[Android] Wish List

[chaley]

Originally Posted by a_daley

It would be nice to be able to change the rating immediately after I have read the book - saves me having to remember to update calibre when I get back to the desktop...

Ahhh, then where does it stop? Someone would also want to update the comments to explain the review, update the tags or some custom column with information from having read the book, etc. Of course this doesn't make it a bad idea, but perhaps it would be better to attack the problem differently.

What about having calibre set a "mark" (the Mark Books calibre function) on a book when it syncs "read" from CC to calibre?" That would allow you at the next wireless device sync easily to see which books need some attention, and would cost almost nothing in terms of performance and complexity.

[a_daley]

Not being a programmer, (I'm a Network Designer) I assumed it wouldn't be too difficult if it was limited 1 - 5 and the Rating is a standard column within calibre which CC picks up...

I apologise for my obvious ignorance... Sorry

Regarding setting a mark the issues I see are it would mark all read books unless I could maybe specifically set individual ones - at the moment I simply make a note within Moon+ Reader Pro on each book I have read to update them.

But that said it would make it easier than what I have at the moment....

Thank you for such a fast reply and an impressive product

[chaley]

Originally Posted by a_daley

Not being a programmer, (I'm a Network Designer) I assumed it wouldn't be too difficult if it was limited 1 - 5 and the Rating is a standard column within calibre which CC picks up...

I apologise for my obvious ignorance... Sorry

No need to apologize.

The complexity comes from needing to keep track of where the value changes. It can change in calibre, in CC, or in both, and the rules must be crystal clear what happens in each situation. There is a additional of complexity in the UI to indicate that that field is editable or to put an editable copy of it up with the read + date read stuff, and the necessary options to tell CC and calibre what it is to do with it.

Performance problems come from needing to transfer the information and then verify the status of the info in calibre's DB.

Regarding setting a mark the issues I see are it would mark all read books unless I could maybe specifically set individual ones - at the moment I simply make a note within Moon+ Reader Pro on each book I have read to update them.

It would mark books where the read (or the date read?) changed since the last sync, not all read books.

Thank you for such a fast reply and an impressive product

Thanks for the kind words.

[a_daley]

Thanks for explaining it so simply...

If you decide to implement it in the future I am happy to beta test it for you - I do so for a couple of programs already in linux, android and windows....

[chaley]

Originally Posted by a_daley

Thanks for explaining it so simply...

If you decide to implement it in the future I am happy to beta test it for you - I do so for a couple of programs already in linux, android and windows....

Beta tests are done via the CC prerelease program. If you join then you will get offered beta releases during release cycles, which happen 2 or 3 times per year. I intend to start the next one in late June.

Unless someone comes up with a reason why I shouldn't add this temp marker feature, I will probably include it in the next cycle. I suspect that the only controversy will be whether or not to provide an option to turn it off.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

Unless someone comes up with a reason why I shouldn't add this temp marker feature, I will probably include it in the next cycle. I suspect that the only controversy will be whether or not to provide an option to turn it off.

If you didn't turn it off, what would happen to people who ignored it in Calibre?

My vote is you should do it whichever way will get you less support emails.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

If you didn't turn it off, what would happen to people who ignored it in Calibre?

My vote is you should do it whichever way will get you less support emails.

You raise the $64,000 question, the same one that comes up every time we discuss changing CC+calibre's behavior.

The first issue is discoverability. If the feature is available but is turned off then the vast majority of people will never learn that it exists. A feature that no one uses isn't a good use of our time. On the other hand, if it exists and is turned on then people will wonder why those push pins started appearing in their library when they connect CC as a wireless device. Many will say "oh well, doesn't bother me" and go on, but others will look for an answer. That gets us to ...

People who look for an answer will likely not immediately make the relation between CC and the push pins. They might go to the calibre forum to ask what they mean. This is OK because we all monitor that forum as well as the CC one, and we can point them at a to-be-written CC FAQ entry.

The next issue we face is that some number of people will hate it, just as we see with the pins being added by the find duplicates plugin. These people will want the option to turn it off. However ...

Having the option will cause some number of CC users to send email to us asking what the option really does. We can't put enough text in the option summary to explain things fully without the quantity of text putting people off. Hmmm... I wonder if I can put links to FAQ entries into the options summary descriptions? That might reduce the number of emails to an acceptable level.

[SASSBS]

Thanks chaley appreciate any way you can do it, It is a single column in Calibre just Text for the title to work with the old kindle collections plugin for the e-ink kindles, with over 2500 books I don't really want to have to edit them all to change the way I have the series now, especially as when I tested it on the Fire they were in no order at all without the 01,02 etc. Maybe I did something wrong I will have a good look at the weekend when I have some time.

[Glorfindel]

Originally Posted by chaley

You raise the $64,000 question, the same one that comes up every time we discuss changing CC+calibre's behavior.
The first issue is discoverability. If the feature is available but is turned off then the vast majority of people will never learn that it exists. A feature that no one uses isn't a good use of our time. On the other hand, if it exists and is turned on then people will wonder why those push pins started appearing in their library when they connect CC as a wireless device. Many will say "oh well, doesn't bother me" and go on, but others will look for an answer. That gets us to ...
People who look for an answer will likely not immediately make the relation between CC and the push pins. They might go to the calibre forum to ask what they mean. This is OK because we all monitor that forum as well as the CC one, and we can point them at a to-be-written CC FAQ entry.
The next issue we face is that some number of people will hate it, just as we see with the pins being added by the find duplicates plugin. These people will want the option to turn it off. However ...
Having the option will cause some number of CC users to send email to us asking what the option really does. We can't put enough text in the option summary to explain things fully without the quantity of text putting people off. Hmmm... I wonder if I can put links to FAQ entries into the options summary descriptions? That might reduce the number of emails to an acceptable level.

Maybe have a popup telling them that CC has updated and now includes such-and-such, to disable go to settings>newthing and click disable... Replacing the 'such-and-such' and 'newthing' with the obvious.

[library addict]

Having information sync from CC to Calibre is great for me in theory, but not so much in reality. I had to turn the date sync feature off as I want the date to stay what I put in Calibre (I reread a lot, so my custom column is for the original date read). I know I am probably in the minority, but I like the ratings, dates, etc from Calibre to override any changes in CC as in my case it is the information in Calibre that is correct.

[Purple Lady]

How does the mark books function work in Calibre? Can I turn the marks off in Calibre? I don't think I would want to see them.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

How does the mark books function work in Calibre? Can I turn the marks off in Calibre? I don't think I would want to see them.

Marked books are indicated by a small pushpin. The marks last until calibre is restarted, with the exception of some marks added by the find-duplicates plugin that are restored when calibre restarts.

As far as I know there is no way to turn off showing marks. Instead you would not set them.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

Marked books are indicated by a small pushpin. The marks last until calibre is restarted, with the exception of some marks added by the find-duplicates plugin that are restored when calibre restarts.

As far as I know there is no way to turn off showing marks. Instead you would not set them.

So if they can't be turned off and they also get set and restored by the find-duplicates plugin, how do you know what set them if you add this to CC?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

So if they can't be turned off and they also get set and restored by the find-duplicates plugin, how do you know what set them if you add this to CC?

Perhaps I should start at the beginning.

Temp marks are a feature of calibre that allows you to mark individual books for the life of the calibre session. Marked books are shown with a push pin.

Find duplicates uses marks internally for various things, one of which is books that are not to be considered duplicates (IIRC). For various reasons that plugin restores those marks when it restarts. This behavior is discussed in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=230724 and https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=232807, amongst others. To my knowledge find duplicates is the only "thing" that restores marks. Note that it does not restore any marks other than its own.

The proposal here is to have CC optionally mark books where CC's read information was different from calibre's and therefore synced from CC to calibre during a connect. The intention behind the change is to provide a hint that you might want to update the metadata for books that you have read. For example, you might want to change the rating, update a tag, change a comment, or something else.

If you have marked other books for some reason during the calibre session or if you use find duplicates and it has marked other books, then the marks will intermingle. There are two solutions if this behavior is not acceptable:

1) Clear all marks before connecting as a wireless device.
2) Search for the mark of interest. CC's marks will be named something like "wd_read_synced", so the search would be "marked:wd_read_synced" instead of "marked:true".

[theducks]

Right click on a marked book (title): Clear All Marked Books