Using Calibre server and calibre.db doesn't seem to be adding new titles

[CraftyClown]

TLDRI am an idiot after all and a slight tweak of my service script and crontab enabled me to do everything I wanted.

In case anyone is curious the working service script is:

[Unit]
Description=calibre content server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=craftyclown
Group=craftyclown
ExecStart=/opt/calibre/calibre-server --auth-mode=basic --enable-auth --port=8082 /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Rich /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Kate /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Sonya /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Mum


[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

and my crontab command to auto add new books is:

*/15 * * * * calibredb add /home/craftyclown/Calibre/New/Sonya -r --with-library http://127.0.0.1:8082/#Sonya --username Rich --password ??????
*/15 * * * * calibredb add /home/craftyclown/Calibre/New/Rich -r --with-library http://127.0.0.1:8082/#Rich --username Rich --password ??????
*/15 * * * * calibredb add /home/craftyclown/Calibre/New/Kate -r --with-library http://127.0.0.1:8082/#Kate --username Rich --password ??????
*/15 * * * * calibredb add /home/craftyclown/Calibre/New/Mum -r --with-library http://127.0.0.1:8082/#Mum --username Rich --password ??????




.................................................. .................................................. .........................

Afternoon all,

So firstly I'm fairly sure I'm being a dummy here, so happy to get that out of the way first

Long story short I'm accessing Calibre server via the web ui and it isn't showing any of the new titles I've added recently.

I've been using Calibre server for a while but don't often have need to add new titles so this issue could have been there for a while now without me noticing.

The last time I was tinkering with Calibre was enabling OPDS access for mine and my other halfs kindles (which works perfectly by the way)

I run Calibre on a headless Linux server using the below service script:

[Unit]
Description=calibre content server
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=craftyclown
Group=craftyclown
ExecStart=/opt/calibre/calibre-server --auth-mode=basic --port=8082 --enable-auth --enable-local-write /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Rich /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Kate /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Sonya /home/craftyclown/Calibre/Library/Mum


[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I've tried restarting the service but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

Am I making an obvious mistake here?

Cheers

[kovidgoyal]

How are you adding the titles?

[CraftyClown]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

How are you adding the titles?

They are being added to user folders in the Calibre directory, located here;

/home/craftyclown/Calibre/New

[kovidgoyal]

You need to actually add the books to the database for them to show up use calibredb for that, it can connect to a running server. See its help page https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/gen...calibredb.html

[CraftyClown]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You need to actually add the books to the database for them to show up use calibredb for that, it can connect to a running server. See its help page https://manual.calibre-ebook.com/gen...calibredb.html

Thanks, although I'm a little confused.

I had this running automatically before and calibre was somehow pulling them from the afore mentioned directory.

I'm probably being stupid once again, but I don't see anything in the calibredb wiki about adding watch folders.

Where am I going wrong here?

[kovidgoyal]

Auto-add is a facility of the calibre GUI. If you set it up there, the you need to run the server from within the GUI as well not as aseparate service.

[CraftyClown]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Auto-add is a facility of the calibre GUI. If you set it up there, the you need to run the server from within the GUI as well not as aseparate service.

Well now I'm truly confused

I have never used the Calibre GUI as everything is located on a headless server, however my books have always been added automatically. How on earth did I have this working before?

Maybe I misunderstood your last comment? Are you saying that setting some kind of watch folder system isn't supposed to be possible with calibre server?

[CraftyClown]

Well I must have completely misunderstood!

I have just got it working again by removing --auth-mode=basic and --enable-auth from my service script.

The second I did this books are once again automatically added, however I lose the ability to edit or convert the books from the webui.

So near and yet... so far

Is it possible to do both of these things?

[CraftyClown]

Sooooo, let me try and get this straight...

--enable-local-write allows me to send books to the calibre directory which calibredb then adds to the library (I need this for my automated book adding system to work)

--enable-auth allows me to edit content via the Web UI (I need this to convert books that aren't compatible with my kindle)

So if I understand it correctly these two functions are working in opposition to one another, with --enable-auth being the overriding function for security purposes. Therefore it isn't possible to have these two functions working alongside one another in a script.

Does that sound about right?

I guess my next question would be; Is there another way to achieve the same results from my headless Calibre server? ie the automated adding of books and the ability to edit/convert them from the web UI?

[CraftyClown]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

How are you adding the titles?

I'm sorry I forgot to mention this line in my crontab


*/15 * * * * calibredb add /home/craftyclown/Calibre/New/Rich -r --with library http://127.0.0.1:8082/#Rich

[CraftyClown]

aaaaaaaand I know see where I was going wrong... I hadn't added a username and password to the calibredb add command

calibredb add /home/craftyclown/Calibre/New/Sonya -r --with-library http://127.0.0.1:8082/#Sonya --username ???? --password ????

whilst removing --enable-local-write from my service script is the winning combo and seems to allow everything I want to do.