[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I'll try to get traces because I'm getting an "Index out of range" when I'm trying to restore the info in some books.

Was there more details to the error? Pressing the details button should show a stack trace. They usually give me the clue I need. Otherwise a full debug log would be good.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jbaumann

Just tried the beta, and it definitely is fast.

I have around 5000 books in my library 360 of which are on the Kobo. I simply marked all 5000 of them in the library view and started the "Store" process as a background job.

Calibre needs nearly a minute to preprocess stuff (I assume it creates a list of all books or something) and the "Store" process needs 3 seconds.

Yay :-)

I'm glad others are seeing the performance improvement I had. And, yes, the first step goes through the selected books and picks just the ones on the device and then builds the data list for the job.

Originally Posted by jbaumann

Btw., one question: I have existing ratings in my "Rating" column. If I use this for the plugin to store the ratings on the Kobo, will it delete the existing ratings if there are none on the Kobo? I wouldn't like that, and for the time being I simply created an additional column "Rating Kobo"...

It shouldn't. If the rating is not set on the device, it shouldn't change the rating in the library.

<off topic>
Oh, and is there a simple way to rate a book while reading it? I only know of the rating functionality in the book details view. Or something like a back or up button?
</off topic>

No. I've always thought the details page should be available when reading the book. I've also thought it should prompt me to rate the book when I finish it.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Was there more details to the error? Pressing the details button should show a stack trace. They usually give me the clue I need. Otherwise a full debug log would be good.

I've got a full debug log, I'll post it later this evening.

[davidfor]

Something I've been meaning to add for a while is a check of the images directory for extra image files. So, a new option that will scan the images directory and check for anything that looks like a cover and doesn't match an ImageID in the database. When started, there is a prompt whether to delete the extra images. The clean is run as a background job. When finished, it shows the number of extra image files found. The list of files is available by pressing the "Show details" button. The clean is done for the main memory and the SD card if it is installed.

This will probably be release next week as version 1.2.0.

As always, if you see a bug, tell me so I can squash it.

[AJvK]

I tried the plugin, mainly to see if I could get read status / Finished columns to work. Short version: I couldn't, at least not without introducing other problems.
Longer version: I probably got some settings wrong, because after configuring the plugin, it screwed up all my titles, and I got all sorts of weird syncing behaviour. I use the Kobo Extended driver, and have a plugboard to change titles to "Abbreviated series #1 - title", mainly because that's the only reliable way I've found to keep book in series displayed in the correct order (if anyone has an easier way, I'm all ears). After installing and configuring Kobo Utilities all titles were reverted to "Title", and the name of the series was displayed below. But more importantly (to me, at least) was that the order was screwed up.
To resolve, I had to delete Kobo Utilities, and delete and re-add all affected books. But my Kobo still adds the series below the title, something it didn't do before (or I didn't notice). What I also noticed during the re-adding was that certain books would get added to the wrong shelf (I have it set to either a shelf named after the series, or author if a book does not have a series) - in one particular case, I had John Scalzi's The Human Division (part of Old Man's War series) get added to the shelf for Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Series - and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. Also, after adding several book, I noticed that some previously added books would get deleted without warning - again, no clue as to why, I've lots of free space left. I closed and reopened calibre several times, and powered the Kobo off an on, which got everything working again, apart from the fact that series is still displayed below the title, but that's just slightly annoying. Oh well...

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by AJvK

I tried the plugin, mainly to see if I could get read status / Finished columns to work. Short version: I couldn't, at least not without introducing other problems.
Longer version: I probably got some settings wrong, because after configuring the plugin, it screwed up all my titles, and I got all sorts of weird syncing behaviour. I use the Kobo Extended driver, and have a plugboard to change titles to "Abbreviated series #1 - title", mainly because that's the only reliable way I've found to keep book in series displayed in the correct order (if anyone has an easier way, I'm all ears). After installing and configuring Kobo Utilities all titles were reverted to "Title", and the name of the series was displayed below. But more importantly (to me, at least) was that the order was screwed up.
To resolve, I had to delete Kobo Utilities, and delete and re-add all affected books. But my Kobo still adds the series below the title, something it didn't do before (or I didn't notice). What I also noticed during the re-adding was that certain books would get added to the wrong shelf (I have it set to either a shelf named after the series, or author if a book does not have a series) - in one particular case, I had John Scalzi's The Human Division (part of Old Man's War series) get added to the shelf for Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Series - and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. Also, after adding several book, I noticed that some previously added books would get deleted without warning - again, no clue as to why, I've lots of free space left. I closed and reopened calibre several times, and powered the Kobo off an on, which got everything working again, apart from the fact that series is still displayed below the title, but that's just slightly annoying. Oh well...

I only used the extended driver once (long before this plugin existed) and it didn't seem to send the plugboards.
Not only that I still can't send the plugboards for that particular series of books and I have disabled the plugboard, deleted them and resent them at least twice.
(luckily it is the Destroyer books which it doesn't matter what order you read them in)

For the series display, there is no box to disable it in the extended driver so maybe it always sends it?

Of course none of this may apply to you if you have been using the extended driver for quite a while.

AFAIK I have had no problems with this plugin and I have 1800 books on the Aura. I got it to work by picking one book to try it on and I needed all the custom columns mentioned for it to work correctly. But I have never used it with the extended driver although I believe others have.

Helen

[AJvK]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I only used the extended driver once (long before this plugin existed) and it didn't seem to send the plugboards.
Not only that I still can't send the plugboards for that particular series of books and I have disabled the plugboard, deleted them and resent them at least twice.
(luckily it is the Destroyer books which it doesn't matter what order you read them in)

For the series display, there is no box to disable it in the extended driver so maybe it always sends it?

Of course none of this may apply to you if you have been using the extended driver for quite a while.

AFAIK I have had no problems with this plugin and I have 1800 books on the Aura. I got it to work by picking one book to try it on and I needed all the custom columns mentioned for it to work correctly. But I have never used it with the extended driver although I believe others have.

Helen

I've been using the Extended Driver for about a month and a half now, and I've yet to encounter any problems with it - using just the Extended driver, a custom column and a plugboard I had it all working without fail.

I have tried installing the Kobo Utilities again, and it seems calibre is storing information somewhere because all the button configurations were still as they were when I deleted it?
Anyway, I'm now testing it with only the percent read setting activated, and only triggering Store/Restore current bookmark. That seems to work, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now.
Does anyone know if receiving the percent read status from the Kobo is (or can be) automated, or do I have to trigger it manually?

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by AJvK

I've been using the Extended Driver for about a month and a half now, and I've yet to encounter any problems with it - using just the Extended driver, a custom column and a plugboard I had it all working without fail.

I have tried installing the Kobo Utilities again, and it seems calibre is storing information somewhere because all the button configurations were still as they were when I deleted it?
Anyway, I'm now testing it with only the percent read setting activated, and only triggering Store/Restore current bookmark. That seems to work, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now.
Does anyone know if receiving the percent read status from the Kobo is (or can be) automated, or do I have to trigger it manually?

Good for you.

Interesting that your plugboards work with the extended driver, I don't like kepub, but I would kind of like my plugboard to work with the destroyer series. It will work with these books on my Sony T1 and the mini and all other books on the Aura. Must be something I am missing somewhere.


Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Interesting that your plugboards work with the extended driver, I don't like kepub, but I would kind of like my plugboard to work with the destroyer series. It will work with these books on my Sony T1 and the mini and all other books on the Aura. Must be something I am missing somewhere.

I haven't tried a plugboard with the extended driver, but they are set at the driver level or for "any device". So, if you had them set for the main KOBOTOUCH driver, you need to copy the plugboard settings to the KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED driver.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I haven't tried a plugboard with the extended driver, but they are set at the driver level or for "any device". So, if you had them set for the main KOBOTOUCH driver, you need to copy the plugboard settings to the KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED driver.

I am sure that is right. I didn't bother because I don't like kepubs and disabled the extended driver.

My problem is that the one series I put on with the extended driver has been deleted and put back on twice and still the plugboards do not show up on the Aura.

I doubt that the problem is with the regular driver and the extended driver is disabled so must be something I am doing wrong. The series info for these books does show up on the mini and does on the Aura for all the other books.

Not important enough to worry about though as it doesn't matter which order you read this series in. One of these days I will look into it

But thanks for the reply

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by AJvK

I tried the plugin, mainly to see if I could get read status / Finished columns to work. Short version: I couldn't, at least not without introducing other problems.
Longer version: I probably got some settings wrong, because after configuring the plugin, it screwed up all my titles, and I got all sorts of weird syncing behaviour. I use the Kobo Extended driver, and have a plugboard to change titles to "Abbreviated series #1 - title", mainly because that's the only reliable way I've found to keep book in series displayed in the correct order (if anyone has an easier way, I'm all ears). After installing and configuring Kobo Utilities all titles were reverted to "Title", and the name of the series was displayed below. But more importantly (to me, at least) was that the order was screwed up.

That sounds like you used the metadata update option and chose the title as one of the options. This does a straight copy of the library values to the device database. The plugin doesn't use the plugboards when setting the title or author.

To resolve, I had to delete Kobo Utilities, and delete and re-add all affected books. But my Kobo still adds the series below the title, something it didn't do before (or I didn't notice).

The series display is a feature of the Kobo devices. If the series information is set in the device database, then it is displayed as a line in the library list. Personally, I like this feature and dropped the use of the plugboard to put the series info in the title a long time ago.

It also means you have the "Set series information" option selected in the device driver configuration. If this is option is set, when you connect a Kobo device, it checks the series information on the device and updates it if it doesn't match what is in the calibre library. This means that the next time you connect after sending a set of books to the device, the series information will be set.

What I also noticed during the re-adding was that certain books would get added to the wrong shelf (I have it set to either a shelf named after the series, or author if a book does not have a series) - in one particular case, I had John Scalzi's The Human Division (part of Old Man's War series) get added to the shelf for Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Series - and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

I'd have to see the shelf configuration of the driver to tell what is happening. But, I suspect you are using a columns with template code to select the shelf from values in different columns. Though how it would mix those up, I don't know.

Also, after adding several book, I noticed that some previously added books would get deleted without warning - again, no clue as to why, I've lots of free space left. I closed and reopened calibre several times, and powered the Kobo off an on, which got everything working again, apart from the fact that series is still displayed below the title, but that's just slightly annoying. Oh well...

Books disappearing from the device shouldn't happen without some interaction from you. If you aren't deleting them via calibre or the devices menus, the only way I can think of this happening is if you not using the "send to device" option for resending a book to the device. If the book file has changed size, and you use the "Save to disk" to put updated copies of the book on the device or manually sideload the changed copies, the book will be completely removed the device when it is processed again. When doing a send to device, the driver updates the device database to prevent this from happening.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by AJvK

I've been using the Extended Driver for about a month and a half now, and I've yet to encounter any problems with it - using just the Extended driver, a custom column and a plugboard I had it all working without fail.

I have tried installing the Kobo Utilities again, and it seems calibre is storing information somewhere because all the button configurations were still as they were when I deleted it?

Calibre doesn't delete the configuration when a plugin is uninstalled.

Anyway, I'm now testing it with only the percent read setting activated, and only triggering Store/Restore current bookmark. That seems to work, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed for now.
Does anyone know if receiving the percent read status from the Kobo is (or can be) automated, or do I have to trigger it manually?

Not at the moment. It is one of the things I have planned in the near future. I have to do a few other changes to get it ready. Plus work out how to do it.

[AJvK]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That sounds like you used the metadata update option and chose the title as one of the options. This does a straight copy of the library values to the device database. The plugin doesn't use the plugboards when setting the title or author.

Sounds like something I might have doen, yeah...

Originally Posted by davidfor

The series display is a feature of the Kobo devices. If the series information is set in the device database, then it is displayed as a line in the library list. Personally, I like this feature and dropped the use of the plugboard to put the series info in the title a long time ago.

It also means you have the "Set series information" option selected in the device driver configuration. If this is option is set, when you connect a Kobo device, it checks the series information on the device and updates it if it doesn't match what is in the calibre library. This means that the next time you connect after sending a set of books to the device, the series information will be set.

OK, I get that. It's still unfortunate that this won't display the titles within the series in the correct order... That's why I resorted to the plugboard. If there's an easier solution for this please let me know.
I'm not that bothered by the extra series information - it's a bit redundant since all my series are in folders with the series name (see below), is all.

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'd have to see the shelf configuration of the driver to tell what is happening. But, I suspect you are using a columns with template code to select the shelf from values in different columns. Though how it would mix those up, I don't know.

I have a custom column set to "Column built from other columns" with the following template, thanks to PeterT:

{:'first_non_empty(field('Series'), field('authors'))'}

And the Extended driver set to use this column for shelves.
Works great, but I cannot figure out how this would allow to send books to the wrong shelf - I've rechecked the calibre library and all information for the offending book is correct.

Originally Posted by davidfor

Books disappearing from the device shouldn't happen without some interaction from you. If you aren't deleting them via calibre or the devices menus, the only way I can think of this happening is if you not using the "send to device" option for resending a book to the device. If the book file has changed size, and you use the "Save to disk" to put updated copies of the book on the device or manually sideload the changed copies, the book will be completely removed the device when it is processed again. When doing a send to device, the driver updates the device database to prevent this from happening.

I deleted -in batches- all books that were in series: selected Device, and deleted from there. Then, I went back to Library, selected the books, and used "Send to device" from the main toolbar. These were the exact same books, nothing changed/added/deleted. I did not use "Save to disk" on any book.
I still have no clue as to what caused this, but it has stopped (for now?) - I added the books (that were giving me problems yesterday) this morning, and they uploaded without a hitch, and all in the correct shelf so that problem is now also fixed... Curiouser and curiouser...

[jgoguen]

Originally Posted by AJvK

OK, I get that. It's still unfortunate that this won't display the titles within the series in the correct order...

Take that one up with Kobo. It used to sort books by series ordering. As I recall, the beta testers told them not to take this out but they did anyway. Seems to me that almost everyone who used series data preferred to have the books sorted by series order.

[AJvK]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

Take that one up with Kobo. It used to sort books by series ordering. As I recall, the beta testers told them not to take this out but they did anyway. Seems to me that almost everyone who used series data preferred to have the books sorted by series order.

Seriously? That would seem to be a no-brainer...