[GUI Plugin] FanFictionDownLoader

[Firedancer885]

Any chance of FFDL supporting http://imagine.e-fic.com ?
I think it would need Voracity's (the creators) permission.
It's automated.

[iatheia]

Could do, yeah. Though, if you say that a permission is needed, the best thing would be to ask for it first =)

[Firedancer885]

Originally Posted by iatheia

Could do, yeah. Though, if you say that a permission is needed, the best thing would be to ask for it first =)

I'm not really sure it's needed. But I sent a message to the moderators nonetheless

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

I haven't noticed that. I'll look into it.

I think this version fixes that problem. Give it a spin. test1.com?sid=667 is a test story url that will always fail on chapter 1.

UPDATE Jan 10, 2013 - Remove obsolete beta versions.

[Firedancer885]

Originally Posted by iatheia

Could do, yeah. Though, if you say that a permission is needed, the best thing would be to ask for it first =)

I asked the moderators:

Would it be a problem, if Calibre's Fanfictiondownloader plugin supported this archive?

and got the following reply:

It wouldn't be a problem at all! Both myself (the webghoddess) and the owner
of the site are Calibre addicts, and we'd be honored to be included!

Go for it!

...SuBethJimBob

So please, make FFDL support imagine.e-fic.com

[iatheia]

Jim,
Hmm, significantly better. At least now one can tell if there was a failure.
However, having a chance to test it during an actual downtime, since, unlike that fake website, it tries and fails to collect metadata, it does not leave a log in "Adding jobs for URLs" At best it puts "Unsuccessful:Unknown" in the end, and it doesn't write anything at all if there were no successful stories in the same batch.


Firedancer885, I'll have it done over the weekend.

[Firedancer885]

Originally Posted by iatheia

Firedancer885, I'll have it done over the weekend.

Thank you

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by iatheia

Hmm, significantly better. At least now one can tell if there was a failure.
However, having a chance to test it during an actual downtime, since, unlike that fake website, it tries and fails to collect metadata, it does not leave a log in "Adding jobs for URLs" At best it puts "Unsuccessful:Unknown" in the end, and it doesn't write anything at all if there were no successful stories in the same batch.

FFDL PI does an initial metadata collection fetch for each URL before the background subprocess is even started. (This is necessary for a variety of reasons, including needing to check and maybe collect user/pass.)

If that fails, the URL is skipped in the subprocess. If all URLs fail, the subproc doesn't even start). The case you're talking about is where there are other downloads that did start.

I can see where that can be confusing if you're expecting it in the job log. The attached version included the pre-failed URLs as if the subproc job had run them, plus I added the URL to the success/fail lists at the end of the job log. How's that? Would just URLs in success/fail lists be better?

UPDATE Jan 14, 2013 - Remove obsolete beta version.

[iatheia]

Perfect, thanks!

[jackr]

I just started using the custom status column to help with keeping track of stories that go on hiatus/get canceled, and so far its been a great! However I am encountering a hiccup in the process. When updating if new chapters, metadata only gets applied to stories that have new chapters correct? I ask because I ran a test on a group of stories. And sure enough, when I ran an 'update metadata only' after a regular 'update if new chapters', a couple of the stories changed their status.

I don't know if I am overlooking something or misinterpreting when I read the help box on 'Default Update Calibre Metadata'. If I'm not, could it be a potential feature where the status column metadata gets compared to the metadata already on file, and if different replace it?

One of these days I need to get around to learning Python so I can solve my own problems.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by jackr

I just started using the custom status column to help with keeping track of stories that go on hiatus/get canceled, and so far its been a great! However I am encountering a hiccup in the process. When updating if new chapters, metadata only gets applied to stories that have new chapters correct? I ask because I ran a test on a group of stories. And sure enough, when I ran an 'update metadata only' after a regular 'update if new chapters', a couple of the stories changed their status.

Correct. The names say it all--"Update EPUB if New Chapters" only updates if there are new chapters. "Update Calibre Metadata Only" updates the metadata only. Sounds like what you want, however, is "Update EPUB Always".

Originally Posted by jackr

I don't know if I am overlooking something or misinterpreting when I read the help box on 'Default Update Calibre Metadata'. If I'm not, could it be a potential feature where the status column metadata gets compared to the metadata already on file, and if different replace it?

The tooltip for 'Default Update Calibre Metadata' says "On each download...". If there are no new chapters with "...if New Chapters", there's no download done, so it doesn't apply.

[jackr]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Correct. The names say it all--"Update EPUB if New Chapters" only updates if there are new chapters. "Update Calibre Metadata Only" updates the metadata only. Sounds like what you want, however, is "Update EPUB Always".

This almost works perfectly for me, thanks! Not just for updating metadata, but it looks like it will also weed out any 'story already has x chapters' errors as well.

The only thing now that I have a problem with is a modtime column that I use to help tell when each story got modded last. When using 'Update Metadata Only', these times don't change; but when I use 'Update Always', they all change, regardless of a chapter update. I assume this is because when only metadata gets updated, only the opf file gets written and the epub is left alone. And with 'Update Always', all the epub's get altered as well.

Do you know of any way I can go about having the metadata for all stories be written alongside only writing to epubs that have new chapters? If not I will just find a way to tweak with the modtime column, since this is almost exactly what I wanted.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by jackr

Do you know of any way I can go about having the metadata for all stories be written alongside only writing to epubs that have new chapters? If not I will just find a way to tweak with the modtime column, since this is almost exactly what I wanted.

Calibre chooses when to update it's 'date' column. I don't really pay attention it anymore. I don't know any modtime column.

If you're filling a custom column #modtime from FFDL's Packaged time, you might try Updated date instead.

[jackr]

My bad. I am using this in a column: formats_modtimes(date_format), which in the manual says its for the modification times for formats of a book. Thats the calibre date column right?

I'm already using Updated date in a template to show me days since the update, so I will just use that instead. Thanks for the help!


Edit: Actually I think I will just stick with just updating new chapters only. I can just run a metadata only update once a month or something to see if any stories get canceled or put on hiatus.


Edit #2: When I run 'Update if New Chapters', the 'Downloading metadata for stories' window suggests that it is downloading the metadata for all stories. And then the plugin goes and downloads only stories with new chapters. And finally it applies the changes and metadata only to those stories with new chapters.

If this is the case, then like how there is a checkbox to only update if the story is new in custom columns, can there be an additional one to to update the column regardless of new chapter? (I am probably off in my assumption on what the plugin is doing during the 'Downloading metadata for stories' section. )

[SallyK]

Has anyone asked if it was possible to support the Henneth Annun Story Archive(http://www.henneth-annun.net/)?

Getting back in Tolkien fanfiction with the Hobbit film, and I know there's a lot of good stories there.