Calibre2opds v3.4 - OPDS catalogs from your Calibre library

[Mieeka]

I'm having a bit of a problem getting my catalog to read on the moon+ reader.

the main index.xml file will open, but none of the links work unless i manually strip the "./" from in front of all the URL's.

is there a setting i've missed to correct this?

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Mieeka

I'm having a bit of a problem getting my catalog to read on the moon+ reader.

the main index.xml file will open, but none of the links work unless i manually strip the "./" from in front of all the URL's.

is there a setting i've missed to correct this?

this is the first time I have heard of such an issue, so i suspect the problem is something else. Having URLs that start with ./ is perfectly valid so if this really was the problem i am sure that there would hsve been other reports as not handling it correctly would be a serious bug in Moon+ reader. Unfortunately i do not have an Android device myself so cannot check this out directly. As a check do things work correctly in a browser if you use the HTML version of the catalog?

Perhaps if you give me the full URL to the index.xml file (send it via PM if you do not wish others to see it) I might be able to spot something wrong. You could also try reporting the issue to the moon+ developer to see what he says.

[Rachel]

I got my free site and I've had all my books in apps/updog/website name for several weeks. If i go direct to Dropbox I can download my books. I have generated a xml catalog as I have been used to doing and it is in my website name folder as well showing as _catalog. I use Marvin to read from and I have tried all sorts of permutations for the address of my catalog but still cannot access it. I followed your note in the guide and so had https://updog.com/website
when I got no response to that I added /_catalog
and when that did no good added /yyyyyyyyindex.xml which is the name given to the index file within the catalog and is the file name I have been using for a number of years.

I am still getting a blank screen in Marvin when I click on the link and I'm out of ideas. When I look in my dropbox account, it infers that I need to share a link - but there is no mention of this in your notes. Can you help please?


But how do I get the website to load?

[skb]

In my setup (which works so well - thanks itimpi) the location is:

https://myname.updog.co/_catalog/index.xml

Because, I put the _catalog directory in with the other calibre directories (oops) but it still works.

Your path when adding OPDS will look like:

https://website.updog.com/location-of_catalog/index.xml

So, if your _catalog directory doesn't live in the main website directory (with all the other author directories), you need to change the "location-of_catalog" to its path.

Does that make sense?

Edited to add: itimpi the path to the User Manual is broken on your blog post "Use Updog.co to continue using Dropbox!" (I tried to leave a comment there but...I failed).

[Rachel]

Thanks SKB

My catalog is in with my author directories but this path does not work for me. (Message: Oops Cannot download fed. The service might not be available or you are not connected to the internet.) I assumed that you meant updog.co and not updog.com?
Are you using Marvin? Have you used a user name and password? Looking at the file structure in Dropbox itself seems to imply that you need to share a link, but I can't see how to do that.

This looks so different to the pathway I had to use in the past (both in Stanza and Marvin) that I'm having trouble getting my head around it and working out where the problem is.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by skb

Edited to add: itimpi the path to the User Manual is broken on your blog post "Use Updog.co to continue using Dropbox!" (I tried to leave a comment there but...I failed).

Thanks for letting me know - I have fixed the link. Not sure how it went wrong because I am sure I tested it at one point but at at least it should be good now.

I always wonder how many people actually read the manual? You can get to it if required from within Calibre2opds itself so it should not be that hard to find. It is set up as a wiki so that users can add to/amend it if they are so inclined.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Rachel

Thanks SKB

My catalog is in with my author directories but this path does not work for me. (Message: Oops Cannot download fed. The service might not be available or you are not connected to the internet.) I assumed that you meant updog.co and not updog.com?
Are you using Marvin? Have you used a user name and password? Looking at the file structure in Dropbox itself seems to imply that you need to share a link, but I can't see how to do that.

This looks so different to the pathway I had to use in the past (both in Stanza and Marvin) that I'm having trouble getting my head around it and working out where the problem is.

I regularly use this method with Marvin so if you get it correct it should work without problems. The URL should end with the same last part as you traditionally used with DropBox. Typically with the default setup the main change is the start where you used to use 'dropbox.com/uXXXXX/Public and now use 'yourwebsite.updoc.co'. An easy way to check the URL is to use the HTML version of the catalog with a browser - if that works then you know the issue is what you are entering at the Marvin end.

One change is that if you have opted for the 'Pro' version of updog then it is now possible to use a username/password combination to increase security - something that was not possible with the Dropbox approach. That also works OK for me with Marvin.

If you are prepared to PM me with the details of the URL you are actually using I can try it from my end to see if I can spot what might be going wrong. If you do that can you confirm the path in Dropbox where you have your Calibre library located so I can check that against the URL you are using.

[Rachel]

Thank you itimpi. I created an html catalog this time, accessed it via the web browser and copied the address into Marvin using .xml. I am sure I had tried this address before, but hadn't realised that Marvin doesn't necessarily add the latest address to the bottom of the list of opds links, and think I may have been continuing to use an old address and erased the new one. Anyway it's OK now.

May I ask you another question now about the catalog? I used to be able to generate my catalog with 5 of my tags at an additional level, then it started crashing. I am now only able to have 2 tags at an additional level without crashing. Is this to do with the size of my library which now stands at just over 9000 books? or is there something I can do to enable cataloging more tags to a higher level?

Thank you for all your help.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Rachel

Thank you itimpi. I created an html catalog this time, accessed it via the web browser and copied the address into Marvin using .xml. I am sure I had tried this address before, but hadn't realised that Marvin doesn't necessarily add the latest address to the bottom of the list of opds links, and think I may have been continuing to use an old address and erased the new one. Anyway it's OK now.

Glad to hear that it is working OK now.

May I ask you another question now about the catalog? I used to be able to generate my catalog with 5 of my tags at an additional level, then it started crashing. I am now only able to have 2 tags at an additional level without crashing. Is this to do with the size of my library which now stands at just over 9000 books? or is there something I can do to enable cataloging more tags to a higher level?

There was a bug that could cause a crash when generating additional levels for a tag. This was fixed recently and the fix is in the latest build.

The number of files in the catalog grows quite fast if you have too many tags used to generate an additional level. However other than that there should not be any limits that I know of. If you do encounter one then I would be grateful if you could provide the metadata.db file that causes you the problem, and settings you were using at the time so I can investigate further.

I personally tend to use the "Custom Catalog" feature for creating additional levels (instead of hidden ones under specific tags) as that makes them visible at the top level of the catalog. As well as the additional visibility this allows me to provide the additional levels using combinations of tags which can be more efficient in terms of the number of files in the catalog. It also allows me to give custom names to these additional levels which can be more meaningful than the tag names.

[zuperhornets]

I've been using calibre2opds for a year and found it really a great catalog creator.

But I have a little concern about how it looks and feels.

Is there an easy (since I am not used to programming language) way to change the font, background, and icons in calibre2opds html page?

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by zuperhornets

I've been using calibre2opds for a year and found it really a great catalog creator.

But I have a little concern about how it looks and feels.

Is there an easy (since I am not used to programming language) way to change the font, background, and icons in calibre2opds html page?

The look and feel of the HTML catalogs is controlled by the CSS stylesheets. There is the default set provided with Calibre2opds, but the user can over-ride the built-in versions. Details on how to do this is contained in the online calibre2opd Developers Guide.

The file you are most likely to want to over-ride is the desktop.css one that provides the basic fonts and styles that are used. Hopefully on examining these you can work out how to change the fonts, colours etc. If you look at the Calibre2opds source on GitHub then you will see at the top level a file called 'different CSS.zip' that includes some example that show how you can easily change the colour scheme used by Calibre2opds in the HTML catalogs.

If you want to play around with the layout at a more fundamental level then the various .xml templates that are used to generate the HTML might be relevant but I suspect those are less likely to be what you want to look at. Also changing them is harder and a very different skill, (and making a mistake there can stop the generation of the HTML catalog working correctly).

Please provide some feedback on whether this is enough information for you to what you want to do and how you get on. I would be interested in adding additional examples to the 'different CSS.zip' file mentioned earlier.

[birmane36]

Hello,

I use calibre2opds to create a catalog of my books on dropbox
I create a site on updog under dropbox
When the generation of my catalog is finished, the file "index.html" is in the folder "catalog" is therefore not visible on updog. By cutting and sticking directly into the folder "dropbox, application, updog, website name" I have access to the first page of my catalog, but if I click on "author, book, etc." it notice me "The requested URL was not found on this server"

What mistake do I make?

Thanks in advance for your help.

PS I am french and I use an online translation service, so thank you for forgiving me the translation errors.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by birmane36

I use calibre2opds to create a catalog of my books on dropbox
I create a site on updog under dropbox
When the generation of my catalog is finished, the file "index.html" is in the folder "catalog" is therefore not visible on updog. By cutting and sticking directly into the folder "dropbox, application, updog, website name" I have access to the first page of my catalog, but if I click on "author, book, etc." it notice me "The requested URL was not found on this server"

Hopefully someone here will be able to assist you. Have you already checked out the Calibre2Opds user guide in the wiki?

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by birmane36

Hello,

I use calibre2opds to create a catalog of my books on dropbox
I create a site on updog under dropbox
When the generation of my catalog is finished, the file "index.html" is in the folder "catalog" is therefore not visible on updog. By cutting and sticking directly into the folder "dropbox, application, updog, website name" I have access to the first page of my catalog, but if I click on "author, book, etc." it notice me "The requested URL was not found on this server"

What mistake do I make?

Thanks in advance for your help.

PS I am french and I use an online translation service, so thank you for forgiving me the translation errors.

Normally using the free Updog service with default settings your Calibre library will be at the location Dropbox/apps/updog/<website> where <website> is your chosen web site name. The Calibre2opds catalog will then (with default Calibre2opds settings) end up in the _catalog subfolder of that location. In such a case the URLs for accessing the catalog become:

HTML: http://<website>.updog.co/_catalog/index.html
OPDS: http://<website>.updog.co/_catalog/index.xml

These URLs will need amending appropriately if you have the Calibre library and associated catalog as subfolders of Dropbox/apps/updog/<website>

I have updated the online documentation to try and make this clearer.

Feel free to ask further questions if this is not sufficient information.

[church mouse]

I have tried setting this up with the updog option.

I can access everything using the index.html file, but for opds using the index.xml, I get the first level view (all books, authors etc) but any of those links just produces a 404 error.

Any ideas?