Windows file management app to flatten folders, copy PDFs and run on a schedule?

[zan5hin]

Hi, so I am trying to get a workflow working for PDF files (Books and Magazines) that are sitting in my D:\Calibre on my Windows 8.1 64bit laptop. I want the PDF files to be stored in the cloud.

I have installed iCloud for Windows and enabled iCloud Drive on my iOS 8 iPad, and I have GoodReader installed. I never use my 5GB of iCloud storage space so this is a great use for that, as it is a permanent folder in GoodReader's folder structure, as opposed to a server you have to "connect" to, therefore the GUI is a little better (still not perfect) though.

The GoodReader folder resides in C:\Users\xxxx\iCloudDrive\GoodReader

I could manual copy all PDF files from my Calibre library sub-folders a variety of ways using file managers, however what I would really love is to find an app that will automatically check everyday if there are any new PDF files in D:\Calibre, and automatically flatten the folder structure and copy all PDF files into one folder - \iCloudDrive\GoodReader\Books.

I have a piece of software called SyncBack Pro which I use for daily scheduled synchronizing and backing up many of my folders to an external drive, and I tried to create a job that excluded .epub, .mobi, .jpg, .opf and just copied PDF files daily, however the developer has explicitly said again and again that they are against folder flattening because the app is focused on backup, and if you remove the folder structure you cannot restore.

The next step I would like to figure out is how to get annotated PDF files back into Calibre. I assume I could do it manually, just copy and the file back from iCloud and paste it into my Calibre library with the same filename?

Thanks for reading!

[Dr. Drib]

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[BetterRed]

@zan5hin - maybe you could use one of the file system monitors (I use one called Watch4Folder) to detect the arrival of new PDF's in your calibre library. When when it detects a new PDF it could copy it to the \iCloudDrive\GoodReader\Books folder.

You will need to consider the possibility of non-unique file names.

Maybe the copy could be a script that extracts the book number from the calibre book folder - i.e. the number in parentheses at the end of the book folder name - which it would pre/app-end to the pdf file name in the iCloud folder.

Might need to be a two step process - I don't like the idea of renaming a file whilst its being synched to the cloud, assuming it's even possible. Copy to staging folder, pre/app-end book number to name, move to \iCloudDrive\GoodReader\Books. If the staging folder is on same drive as the iCloud folder the move will be fast.

To get the Annotated PDFs back into calibre - maybe you could monitor the \iCloudDrive\GoodReader\Books for updates and copy the files to the calibre Autoadd folder see Preferences->Add Books->Automatic Adding. It should be possible to set it up to replace the existing PDFs.


You could run the iCloud syncing service continuously. You won't run up against this issue (← click), because you would NOT be synching the calibre library itself.

BR

[zan5hin]

Thanks for your help BetterRed, Watch4Folder didn't look like it would work for me, but it sent me on a google search path to which I found a piece of freeware called DropIt.

DropIt has a lot of love it seems, with various setup guides. I got it working!

Here is a nice guide: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/comp...ime-intervals/

Here is what I did, in case others want to try:

First, install iOS 8 and GoodReader on your iPad, and iCloud for Windows or OSX on your computer, then install DropIt.

1: Right Click DropIt -> Manage Associations

2: Create a rule from D:\Calibre\*.pdf to perform a copy action to C:\Users\xxxx\iClouddrive\GoodReader\Books

3: Right Click DropIt -> Options -> Monitoring: Enable scan of monitored folders with Time Interval of 86400 (This can be anything you want, I wanted once a day). The Monitored folder is D:\Calibre

4: Back on the Main window under options, tick show progress window, tick start the process after loading, tick ignore unassociated files/folders (so it doesn't complain about what to do about everything besides PDF files), untick confirm for large loaded files.

5: Lastly, I manually copy my Magazines to C:\Users\xxxx\iCloudDrive\GoodReader\Magazines because I don't want to keep them in Calibre. I then use SyncBack Pro to backup that magazine folder as well as D:\Calibre to an external drive for safekeeping once a day.

A minor issue remaining is the way that Calibre truncates the filename of the PDF and appends the Author to the end. I would prefer to have longer book titles and no author info, and change all my existing files in my Calibre library to reflect that. Can anyone assist?

My major issue now is that Goodreader is only showing a grey adobe logo instead of the cover page for each PDF, unless you actually download the file onto the iPad. Google Drive actually displays the cover without you needing to download the file. As I said, the UI of GoodReader is what is currently the most annoying.

For annotations, I will just manually upload the copy that Goodreader makes, back into Calibre and send the email summary to myself and put it into Microsoft OneNote.

Finally, my problem is that my combined PDFs and Magazines are 4.73 GB, so I am pretty much at the limit for the free tier for iCloud. I will just cross my fingers that they will raise it to 10GB to compete with Google Drive and Onedrive, or pay to upgrade to 20GB in the meantime.

[eschwartz]

You cannot change the filename calibre uses.

You can use Save to disk to export ebooks in whatever filename path you like.

You can sort by Last Modified or Date Added in calibre, and manually save them all using a template like {title}, sorting it should make it easy to tell which ones you have already exported although it will still require a certain amount of manual work.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by zan5hin

Thanks for your help BetterRed, Watch4Folder didn't look like it would work for me, but it sent me on a google search path to which I found a piece of freeware called DropIt.

DropIt has a lot of love it seems, with various setup guides. I got it working!

Here is a nice guide: http://www.online-tech-tips.com/comp...ime-intervals/

Here is what I did, in case others want to try:

First, install iOS 8 and GoodReader on your iPad, and iCloud for Windows or OSX on your computer, then install DropIt.

1: Right Click DropIt -> Manage Associations

2: Create a rule from D:\Calibre\*.pdf to perform a copy action to C:\Users\xxxx\iClouddrive\GoodReader\Books

3: Right Click DropIt -> Options -> Monitoring: Enable scan of monitored folders with Time Interval of 86400 (This can be anything you want, I wanted once a day). The Monitored folder is D:\Calibre

4: Back on the Main window under options, tick show progress window, tick start the process after loading, tick ignore unassociated files/folders (so it doesn't complain about what to do about everything besides PDF files), untick confirm for large loaded files.

5: Lastly, I manually copy my Magazines to C:\Users\xxxx\iCloudDrive\GoodReader\Magazines because I don't want to keep them in Calibre. I then use SyncBack Pro to backup that magazine folder as well as D:\Calibre to an external drive for safekeeping once a day.

A minor issue remaining is the way that Calibre truncates the filename of the PDF and appends the Author to the end. I would prefer to have longer book titles and no author info, and change all my existing files in my Calibre library to reflect that. Can anyone assist?

My major issue now is that Goodreader is only showing a grey adobe logo instead of the cover page for each PDF, unless you actually download the file onto the iPad. Google Drive actually displays the cover without you needing to download the file. As I said, the UI of GoodReader is what is currently the most annoying.

For annotations, I will just manually upload the copy that Goodreader makes, back into Calibre and send the email summary to myself and put it into Microsoft OneNote.

@zan5hin - you can't change the names of the files in the calibre book folders, don't even think about it.

The 'standard' way of exporting files from calibre is via the Save to Disk and/or Send to Device. They give you a great deal of control over the names of the files (and folders) via the calibre template facility.

You can also get access to this feature via the calibredb export command. You might want to weave it into your solution.

Dropit looks interesting thanks for the feedback

BR