Emailing news automatically using multiple formats?

[stualden]

I found this thread but I'm not seeing the behavior it describes.

I would like to automatically download news and email it both to my iPad (epub) and to my Kindle (MOBI). If I set my default output to epub, it's emailed to the iPad only. If I set my default output to MOBI, it's emailed only to the Kindle.

If Amazon will actually do the conversion epub->MOBI, that would be great, but how do I get calibre to email the epub when the Kindle is listed as only accepting MOBI, AZW, etc.?

If Amazon won't do the conversion, is there a way to automate the daily process of converting the epub news file to MOBI and then mailing it over to Amazon?

Thanks,

--Stu

[kovidgoyal]

Simply add EPUB to the list of formats to send to your kindle address in Preferences->Sharing by email

[stualden]

I didn't realize I could edit that list directly - was expecting some type of "Edit" button but there's none on that page.

[stualden]

I spoke too soon - this sends the EPUB to Amazon, but it appears that they do *not* convert from EPUB to MOBI. So is there a way to automate a conversion (say from EPUB to MOBI) immediately after the fetching of the news, and then automate the emailing of the converted file?

The return message I received from Amazon, for reference:

The Kindle Personal Document Service can convert and deliver the following types of documents:
Microsoft Word (.doc, .docx)
Rich Text Format (.rtf)
HTML (.htm, .html)
Text (.txt) documents
Archived documents (zip , x-zip) and compressed archived documents
Mobi book

Images that are of type JPEGs (.jpg), GIFs (.gif), Bitmaps (.bmp), and PNG images (.png).
Adobe PDF (.pdf) documents are delivered without conversion to Kindle DX, Second Generation and Latest Generation Kindles.

Adobe PDF (.pdf) can be converted to Kindle format and delivered on an experimental basis.

If the document that failed belonged to one of the above document types, please ensure the document is not password protected or encrypted. Note that the Latest Generation Kindles support password protected PDFs.

Helpful tips for personal document attachments:
• The file size of each attached personal document should be less than 50MB (before compression in a ZIP file)
• The email submitted should not contain more than 25 attached personal documents

You can learn more about transferring personal documents to your Kindle in our help pages:
http://www.amazon.com/kindlepersonaldocuments/

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by stualden

So is there a way to automate a conversion (say from EPUB to MOBI) immediately after the fetching of the news, and then automate the emailing of the converted file?

Assuming there isn't, this is the sort of thing that might be done via a File Type plugin. As I understand FT plugins, they are executed when a 'Book' is added to a library.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

No, there isn't, periodicals in MOBI format have special requirements which make general conversion unsuitable. I'd suggest using the command line tools that come with calibre to setup something (ebook-convert to download the news, once in epub and once in mobi, and calibre-smtp (or any email tool you like) to email it).

[stualden]

Exactly what I was thinking - thanks, I'll give it a try. This is fun!

[stualden]

Could you please tell me the name of the WSJ English paid-subscriber recipe? If I request a list, both the free and paid are showing as "The Wall Street Journal". If I use that string, I'm getting the free-content recipe (since I guess that's the first one?) but I am trying to get the paid-content recipe. (I am a subscriber and do have login credentials.)

Of course, if there is a general method for determining recipe names (so they can be used with ebook-convert), I'd love to learn that!

Follow-up: Okay, I see the titles listed in builtin_recipes.xml in the resources folder. But the problem is that both the free and the paid version have the same title (namely "Wall Street Journal"). The free version is first and it is the one being picked up.

If I switch the order of the two entries in the XML file, that solves my immediate problem. But as a more general solution, is there a way to reference the id instead of the title when running ebook-convert? (I want the id builtin:wsj rather than builtin:wsj_free.) Otherwise, it seems like it's always a potential problem for two different recipes to have the same title.

[kovidgoyal]

Two recipes having the same title is rare, so I have not bothered making an id based system for referring to them. Note that you can also point to a recipe file to run that recipe explicitly.

[stualden]

Thank you. Pointing to a recipe file (I found and downloaded wsj.recipe) was my first solution, but then I figured that it was better practice to take advantage of the builtins in case recipe changes are needed down the road.

Will my patch of builtin_recipes.xml remain "permanent," or will it be overwritten by future calibre updates? (I took off the read-only attribute to make the change, then put read-only back on.)

[kovidgoyal]

It will be overwritten, but in any case I have added (free) to the title for the wsj_free recipe.

[stualden]

And I see your change in the version you just released - thank you!!