Hacks X-Ray file generator for Kindle Touch

[mjwilson]

Originally Posted by Belenos

It worked, thanks

Great, thanks for letting me know.

Originally Posted by doremifaso

I am thinking if it is possible to generate an X-ray file using you own text file. Meaning, not getting any data from Shelfari or Wikipedia, just a user defined text file.

For the plug-in at least, I'm guessing you could create an HTML file which had the same structure as a Shelfari/Wikipedia page, and point the plug-in at that.

[Ephemerality]

Originally Posted by mjwilson

Hopefully this resolves the 'mobi8' issue.

New version of the stand-alone application available here: https://xray-builder.googlecode.com/...1.40-win32.rar

Let me know if this doesn't fix the issue.

Thanks for the report

[jmerhar]

Hi,

I have a very strange problem with my generated x-ray files. Most of the time it doesn't work, i.e. it shows a "No X-Ray found" message. It looks like it only works when the complete term is printed out where you click on it. For instance, it finds the term if you click on "Osmund" or "Kettleback" when both words are used together in a sentence: "...Osmund Kettleback...". However, if only the word "Osmund" or "Kettleback" appears by itself, it shows a "No X-Ray found" message. This is very frustrating, since most of the time, the characters' names don't appear in full. It's either just the first or last name.

Furthermore, I have no X-Ray button in the toolbar. In the rare instances where looking up a word works, I can click on "Open X-Ray" to see all the terms on the current page/chapter/book. However, since it doesn't work most of the time and there's no X-Ray button at the top, I have no way of getting to this screen. If only there was a button I could click to open this screen on any page, it would not be such a big deal that the word lookup doesn't work as expected, since I could easily see all the terms on the current page.

Have I missed something obvious? Is there a way to make partial terms work, or display the X-Ray button in the toolbar? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[mjwilson]

Originally Posted by jmerhar

Hi,

I have a very strange problem with my generated x-ray files. Most of the time it doesn't work, i.e. it shows a "No X-Ray found" message. It looks like it only works when the complete term is printed out where you click on it. For instance, it finds the term if you click on "Osmund" or "Kettleback" when both words are used together in a sentence: "...Osmund Kettleback...". However, if only the word "Osmund" or "Kettleback" appears by itself, it shows a "No X-Ray found" message. This is very frustrating, since most of the time, the characters' names don't appear in full. It's either just the first or last name.

You can use an "aliases" file for this. You'd need to create a text file as described at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=175

[jmerhar]

Originally Posted by mjwilson

You can use an "aliases" file for this. You'd need to create a text file as described at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=175

I see, thanks.

I recreated the x-ray file, but this time I put "aliases.txt" in the Aliases file box. The aliases file was created as expected. So, now I need to edit this file, but what do I do with it afterwards? The post you linked to mentions an /ext/ folder, but I see no such folder on my kindle. Do I need to rerun the plugin again and it will integrate the aliases into the x-ray file?

Also, what happens if two or more names have the same alias? Will the x-ray feature show all the matching names when I click on it in the book? If it works like that, is there a simple way to automatically create an aliases file that lists all the words in each term as aliases, or do I need to enter all 600+ names manually?

[mjwilson]

Originally Posted by jmerhar

I see, thanks.

I recreated the x-ray file, but this time I put "aliases.txt" in the Aliases file box. The aliases file was created as expected. So, now I need to edit this file, but what do I do with it afterwards? The post you linked to mentions an /ext/ folder, but I see no such folder on my kindle. Do I need to rerun the plugin again and it will integrate the aliases into the x-ray file?

Sorry, there's a bit of confusion caused by the fact that there are different versions of software used for generating XRay files. The post I linked to is describing a command-line version and I guess you're using the Calibre plug-in.

For the Calibre plug-in, yes, you can just edit the file manually, then re-run the X-Ray creation using the edited file, and you'll get a new X-Ray file using the aliases.

Originally Posted by jmerhar

Also, what happens if two or more names have the same alias? Will the x-ray feature show all the matching names when I click on it in the book? If it works like that, is there a simple way to automatically create an aliases file that lists all the words in each term as aliases, or do I need to enter all 600+ names manually?

I don't know what'll happen here, I don't imagine it'll work terribly well.

[jmerhar]

Originally Posted by mjwilson

Sorry, there's a bit of confusion caused by the fact that there are different versions of software used for generating XRay files. The post I linked to is describing a command-line version and I guess you're using the Calibre plug-in.

For the Calibre plug-in, yes, you can just edit the file manually, then re-run the X-Ray creation using the edited file, and you'll get a new X-Ray file using the aliases.

I don't know what'll happen here, I don't imagine it'll work terribly well.

OK, thanks. I'll try what happens with duplicated aliases, and if it doesn't work well, I'll create a file with unique aliases only.

And thank you for creating this great plugin, it works very well.

[jmerhar]

Originally Posted by mjwilson

I don't know what'll happen here, I don't imagine it'll work terribly well.

So, I've tried it and it works fairly well. It seems to only show the last term it finds with the matching alias, but that's ok as long as it doesn't break anything.

I've noticed though that the shelfari page already includes lots of aliases, for example:

Arya Stark: "Princess Arya" - "Arya Underfoot" - "Arya Horseface" - "Arry" - "Weasel" - "Nan" - "Squab" - "Salty" - 10 years old; Youngest daughter of Eddard Stark and Catelyn Tully; Looks like her father and has brown hair and grey eyes; Is missing and presumed dead; Recently caught a ship sailing for Braavos; Meanwhile an impostor Arya has been betrothed to Ramsay Snow

What would be great is if the plugin could use these to create the initial aliases file. For the example above, it would look something like this:
Arya Stark|Princess Arya,Arya Underfoot,Arya Horseface,Arry,Weasel,Nan,Squab,Salty

Would it be possible to add such a feature in a future version?

[jmerhar]

Originally Posted by jmerhar

So, I've tried it and it works fairly well. It seems to only show the last term it finds with the matching alias, but that's ok as long as it doesn't break anything.

I spoke too soon. It worked fine when I tried it with just two aliases. Now that I've created the whole file, it seems to have crashed my kindle and I had to restart it.

I guess the problem is that the generated file is now suddenly more that 5MB, which is probably too large for kindle to handle.

(I attached the generated files)

[Ephemerality]

Originally Posted by jmerhar

I've noticed though that the shelfari page already includes lots of aliases, for example:

What would be great is if the plugin could use these to create the initial aliases file.

The main issue there is that Shelfari is user-created content, so there would be a lot of entry-editing necessary as well as a consensus on the format they should be in.
In some cases the aliases aren't worth having in a Wiki entry either and are only good for competitionist-sake, so it would be difficult to entirely bypass the alias process. Either way you're editing and doing some digging through book content.
Certainly possible by any means, though.

[jmerhar]

Originally Posted by Ephemerality

The main issue there is that Shelfari is user-created content, so there would be a lot of entry-editing necessary as well as a consensus on the format they should be in.
In some cases the aliases aren't worth having in a Wiki entry either and are only good for competitionist-sake, so it would be difficult to entirely bypass the alias process. Either way you're editing and doing some digging through book content.
Certainly possible by any means, though.

Well, if it is possible, I'm sure many would appreciate such a feature. It could even be optional, e.g. with a checkbox.


Meanwhile, I wrote a small PHP script (attached) to generate the aliases file. It ignores duplicates and an array of stopwords. The stopwords are defined in the script itself, and are of course book-specific, so they need to be adjusted for a different book. For duplicate words, only the first character to have the word in their name gets the alias assigned. The logic behind this is that the first character found in the aliases file is the most important one.

The script can be used like this:
./aliases.php aliases.txt > new_aliases.txt

I tried it on my book and it works fairly well. Maybe someone else will find it useful too.

[Spencer23323]

Is this possible with Kindle for iOS?

[Pascalwb]

I can't get it working.

I create folder in documents (F:\documents\Calculated in death), than I put *.mobi file there. Turn on kindle, than plug it back to PC. Now I have this folder
F:\documents\Calculated in death\Calculated in death.sdr I put x-ray file there and it looks like this
http://i.imgur.com/kOZBGiJ.jpg or this http://i.imgur.com/nSbkqGi.jpg.

I tried website, calibre plugin and x-ray generator. I just have greyed x-ray button.

My x-ray file http://pastebin.com/VbrERT57 for HG.

[Ephemerality]

Originally Posted by Spencer23323

Is this possible with Kindle for iOS?

I was able to get it working fine on my iPhone, there was a set of posts somewhere earlier in this thread where someone else was trying to get it working as well if you can find them.

Originally Posted by Pascalwb

I tried website, calibre plugin and x-ray generator. I just have greyed x-ray button.

Unfortunately I haven't used my Kindle or the xrays in quite a while so I forget how they're supposed to be setup... hopefully someone else has some suggestions.

[Spencer23323]

Originally Posted by Ephemerality

I was able to get it working fine on my iPhone, there was a set of posts somewhere earlier in this thread where someone else was trying to get it working as well if you can find them.


Unfortunately I haven't used my Kindle or the xrays in quite a while so I forget how they're supposed to be setup... hopefully someone else has some suggestions.

I have figured it out, kindle shows that the book has X-RAY but when I click it says, No concepts/people/terms on this page/book.

Edit: I am using your tool.