V5.0.0 alpha channel release

[chaley]

CC V5.0.0.1 has been released on the CC alpha channel.

It is moderately difficult to write the change log for this release because so much has been changed. What follows is a summary in no particular order:

• Dropped support for Gingerbread and Honeycomb (Android 2 and 3)
• Changed to newest Google tools and libraries. This change touches most of CC's user interface, usually is subtle ways, because the new tools try to enforce some "Material Design" guidelines. For example, the action bar is a bit different, dialog buttons have moved around a bit, and some animations have come or gone. It is this change that introduces the most risk that I broke something.
• Use Android's Storage Access Framework (SAF) when CC is running on Android 5 (Lollipop) or higher. This permits storing your library in arbitrary folders on the SD card. When you go to Settings / Formats and Folders and tap an extension or the default line, CC opens an Android folder chooser instead of the existing one. Note that I have no control at all over that chooser dialog.
  
  The app-private-folder hack is now only necessary on Android 4.4 (Kitkat).
  
  The tools and library changes were necessary to make this work.
• E-ink corrections now work somewhat differently, although as far as I can tell they still work.
• The settings screeen(s) have reverted back to the "standard" for the android theme.
• Add a transition animation from the book list to book details. Don't do the animation if e-ink corrections are enabled. Add an option in Settings / Book details to disable the animation.
• Move the cloud connection database cache out of the library, instead storing it in the app private folder on the SD card if there is one, otherwise in main memory. This was required because of the change to use the SAF. As far as I can tell one cannot put a database in a folder managed by SAF.
• Handle Android 6 asking for permissions at run time instead of install time.
• Add an option in Settings / File names to remove accents (diacritical marks) on characters used in path names. This does not "ascii-fy" the path. It just removes accents. Exactly what is an accent is defined by the ICU (International Components for Unicode) consortium.
• Add Android 6 auto-backup support. I have no idea if it works at all. It doesn't on my Nexus 5. There is a lot of chatter saying that one must do a system reinit after an upgrade to make it work and I am unwilling to do that on my "production" phone.
  
  If it works then it will backup CC's settings. The database is too large.
  
  FWIW: I think a better solution is to use CC's backup, saving the file to a folder that is auto-synced to some cloud provider.
• Changes to strings to (I hope) make the Onesky translation tools work better.
• Updated languages: French, Russian, Spanish. Some, perhaps all, of these updates were triggered by the changes I made to strings.
• [BUG FIX]Make CC really able to open azw3 files with FBReader

@Translators: I will upload the new strings once I get some feedback on this version.

Re dropping support for Android 2 and 3: CC version 4 will remain on Google Play and will be offered to the these devices. Android 4 and higher will automatically be offered CC version 5. I don't intend to continue development of V4, but I will fix egregious bugs.

[nqk]

Thanks Chaley for accent removal option.

It looks good and smooth.

However, it crashes on long-pressing to download books from cloud. The books were downloaded successfully anyway.

And please set it to convert đ and Đ to d and D, respectively (filename).

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

This change touches most of CC's user interface, usually is subtle ways

Well that's an understatement. It looks pretty much exactly the same to me. Which isn't a complaint, because I thought the old UI was great.

One nice improvement. The scroll bar in the book list is finally working (for me) correctly.

Haven't run into any issues yet.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by nqk

However, it crashes on long-pressing to download books from cloud. The books were downloaded successfully anyway.

I cannot make this fail on either Android 5.1 or 4.3. I tried going to "Latest" and long-pressing a book. The indicator spun, the download happened, and the indicator cleared. What are you doing that is different?

It is probably worth sending a debug log to me at cc_debug_logs at charles dot haleys dot org

And please set it to convert đ and Đ to d and D, respectively (filename).

Ahhh, this complicates things. In unicode those are considered to be proper letters, not accented letters. In other words, you are asking that the string be converted to ascii, not that the accents be removed.

I can do that for those two characters, but that won't cause (for example) Cyrillic characters to be changed to Latin characters. I suspect that down this path lies perdition.

To ask again, why is removing these accents important?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Well that's an understatement. It looks pretty much exactly the same to me. Which isn't a complaint, because I thought the old UI was great.

The lists look the same to me, as do the book details panels. The changes that I have noticed are:

• The font in the action bar is different
• The action bar is now capitalized.
• The buttons in dialogs have moved. The OK and Cancel button equivalents are on the hard right, while the "neutral" button is on the hard left.
• Color schemes for dialogs have changes a bit, in particular in the choice of font color for buttons.
• Spacing appears to be tighter on some lists, but this might be my imagination.
• There is no animation on the affordance icon when opening the grouping drawer.
• Menus used to be (IIRC) black with white text. Now they are white with black text.

One nice improvement. The scroll bar in the book list is finally working (for me) correctly.

Good, although I have no idea why.

[Purple Lady]

I just tested a little to make sure the SD card fix still works on my Tab S which is still on kitkat. Everything worked ok except the checkmark didn't appear telling me the book was on the device until I went back to the main list and then chose newest again to bring the book list back up. This was using the cloud connection. I had used a long press on the JA Konrath book and when the download was complete no checkmark was visible. When I downloaded by going into book details it worked correctly - the checkmark was there when I returned to the book list.

Edit: I do not have the box checked in settings to use SD cards on kitkat. I never had it checked because it always worked anyway.

[nqk]

Originally Posted by chaley

I cannot make this fail on either Android 5.1 or 4.3. I tried going to "Latest" and long-pressing a book. The indicator spun, the download happened, and the indicator cleared. What are you doing that is different?

It is probably worth sending a debug log to me at cc_debug_logs at charles dot haleys dot org
Ahhh, this complicates things. In unicode those are considered to be proper letters, not accented letters. In other words, you are asking that the string be converted to ascii, not that the accents be removed.

I can do that for those two characters, but that won't cause (for example) Cyrillic characters to be changed to Latin characters. I suspect that down this path lies perdition.

To ask again, why is removing these accents important?

This is the log file
https://app.box.com/s/dn6ga17m2jrhmye02nicq09eleo5azi1

Regarding the accent issue, it started with how Calibre converted the characters. I like to keep things - filename - consistent in all cases: manual copy, fetching file using CC or other app so as to sync reading positions among devices

[Purple Lady]

Some of the external SD card function works on my Fire HD 8. I changed settings to put mobi books on the external SD in a new folder. CC created the new folder and moved the mobi books to it.

I noticed that I had a bunch of books with missing files - this problem had nothing to do with the new version of CC. It seems like all authors that had a middle initial followed by a period were in a folder with the author middle initial with no period. I have a lot of authors with middle initials, so I deleted all the books so I could just start over.

The adding books from a wireless connection failed with an error saying CC couldn't write the book file or something like that. I also tried the Cloud connection and it failed but the message was long and disappeared immediately.


Edit: I just discovered that the periods went missing from the folder names when I copied them from the internal to external sd for backup using ES File Explorer. I better find another file manager.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by nqk

This is the log file
https://app.box.com/s/dn6ga17m2jrhmye02nicq09eleo5azi1

Thanks. The problem arises because of a change in Marshmallow, checking for an error that previous versions didn't notice. Fixed.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Edit: I just discovered that the periods went missing from the folder names when I copied them from the internal to external sd for backup using ES File Explorer. I better find another file manager.

Try Solid Explorer. I've been using it for years and I really like it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Some of the external SD card function works on my Fire HD 8. I changed settings to put mobi books on the external SD in a new folder. CC created the new folder and moved the mobi books to it.

I noticed that I had a bunch of books with missing files - this problem had nothing to do with the new version of CC. It seems like all authors that had a middle initial followed by a period were in a folder with the author middle initial with no period. I have a lot of authors with middle initials, so I deleted all the books so I could just start over.

The adding books from a wireless connection failed with an error saying CC couldn't write the book file or something like that. I also tried the Cloud connection and it failed but the message was long and disappeared immediately.

I am not sure what you did when you deleted the books. Using the SAF, any change to the folder itself such as renaming it will invalidate the permission. It is also possible that giving permission to a different app will invalidate CC's permission. For all I know, updating an application can invalidate the permissions.

If this happens again then you can use Formats and Folders to reclaim the permission.

If you didn't touch the folder, that is change its name or even change it to what it was then something else is going on. What is a mystery.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am not sure what you did when you deleted the books. Using the SAF, any change to the folder itself such as renaming it will invalidate the permission. It is also possible that giving permission to a different app will invalidate CC's permission. For all I know, updating an application can invalidate the permissions.

If this happens again then you can use Formats and Folders to reclaim the permission.

If you didn't touch the folder, that is change its name or even change it to what it was then something else is going on. What is a mystery.

I didn't touch the folder, I just deleted everything in it.

[jackie_w]

@chaley,

Trying to access a book from the Book Cover List widget (the tall thin one) is crashing my phone. Note 3/Android 5.0.

I have Restarted and Rebooted the phone several times with the same result each time. Debug log sent.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I didn't touch the folder, I just deleted everything in it.

Hmmm...

I just tried the following on my Fire (Android 5.1):

1. Change the folder for mobi. I created a new folder. CC moved the books.
2. Connected to calibre as a wireless device. No problem. Disconnected.
3. Deleted all the books in the new folder using ES File Explorer. I selected one book, tapped select all, and then delete.
4. Connected to calibre again. Connect worked. Disconnected.
5. Connected to calibre using sync books. This didn't work. It put the books in the default folder instead of the mobi folder. I will make a release that fixes this. After making the fix it worked fine.

I am not sure what I did that was different than what you did. Perhaps your problem is a result of the bug I found.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Try Solid Explorer. I've been using it for years and I really like it.

This works sometimes. If the folder name ending in a period is the top level folder you are copying it works. If the folder name ending in a period in another folder you are copying it doesn't work. ES File Explorer failed both.