[GUI Plugin] Search the Internet - Page 11

RsH · 09-24-2011, 03:02 PM

However it worked perfectly with....
The Texas Tycoon's Baby by Crystal Green
So it is definitely better, but for some reason is hit or miss...

kiwidude · 09-24-2011, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RsH

Just tried it with
The Italian's Inexperienced Mistress by Lynne Graham
and got
There are no search results.
Did it via the author and got...

The Italian's Inexperienced Mistress HP-2621 CR Apr-2007

so it still isn't perfect... Using Search the Internet 1.7.1 so this IS the new version from this AM...

I just tried that and it worked perfectly for me.

RsH · 09-24-2011, 03:15 PM

The M.D. Next Door by Gina Wilkins also did not work when searching for the book but worked fine when I checked via the author, and found the following in that list of books...
The M.D. Next Door SSE-2092 CR Jan-2011

kiwidude · 09-24-2011, 03:20 PM

@RsH - there is no point in comparing what you get from a search by book and author with a search on their website by author. They are completely different things. If you want to compare like with like, then use the "FictionDB for Author" rather than the "FictionDB for Book" link.

I think we have established that the FictionDB search engine is pretty average. I am satisfied that the plugin is passing the best it can to the website now.

RsH · 09-24-2011, 03:27 PM

Okay... It is improved. I tend to use search for book or search for ISBN rather than search by author since I hate scrolling down the lists of many of these authors, who have over 70-80 books in their individual lists. If I have the ISBN that seems to work best, and the problem with the book titles is likely due to something FictionDB is doing, since quite often there is no difficulty at Goodreads... Thanks for the improvement, in any case.

DoctorOhh · 09-24-2011, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RsH

The Italian's Inexperienced Mistress by Lynne Graham

This search works fine for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RsH

The Texas Tycoon's Baby by Crystal Green
So it is definitely better, but for some reason is hit or miss...

Not hit or miss in regard apostrophes, dashes or commas. I haven't found one to fail yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RsH

The M.D. Next Door by Gina Wilkins also did not work when searching for the book

This failed for me too, but you can't compare search for book with the sites search for author. You need to use the sites search for title which does return this book just fine.

@Kiwidude This isn't a site I use, but it does seem any title with a period is not found via the plugin but is found if searching for the title directly via the search for title option. Other titles with periods that work when submitted directly to the title search feature on the site but do not work using the search for book or search for title options in the plugin.

M.Y.T.H. Inc. in Action by Robert Asprin
Something M.Y.T.H. Inc. by Robert Asprin
L.A. Candy by Lauren Conrad
Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

In my library I have about 10 fiction books per every 1000 fiction books or 1% that have periods in them so if the answer isn't obvious feel free to pass on this.

kiwidude · 09-24-2011, 08:17 PM

@Walt - there is an obvious answer

. This plugin strips periods from titles. This is because when I first wrote this plugin nearly a year ago I found there were a number of the initial set of websites that choked on them. Note that metadata download searches strip periods as well. When the plugin was first written it did not use the template processor, so I took the decision to hard-code and strip them always.

The downside of this decision is that if you hit a website with a really crappy search engine (like FictionDB) which is relying on exact matching, you won't get a match.

Now in theory I could go back through every other URL in the plugin and put in template expressions like {title:re(\.,)} and {author:re(\., )} and remove my "always strip" code. However unless I write special migration code that won't be picked up by every user of the plugin out there and it complicates all the urls.

As you say it is only a small % of books that will hit this problem on a small % of the websites it supports. If it is a big problem for people I guess I can revisit it. Personally in my daily usage it has never been a problem in its current guise, but then I don't use FictionDB. And I just accept that once in a blue moon the title I have in Calibre is not close enough to what a website has, and either re-search by author/ISBN or just manually on the website page that is opened.

DoctorOhh · 09-24-2011, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@Walt - there is an obvious answer

. This plugin strips periods from titles. This is because when I first wrote this plugin nearly a year ago I found there were a number of the initial set of websites that choked on them.

Thanks for the explanation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Now in theory I could go back through every other URL

Forget theory stick with practicality.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwidude

As you say it is only a small % of books that will hit this problem on a small % of the websites it supports. If it is a big problem for people I guess I can revisit it.

By definition a small % of books on a small % of sites can only be a problem for an even smaller % of people.

Defining the cause and reasoning is enough for me I was just trying to help out.

JoonieB · 11-12-2011, 02:36 PM

This plugin has suddenly stopped working. I use Firefox 8.0 as my default browser and the plug in has worked perfectly before. Now although I can see the drop down menu for the options I have installed - Amazon.com for book; Goodreads for title etc - nothing happens. Tried uninstalling/reinstalling the plugin and restarting Calibre but no change.

Anyone any ideas/suggestions?

It seems to be a problem at my end - works fine if Firefox is not already open. Hmm!

kiwidude · 11-13-2011, 06:00 PM

@JoonieB - I use this plugin every day, I have Firefox 8 (on Win 7 64-bit) and it works perfectly fine for me with the browser open. I suspect you have some sort of problem with either the environment variables or registry settings on your machine. Exactly "what" that secret setting is I have no idea, it is the Qt libraries that interoperate with the web browser etc. Perhaps a clean install of the browser may fix it. You should see the same "behavior" when for instance on the Plugin Updater you click on the forum link for a plugin, it all uses the same code underneath which is not specific to this plugin. Sorry I can't help further.

Dopedangel · 11-13-2011, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JoonieB

This plugin has suddenly stopped working. I use Firefox 8.0 as my default browser and the plug in has worked perfectly before. Now although I can see the drop down menu for the options I have installed - Amazon.com for book; Goodreads for title etc - nothing happens. Tried uninstalling/reinstalling the plugin and restarting Calibre but no change.

Anyone any ideas/suggestions?

It seems to be a problem at my end - works fine if Firefox is not already open. Hmm!

Try making some other browser your default browser. And try it sometimes open with settings cause problems I had a similar problem long time ago if I recall correctly making another browser the default browser then going back fixed it.

pherikit · 11-20-2011, 05:10 AM

Searching "La Tercera Fundación" ("The Third Foundation", the best database in Spanish for sci-fi, fantasy and horror books), it works perfectly.

The url for author is:

Code:

http://www.tercerafundacion.net/biblioteca/buscar/resultado?accion=buscar&exacto=&tipo=autor&texto={author}

The url for title is:

Code:

http://www.tercerafundacion.net/biblioteca/buscar/resultado?accion=buscar&exacto=&tipo=titulo&texto={title}

Thank you for creating this wonderful plugin.

kiwidude · 11-20-2011, 07:45 AM

@pherikit - thanks for posting those links and welcome to MobileRead.

asalet_r · 05-19-2012, 02:17 PM

Dear @kiwidude

thank u soo much for ur exellent plugin, it helps me a lot!

Could u please add this two turkish websites to this plugin? this websites are our "amazon".
if u could do that, it will be a great help for turkish calibre fan.
thank you again.

Code:

http://www.idefix.com/kitap/
www.kitapyurdu.com

kiwidude · 05-19-2012, 02:49 PM

@asalet_r - glad you are enjoying the plugin. I'm afraid that since I don't speak Turkish my motivation to add it to the plugin myself isn't there.

However you can add website links yourself to this plugin. It is just a case of working out what sort of search syntax it supports and setting it up in the configuration dialog for this like has been done for all the other websites.

It isn't hugely technical but it does require a tiny bit of experimenting and investigating to work it out, as others have done such as pherikit posting for a Spanish site above.

11-12-2011, 02:36 PM	#159
JoonieB Junior Member Posts: 8 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Royal Leamington Spa, U.K. Device: None	This plugin has suddenly stopped working. I use Firefox 8.0 as my default browser and the plug in has worked perfectly before. Now although I can see the drop down menu for the options I have installed - Amazon.com for book; Goodreads for title etc - nothing happens. Tried uninstalling/reinstalling the plugin and restarting Calibre but no change. Anyone any ideas/suggestions? It seems to be a problem at my end - works fine if Firefox is not already open. Hmm! Last edited by JoonieB; 11-12-2011 at 02:45 PM.

11-20-2011, 05:10 AM	#162
pherikit Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: none	Searching "La Tercera Fundación" ("The Third Foundation", the best database in Spanish for sci-fi, fantasy and horror books), it works perfectly. The url for author is: Code: http://www.tercerafundacion.net/biblioteca/buscar/resultado?accion=buscar&exacto=&tipo=autor&texto={author} The url for title is: Code: http://www.tercerafundacion.net/biblioteca/buscar/resultado?accion=buscar&exacto=&tipo=titulo&texto={title} Thank you for creating this wonderful plugin.

05-19-2012, 02:17 PM	#164
asalet_r Member Posts: 14 Karma: 18852 Join Date: Nov 2011 Device: Kindle DX, Icarus Excel	Dear @kiwidude thank u soo much for ur exellent plugin, it helps me a lot! Could u please add this two turkish websites to this plugin? this websites are our "amazon". if u could do that, it will be a great help for turkish calibre fan. thank you again. Code: http://www.idefix.com/kitap/ www.kitapyurdu.com

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09-24-2011, 03:02 PM	#151
RsH Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Canada Device: Samsung Tab A and PC + RCA RCT6213W87M Tablet + FiGo telephone	However it worked perfectly with.... The Texas Tycoon's Baby by Crystal Green So it is definitely better, but for some reason is hit or miss...

09-24-2011, 03:15 PM	#153
RsH Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Canada Device: Samsung Tab A and PC + RCA RCT6213W87M Tablet + FiGo telephone	The M.D. Next Door by Gina Wilkins also did not work when searching for the book but worked fine when I checked via the author, and found the following in that list of books... The M.D. Next Door SSE-2092 CR Jan-2011

09-24-2011, 03:20 PM	#154
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@RsH - there is no point in comparing what you get from a search by book and author with a search on their website by author. They are completely different things. If you want to compare like with like, then use the "FictionDB for Author" rather than the "FictionDB for Book" link. I think we have established that the FictionDB search engine is pretty average. I am satisfied that the plugin is passing the best it can to the website now.

09-24-2011, 03:27 PM	#155
RsH Enthusiast Posts: 26 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2011 Location: Canada Device: Samsung Tab A and PC + RCA RCT6213W87M Tablet + FiGo telephone	Okay... It is improved. I tend to use search for book or search for ISBN rather than search by author since I hate scrolling down the lists of many of these authors, who have over 70-80 books in their individual lists. If I have the ISBN that seems to work best, and the problem with the book titles is likely due to something FictionDB is doing, since quite often there is no difficulty at Goodreads... Thanks for the improvement, in any case.

09-24-2011, 08:17 PM	#157
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@Walt - there is an obvious answer . This plugin strips periods from titles. This is because when I first wrote this plugin nearly a year ago I found there were a number of the initial set of websites that choked on them. Note that metadata download searches strip periods as well. When the plugin was first written it did not use the template processor, so I took the decision to hard-code and strip them always. The downside of this decision is that if you hit a website with a really crappy search engine (like FictionDB) which is relying on exact matching, you won't get a match. Now in theory I could go back through every other URL in the plugin and put in template expressions like {title:re(\.,)} and {author:re(\., )} and remove my "always strip" code. However unless I write special migration code that won't be picked up by every user of the plugin out there and it complicates all the urls. As you say it is only a small % of books that will hit this problem on a small % of the websites it supports. If it is a big problem for people I guess I can revisit it. Personally in my daily usage it has never been a problem in its current guise, but then I don't use FictionDB. And I just accept that once in a blue moon the title I have in Calibre is not close enough to what a website has, and either re-search by author/ISBN or just manually on the website page that is opened.

11-13-2011, 06:00 PM	#160
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@JoonieB - I use this plugin every day, I have Firefox 8 (on Win 7 64-bit) and it works perfectly fine for me with the browser open. I suspect you have some sort of problem with either the environment variables or registry settings on your machine. Exactly "what" that secret setting is I have no idea, it is the Qt libraries that interoperate with the web browser etc. Perhaps a clean install of the browser may fix it. You should see the same "behavior" when for instance on the Plugin Updater you click on the forum link for a plugin, it all uses the same code underneath which is not specific to this plugin. Sorry I can't help further.

11-20-2011, 07:45 AM	#163
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@pherikit - thanks for posting those links and welcome to MobileRead.

05-19-2012, 02:49 PM	#165
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@asalet_r - glad you are enjoying the plugin. I'm afraid that since I don't speak Turkish my motivation to add it to the plugin myself isn't there. However you can add website links yourself to this plugin. It is just a case of working out what sort of search syntax it supports and setting it up in the configuration dialog for this like has been done for all the other websites. It isn't hugely technical but it does require a tiny bit of experimenting and investigating to work it out, as others have done such as pherikit posting for a Spanish site above.