Is There a Way to Protect Amazon's X-Ray Capability on the Kindle?

[Nyssa]

Processing a book through Calibre kills Amazon's x-ray capability.
Is there anyway to protect or reenable it?

My Workflow:

• Purchase & Download ebook from Amazon onto my Mac
• Add to Calibre Library
• Extract ISBN
• Download & Fill In Metadata
• Resize Cover [out of habit - can skip]
• Fix / Tweak ToC when Necessary
• Convert/ ReConvert to AWZ3 in order to smarten punctuation, insert the metadata page, and ensure a ToC
• Count Pages & Words
• Add to Reading List
• Sync to Kindle

[kovidgoyal]

IIRC the X-Ray functionality is not part of the book, it exists in a separate "sidecar" file, so not, there is not real way to preserve that. I do believe there is a calibre plugin/standalone program that generates X-ray information for any mobi file, you might be able to use that.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Processing a book through Calibre kills Amazon's x-ray capability.
Is there anyway to protect or reenable it?

My Workflow:

• Purchase & Download ebook from Amazon onto my Mac
• Add to Calibre Library
• Extract ISBN
• Download & Fill In Metadata
• Resize Cover [out of habit - can skip]
• Fix / Tweak ToC when Necessary
• Convert/ ReConvert to AWZ3 in order to smarten punctuation, insert the metadata page, and ensure a ToC
• Count Pages & Words
• Add to Reading List
• Sync to Kindle

Given your workflow, I would think that the x-ray file that came with the Kindle eBook would no longer match the copy you are sending to your Reader.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

IIRC the X-Ray functionality is not part of the book, it exists in a separate "sidecar" file, so not, there is not real way to preserve that. I do believe there is a calibre plugin/standalone program that generates X-ray information for any mobi file, you might be able to use that.

Thank you. I will look for it. Would you happen to know what it is called, please?

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Given your workflow, I would think that the x-ray file that came with the Kindle eBook would no longer match the copy you are sending to your Reader.

Oh? Why? What exactly do I change that might render it incompatible?

[kovidgoyal]

I cant recall, but googling: x-ray calibre

should get you close

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I cant recall, but googling: x-ray calibre

should get you close

That seemed to get me closer than what I tried before, even though I used similar words. I guess in this case less was more.

I found this thread and asked there.

Thank you, again.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Oh? Why? What exactly do I change that might render it incompatible?

Reconversion. I believe X-Ray as well as pagenumbers uses data offsets which will change whenever calibre blends the CSS during conversion and when metadata jackets are added.

Merely updating the metadata (including cover) will not break the accuracy of the X-Ray data.

AFAIK the XRay fie should not be getting deleted, I would guess the Kindle simply knows it doesn't match.

Does the book even show up as from Amazon? i.e. if you long-press does the delete option say "remove from device".
Also, the {ebook-file}.sdr folder which contains the extra data like annotations, pagenumbers, X-Ray, etc. must match the filename of the ebook file. I get around this with a custom send-to-device (KINDLE2 driver) filename template in calibre using a custom column called "Original Filename".

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Reconversion. I believe X-Ray as well as pagenumbers uses data offsets which will change whenever calibre blends the CSS during conversion and when metadata jackets are added.

Merely updating the metadata (including cover) will not break the accuracy of the X-Ray data.

AFAIK the XRay fie should not be getting deleted, I would guess the Kindle simply knows it doesn't match.

Does the book even show up as from Amazon? i.e. if you long-press does the delete option say "remove from device".
Also, the {ebook-file}.sdr folder which contains the extra data like annotations, pagenumbers, X-Ray, etc. must match the filename of the ebook file. I get around this with a custom send-to-device (KINDLE2 driver) filename template in calibre using a custom column called "Original Filename".

1. To be sure I understand..Just reconverting is throwing it off, or both reconverting and counting the page numbers?

2. My option says "Delete this Book".

3. Please explain, walk me through, your template?

Originally Posted by Nyssa

That seemed to get me closer than what I tried before, even though I used similar words. I guess in this case less was more.

I found this thread and asked there.

Thank you, again.

They have an application for my Kindle's current firmware but not a plugin so I've opted to hold off for now.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Reconversion. I believe X-Ray as well as pagenumbers uses data offsets which will change whenever calibre blends the CSS during conversion and when metadata jackets are added.

Merely updating the metadata (including cover) will not break the accuracy of the X-Ray data.

AFAIK the XRay fie should not be getting deleted, I would guess the Kindle simply knows it doesn't match.

Originally Posted by Nyssa

1. To be sure I understand..Just reconverting is throwing it off, or both reconverting and counting the page numbers?

I was able to answer my own question.

Its strictly reconverting that breaks the x-ray capability. So as long as the original file is AWZ3 I won't convert it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

1. To be sure I understand..Just reconverting is throwing it off, or both reconverting and counting the page numbers?

2. My option says "Delete this Book".

3. Please explain, walk me through, your template?

1. As you discovered, only editing the actual file can cause these changes. Merely counting the pagenumbers will simply open the file for reading.
2. That indicates that the book no longer matches at all (its mobi-asin isn't registered in your Kindle Cloud), since the X-Ray file uses the mobi-asin to verify itself.
3. Indeed I can, my entire process, which includes this, is detailed here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=235537
   If you need anything explained further, I would be happy to clarify any points.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

1. As you discovered, only editing the actual file can cause these changes. Merely counting the pagenumbers will simply open the file for reading.
2. That indicates that the book no longer matches at all (its mobi-asin isn't registered in your Kindle Cloud), since the X-Ray file uses the mobi-asin to verify itself.
3. Indeed I can, my entire process, which includes this, is detailed here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=235537
   If you need anything explained further, I would be happy to clarify any points.

Thank you!

So,

1. I create the custom column as described in your original post
2. Download the attached file
3. install it in Calibre as a plugin, per the image in post #3 (Which will populate the custom column itself)
4. Continue my workflow as usual, but skip the reconversion


Is that correct?

[eschwartz]

That file was an outside part of my workflow, it is a linux shellscript that gets run from the command-line.

Copy the custom Save Template text into the configuration screen as per the third post.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

That file was an outside part of my workflow, it is a linux shellscript that gets run from the command-line.

Copy the custom Save Template text into the configuration screen as per the third post.

Am I only using this code?

 program: 
ifempty(
	field('#file'),
	template(
		'{author_sort:sublist(0,1,&)}/{title} - {authors:sublist(0,1,&)}'
	)
)

or all 4 sets of code from your original post?

Also, where do I put it exactly? There doesn't seem to be anywhere to put it under "Configure device" and I do not have a Kindle option as shown in your image under "Plugins".

[eschwartz]

Just that bit, yes, and there is a field called "save template" in every device driver. Copy it there, even though it isn't a MultiLineEditBox.

The other three bits of code are in part two of my tutorial, about the external standalone syncing script. According to the explanation there, they are the contents of files.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Just that bit, yes, and there is a field called "save template" in every device driver. Copy it there, even though it isn't a MultiLineEditBox.

The other three bits of code are in part two of my tutorial, about the external standalone syncing script. According to the explanation there, they are the contents of files.

Hi, sorry its been so long since I've gotten back.

Unfortunately, this did not work for me as far as preserving X-Ray capabilities. I tried it with two separate books, even after re-downloading the originals from Amazon.

Am I missing a step?

I have the "Original File" column, and added the code under "Customize Device", then restarted Calibre and resent the books to my Kindle (after making sure the previous versions were removed).

Seeing as this is file related, I wonder if having the APNX Generator plugin is negatively affecting the code - possibly preventing it from doing what its supposed to do?

I do have both "Send Page Number Info" and "Override apnx" selected.

If the Apnx plugin is the culprit, my next question would be: Is there a way to have both X-Ray capability and Page numbers?