CC V5.1.0 production release

[chaley]

(Full and demo version 5.1.0.5 currently released on Google Play to 50% of users)

CC V5 is a major upgrade of CC. Although the user interface has not changed significantly (we hope), CC's internals have changed a lot. In addition there are some new features and several bug fixes.

Change log:

Feature changes:

• Use Android's Storage Access Framework (SAF) when CC is running on Android 5 (Lollipop) or higher. Users can now store a library in an arbitrary folder on an SD card. When you go to Settings / Formats and Folders and tap an extension or the default line, CC opens an Google-provided Android folder chooser instead of the existing CC dialog. The app-private-folder hack is now only necessary on Android 4.4 (Kitkat).
• Changed first-letter grouping by dates to use decade and century ranges. If you currently group by first letter on dates then in order to see the new partitions you must rebuild the grouping information. The easiest/quickest way to do that is to go to Settings / Grouping Drawer / Group/sort on custom columns then uncheck something (anything), tap OK, go back into the dialog, check what you unchecked, then OK. At this point CC will do a complete rebuild. You can "Back" out of Settings then wait for the process to finish (the icon in the notification area goes away and Grouping becomes enabled again).
• 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.
• Change templates to do what calibre does for some non-alphanumeric characters. See the notes below for more information.
• Add an option to rename book files if the same book is being downloaded has a different file name (path). See the notes below for more information.
• Add some extra space between the Read and Delete buttons in Book Details.
• Add an option to clear an active search when returning to the books view by tapping on an item in book details.
• Add a transition animation from the book list to book details. Add an option in Settings / Book details to disable the animation. The animation is disabled if e-ink corrections are enabled.
• CC's Cloud Connection now reads values for custom columns "built from other columns" from the metadata.opf file. That file can be out of date, in which case CC notifies you then uses the possibly out-of-date values. See the FAQ for more information.
• Don't show empty categories in the top-level cloud display.
• Updated languages: French, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese.
• CC now collects non-personal usage statistics. The first time you start CC after the upgrade you will see a dialog mentioning this and explaining how to opt out.
  
  We know people, including us, don't want to use apps that collect personal information. For that reason we tried hard not to be on the dark side. We take your, and our, privacy very seriously. See our Privacy Policy for more information.

Technical changes:

• Dropped support for Gingerbread and Honeycomb (Android 2 and 3). See the notes below for more information.
• Changed to newest Google tools and libraries. This change touches some of CC's user interface in 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.
• The settings screen(s) have reverted back to the "standard" for the android theme.
• Reorganize the Settings / File name preferences screen to put Use templates ... on top.
• 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.
• Handle Android 6 asking for permissions at run time instead of install time.
• Add Android 6 auto-backup support. I don't know if this works. It doesn't on my Nexus 5. There is a lot of web chatter saying that one must do a system reset 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 only CC's settings, not the database.
• Use CC's notification when receiving books over the wireless connection, in addition to the existing uses (database upgrade and bulk download in the cloud and content server).
• Export the Connection Alarm Receiver so that apps like Tasker can trigger a CC wireless device connection. The receiver's name is com.multipie.cclibrary.ConnectionAlarmReceiver.
• Support for the new calibre content server. This server is not generally available.

Bug fixes:

• [BUG FIX]Don't use a "left over" template as the default if the "Use templates ..." setting is unchecked, but preserve such a template in case the option is rechecked later.
• [BUG FIX]Make CC really able to open azw3 files with FBReader and FBReader Premium.
• [BUG FIX]Fix deleted books sometimes remaining in book widgets.
• [BUG FIX]Fix the title display in the cloud connection to respect the first-letter count setting.
• [BUG FIX]Don't generate invalid file names if the length of the result of a template exceeds the maximum.
• [BUG FIX]Fix crash in Android M (6) when long-pressing on a book in the content server and cloud lists.
• [BUG FIX]Make on-device work in the cloud connection work when a book is downloaded in book details.
• [BUG FIX]Fix rare crash when adding books with strange internal metadata.
• [BUG FIX]Yet another try to make a selected language "stick".
• [BUG FIX]Make searching on custom comments (long text) fields work.
• [BUG FIX]Fix cloud connection book list display flashing when download all is used.
  [BUG FIX]Fix rare crash starting cloud book details.

Comments:

• Regarding dropping support for Android 2 and 3:
  
  CC version 4 will remain on Google Play and will be offered to devices running Android 2 or 3. Devices running 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.
• Regarding non-alphanumeric characters in file names:
  
  CC now matches calibre's behavior in the following ways:
  • CC changes the following characters to underscores -- characters that are not:
    letters, numbers, or a space
    !, $, %, ^, &, (, ), =, -, {, }, \, [, ], @, ~, ', #, comma, period, _, and /.
  • CC next changes any leading period to an underscore and removes all trailing periods.
  • Finally, CC removes any empty path segments, e.g., aaa//bbb becomes aaa/bbb.
• Regarding renaming book files:
  
  By default and since forever, when sending a book over the wireless device that already exists in CC's library, calibre + CC reused the old path, ignoring the results of the template. This means that if you changed a book's author from AAA to BBB and then resent the book, the file name would still contain AAA. If you downloaded a book that already exists via the content server or the cloud a similar thing happened. The book file was not renamed. This is good behavior in that it prevented creation of duplicate files. The bad behavior is that the file names might not match the metadata.
  
  When templates were introduced this behavior changed. Using the above example, if you changed the author from AAA to BBB then you would get two copies of the book on your device, one with path AAA ... and one with path BBB .... This has the good behavior that file names match metadata. It has the bad behavior that you can get multiple copies of the same book in your CC library.
  
  The changes attempt to get the best of both worlds. If templates are in use then if a book is downloaded by any method, the book file is renamed to match the template. File names match metadata and only one copy exists. The down side is that during wireless connects CC can "ignore" calibre and use a file name that calibre doesn't know about. Calibre interprets this as meaning that there are two copies on the device when in fact there aren't. CC now beeps and shows a message (a popup "toast") to tell you that calibre might be confused. Disconnecting and reconnecting eliminates the confusion.

[nqk]

Originally Posted by chaley

[*][BUG FIX]Make CC really able to open azw3 files with FBReader.

How could you achieve this? CC received azw3 from Calibre, but it thinks I don't
have the appropriate reader (I have FBreader Premium)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by nqk

How could you achieve this? CC received azw3 from Calibre, but it thinks I don't have the appropriate reader (I have FBreader Premium)

It is tested with FBReader free. The support has been there since V5 alpha 1. Has it worked before and stopped working?

Unfortunately, FBReader support of AZW3 files isn't done in the "normal" android way. I have to hard-code it. To do that I need its Android "package name", which seems to be "com.fbreader" but I am not sure. Can you verify it for me? If you don't know how to do that then the app Package Name Viewer will get it for you.

[nqk]

app:FBReader Premium
package:com.fbreader
Launcher:com.fbreader.android.fbreader.FBReader


I didnot notice this before. When I tried opening azw3 from solid reader, it asked for a reader and I could select from the list. It worked there.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by nqk

app:FBReader Premium
package:com.fbreader
Launcher:com.fbreader.android.fbreader.FBReader

I will add it and hope it works.

[chaley]

V5.1.0.2 is now released using Google's "staged rollout" mechanism. Starting today, 5% of CC users will be offered this release (demo and full). Depending on how that goes, in a few days I will up the percentage.

The beta group should get the release.

The only visible change: attempt to open azw3 files with FBReader Premium as well as Free.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by chaley

The only visible change: attempt to open azw3 files with FBReader Premium as well as Free.

I tried this and it worked OK for me.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

I tried this and it worked OK for me.

Thanks for letting me know.

[NSILMike]

Works very well for me too.

[chaley]

As usual, release is first going to the beta group. Barring problems, it will go to production in a few days.

Change log:

• CC's Cloud Connection now reads values for custom columns "built from other columns" from the metadata.opf file. That file can be out of date, in which case CC notifies you then uses the possibly out-of-date values. See the FAQ for more information.

[kaufman]

Well, this is a nice little treat. I actually stopped using a custom column in the grouping drawer because I didn't like the missing values from cloud transfered books. Will test this this morning.

[chaley]

Change log:

• [BUG FIX]Fix potentially serious bug in SD card handling on Android 23 (Marshmallow).
• [BUG FIX]Fix rare crash starting cloud book details.

It would help if anyone using Lollipop or higher and using an SD card would try setting the book storage folder by setting it to its existing value. This will test the changes without actually copying the books. I don't see any reason why the changes shouldn't work, but one never knows.

[crane3]

I finally got the CC ver 5.05. Am now "moving" the lib on SD default to a folder at the root level. It is now past 30 min for the move for perhaps 500 epub books; haven't started the PDF books yet as the EPUB has to finish first. This being done on a LG G PAD 2 10.1 running LG's lollipop.

The conversion makes it look like it is faster to delete the books on the SD & reload from Calibre to the directory of choice; but do I just delete book directory prior to resending from Calibre?

I should be getting the update on my Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 soon & it is running CM 13 Marshmallow with the CC lib also on an SD card.

Moving the books is too time consuming as there is also a screen timeout which hopefully didn't affect the process; still just deleting & reloading seems much faster.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crane3

I finally got the CC ver 5.05. Am now "moving" the lib on SD default to a folder at the root level. It is now past 30 min for the move for perhaps 500 epub books; haven't started the PDF books yet as the EPUB has to finish first. This being done on a LG G PAD 2 10.1 running LG's lollipop.

The conversion makes it look like it is faster to delete the books on the SD & reload from Calibre to the directory of choice; but do I just delete book directory prior to resending from Calibre?

I should be getting the update on my Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 soon & it is running CM 13 Marshmallow with the CC lib also on an SD card.

Moving the books is too time consuming as there is also a screen timeout which hopefully didn't affect the process; still just deleting & reloading seems much faster.

I am not sure what to say. On my test device, an Amazon Fire running Lollipop, moving a library of 201 books took 3 minutes and 15 seconds. It sounds as if your SD card is slow or your device is slow. But that said ...

If you want to delete and resend your books then the fastest way to delete the books is to:

1. Use a file manager to remove all the book files on the device
2. Start CC
3. Tap the menu button (the 3 dots) and choose "Books with missing files".
4. Tap "Delete all"
5. Tap the "Back" button twice to go back to the main screen. You will see the "Empty library" screen
6. Use Settings / Formats and Folders to change the folder location(s)
7. Connect as a wireless device and resend your books

Another way to do it is:

1. Make a CC backup (Settings / Backup and Restore / Backup)
2. Open Android settings, go to Apps, CC, then Clear Data
3. Use a file manager to delete all the book files
4. Start CC. You will see the "Empty library" screen
5. Restore the backup. DO NOT check the "Restore database" checkbox
6. Use Settings / Formats and Folders to change the folder location(s)
7. Connect as a wireless device and resend your books

[crane3]

Something is "out of whack" as I don't think that the NEW LG G Pad 2 has that slow of a processor; also don't think that the SD card is slow. I killed the move process at around the 50 min point & see that 455 books were moved.....

Then I did what your method say, eventually, as I deleted the books from the old & the new directories then saw the book covers & checked the 3 dots & found about the remove book covers without files.

On a "clean" folder, I reloaded the books again (now at 547) & it took 35+ min vs the 5+ min for 527 for the original load!

I may have messed up something as the tablet showed no wifi which was unusual as I had added 3 books this morning! The error claimed that there was a problem in authentication(?). Started the reload after I reconnected to my router, where I see from a network map app, that the connection speed is still at 72 mbps.

Oh, the SD card is a 128 gb & now wonder if the new stuff was written "deeper" into the SD card.....still strange on why my 1st of the books was so much quicker than the repeat.

I was wondering whether Calibre was checking something for indication on what it knew of what was supposed to be on CC.

Will find out if it the moving on Tab Pro 8.4 will be faster when I get the CC 5.x.