Kobo database

[Stevex]

Some quick questions. Only because i am a bit lazy i am afraid.
1. Is there any -obviously unofficial - documentation anywhere?
2. If i wanted to sync reading position between multiplr devices without kobo desktop or calibre, are the two columns chapteridbookmarked and __percentread minimally sufficient?
3. Is there any big reason why device level reading defaults are in conf but book level overrides indatabase? Why not all in db?

Cheers Steve

[Stevex]

Skip that third question...
On q2 a quick test has shown i'm completely off the mark!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Stevex

Some quick questions. Only because i am a bit lazy i am afraid.
1. Is there any -obviously unofficial - documentation anywhere?

Not that I know of. The KoboTouch driver and my Kobo Utilities plugin as probably the closest to any documentation. Of course, it's documented as code with a few comments. There has also been discussion on it here, so searches might find something. Otherwise ask a question and someone will answer if they know.

2. If i wanted to sync reading position between multiplr devices without kobo desktop or calibre, are the two columns chapteridbookmarked and __percentread minimally sufficient?

Exactly what you need depends on the book format. But ChapterIDBookmarked, adobe_location, ReadStatus and ___PercentRead are what I use. I don't store both of the last two, and I derive the ReadStatus during the restore. I store 0 and 100 for the ___PercentRead if the book is unread or finished respectively and then set the ReadStatus based on the value during the restore.

The ChapterIDBookmarked and adobe_location depend on the format. For epubs and PDF, ChapterIDBookmarked contain a reference to the current chapter file. adobe_location contains the reference to the location in the file. But, these are in different rows in the database. The ChapterIDBookmarked is the key

For kepubs, just the ChapterIDBookmarked is needed. It contains the reference to the file and the location within.

3. Is there any big reason why device level reading defaults are in conf but book level overrides indatabase? Why not all in db?

Cheers Steve

Originally Posted by Stevex

Skip that third question...
On q2 a quick test has shown i'm completely off the mark!

Sorry, it does work the way you described. Whatever is in the file is used when you open a new book. When you change the reading settings, they are saved in the database for the book and into the config file. If you close and reopen the book, the settings from the database are used. If you don't change the settings for a book, whatever is in the config file is used.

As to why, it's probably simpler. Kobo would need to add a table for these sort of configuration. Or a special entry in one of the existing tables. There is enough other configuration that the the file is suitable for, so they use it here.

[Stevex]

David thanks so much! That's brilliant information (like always).
For the location it was the adobe_location i was missing. Everything, reading settings and location, works how I expected now.

[davidfor]

Glad I can help. And, if you look at the top of action.py in the Kobo Utilities plugin, you will see the SQL statements I use to fetch the reading positions. That should help to see what I am doing.