iPhone 101: iPhone+Stanza+Calibre (the almost-perfect solution)

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by darkmonk

Hello all - this topic has been a bastion of info - but I am wondering if there is not any better way to import books onto the ipod touch? I am rarely connected, and so would like to have them all on it.
Thanks

Apple currently won't let apps use the USB connection so the whatever reader app you use will have to find a way to facilitate batch download via wireless network.

It's been a long time since I used Stanza desktop but I think it allowed this. Caveat, you would have to open all the books you wish to download in the Stanza desktop application, one by one. That kinda makes downloading ebooks one by one from, say, a Calibre stanza catalog easier in comparison.

[StefTeamEdward]

ok i did this but its says port 8080 busy cannot connect on 0000 something like that so i cant conect the server and also the thest sever option is not available i cant click on it???

Originally Posted by ChrisZA

OK, I spent some time on this (and several other) forums migrating from a working MobiPocket Windows Mobile solution to an iPhone solution (all FREE, no jailbreak required). I thought the following guide might be useful to others; either n00bies to ebooks, else experienced sony/kindle users trying to get into the iPhone platform. This info exists on the forum, but without good guides and 101's around, this should serve as a good kickstart for some. Don't flame me - rather add your thougths and alternatives to the thread

IMHO, the iPhone is a perfect reading device; clear screen, large fonts, night reading, and always with me! I've got it working reasonably well (better than MobiPocket on WindowsMobile I might add) on Windows Vista, but this guide will work for other desktop platforms too.

Software required:

• Stanza: The reading app on your iPhone. Get it from the appstore, it's free.
• Calibre: Stanza desktop does not manage your library, and you need to do that if you have more than a few books. Calibre is free, and works on multiple desktop platforms.

Using Calibre (it's not too intuitive I'm afraid):

• Install (get it here)
• Use "Add Books from multiple directories" to get it to load your existing eBook collection. Now, it'll handle nearly all formats that I'm aware of, and will pull them all into 1 library. PDF's, LITs and PCRs all mixed and treated the same; you'll see how well this works now...
• Set your default output to EPUB (button in top right area). This is the standard that Stanza works best with
• Clean your library up:
  • Set up free ISBNdb.com and LibraryThing.com accounts. Calibre helps with this. It's worth the minor effort; with these u get a very (the best I've seen) intelligent assistant to help you ID your book's ISBN, and from there u can get the cover art
  • For each book, press E to edit metadata, then use button "Fetch metadata from server". You will be given a list of likely matches to your book title and author. If not, you need to check the title and author in this same screen - they may have silly filename characters that need editing. You'll figure it out easily enough
  • Once you have the metadata, click "Fetch cover image from server". Select cover, and close with "OK"
  • Do for all books, and your books will be nicely completed with author, title, publisher, date, cover, and in most cases a synopsis (blurb)!
  • Consider adding tags; if you do this, they will appear as subjects in Stanza iPhone. Nice for separating fiction classes, non-fiction subjects, hobbies & interests, etc. Note that from the above metadata, stanza will automatically group authors so don't tag them.
• Now you need to covert all your books: Select the lot, make sure you have chosen 'EPUB' as the output, and click "Bulk Convert" button. Just accept the box that comes up as blank. Now, here's where calibre comes into it's own; even tho you had mixed formats, you will end up with all books having both the original format, and the desired EPUB format, BUT your library will still look like a single list. Nice! Gone are the days of storing multiple directories for different devices.

Getting your books into Stanza:

• This is surprisingly easy. Do not try to open each book in Stanza desktop and then 'share' to your iPhone. Takes time, covers get lost, and some LIT files will not open. Rather:
• Use settings in Calibre (minute hammer button in top right area) to check the 'Content Server' is started
• Make sure your iPhone and PC are on the same WiFi network
• In Stanza iPhone, choose 'Online Catalog', then the '+' button in bottom right
• Choose 'Add Stanza Catalog', and enter a name (eg My PC library) then
  http://192.168.1.2:8080/stanza
  The red text needs to be the IP of your PC on the wifi network. [add a link sometime on how to find this]
• Now download each book - 1x1 I'm afraid unless someone can suggest how to do this faster...
• That's it; a complete library, nicely organised, on an awesome reading device. Forget Kindle, forget WindowsMobile's head start.

Tips/Tricks:

1. Set stanza to have a black background and white text; you can then read at night without your spouse complaining
2. For now, I am rating my books by changing the title in Stanza; I put a score of 1-5 at the front. It's not great, but stanza does not rate books, and any ratings you do in calibre do not get carried across to stanza.
3. This one is more sophisticated, but well worth the effort:
   If you have a large library (ie over 100 books), AND you have them organised with tags so that stanza groups them under the subject button, there is a way to get that stanza grouping benefit without having to download them all 1-by-1. With Calibre2Web from itimpi, you create an online catalog of your books with awesome structuring; drill by author, subject (tag), series, title letters, and even recent additions! Why is that cool; now you actually never need to put the books on you iPhone at all! Your library becomes so accessible and organised, that you can browse online (3G, wifi, etc) and only download books 1 at a time for reading, then delete afterwards. Think it thro a bit; you feel a need to keep books downloaded and with you, but in reality you only need a few wit you at a time, AND the ability to get a few more very easily (for when you are about to go out of coverage). So, here's how:
   • First download Calibre2Web here (you may have to read thro the thread from the bottom to find the latest version)
   • The text file explains how to run it from windows (windows only I'm afraid). It's really rather easy.
   • Now, you have 2 choices, and this is where it gets tricky:
     1. If you have a web site of your own, just copy your entire library structure and the new _CATALOG directory to the server, and follow itimpi's instructions on adding an online stanza catalog to your iPhone.
     2. Otherwise you have to turn your PC into a web server on your wifi network. That requires some savvy; set up a website in IIS mapped to the calibre library directory, disable or open your firewall, find your PC's IP, then do as per itimpi's instructions to add an online stanza catalog to your iPhone. If you know this stuff it's dead easy, but if you don't, rather stick to option 1

Right now, the ONLY thing that prevents this combo from being 100% perfect is that stanza (calibre is not the culprit) does not allow one to rate books. Rating is usually the way to indicate that you've read a book, and in large libraries it becomes tricky to know what you've read and what not. IRL one uses the dog-eared state of the book to determine if you've read it or not - ebook solutions really should not ommit this functionality.

[Enuf]

Originally Posted by StefTeamEdward

ok i did this but its says port 8080 busy cannot connect on 0000 something like that so i cant conect the server and also the thest sever option is not available i cant click on it???

I had the same problem but I changed the port no to 8005 and it worked fine until I added too many books - at least that's what I thought the problem was.

But the newest version of calibre allows me to access over 700 books via the iphone in double quick time - brilliant!! Great work

[mikeywilliams25]

When I try connecting from stanza on my ipod touch using http://192.168.1.2:8005/stanza it offers to download stanza and import it rather than showing me my calibre library.
If I type the same url into my nokia it correctly shows the library.
What am I doing wrong?
Latest Calibre and new ipod 2

[mikeywilliams25]

I found that it works fine if I leave off the stanza at the end:
http://192.168.1.2:8005/

[letmereadit]

I have a problem.
At first port 8005 worked, when I wanted to transfer the ebooks to my iPhone but in some way it stopped working. I transfered two books to my iPhone, started looking for a bunch of other eBooks and when I had another look at the settings site the server stopped; and when I tried starting it again; it gave me the following message: Port 8005 is not open on 0.0.0.0

Anyone any ideas, I already opened the port in my router for the IP adress of the PC I'm using.

[Stngray]

Thanks for this. I use Windows Home Server, and set up calibre as a service on that. Works great.

[da_jane]

I would love some help with the calibre2web + HFS. I have run the calibre2web program and generated the catalogs. I have forwarded a port for HFS and run the "self test" & it's passed.

The request shows up in HFS: 12:31:22 AM 32.147.152.166:54343 Requested GET /CalibreBooks/

But I get "Catalog Error" Error reading catalog data. Please try again later.

[ilovejedd]

I assume you've copied the calibre2web catalog files and your whole calibre library to CalibreBooks? Do you have the _CATALOGS folder inside the CalibreBooks folder?

If yes, the correct address should be:
32.147.152.166:54343/CalibreBooks/_CATALOGS/catalog.xml
...I think. Haven't tried the latest Calibre2Web version but that's what I have with v0.3.

[gescom]

Many Thanks to ChrisZA for this guide and the creator of calibre kovidgoyal for including the server option. Too bad Stanza Desktop cannot transfer books from your pc straight to your ipod/iphone. Also the way in which Apple has limited the use of the usb connection is quite frustrating, it would make things much easier if it were properly functional. I miss the usb mass storage mode that made file transfer easy on Cowon's Iaudio dap's.

Note to Moderators: Make this thread a sticky please!

[Barcey]

Is anyone else having trouble accessing their Online Catalog via Stanza 1.8.1? I had this working before but now I just get "Catalog is Empty". If I access it as a Web Page it works but is too small to read.

[Enuf]

Hi Barcey - Yep I have the same problem - I wasn't sure if it stopped when I changed to stanza 1.8.1 or when I downloaded the latest calibre release. I can't find a way around it which is a pity as it's a great feature.

[kovidgoyal]

Nothing has changed in the content server in calibre for a while, so the problem is likely to be Stanza. Unfortunately, I don't own any Apple hardware, so I can't debug it.

[pilotbob]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Nothing has changed in the content server in calibre for a while, so the problem is likely to be Stanza. Unfortunately, I don't own any Apple hardware, so I can't debug it.

Time to do another chip-in to buy Kovid a Mac mini.

BOb

[kovidgoyal]

I'd actually need something capable of running Stanza, like a itouch