Custom URL Scheme

[groob]

Hello,
I was wondering if a Custom URL Scheme does exist or could be implemented to launch the app passing some parameters to it.

My use case would be to launch the app passing a search string (or book id in the library) in order to use this link from another app or website.

An example could be the (mac) Dash App. It uses the

dash://{query}

Custom URL Scheme to launch the app passing `{query}` as a search parameter.

Would anyone else find this useful or just me?
Would it be feasible?

[capink]

I believe the latest calibre version have what you asking for. Take a look here.

[groob]

AWESOME!!! :]

[groob]

Follow-up question:
Given we now have this awesome functionality, does it exist a way to export libraries and book lists as textual data? For example my entire book list as CVS.

This would be very useful in building these custom urls having the entire list of identifiers of my books/libraries

[capink]

Originally Posted by groob

Follow-up question:
Given we now have this awesome functionality, does it exist a way to export libraries and book lists as textual data? For example my entire book list as CVS.

This would be very useful in building these custom urls having the entire list of identifiers of my books/libraries

Select the books you want to export, then go to convert books menu > create a catalog of books in your library.

[groob]

I'm having a problem with this.

My library is located for example at '/Users/myuser/Calibre Library', so accordingly to the manual I call the url by replacing any space in the library name with an underscore `_`

I have tried:
- `calibre://show-book/Calibre_Library/1`
- `calibre://show-book/Users/myuser/Calibre_Library/1`
- `calibre://search/Calibre_Library?q=mysearch`

All of them open the application but nothing more. So I guess there is a problem in my library name, otherwise I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

This is not clear for me, from the Manual:

Library names are the folder name of the library folder with spaces replaced by underscores.

Are we talking about full paths or just the folder name containing the library?


Please let me know if I should open another thread for this specific problem

[georgemk]

Are you using quote marks around your command string?

I used this and it opened Calibre and showed the result of the query

calibre calibre://search/Calibre_Library?q=hex

This is using Calibre 5.5 on Windows 10

[groob]

Originally Posted by georgemk

Are you using quote marks around your command string?

No, no, old habit for formatting code in other places like github.
I'using standard strings like this: calibre://show-book/Calibre_Library/1

Calibre is opening but does nothing

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by groob

I'using standard strings like this: calibre://show-book/Calibre_Library/1
Calibre is opening but does nothing

Since calibre is not on my path, I used the following to launch calibre:

"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe"

I then tried two command lines:

"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" calibre://show-book/Main/23863

This one opened calibre with the book with ID=23863 selected. 1 did not work since book ID=1 is long since gone <the directory name would end with (1)>.

"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre.exe" calibre://search/Main?q=crooked

This one ran a search for crooked and came up with 13 hits.

[georgemk]

I don't know what to add.

As I've shown the manual is correct in that changing any spaces in the library name to underscore works.

Are you sure that there isn't anything odd about your calibre library name? Like an invisible character or something?

I also used calibre-debug -g calibreurl to launch calibre to do the search and it also worked. But unfortunately it doesn't show anything to do with the URL or the library name, so it wasn't giving me any clue if I misspelt the library name or not.

[kovidgoyal]

Open a book from the library in the calibre viewer, then click on Go to->Location and copy the URL from there. Adjust it as needed to do other things.

[basker]

Hi,

I can't seem to get this working either. I'm on macOS with Caliber 5.5.

I have a library name "Calibre Library". I opened a book to get the URL.

The URL I get from the Calibre Viewer is:

URL for this position: calibre://view-book/_hex_-43616c696272655f4c696272617279/206/EPUB?open_at=epubcfi(/2/2/4/2@49.92:50)

I then made a new URL for showing the book:

calibre://show-book/_hex_-43616c696272655f4c696272617279/206

When I click this, Calibre opens but doesn't go anywhere, or show the book.

Just to check I made sure things made sense (0a at end is null terminator):

xxd -p <<< "Calibre_Library" 
43616c696272655f4c6962726172790a

I also tried hex encoding with a space instead of underscore (removed the 0a in the URL):

xxd -p <<< "Calibre Library" 
43616c69627265204c6962726172790a

calibre://show-book/_hex_-43616c69627265204c696272617279/206

In this case, Calibre also opens but doesn't go anywhere, or show the book.

Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

Works fine for me on macOS, running:

/Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre calibre://show-book/Calibre_Library/12


replace 12 above with the id of some book in the library.

[kovidgoyal]

Or, via launch services:

open -a calibre.app --args calibre://show-book/Calibre_Library/12

[kovidgoyal]

The launch services one does not however work if calibre is already running.