[Old Thread] Calibre + Dropbox = unclouded happiness

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Call me paranoid, but I am so glad that I am rid of MS for good and that my system is so stable yet flexible that every MS thing gives me a bad toothache!

With Vista and Win 7 Microsoft systems are extremely stable and flexible. I had my share of problems with Linux also...several systems that had no problem at all with Win 2003 Server were not able to run Ubuntu. Even the install would fail after 3 hours of disk grinding. So what the 'best system' is depends on what you are doing.

Dropbox works absolutely great on my Ubuntu 9.10 system and so is O'Reilly's bookworm and Calibre's content server. Why bother about Live Mesh at all?

Simply to have more options. That makes you more flexible Never look at only one system.

And 95% of the people are not using Linux. For people using Windows or a Mac is is a very stable and simple option

[Beau]

I'm curious, Has anyone tried this with sugar sync? I know I can get a free dropbox account, just wondering if I can do it with the system I'm already using.

[dpierron]

Beau : well, I don't have enough free time to test but I had a look on their website, and they do offer public links to files you share... If these links are consistent (i.e. if you can get a public link to a directory, and then simply append the file name to get the public link to a file in this directory) then it would definitively work. You should try and tell us !

[Beau]

I may need a little help with that... I'm afraid I look at comand lines and coding and my eyes cross.

Let me see if I understand the goal. we want to generate what is essentially an ftp page, yes? Currently if I was to put all of my epubs in a file and designate it to sync, it would be automatically synced to my online server (yes I can get an address for a specific file, though I can see a problem that may occur later) Sugar sync automatically makes every file a link.

The 2 things I haven't quite figured out how to do are:

how to get a single file with all of the epubs in it (thats what stanza has to access, right??)

And secondly... sugarsync recognizes that I am browsing by ipod/iphone and only lists 10 or so books per page. Will I need to have multiple addresses for each page or can one navigate from within the stanza download portal.

Sorry to be so dumb about this. You can point me to some resources too. I'm sorry I've looked at the directions posted and I still don't understand. Where exactly do I find the command line?




Beau

[dpierron]

Hi Beau,

No problem asking for help, there are no dumb questions, only dumb people not asking questions

See, Calibre can be used to generate a catalog file (using the calibredb command), which contains a list of all your ebooks, along with the URL at which the corresponding ePub files can be downloaded ; this is the stanza.xml file I was talking about.

Then, Stanza is configured to access this catalog (using the public link of this file) and can list your books (without using the sharing service web page, Sugar Sync in your case) and download them when you need...

When using calibredb, you have to provide a parameter that is the base url of your calibre library directory, on your sharing service. This base url will be used to construct the url of each file in the catalog, by simply appending the (local) file path to the base url.

The main problem is that, sometimes, sharing services are not consistent with their public urls: for example, two files located in the same local directory will get totally different urls, making it impossible to find a base url for calibredb.

So, to answer your questions : there is no need to get all your epubs in a single file, it's the whole calibre library folder that is shared, and the stanza.xml catalog file is the single access point...

I hope it's clearer this way If you still need more explanations, feel free to ask !

David.

[Beau]

So let me see if I understand this correctly...

We have the callibre folder which contains all of it's associated books and metadata. This is already being automatically synced for me. Then we create a second db file (that also syncs with sugarsync?) that tells stanza where to find the book we are looking for. There needs to be a stable address to access this db file on sugar sync for stanza to be able to access it. Is that correct?

Now for the really ... ok... not smart question.

where/how does one access the command line? What exactly do I put in it? And is it correct to create this new db file within the calibre folder? would that make the addressing consistant during the sync? Does it even matter?

Thank you so much for your patience.

[dpierron]

Originally Posted by Beau

So let me see if I understand this correctly...

Let's

Originally Posted by Beau

We have the callibre folder which contains all of it's associated books and metadata. This is already being automatically synced for me.

This is true.

Originally Posted by Beau

Then we create a second db file (that also syncs with sugarsync?) that tells stanza where to find the book we are looking for.

Quite right : the calibredb command creates a new file (which type is XML) that has the format expected by Stanza for its catalogs ; so, yes, it's a kind of db, but it has nothing to do with Calibre, except that Calibre generated it...

Originally Posted by Beau

There needs to be a stable address to access this db file on sugar sync for stanza to be able to access it. Is that correct?

Almost right : there need to be an address to access this db file for Stanza, but also, in this file, there are a lot of references to the location of your ebooks files on the Sugar Sync server, and these locations have to be correct if you want Stanza to download them. For the moment, Calibre can only generate these locations based on a base url (a base address, which is the address of the calibre directory on the Sugar Sync server), to which it appends the local path of the ebook file. So, if the public address system (pun not intended, promised) of Sugar Sync is consistent, these addresses will be correct, and the system will work ; else, it will fail...

Originally Posted by Beau

Now for the really ... ok... not smart question.

Let's see this one

Originally Posted by Beau

where/how does one access the command line? What exactly do I put in it?

Depending on your operating system, there are multiple ways to access the command line ; on Windows, simply run "cmd" (using the Start/Run menu). You must type the commands I described in the window that will open.

Originally Posted by Beau

And is it correct to create this new db file within the calibre folder? would that make the addressing consistant during the sync? Does it even matter?

Yes and no : it is important, and in order to do this you must use the cd command to "go to" the calibre directory ; and no, it will not make the addressing consistant : this depends only on the sync system...

Originally Posted by Beau

Thank you so much for your patience.

No problem, my pleasure !

[Beau]

Ok, I have designated the calibre folder in sugar sync as shared, no password, editable. I have a stable link for this folder. (it is a secure link - https://www.sugarsync.com/share/br.....ej, does that matter?)

I opened my command line (windows vista), copied the command line from the first post with my address in place of yours, hit enter....

and got nothing.

I should have also been able to generate this db file on my computer (and in the calibre folder) by substituting the folder location in place of the http address too, right? That also did not do anything.

Am I being thick headed or .... ?

Thanks again!
Beau

[dpierron]

Originally Posted by Beau

Ok, I have designated the calibre folder in sugar sync as shared, no password, editable. I have a stable link for this folder. (it is a secure link - https://www.sugarsync.com/share/br.....ej, does that matter?)

I opened my command line (windows vista), copied the command line from the first post with my address in place of yours, hit enter....

and got nothing.

That's my fault, I haven't been precise enough : the calibredb command is in fact a program, located in the Calibre program directory ; if you set the working directory to the calibre library folder (as I instructed you before, by using the cd command) then the system may not be able to find the calibredb program. You have to specify the complete path to this file on the command line (use french quotes if there are spaces in the path) e.g. :

c:\data\dropbox\My Dropbox\Public\calibre_library>"c:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibredb.exe" list --output-format stanza --prefix http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/788541/calibre_library > stanza.xml

Originally Posted by Beau

I should have also been able to generate this db file on my computer (and in the calibre folder) by substituting the folder location in place of the http address too, right? That also did not do anything.

No, this wouldn't work ; in fact, with the command I described, the stanza.xml file is generated on your disk, in the current directory ; then, and because this folder is synced, it gets pushed to the web server...

Originally Posted by Beau

Am I being thick headed or .... ?

Thanks again!
Beau

Not at all, I just need time adapting my explanations : eventually, they will be clear enough for everyone to understand !

PS : I edited the original post, tell me if it's clearer !

[Beau]

I've gone and looked at the first post,and yes it does seem easier to understand to me... though I think that is both your detailed explanation and your kind tutoring.

I have one other question, of course...

Re:The French quotes around the addresses of the final command-- Are they used like parenthesis in a mathematical equation to designate a single process or set to run as a unit separately --- and therefore used all of the time, or are you using them for demonstration purposes?

I won't have time to try this until later, but will let you know how it goes.

Thank you so much dpierron. I can't say enough how much I apprieciate your willingness to take the time to explain things.

ps BTW... After all of this work, I'm thinking about trying this, http://www.pogoplug.com/ when the new version is released. I'm sure that all of your good tutoring will be helpful for that as well.

[blysik]

Hi,

I'm trying this tip out, and while calibredb list in text or xml format looks fine, if I use output-format stanza, it's basically a blank xml feed, with only the headers.

Any ideas?

[blysik]

Originally Posted by blysik

Hi,

I'm trying this tip out, and while calibredb list in text or xml format looks fine, if I use output-format stanza, it's basically a blank xml feed, with only the headers.

Here's an example of what I see:

$ calibredb list --output-format stanza --prefix http://dl.dropbox.com/u/XXXXXX/Ebooks<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
  <title>calibre Library</title>
  <author>
    <name>calibre</name>
    <uri>http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net</uri>
  </author>
  <id>urn:calibre:main</id>
  <updated>2009-11-25T18:38:00Z</updated>
  <subtitle>
        Books in the calibre database
  </subtitle>
</feed>
bruce:Ebooks blysik$

[Beau]

Originally Posted by blysik

Hi,

I'm trying this tip out, and while calibredb list in text or xml format looks fine, if I use output-format stanza, it's basically a blank xml feed, with only the headers.

Any ideas?

This is just a guess... Looking at your reading device, it is a Kindle? The stanza output line is going to only pull out your epub format books. If you are wanting to use this with the kindle, the output should be something else. Unfortunately I'm too new at this to tell you what.

Just so you know, this could be bad info...

Beau

[blysik]

Originally Posted by Beau

This is just a guess... Looking at your reading device, it is a Kindle? The stanza output line is going to only pull out your epub format books. If you are wanting to use this with the kindle, the output should be something else. Unfortunately I'm too new at this to tell you what.

Just so you know, this could be bad info...

Beau

No, that's super correct! I use a Kindle, and nothing is in epub format. Okay, I'm off to start a mass-convert to epub.

Thanks!

[dpierron]

Originally Posted by Beau

I have one other question, of course...

Re:The French quotes around the addresses of the final command-- Are they used like parenthesis in a mathematical equation to designate a single process or set to run as a unit separately --- and therefore used all of the time, or are you using them for demonstration purposes?

The french quotes are there to guard the expression as a whole, including the spaces that would be interpreted as separators, should the quotes be missing. So no, it's not for demonstration only, although it's necessary only if there are spaces in your paths.

Originally Posted by Beau

I won't have time to try this until later, but will let you know how it goes.

Tell me later then, but don't forget : I'm eager to know

Originally Posted by Beau

Thank you so much dpierron. I can't say enough how much I apprieciate your willingness to take the time to explain things.

No problem, you're totally welcome : it's my pleasure !