Calibre Companion 3 beta for Android released

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by chaley

Unfortunately, this is hard. We currently convert the comments to "rich text" and display them that way, which is why you get bold, italic, etc. This conversion is provided by android, and it throws away all alignment information. We looked at using a web view that interpreted more html, but that created no end of problems with fonts and font sizing, and it wasn't happy when given pure text input instead of html. In the end we gave up.

Thanks, no problem. It's a relatively minor issue.

But I was just wondering. In my reader program, Mantano, bold, italics and centering are all maintained on the book details page. Do they use a different process to get that information? For example, do they read book details directly from the book itself whereas CC gets it from Calibre's database or content server?

--Pat

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

But I was just wondering. In my reader program, Mantano, bold, italics and centering are all maintained on the book details page. Do they use a different process to get that information? For example, do they read book details directly from the book itself whereas CC gets it from Calibre's database or content server?

Are you talking about the jacket? Calibre heavily processes the comments when it writes to the jacket to ensure a level of consist display. The raw comments don't have this advantage.

The attached screen capture shows a version of book details using a web view. "Comment" is using a web view. All other lines are using rich text. Note the lack of baseline alignment and left margin alignment. Although there must be a way to fix these to ensure they align correctly, I haven't found it.

Yes, I know I am being picky, and perhaps it would be better to say "oh well". The problem is that down that road lies perdition. When developing the book details display we decided that we would rather have a correct layout than show more html, especially since the vast majority of "comments" are close to plain text.

And all this ignores the issue of embedded images, which IIRC won't work at all unless the images are visible on the 'net using URLs. Images embedded in the book file will certainly not work. Calibre embeds the images into the jacket comments in the book, which is how Mantano will appear to avoid the problem.

Bottom line: what we have is predictable and works for what it does. Trying to use more web views and more html wouldn't have those guarantees.

[PatNY]

Originally Posted by chaley

Are you talking about the jacket? Calibre heavily processes the comments when it writes to the jacket to ensure a level of consist display. The raw comments don't have this advantage.

Hi Charles,

No, I never use Calibre's "jacket" feature. I am talking about Mantano's book details page, which is equivalent to CC's book details page. I have attached a screenshot from Mantano to show what I am talking about. The information shown on this page is not inside the book that can be read in the "reader" portion of Mantano. It's only in the OPF file. It shows bold, italics and centering.

So I was just wondering if perhaps Mantano was reading the OPF file to get its information, whereas CC gets the information from Calibre's database/content server? From a different source?

--Pat

[chaley]

Pat,

Assuming that it isn't connected to the content server, mantano must be getting the raw HTML from the opf inside the book. This data will be very similar to what CC gets from the database, if not identical, ignoring metadata updates that mantano won't see without a resend of the book.

However, if you look at how they are displaying it you will see that they separate the comments from other data, making no attempt to present all the metadata in a unified format, which we do. What they have done instead is to create separate sections on the screen that mask the differences in formatting between the HTML comments section and the more text-like other sections. This is by no means a bad idea, but for us to do something similar we would need to sort all the comments fields, standard and custom, to their own "section" of the details display, probably the end after all the other standard and custom fields. Of course, doing so would raise the level of "user push" to be able to reorder the list of fields, and would raise the risk that we (I) would break something fundamental.

I would also be willing to bet that mantano wouldn't be able to handle embedded images, just as we would not.

I will think further on this, but at first blush I am unwilling to start down this path. I will talk it over with Steven and Annie, and perhaps things might change.

[PatNY]

Charles, all my books in Mantano are put there by CC. I don't import books into Mantano independently. So I assume it is getting the information from the book's OPF.

And, no, Mantano can't show images. I was curious about that feature in Calibre so I tested it (never used it before today until you brought it up), and web images inserted into the comments section will just show up as a URL on the book details page (same as with CC).

Again, centering is a relatively minor issue for me, so no problem if it's not something you would want to pursue. CC is pretty awesome as it is. But .... if perhaps one day you had a little extra free time, maybe you can think of a way to easily implement it within the detail page's existing structure.

--Pat

[chaley]

Originally Posted by PatNY

Again, centering is a relatively minor issue for me, so no problem if it's not something you would want to pursue. CC is pretty awesome as it is. But .... if perhaps one day you had a little extra free time, maybe you can think of a way to easily implement it within the detail page's existing structure.

--Pat

Gentle pokes are appreciated.

And indeed, we will look at it.

[RobFreundlich]

Originally Posted by Sefiriot

Actually you could mark books as read in calibre, but it involves a custom column and manual updating, I think.

I have set this up in calibre, and I'm also using CC's feature to group by custom columns (don't have my Fire with me, so I can't see exactly what it's called).

Using that, I now have a group in the drawer called #read, with two values:

• <<>> - unread books
• Yes - read books

I expect that if I were diligent about marking new books in calibre as No instead of leaving them blank, it'd have a third entry for that, but I'm too lazy :-)

I'd love a way to change the value of this custom column in CC, but understand what chaley has said about it not being feasible. Maybe at some point that'll change, but for now, I just go back to my computer at some point and change the value for the books I've read since last time.

[RobFreundlich]

The title sums it up well. Over the long weekend I rooted my Fire, installed the Play Store, and purchased the latest CC. I absolutely love the grouping and grid (bookshelf) view features!

See my recent post about the #read column for one way the grouping feature has been helpful.

I've been using the grid view to clean up my library. I had a bunch of books that didn't have covers, or had the wrong covers. Using the grid view, it's easy for me to see when that's the case. I can then go to calibre on my computer, select the books, and get covers. I know I can do that in calibre as well, using the cover flow or grid view there, but it's somehow more comfortable for me to do the research portion on my Fire.

[chaley]

This thread has reached end-of-life and should be no longer used.

[snoozer]

Originally Posted by chaley

This thread has reached end-of-life and should be no longer used.

I am somewhat new here and was wondering which forum is best for posting questions about cc?
Thank you
Mark

[theducks]

Originally Posted by snoozer

I am somewhat new here and was wondering which forum is best for posting questions about cc?
Thank you
Mark

Not the one that had the latest beta version in its title, V3 is no longer in beta test .

Why not use the New thread button?

Or, if you must run a down-rev version for some odd reason, one of the older threads (again, not a beta -testing, thread) with that version.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by snoozer

I am somewhat new here and was wondering which forum is best for posting questions about cc?

This one, calibre/devices.

[thekidsmom]

Originally Posted by chaley

If you are using a 7" or a 10" tablet then when in landscape the drawer is permanently open. In portrait the drawer can be closed. Is this your situation?

Chaley, that is exactly it! I have a 10" tablet. Thanks for the clarification. I was going batty looking for a setting to change.