Beta test of major new features

[GRiker]

The binary isn't released yet, sometime this weekend. You can download the source and run from source before the binary is updated.

G

[tlrowley]

Ooops, missed that part.

Although I appreciate the availability of the source, I'll wait for the binary, thanks just the same

[kovidgoyal]

This beta will be the last one before 0.7 with new features:

The major new features are:

• iPad support for windows and osx. Just plugin in your iPad and calibre should show a list of books on the device and allow you to send/delete books. See GRiker's post above for details
• Rewritten OPDS catalog generation. Which means that if you use Stanza/WordPlayer/Aldilko you can now browse your calibre library with all the categories available in the Tag Browser, including custom columns and saved searches. Performance has also been significantly improved, hopefully those of you that experienced timeouts won't any longer. Also if a category has a lot of entries (it is split up by alphabet for easier navigation).
• A new calibre logo/icon, thanks to a calibre user. See here

This release had a lot of internal refactoring to increase robustness of the custom column code. In particular as chaley warned above if you have user defined categories they will have to be recreated. Note that this is categories, not columns. Categories are the headings that show up in the Tag Browser. Columns are, well, columns

As before, the betas are available from: http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/betas

Enjoy.

A note for those of you running the code by checking it out from the launchpad custom-cols branch. That branch has been retired, it is now merged into trunk. You can get the latest beta source code by doing:

bzr branch lp:calibre

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

Version 0.7 tries hard to tell you which books in your library are also on your device. When you plug in the device, a column titled 'On Device' appears. Calibre puts a check in this column on each book that it could determine is in the library. The other way is also true; there is a column in the device (or card) view that indicates whether a given book is also in the library.

If you are managing multiple devices is there a way of indicating to Calibre the device you are about to hook up? If not how does it deal with multiple identical devices?

[kovidgoyal]

Here's a video showcasing most of the new features in 0.7:

In MP4 format
http://calibre-ebook.googlecode.com/...power-tips.mp4

In OGV format
http://calibre-ebook.googlecode.com/...power-tips.ogv

Flash video will be released as part of the 0.7 release.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

If you are managing multiple devices is there a way of indicating to Calibre the device you are about to hook up? If not how does it deal with multiple identical devices?

Not sure I understand the question, so I will do what I usually do in this situation: write too much.

The On Device column shows information for the device currently plugged in and recognized by Calibre. When you unplug the device, the information is removed. It doesn't care that you might have another device waiting to be plugged in or what that device is. For example, my wife and I each have a Sony Pocket. When I plug mine in, Calibre shows me ondevice information for the books on my reader, and when I plug hers in, I see that information for hers.

You might be thinking that the information is persistent, retained when the device is unplugged. It isn't. If you want Calibre to remember what is on a device, then you must store that info yourself. To solve this problem (keep track of what is on each device when the device isn't plugged in), I created two Yes/No columns, one named CB (for me) and one DT (for my wife). The last thing I do before unplugging a reader (assume mine) after adding/deleting books is: 1) clear CB to empty using the bulk metadata editor, 2) search for books on the device (search ondevice:true), then 3) select all these books and set CB to Yes using the bulk metadata editor.

Did I answer your question?

Two notes:

- The ondevice search was broken in the beta releases. It is fixed in the trunk source (the beta source is obsolete) and will be in the next release, which should be 0.7.0. Ondevice is a text column, so you can search for ondevice:main or ondevice:"card a" or ondevice:"card b". The search ondevice:true finds books in device memory and the card(s) if present. The search ondevice:false finds books not on the device.

- Calibre can know that a given book is on the device if that book was added using a version of Calibre after 0.6.94 and if you use one installation of Calibre to manage your device. In other cases, Calibre must guess, which it does by 1) comparing metadata stored in the books on the device with metadata stored in the library, then if no match 2) comparing the title and authors of the books on the device with those stored in the library. The first guess will fail if the book format has no metadata (or it is missing). The second guess will fail if title and author are not in the book file names or if the regular expression in preferences/adding books does not match the file name pattern used when sending books to the device.

If you have turned off 'Read metadata from files on device', then only method 2 will be used. For this reason we suggest that the first time you plug a device into Calibre 0.7 (assuming you haven't use the betas), you let Calibre read the metadata from the book files. This could take a long time, but only once. From that point on, Calibre remembers the metadata and won't need to look at the books.

If you look at the device's storage using a file explorer, you might notice a file '.metadata.calibre'. Calibre stores metadata for the books in this file. Please don't edit it. If you delete the file, Calibre will rebuild it from scratch the next time Calibre recognizes the device, which could take a long time.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by chaley

The On Device column shows information for the device currently plugged in and recognized by Calibre. When you unplug the device, the information is removed. It doesn't care that you might have another device waiting to be plugged in or what that device is. For example, my wife and I each have a Sony Pocket. When I plug mine in, Calibre shows me ondevice information for the books on my reader, and when I plug hers in, I see that information for hers.

This answered my main question.

Originally Posted by chaley

You might be thinking that the information is persistent, retained when the device is unplugged. It isn't.

I see below you are caching the metadata on the devices themselves.

Originally Posted by chaley

If you want Calibre to remember what is on a device, then you must store that info yourself. To solve this problem (keep track of what is on each device when the device isn't plugged in), I created two Yes/No columns, one named CB (for me) and one DT (for my wife). The last thing I do before unplugging a reader (assume mine) after adding/deleting books is: 1) clear CB to empty using the bulk metadata editor, 2) search for books on the device (search ondevice:true), then 3) select all these books and set CB to Yes using the bulk metadata editor.

Thanks for the idea.

Originally Posted by chaley

If you look at the device's storage using a file explorer, you might notice a file '.metadata.calibre'. Calibre stores metadata for the books in this file. Please don't edit it. If you delete the file, Calibre will rebuild it from scratch the next time Calibre recognizes the device, which could take a long time.

Yes you answered my question(s). Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

Here's the Flash version of the 0.7 video

http://calibre-ebook.com/demo#tutorials

[theducks]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Here's a video showcasing most of the new features in 0.7:

In MP4 format
http://calibre-ebook.googlecode.com/...power-tips.mp4

Outstanding

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

In MP4 format
http://calibre-ebook.googlecode.com/...power-tips.mp4

Well done!

Thank You.

[kovidgoyal]

calibre 0.7.0 released. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=85823