[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[Leonatus]

My device is a Kobo Touch N905.
Only recently, I came to use the "Download News" option in Calibre which is very interesting.
My problem: Since I download a paper thrice a week, it always comes up on the screen of the device, and in a short time, the screen is covered with the titles of the newspapers. What I wish is to sort of "hide" the newspapers in a common folder, shelf or whatsoever, on the screen, or - even better - in the device's bibliotheque, without appearing on the main screen at all. The purpose is to reserve the main screen for "real" books.
Is there a way to achieve this with your plugin or in another way?
I never dealt so much with shelf management, so the question might be a bit silly. On the other hand, the newspapers are formatted as epubs, so they appear the same way as "real" books, and this might cause problems for storing them differently.

[compurandom]

So, to rephrase, you'd like the "Dismiss tile from home screen" option to have an option to dismiss books that match a filter of some sort?

[davidfor]

Yes, it would be possible to create a trigger to dismiss books based on a filter. Constructing it could be the problem. The filter needs to be in terms of the id in the database which is basically the filename on the device. The filename is generated by the save template when sending the books to the device. And it would dismiss everything that matched the filter. That would also mean it wouldn't be in the current book position of the home page.

[Leonatus]

Aha, I suspicioned something like that. The newspapers, at beeing sent to the device, should create a specific ID that would perhaps allow to match a dedicated filter, but not to delete the newspaper, but to send it to a place on the device except the main screen, where one could easily find it, nevertheless, in the way compurandom says.
Obvious that this is difficult!
Thank you, though!

[Jellby]

I'd like, if possible, easy access to a couple of database maintenance/cleanup functions:

- Delete "Finished" record for books that are no longer found in the device. I keep my whole library in the device. Sometimes I update a book and it gets replaced or renamed... Since I'm a bit OC, if I had already finished the book, I re-open it, go to the last page and page forward, so it's properly registered as finished. But the record for the old book stays and now I have two finished books in the stats (stats are useless anyway, I know).

- Delete book-specific configurations for books marked as finished. Once I've finished a book, it's unlikely I'll open it again in the near future. When/if I do, I want it to use whatever current default settings are in place.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I'd like, if possible, easy access to a couple of database maintenance/cleanup functions:...

- Delete book-specific configurations for books marked as finished. Once I've finished a book, it's unlikely I'll open it again in the near future. When/if I do, I want it to use whatever current default settings are in place.

For me it is the opposite: I have different fonts and other parameters for different books: it depends on the language, the type of books, and the often strange setting up of books that force narrow or wide line spacing, or big or small font size. And I reread books, and like to keep the parameters.

And I am annoyed that, contrary to what was the case a few F/Ws back, if I open a new book and set its parameters like I like for it, when I return to a former read, it has taken on the parameters of the last opened book.

[Jellby]

I'm only recently updated from the 3.x series, maybe the behavior has changed since.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I'd like, if possible, easy access to a couple of database maintenance/cleanup functions:

- Delete "Finished" record for books that are no longer found in the device. I keep my whole library in the device. Sometimes I update a book and it gets replaced or renamed... Since I'm a bit OC, if I had already finished the book, I re-open it, go to the last page and page forward, so it's properly registered as finished. But the record for the old book stays and now I have two finished books in the stats (stats are useless anyway, I know).

If you use the "Store/restore current bookmark" function to restore the stored reading status, it will mark the book as finished, but it doesn't add the records that are used for the stats. Same goes for using the "Update metadata in Device library" function. And deleting the original version of the book should leave the stats right (when they work).

- Delete book-specific configurations for books marked as finished. Once I've finished a book, it's unlikely I'll open it again in the near future. When/if I do, I want it to use whatever current default settings are in place.

You can do this by using the "Remove reader font" option. Select the books and run it and removes the database records for each book.

I have also been thinking of adding some clean-up functions. Removing some of the records in the database for for finished books is one of them. But, it won't save much space. It might make it faster, but I don't know how noticeable it will be.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you use the "Store/restore current bookmark" function to restore the stored reading status, it will mark the book as finished, but it doesn't add the records that are used for the stats. Same goes for using the "Update metadata in Device library" function. And deleting the original version of the book should leave the stats right (when they work).

Hmm... When I rename/remove a book I had previously finished, I want the old record to disappear and be transferred to the new book, if any. For the reading status, it's easy to do it on the device or through calibre. For the stats (I care more about the number of books finished, rather than the reading time), I can mark the new one as finished by turning the last page, but I can't easily remove the old "book finished" record. It's this what I'm asking for: a tool to delete records for books that are not on the device (or possible duplicates if old and new book have the same filename, but are counted as different books, I don't know if this can happen).

You can do this by using the "Remove reader font" option. Select the books and run it and removes the database records for each book.

Right. I thought I had seen that but couldn't find it at the moment of writing. But my suggestion is a tool for doing it automatically for "finished" books, so I don't need to find them and select them.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Hmm... When I rename/remove a book I had previously finished, I want the old record to disappear and be transferred to the new book, if any. For the reading status, it's easy to do it on the device or through calibre. For the stats (I care more about the number of books finished, rather than the reading time), I can mark the new one as finished by turning the last page, but I can't easily remove the old "book finished" record. It's this what I'm asking for: a tool to delete records for books that are not on the device (or possible duplicates if old and new book have the same filename, but are counted as different books, I don't know if this can happen).

Before my reply last night I did some checking. The exact way that the finished books are counted changed some time ago. It was the number of books marked as finished in the main books table. Now it is done by the event table. That has a record for each finished book with a count for how many time it has been finished. But, it doesn't get created or incremented when you mark the book as finished, only when you read to the end.

There is no current way to remove these records. They aren't deleted when you delete the book. And one of the tests I did last night was to delete them. This reset ALL the counts and the hours. There is probably a checksum or similar being used across all the records in the table.

What this means is that cleaning up these records is a problem. It might be possible to change the id in the table to point to a different book. But, I'm not expecting that to work. There is a checksum on each record. I don't know how this is calculated but it probably includes the id.

If what you want is simply the correct number of finished books, then leaving the records as they are and marking the replacement book as finished will work. If you want to look at the individual stats for a book, then at the moment, you need to make sure the file name doesn't change as that is used for the id in the database.

Also, if the filename doesn't change for a replacement book, the device will remove the book from the database if the file size changes. But, this does not affect the part of the database used for the stats. But, the driver in calibre cheats. It updates the file size in the database. That makes the firmware not reprocess the book as a new one.

Right. I thought I had seen that but couldn't find it at the moment of writing. But my suggestion is a tool for doing it automatically for "finished" books, so I don't need to find them and select them.

When I get to the clean-up functions, I'll include this. But, I don't think it is something I am likely to add as a separate function that can be automatically started.

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by davidfor

And one of the tests I did last night was to delete them. This reset ALL the counts and the hours. There is probably a checksum or similar being used across all the records in the table.

Ouch! Some time ago I remember I manually removed the "finished" event records (was it event number 5?) for non-existent books, and it did not seem to cause any undesired side effect. But this was with some 3.x firmware.

Something else, yesterday I updated some books on the device and they ended up as new entries, because the filename changed (the old name had an apostrope, the new name replaced it with an underscore). Not only the new book didn't get the settings/stats from the old book, but I got duplicate entries because the old book was not deleted. Can something be done in the driver or the plugin to at least warn before uploading the file? The best would be to modify all database entries to use the new name before uploading, but I guess that's not really possible.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Also, if the filename doesn't change for a replacement book, the device will remove the book from the database if the file size changes. But, this does not affect the part of the database used for the stats. But, the driver in calibre cheats. It updates the file size in the database. That makes the firmware not reprocess the book as a new one.

Can there be an option to allow a book with the same name to be sent as a new book or a new version of the same book so it does get reprocessed? I edited a book last night and fixed a few things including removing some of the html files which removed some of the ToC entries. The cheat caused the book not to be processed as a new book and using the forward/back a chapter now do not work.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jellby

Something else, yesterday I updated some books on the device and they ended up as new entries, because the filename changed (the old name had an apostrope, the new name replaced it with an underscore). Not only the new book didn't get the settings/stats from the old book, but I got duplicate entries because the old book was not deleted. Can something be done in the driver or the plugin to at least warn before uploading the file? The best would be to modify all database entries to use the new name before uploading, but I guess that's not really possible.

How would a plug-in or driver know the file you are sending to the device is the same book as one already on it given two different names?

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

How would a plug-in or driver know the file you are sending to the device is the same book as one already on it given two different names?

I don't know, but calibre knows (probably through the metadata). After I sent the book, calibre showed it as "On card A (2 books)" or something to that effect. Other books I sent in the same batch whose filename didn't change showed simply as "On card A".

EDIT: And of course, before sending them calibre showed all books as "On card A", so it "knew" they were there somewhere.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I don't know, but calibre knows (probably through the metadata). After I sent the book, calibre showed it as "On card A (2 books)" or something to that effect. Other books I sent in the same batch whose filename didn't change showed simply as "On card A".

Now I know how it could be done. It could be done using the exact same metadata. All that would have to be done is for someone to program an option to rename the file being sent to the same name as one already on the device if the metadata is the same. If there are multiple books with the same metadata, then no rename takes place and you get a dialog to tell you this so you can either still send or cancel the send.