Collections Manager

[rorogio]

As said, I also updated the help page, including the new words you asked.

I also added the g_trash.png. Seems like I forgot to put it in the first zip.

Thanks for the app and all the work you do for Kindle community, ixtab!

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by rorogio

As said, I also updated the help page, including the new words you asked.

I also added the g_trash.png. Seems like I forgot to put it in the first zip.

Thanks for the app and all the work you do for Kindle community, ixtab!

That looks good. It might have been ixtab who forgot to change it in the zip for the CM zip. And I hope you did understand that I had no problem understanding the old help file. The new one is much better though. I am just jelous of the search that is (still?) missing in the PW.

[ixtab]

Thanks again! Version 2.3.1 now fixes the trash icon, and includes the new help file. As before, you may need to restart the framework before you see the new icons.

[DuckieTigger]

2.3.1 works good. The only downside is, sometimes it takes a loooong time before books or collections are moved from the upper to lower pane - especially when all 5 items are selected. Is that a problem with the Kindle beeing too busy? Or maybe it is just a lot more involved under the hood to make CM work?

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

2.3.1 works good. The only downside is, sometimes it takes a loooong time before books or collections are moved from the upper to lower pane - especially when all 5 items are selected. Is that a problem with the Kindle beeing too busy? Or maybe it is just a lot more involved under the hood to make CM work?

Yes, the copy/move operations are pretty slow - a move operation consists of the deletion from one collection, and the adding to another. Each of these database modifications is encapsuled in its own transaction, and takes roughly 500 milliseconds. Internally, this is anything but trivial... Plus of course, there is a lot of state handling happening in CM itself. So yes, it is normal for a "move" operation of 5 items to take about 5 seconds in total.

I have just tried to speed this up somewhat by encapsulating everything in a single transaction, but it only yields a marginal gain (~10 - 20%), and to properly implement it, half of CM would have to be rewritten...

So in short: yes, those database operations simply are expensive.

[rorogio]

Thanks for the update!

Another little thing I noticed that the cover on Homepage of Kindle is the same for CM and JBPatch. Could you differentiate them somehow, like adding little icons near the main logo?

I put 2 examples of what I mean. I would do them myself, but not sure what dimensions should be.

I also like this image
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/...2ccc1342_b.jpg

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by rorogio

Thanks for the update!

Another little thing I noticed that the cover on Homepage of Kindle is the same for CM and JBPatch. Could you differentiate them somehow, like adding little icons near the main logo?

They ARE different. One says "Collections Manager", one says "JBPatch".

I also like this image
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4097/...2ccc1342_b.jpg

Yeah, but that's not ixtab, but probably a friend of hers

[kaznelson]

PNG images optimize: http://optipng.sourceforge.net/
Batch compression of Collections Manager icons ~9%

Example - optimize all PNG from a In-folder to Out-folder:

optipng -O7 -d Out\ In\*.png

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by ixtab

Yes, the copy/move operations are pretty slow - a move operation consists of the deletion from one collection, and the adding to another. Each of these database modifications is encapsuled in its own transaction, and takes roughly 500 milliseconds. Internally, this is anything but trivial... Plus of course, there is a lot of state handling happening in CM itself. So yes, it is normal for a "move" operation of 5 items to take about 5 seconds in total.

I have just tried to speed this up somewhat by encapsulating everything in a single transaction, but it only yields a marginal gain (~10 - 20%), and to properly implement it, half of CM would have to be rewritten...

So in short: yes, those database operations simply are expensive.

Thank you for that explanation. When the Kindle moves things in Collections it is always near instant. I suppose it still takes a while to update the database in that case, but the Kindle can afford to make those changes later. As in write a lookup something into ram until the real database is updated.

The speed gain is not worth the hassle to rewrite all the code. This time could be better spent on adding search to PW. Unless, of course, there is another road block added to prevent that.

Keep up the excellent work.

[SFCurley]

Quote:
Originally Posted by victor_2203 View Post
Would it be possible to make an extension for include the access to the "Collections Manager" as a submenu in the Menu Launcher? In the same way that the jbpatch-launcher. If we toggle the icon from Home we can't acces to the Manager, isn't it?
Yes! Here you go. Just don't delete Collections Manager, place it in a collection then hide it with collection manager. It won't hide without being in a collection.
Attached Files
File Type: zip Collections Manager.zip (742 Bytes, 137 views)

My reading of this is is that this will ad a menu item to the Kindle (Paperwhite, in my case) menu structure with Collection Manager functionality. Is this correct?

If so, I'm not sure what to do with this zip file. Any help appreciated.

[ixtab]

Originally Posted by SFCurley

My reading of this is is that this will ad a menu item to the Kindle (Paperwhite, in my case) menu structure with Collection Manager functionality. Is this correct?

If so, I'm not sure what to do with this zip file. Any help appreciated.

In principle, yes - but GUI Launcher is not available for the Paperwhite.

[slantybard]

Originally Posted by slantybard

Problem: now I connect my KPW to calibre and send new books to the KPW followed by saving the collections to the KPW using the GUI plugin in calibre. I disconnect my KPW and then run into problems with the new books not being sorted into the pre-existing collections. I figured I just have to re-"import calibre collections" from within CM, but this doesn't work. I have tried to restart before and after re-importing with no difference - the new books don't sort into collections and just sit on the home page

An update:
Definitely something weird is happening on my kpw. So after 2 days, 5 of the 7 new books finally sorted themselves into the proper collections after I stopped trying to restart the kpw or reimport collections from calibre and just left it alone. However, 2 books wouldn't leave the home screen (have in collections view option).

So I tried to manually sort these 2 books into their collections. One worked fine and left the home screen, the other is stuck with a bit of weird behaviour. When I try to add it to my Sci-Fi collection, it says it is part of that collection in the details of CM, but stays on my home screen. If I put it in any other collection like Currently-Reading or Non-Fiction, it sorts out into those collections and leaves the home screen. When I try to move it back to Sci-Fi, it again shows up on the home screen. I have tried to use both CM and the built in add to collections option to sort this book without success. Something odd is happening but not sure what.

[ixtab]

@slantybard: If all your collections are synced from calibre, try deleting them all (using the menu) and reimporting.

-- I'll be offline for the next 5 days, leaving for the plane in 5 mins.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by ixtab

-- I'll be offline for the next 5 days, leaving for the plane in 5 mins.

Charge it off as a business expense of just testing the airplane mode.

[slantybard]

Originally Posted by ixtab

@slantybard: If all your collections are synced from calibre, try deleting them all (using the menu)

@ixtab: that solved the weirdness. Thanks. Hope you have an enjoyable trip.