no donaload confirmations + a risky "download all" option

[cybmole]

on Kindle Fire

I dind it disconcerting that when I find a book via conent ewrver & say dowanoad it. there is no confirmation that has happened. I am havin got go yout into ES fie explorer to check.

there also seesm to be no notification added onto the pull down settings screen, ( which usually has a list of updates, downlaods etc)

the other scary thing is that I listed newset bookts, and selected the 1st one only. then I see a box to press that says "downlaod all" - I thingk that was the only download options showing.

so I press that, expecting it to trasale "all" as " all the ones ticked" but away it goes downloading allthe 1800+books that are not on the tablet"!, while I madely press cacenl, discaonnect, and any other button I can find!


some sort of " are you sure", or you have chosen to download nnnn books do you wish to continue, would seem sensible, here ?

PS, in another mode, still in content server, I search for a title, view a book detail and I then get to an option to view metadata or to download, but also I get some reference to a "download queue". are downloads immediate or are they batched and triggered by some event - like disconnecting from the content server.

I think dummies like me need more on-screen help & feedback!


Final one: my library has lots of original_epub files, which are not going to associate to any app. could there perhaps be a preference setting to hide that format ?.

[cybmole]

more on same topic. I disconnected & reconnected CC & weant aroudn the loop again to confirm my observations.

on the serach sresults screen, I see the lsit of books that matchedd the search & I can tick some or all, but the "download all" button is greyed out.

on the list by newest main option, again I can tick individual books. Her the download all option is NOT greyed out.

on both of those screens , I see no way to "untick" a selection, I tried both short & long taps, I get only to che choose view metadata or choose download decision box.
"
I did on this 2nd try, get a "we are now downloading your book confirmation. I was not seeing that before so maybe there was a connection glitch- but I was connected " enough" to be able to search & sort. so lets put the lack of confirmation down to user inexperience for now. althoguh, in-between tried I did change the default directory to doanoads, from Calibre Companion.

I wonder if you default directory is not a valid path for a KF, or thta you lack the rights to create it. I am searching the KF folders now & I can't see a Calibre companion folder anywhere ( though me changing the default could have caused it to move or vanish I suppose ? )

that " download all" button bugs me though. it would be fine if 99% of your library is already on the tablet & you are just synching new additions, but if not....

UPDATE 3?

Ok I am slowly getting the hang of this - while CONNECTED to content server ,"tick" means on device" so "untick" is not a logical operation.. I am still confused by download vs download queue.

after disconnecting I can now see how to delete a single book.
I can't see how to delete the 100 or so that arrived because I accidentally selected download all , expect for doing them one at a time ?

zapping them via file explorer just confuses CC's records, they need to be deleted from inside the app ?

[cybmole]

update 98 1/2. another dummies walk through the UI & I see how to trigger the differing confirmations.

choose a book somehow , then a tap on the cover brings up the centre of screen dialogue box: short for metadata, long for add to download queue.

so there are two paths you can go by as Robert Plant would put it
but but in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
- or is there - let's see:

now:
the LONG press option , causes a tick to appear on the right ( & if you watch VERY closely there's a short delay before that which is when the download is actually ongoing. the tick appears in order to tell you OK that's now on your device, but I did not get that meaning,
Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
I took the tick to mean, Ok that is now in the aforementioned download queue & was trying to figure out what to do next. a.k.a. Ooh, it makes me wonder, Ooh, it really makes me wonder.

the SHORT option brings up the book metadata & top right of screen now has an option for download . it asks you to select a format then says "please wait while we download your book", or some such. Now that's a confirmation !- now
we wind on down the road

But the other option , assuming I've not resorted to RTFM, or even to where the hell do I find the FM so that I can RTFM - well
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

maybe 99 / 100 users don't have any problems with that, but a couple of extra 1st time help screens would not go amiss, IMHO.

so just that, & the download ALL box , are the issues I most want to feed back to you.

I Found a slightly quicker bulk delete, which was to zap multiple selections file explorer , then use your menu option to delete missing books from CC database. maybe not the best way but it worked for now.

you can take over now: your autocue line is
the piper will lead us to reason.

[chaley]

I am not sure if you are asking questions or making comments.

You have discovered the main point, that the check mark in the content server means that the book is already downloaded. If you start downloading several books and are fast enough to start several before they previous ones finish then you will see a progress spinner on each book that is waiting to download.

Regarding download queues: you can long-press on a book to download it while another book is being downloaded, which means that something must remember that you asked for another download. The thing that remembers is the queue. Doing a "download all" is like long-pressing all the books in that category. All the books are queued.

As for help screens, that is a difficult issue. Every time we introduced a "help" dialog we get zillions of complaints that it takes too long, too many clicks, too wordy, get out of my face, etc. On the other hand we get zillion/1000 thanks for it. Maintaining that balance is very very hard. The world seems to be moving toward a "try it and see what happens" model, which is anathema to many people but exactly what many others want. For example, my wife doesn't use her phone or tablet because she cannot stomach the "try it" way of doing things. Unfortunately for people like her, the vast majority of users seem to prefer "tap and see", and in fact won't read any help or dialogs provided.

[cybmole]

how about change " add to download queue" to " add to device" ? or 2 send to device"

the word " queue " is making me think " batch process to be run later"

if you could squeeze in " on device" as a header for the tick column also, that might help

as for download all- how about an An are you sure if that is going to move say >100 books, or a preferences option for confirmation of large downloads. or a " you are about to download nnn items please confirm ". Folks who are just syncing. updating won't see that, as most books will already be on device. I'm on wi-fi but someone on 3G/ 4G could exceed data allowance if they accidentally triggered a mega download of a whole library, thinking they were only asking for what was visible on screen. Or could burn through the remainder of a low battery state.

help screens - looking at the android games world, some have a one line entry in options or on main menu saying do you need instructions. if you say yes, then & only then do you get into the detailed help
last ones:
1. is there some inconsistency with when download all is offered/greyed out. it does not seem to be offered after a search, only when I select one of the main sort by options. and I think that anyway it just begins to download all by title, not be the last used criteria. I don't much fancy re-testing that so I will leave that one with you
2. bulk deletes, talk me through a couple of how-to cases please, like delete all in this series, delete all by this author, delete all of these search results... is there an option that I've not foudn or is one at a time the only proper way

[chaley]

I am up to my ears at the moment so one quick answer

Originally Posted by cybmole

2. bulk deletes, talk me through a couple of how-to cases please, like delete all in this series, delete all by this author, delete all of these search results... is there an option that I've not foudn or is one at a time the only proper way

There is no way to do bulk deletes in CC. You can do it easily from calibre when connected as a wireless device. In the library view select the books you no longer want on your device, hit the del key/button, and choose "Only from device".