 20386 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: France Device: Cybook Diva	A "dummy book" is just a book with no real content: for exemple, create an empty text file (in My Documents: right click, "new/Text Document"). In Calibre: click "Add book", select your empty text file, and hop! A dummy book. Of course you can then edit its metadata, to give it a title such as "Dummy book for database manipulations purposes". About the content server: if you users access Calibre from their browser, then they should be able to see new books as they're added (well, they first have to refresh the page, of course). I just tested it here, and it works for me. So if your users can't, it's weird... About the searches: there's three ways to do it. 1) Complete your search in the search bar: after having looked for "formats:epub", add to the search bar for your other criteria: "formats:epub and date:>2013-12-01" for example. 2) Keep the CTRL key down while you click on the tag browser items. That will chain your criteria with "OR" instead of "AND" though, so you just have to correct that in the search bar afterwards. (It'd be cool if doing CTRL+SHIFT chained with AND...) EDIT: And of course it already can: Alter tag browser -> Search type when selecting multiple items -> Match all of the items. 3) If you have reccurring searches that often returns the same batch of books that you the want to further filter, you may want to create Virtual Libraries. Last edited by aleyx; 12-13-2013 at 01:25 PM.

12-20-2013, 03:25 AM	#9
CdR54 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: none	Way to Bypass... Hello, Thank you very much for your suggestions. Our informatician hasn't had time so far to try Kovid's solutions. In the meantime, the updating doesn't work by itself, no matter F5 in the web browsers. The advanced search writing does work, thank you The "CTRL way" doesn't select several items at a time but opens new windows instead. Someting else I don't understand : the database accounts only a hundred books so far ( x differents formats) and +/- 50 authors but it takes CALIBRE nearly 10/15 minutes to load. The server is a new one so that shouldn't be the explaination. Anyway, I'll be on holidays this evening so it'll wait till next year. Till then : MERRY CHRISTMAS to each of you and a HAPPY NEW YEAR Yours JLW

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12-11-2013, 11:12 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	You can force a running calibre instance to shutdown and restart like this: calibre -s && calibre Alternatively, you can get a running calibre instance to refresh its database by doing some change to the database with the calibredb command, for example calibredb add_format 1 file.txt && calibredb remove_format 1 txt Replace 1 witht he id of some dummy book in the library.

12-11-2013, 12:26 PM	#3
aleyx Addict Posts: 245 Karma: 20386 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: France Device: Cybook Diva	Can you tell us how the users access Calibre? Do they also run TSE sessions and open Calibre, or do they access Calibre's Content Server (from a web browser)? If they run the full Calibre from TSE, there's your problem: only one instance of Calibre can modify the database at a time.

12-11-2013, 01:00 PM	#4
chaley Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,738 Karma: 6997045 Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Notts, England Device: Kobo Libra 2	Assuming that your server is running linux and that your calibre content server is a separate process from the interactive calibre you use to add books, you can use monit to look for changes to the database and restart calibre. This technique requires no user interaction at all. I have used it for years.

12-11-2013, 01:39 PM	#5
aleyx Addict Posts: 245 Karma: 20386 Join Date: Sep 2010 Location: France Device: Cybook Diva	TSE (short for Windows Terminal Server Edition) implies a Windows server. Unfortunately. That, and French schools are not exactly brimming with Linux servers on the administrative side... Although I admit that it would many lives many times easier.

12-13-2013, 04:37 AM	#6
CdR54 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: none	Hello, Calibre's Content Server is accessed from web browsers. I'm afraid I don't understand : "Replace 1 witht he id of some dummy book in the library." What does "dummy book" means please ? As I've not sufficient knowledge to try your suggestions, I'll wait till Monday for our informatician to come back and see what he can do. In the meantime, thank you for your answers. To Kovid : Calibre is really nice. Just one regret, that we ca Have a nice week-end

12-13-2013, 04:44 AM	#7
CdR54 Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2013 Device: none	Sorry, I "Entered" too quickly To Kovid : "..." that it is not possible to search on multiple criterium at the same time, or to search/narrow the results of a search; for instance, after having asked for such type of books, it is not possible to search into the results. I'm not sure I was clear... Anyway, thank you for the job you did in the first place.

12-20-2013, 08:31 AM	#11
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,791 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	Even on clunky old XP, a 5K+ book Library loads in well under a minute from a Rotating PATA (or USB2) disk. Something is hindering Program and/or Library file access Check your PATH environment variable (they do get trashed ) open a command prompt and type : Set Path (return) You should see 2 replies. the PATH is the one to look at.

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