Calibre Portable - Shouldn't PORTABLE Viewer and PORTABLE Editor open WITH the ebook?

Highlighter · 10-31-2020, 02:38 AM

Hi.

Windows 10.
Downloaded and installed Calibre portable version.

When I set/associate ebook formats to open with ebook-viewer-portable.exe (which is next to calibre-portable.exe) and then double click on some book on my computer to open it - only the Viewer opens, like you launched the Viewer directly and not opened the book?

So you then have to click "open a book from your computer" from inside the Viewer and go to that book again you wanted to open in the first place?!

I don't think that should work like that? It's like clicking on a word document and it only opens Word without the document, or clicking on a movie and it just opens the player and not the movie.

So if you want to use ebook-viewer-portable.exe as default - you can't really do it?

Or I'm doing something wrong?

The reason why I want to use ebook-viewer-portable.exe as a default viewer instead of ebook-viewer.exe that is inside Calibre subfolder:

It doesn't create settings folder called "calibre" in the AppData\Roaming on Windows system, but uses "Calibre Settings" folder next to it - which makes it truly portable.

My workaround so far has been to use the "regular" calibre-viewer.exe as default, but also create junction/symbolic link in AppData\Roaming pointing to "Calibre Settings" subfolder located in Calibre Portable folder and renaming the junction to "calibre". That way all the settings are saved in the Calibre Portable folder which is on another disk drive - so if something happens to the system or I reinstall it - settings are preserved.

The same thing is with ebook-edit-portable.exe. If you right-click on a ebook and open with ebook-edit-portable.exe - only the ebook editor opens - but not the book itself so you have to open it from within the editor. It's kind of pain in the ass.

I'm new here and I searched to see if maybe there is a reason why it works this way, but haven't found anything.

Anyone could help and see if that's some mistake on my side or if not - offer some explanation why it works like that?

kovidgoyal · 10-31-2020, 04:17 AM

It's that way because command line processing on windows is sufficiently painful that I havent bothered to pass command line arguments on. Will be in next release.

Highlighter · 10-31-2020, 05:48 AM

Thank you very much for fast response/explanation and even more so for the upcoming solution!

Have a good day.

10-31-2020, 02:38 AM	#1
Highlighter Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2020 Device: Kindle 3	Calibre Portable - Shouldn't PORTABLE Viewer and PORTABLE Editor open WITH the ebook? Hi. Windows 10. Downloaded and installed Calibre portable version. When I set/associate ebook formats to open with ebook-viewer-portable.exe (which is next to calibre-portable.exe) and then double click on some book on my computer to open it - only the Viewer opens, like you launched the Viewer directly and not opened the book? So you then have to click "open a book from your computer" from inside the Viewer and go to that book again you wanted to open in the first place?! I don't think that should work like that? It's like clicking on a word document and it only opens Word without the document, or clicking on a movie and it just opens the player and not the movie. So if you want to use ebook-viewer-portable.exe as default - you can't really do it? Or I'm doing something wrong? The reason why I want to use ebook-viewer-portable.exe as a default viewer instead of ebook-viewer.exe that is inside Calibre subfolder: It doesn't create settings folder called "calibre" in the AppData\Roaming on Windows system, but uses "Calibre Settings" folder next to it - which makes it truly portable. My workaround so far has been to use the "regular" calibre-viewer.exe as default, but also create junction/symbolic link in AppData\Roaming pointing to "Calibre Settings" subfolder located in Calibre Portable folder and renaming the junction to "calibre". That way all the settings are saved in the Calibre Portable folder which is on another disk drive - so if something happens to the system or I reinstall it - settings are preserved. The same thing is with ebook-edit-portable.exe. If you right-click on a ebook and open with ebook-edit-portable.exe - only the ebook editor opens - but not the book itself so you have to open it from within the editor. It's kind of pain in the ass. I'm new here and I searched to see if maybe there is a reason why it works this way, but haven't found anything. Anyone could help and see if that's some mistake on my side or if not - offer some explanation why it works like that?

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10-31-2020, 04:17 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,926 Karma: 22669820 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	It's that way because command line processing on windows is sufficiently painful that I havent bothered to pass command line arguments on. Will be in next release.

10-31-2020, 05:48 AM	#3
Highlighter Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2020 Device: Kindle 3	Thank you very much for fast response/explanation and even more so for the upcoming solution! Have a good day.

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