[GUI Plugin] Reading List

[ash600]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@ash600 - it does not support date time columns or formula expressions for the value.

:O I didn't know about that. That's too bad, thank you very much for responding so quickly!

[kiwidude]

@shortie_1 - thanks for pointing this out, I will take a look at it when I next have a fiddle with this plugin.

@ash600 - thinking about it further with the benefit of hindsight, perhaps a better implementation would have been to just let the user type a search expression, rather than choose a column and type a value. The downside is that it means users need to know the search syntax, but the upside is that could create a list around any criteria they like. I will think about changing it for the next version...

[kiwidude]

Based on the above couple of posts I have decided to significantly change the "auto populate list from a column" feature. To recap, its intent was to allow you to sync a dynamically built list to your device based on a criteria of specifying a column and a value it contains, such as creating a SciFi list based on a tag or whatever.

In this 1.6.1 version, the feature is now called "Auto populate from search". Rather than choosing a column from a dropdown and typing a value, instead you just type a calibre search expression, just like you would if searching your library. So this could be something like tags:"=SciFi" or whatever you prefer.

This is far more flexible than the previous version as you can type comparison expressions, such as to find all the books you have added this month with date>01-03-2013 etc.

There is a crude attempt at migrating your auto populated lists to the new syntax when installing this plugin, but double check if you were using the previous version of this feature to make sure the search syntax is correct for you.

Let me know how you get on, and I will officially release it when ready.

[Vaesse]

Let me start by saying, I LOVE your plugins, as they have made Calibre and my Kindle much easier to use. However, I think I may have found an issue with this plugin. It's hard to pinpoint, because I only really notice it in conjunction with meme's Kindle Collections plugin.

For a while now (exactly how long, I don't know), I've had a problem where my Kindle seems to "lose" plugboard data when sending books to the Kindle via Synch on this plugin. Here's how it works:

- I send one or more books (in or out of series) to my Kindle via Reading List Synch.
- It auto-creates collections and auto-resets my Kindle.
- When the Kindle comes back up, all of my Series based collections have disappeared.
- When I reconnect my Kindle to Calibre, it shows all the proper books in both library and device mode, but it doesn't seem to realize that they are the same. (Library mode shows books not on device. Device mode shows books not in library.)

I have a plugboard that prepends series information to the title, so as to properly sort books within series. This information DOES show in the title on the Kindle. However, it also shows in the title on device mode (which gives it a different title than the same book in my library, which has the series in the series field, not the title). If I manually remove all the effected books (to avoid duplicates) and then use Send to Device, then manually trigger collections, there is no issue and everything works the way I'd expect it to.

For a while, I thought there was a table behind the scenes somewhere that indicated correlation between name after the plugboard and name in library that was getting corrupted. This seemed more likely, given that the "send metadata to device" job frequently didn't complete properly. Tonight, however, I added just one book to my device (not in a series), the jobs all finished successfully, and I still had the same problem. Given that this problem effects about 2500 books, and I lose my place in any of them I've started or completed (more than a few, as I'm a fast reader and often read several books at the same time), it's a pretty big nuisance.

Is this something you want to try to figure out with me (I'm willing to do what it takes to track down the issue if it means it's likely I can get everything running smoothly again), or should I just avoid using the Synch feature? If I'm the only one effected, I understand not wanting to spend the time or energy to track it.

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Rewrite auto-populate from column to be "auto-populate from search". Users now type a search expression rather than choosing a column/value.

See the above beta post for more details about this if you want them.

[kiwidude]

@Vaesse - not something I have ever seen or had reported. Certainly I use this plugin all the time to sync books without ever noticing any such issues, and yes I have a metadata plugboard to prepend series too. The only thing I don't do is happen to have the automatically invoke kindle collections feature turned on. I tend to do that as a manual step afterwards, just because I usually am doing other activities like removing books so don't want to regenerate it twice.

[Vaesse]

No problem... I'll just skip Synch for now then... or maybe try without auto-generating collections and see if that solved it.

[nlundberg]

I would like to know how to sync to my Bookeen Odyssey. Is it possible to add books (manually) to a list in Calibre and have that list mirrored on the device? How do I set that up?
Thanks a lot!

[jjbourne]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Changes in this release:

• Rewrite auto-populate from column to be "auto-populate from search". Users now type a search expression rather than choosing a column/value.

See the above beta post for more details about this if you want them.

Firstly, thanks for your plugins. They make Calibre just that much better.

I'm having a problem with getting the auto-populate to work. If I select it when creating a reading list, the list is created and populated, but it doesn't show up under the Reading List category in the tag browser on the left. I can access it directly via Reading List -> View List, and can confirm that it is populated.

I am using Calibre 0.9.23 x86-64bit

Thanks

[tongsunpark]

I'm having a little difficulty with the recent Reading List Update. In the past I have set the Add Books function to automatically add a tag to all newly-added books. Then, under the prior version of your plug-in I had it configured to automatically transfer books with this tag to my tablet and then automatically remove the tag.

I've figured out how to auto-populate the reading list based on a search for the tag which I'm adding via the Add Books function and I'm good to go on automatically moving books with this tag to my tablet, but because I've had to use to "Populate List From Search" function in the latest version of your plug-in, I can't seem to figure out a way to automatically delete the tag once the book has been moved to the tablet.

I'd have this option if I weren't populating the list from a search, but that capability seems to be greyed out given what I'm doing.

Am I missing something really obvious?

[Kraftwerk]

I am using version 0.9.19 (64 bit) on a fairly new Windows 8 laptop, and managed to add all books and plugins which I had from my old laptop.

I can't get the 'Reading list' to work as it used to on my old laptop.
The option 'When syncing this list' is greyed out (which I want to use) and when I click on the 'reading list' icon at the top of the screen, the only options I have there is: 'Move to list', 'View books to read list' and 'customize plugin'.
I used to have more options than just those before!

All I want to happen, when I connect my kindle to my laptop is to add any new books in my 'reading list' and delete books removed from my 'reading list'.

Any idea what I need to adjust to get this plugin to work like it used to?

Thanks

[itimpi]

Have you plugged in your device and having done so gone into the Reading List settings to tell it about your device?

[edwdecarlo]

@Kraftwerk - It could be one of two things:

1) You need to add your device to your new installation of Calibre/Reading List. As @itimpi pointed out, this can be found within the Reading List customization on the Devices tab.

2) Many plug-ins (and I believe all of @kiwidude's) now store customization/config settings within the calibre DB. So if you see your device in the Reading List Devices tab, you may need to a) disconnect your device, b) remove the device from Reading List devices, c) reconnect your device and then d) add the device to Reading List devices. This is because the OS link to the physical device could be different between laptops/PCs, especially when you move from one OS version to another. So doing this will re-sync Reading List to the OS.

I had to do #2 when I switch from XP to Win 7.

Hope this helps.

[Kraftwerk]

Thanks for the replies but I am not 100% sure of what I have to do as I don't want to do something wrong and lose the books I have in my 'reading list'.

@itimp: Yes, I have already done that.

It looks like I have to sync it: Could 'edwdecarlo' or someone show me step by step how to do this.

Thanks

[Firedancer885]

Hi Kiwidude,

I have a feature request. Could you put a way into the plugin to add or change a value in a column if I remove a book from a list. I have a custom column for the read status of the books in my library. I'm using a reading device and have an auto populated list to keep track of the stories on the device. If I delete a book from the device, it's because I've read it. So I need a way to automatically change the value in the "read" column to yes.
Or is there already a way I haven't discovered?