[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jwilker

Interestingly (to me) while I do back up, I've never needed to restore, have never looked into how that actually works, LOL.

Do you always do a proper eject of your Kobo from the computer?

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by jwilker

Interestingly (to me) while I do back up, I've never needed to restore, have never looked into how that actually works, LOL.

There's no automatic restore fuction, you have to do it by hand.

Basically, you go find the zip file the backup made, unpack it in a directory, and pick out the pieces you want to restore, and drop them onto the broken pieces.

I have to restore the database most frequently. (that is, not very often, but more than the config file)

I've only restored the config file after a factory reset, although sometimes I don't bother and just wander through the settings, it's nice to refresh my memory what's there.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by theducks

Not knowing the method Calibre uses for the In Library tick, I wonder if it would be possible for a 'Jump to book in Library' when there is a tick.

You mean the thumbtack in the left column with the numbers?

That is from Marking books. There's a keystroke for it and a menu entry, and some plugins do it automatically.

You can search with marked:true and marked:keyword where keyword is something a plugin sets. I don't know if you can get a list of the keywords currently in use.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by theducks

Why does it really matter WHY?
He wants to do it.

He did have one request, that I was wishing I had (and would assist in using Library view to send an update.)
Not knowing the method Calibre uses for the In Library tick (has {id} available under the covers?), I wonder if it would be possible for a 'Jump to book in Library' when there is a tick.

It's a long time since I looked at it. I seem to remember there was some issue going from the book on the device to the library. I think it was enough to make me decide not to implement all functions in both places. Plus, as there are functions that are definitely only usable on one list, it wasn't hard to restrict others.

I'll have another look when I can. It is a long time since I have looked at that, something might have changed. And I know a lot more about the calibre code than I did at the time.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by davidfor

It's a long time since I looked at it. I seem to remember there was some issue going from the book on the device to the library. I think it was enough to make me decide not to implement all functions in both places. Plus, as there are functions that are definitely only usable on one list, it wasn't hard to restrict others.

I'll have another look when I can. It is a long time since I have looked at that, something might have changed. And I know a lot more about the calibre code than I did at the time.

David
I only want to be able to Jump from the current device view book to its mate in the Library view (the check just says one exists)
My typical usage is to find books that are 'finished' and mark them the same in the Library (I don't want to log progress, last read, nor to overwrite a previous Finished date, which is why I don't use the PI)

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by theducks

David
I only want to be able to Jump from the current device view book to its mate in the Library view (the check just says one exists)
My typical usage is to find books that are 'finished' and mark them the same in the Library (I don't want to log progress, last read, nor to overwrite a previous Finished date, which is why I don't use the PI)

You can select the Not if finished in library option on the Profiles tab/Store on connect options in the KoboUtilities plugin. I also keep the Only if more recent option checked.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by theducks

David
I only want to be able to Jump from the current device view book to its mate in the Library view (the check just says one exists)

I was more replying to the earlier comments about the function in the plugin. But, if my memory is right, it would explain why this doesn't exist. It seems to be an obvious function to want. I have wanted it, but, most times it would be handy for me are when trying to work out why the book on the device isn't matched to library. And it wouldn't actually work for that.

I plan to have a look when I have time. Or am desperately trying not to do some "real" work.

My typical usage is to find books that are 'finished' and mark them the same in the Library (I don't want to log progress, last read, nor to overwrite a previous Finished date, which is why I don't use the PI)

As @DNSB said, the status check does have checks on finished books. But, that works on the percent read, not a status elsewhere. If I reopen a book, I decide whether to set the percent read below 100 to so that the new status gets picked up on the next connection. If it is a reread, then I will. If it just to look for something, I don't.

I have thought about adding other ways to record the finished books because some people do just want a yes/no or a tag somewhere. But, it gets complicated with the combinations of columns and tags ("Read" or "Finished"? Hard-coded or a configuration dialog (which can be the hardest part of it)). If someone comes up with a good alternative, I will look at it.

[theducks]

Thanks David,
I use a date for finished, just like CC sends from its (old, manual mark as done) Android app
If you ever get bored (or need a break from another 'stubborn' project):
I was thinking of a 'Milestones' to save type configuration tick boxes (for the #date field)

[mardaik]

Hello everyone. I just started bringing some order onto my ebook collection and I just wanted to thank davidfor for this tool. I specially like the function to download the whole device database!

[adrianf]

Running away from Amazon, I have been recommended Kobo. In fact, I am not even that surprised to see Kobo using DRM as much as Amazon, trying to sell only «best-sellers», etc..

Anyway, I have to apologise to all present here for a longer time, for my pretty primitive question. My excuse is, that I downloaded «Kobo Desktop Edtion» for macOS 10.15.6 only a few days ago, when I bought my first 5 books in the Kobo website.

Is it any general «sticky» guidance, how to use the «Kobo Utilities» Calibre plug-in to import into Calibre for macOS the Kobo books I have recently bought?
Alternatively, it might be useful also for other late-comers to this plug-in some sort of «help» file.
Many thanks to everybody, especially for bearing with my basic question.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by adrianf

Running away from Amazon, I have been recommended Kobo. In fact, I am not even that surprised to see Kobo using DRM as much as Amazon, trying to sell only «best-sellers», etc..

Anyway, I have to apologise to all present here for a longer time, for my pretty primitive question. My excuse is, that I downloaded «Kobo Desktop Edtion» for macOS 10.15.6 only a few days ago, when I bought my first 5 books in the Kobo website.

Is it any general «sticky» guidance, how to use the «Kobo Utilities» Calibre plug-in to import into Calibre for macOS the Kobo books I have recently bought?
Alternatively, it might be useful also for other late-comers to this plug-in some sort of «help» file.
Many thanks to everybody, especially for bearing with my basic question.

Check for the OBOK plugin which comes as part of the DeDRM 6.8.0 package (Google DeDRM_tools_6.8.0.zip to locate the file). That's about as far as I feel I can go in this forum.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by adrianf

Running away from Amazon, I have been recommended Kobo. In fact, I am not even that surprised to see Kobo using DRM as much as Amazon, trying to sell only «best-sellers», etc..

Anyway, I have to apologise to all present here for a longer time, for my pretty primitive question. My excuse is, that I downloaded «Kobo Desktop Edtion» for macOS 10.15.6 only a few days ago, when I bought my first 5 books in the Kobo website.

Is it any general «sticky» guidance, how to use the «Kobo Utilities» Calibre plug-in to import into Calibre for macOS the Kobo books I have recently bought?
Alternatively, it might be useful also for other late-comers to this plug-in some sort of «help» file.
Many thanks to everybody, especially for bearing with my basic question.

You are mixing things up here. And nothing mentioned here has any relation to the Kobo Utilities plugin.

The ACSM file has nothing to do with the Kobo desktop application or calibre. It is used by Adobe Digitial Editions to allow it to download the book. Once that has been done, you can add the book directly to the device using ADE. Or you can add it to calibre if you have the appropriate DRM handling plugins installed. With these plugins are installed, the books are added to calibre in the same way as books downloaded in other ways.

The Kobo DRM and desktop application is different. This Kobo desktop application downloads the books directly and stores them. If you connect the Kobo device, it can put the book onto the device. If you want it in calibre, you need the Obok plugin. This reads the database used by the Kobo desktop application and and can add the books to the calibre library. It can remove the DRM if necessary.

The DRM related plugins are available from the Apprentice Alf site. And any further discussion on how they work cannot be done here.

[ecorbett]

Hi all hope everyone's well & Ok

I'm a newbie to the the forum, just read through all 126 pages on the kobo utility plugin and picked up some really handy tips! Thanks & kudos for all your hard work davidfor!

I'm a complete novice at code etc and a lot of the things discussed went right over my head, I must confess lol

I did manage to get the store/restore current bookmark setting working - only due to Peter's novice step by step guide post #56 (thanks PeterT!). I briefly hit a wall getting the function to run automatically (manual worked ok), then I realised there was a drop down and I needed to select any device (under customise plug in - I only use the 1 device) . After this working like a dream

The other function I really want to get up and running is get shelves (aka collections) from device. I'm struggling a bit with this and hope you may have some insight into what I'm doing wrong.

Just for a bit of background/context - I use the shelves/collections to group books into genres and sub genres, so if I fancy reading a particular (sub)genre I can browse the applicable collection to make my selection. I used to use the tags column but these aren't searchable on the device. Several months ago I stumbled on the other thread on how to set up and manage shelves/collections. I was able to get these up and running on calibre and could send them from calibre to the device. However it would be much easier if I could add the books to the appropriate collections on the device then export this into calibre using the get shelves from device function (it is easier to identify the (sub) genres I want to categorise the book as whilst reading/read rather than trying to predetermine from the synopsis). Hope this makes sense

I set up a new column (kobo collections) and used get shelves from device > all books on device. I initially thought this was successful but the only records imported were those I had set up and sent via calibre in the first instance. The books I added to collections on the device do not import. I did a test batch and get the below pop up, even though these books have been added to collections and when I go into the collections on the device the books are present/listed.

Update summary
Books processed=7
Books with shelves=0
Books without shelves=7

Colour me confused Do you happen to have any suggestions? Many thanks in advance

[davidfor]

@ecorbett: This is working pretty much as designed.

The collection management is done by the driver in calibre. It uses the values in one or more columns to add books to, or remove them from collections. The driver can also created or remove collections. This is designed to be one way. And it is intended to be done each time the device is connected.

The driver has an option to ignore specified collections. You have to enter the names of the collections to be ignored into the driver configuration.

The "Get Shelves From Device" in this plugin is not intended for frequent use. It was added more as a way to recover for some sort of problem. I think the final prompting for adding it was someone who somehow lost their calibre library and wanted to retrieve it from their Kobo device.

The "Get Shelves From Device" can be used with the driver doing the collection management, but, you need to make sure the columns used in the two places do not overlap. And that you specify the collection to be ignored by the driver. From memory, someone is using this to rate their books. They have a collection for each rating and add the books to these. These collection are specified in the driver to ignore. And they periodically use the get to get the ratings.

The other problem is that the collection management is intended to be done when the device connects. This means that any changes to the collection will be done before you can do the get. You could change the metadata management to manual, but, that would mean that metadata such as the series info is not automatically updated when the device is connected.

[Steven Karp]

Maybe a stupid question and my apologies if it's been asked before and I just didn't see it, but...

Right now, the home screen on my Clara HD is showing 5529 books on the device. However, Calibre thinks I only have 5528 books.

Is there a way--in the Kobo Utilities or elsewhere--to find out what that one extra book is?

I know how to do the opposite--show books in Calibre that aren't on the device--and at least that comes up clean, so I know it's either database corruption on the Kobo or a legitimate extra book.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed.