Pocketbook Annotations Viewer and Tools (AVATeR), need testing

[wold]

Originally Posted by Loopscoop

Neat tool. Thank you.

Any way to contribute to this or are you not providing source for now?

Thanks. You're welcome to contribute. The source is C++/Qt though (just to be sure). Did you have anything in mind? If you're curious about parts, it's OK to ask as well*.

As for opening the source fully, I'm not over the hedge yet, but if the project needs to live (on) it will need to happen at some point.

Open sourcing the lower parts, USB and readermanager code, was intended. Essentially these are tool libraries, meant to be re-used. I'd even settle for a MIT license there.

About opening the GUI I'm still conflicted. It's more prone to get abused (true, define abuse); or the whole shebang getting ported over (delusion of grandeur perhaps ) But keep worrying and miss out on the good parts of life.

Some other issues are remaining cruft in the code (think re job/work offers). Example, I passed some preference variables around instead of utilizing static member variables). Another were internal name changes (like Profile -> AnnotationSource -> ReaderSystemSource etc). but the worse has passed there.

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Aside, v0.14 is nearing completion with Kobo and Sony support.

[Loopscoop]

>About opening the GUI I'm still conflicted. It's more prone to get abused (true, define abuse); or the whole shebang getting ported over (delusion of grandeur perhaps ) But keep worrying and miss out on the good parts of life.

>Some other issues are remaining cruft in the code (think re job/work offers).

Totally understand all your points -- right you are.

>Did you have anything in mind?

I thought you had a pretty nice base setup, and would want to expand it by (1) reading the sql databases to manage collections and backup (2) export data (esp annotations and highlights) from koreader, in an easy and practical way. Generally prefer to join projects for the consolidation of efforts + collab. Thought I could contribute some when my current work engagements end in a few months

>You're welcome to contribute. The source is C++/Qt though (just to be sure)

Not my primary but with your existing code and some searching it should be doable

[wold]

I thought you had a pretty nice base setup, and would want to expand it by (1) reading the sql databases to manage collections and backup (2) export data (esp annotations and highlights) from koreader, in an easy and practical way. Generally prefer to join projects for the consolidation of efforts + collab. Thought I could contribute some when my current work engagements end in a few months

Thanks. Both #1 and #2 would be welcome. If it is still some months off, I could further prep the code for open sourcing.

#1 (managing collections) gravitates towards book collection management, but while I don't see a use for duplicating such tools, it can be useful to edit a database directly. And not everyone wants to use collections managers either. (But above all, don't let me dictate what you can and can't do ).

Note there exists a webbased PB collection manager tool discussed here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ection+manager
It does ship with a browser included. I might throw a message out if I/we can integrate parts of it into AVATeR.

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Re #2 KOReader support, that can be done easily now. I could even do it if you ship example note files for koreader. IIRC there were some floating around here on MR.

Performance wise, AVATeR could be limited by the device storage speeds. But the local mirror might help there. Let me do some tests on that and get back with you.

The way it would work, is on first user selection of the KOReader database source, a function is called to load the annotations. That needs to iterate through the directories to find the individual ('sidecar') note files. Now v0.14 has a new directory iterator (net 20 lines or so, nothing fancy, but prevents there being 3+ iterators) that can apply a function to files with a specified extension. IIRC, KOReader (Lua?) uses JSON for these files. Qt can handle that.

Again, here too there exists a KOReader note reading app somewhere out there, released years back. Here too it might be worth it to contact the author for re-using parts. (It also offers a select-by-book annotations list, which I then kinda couldn't implement in good faith.)

>You're welcome to contribute. The source is C++/Qt though (just to be sure)

Not my primary but with your existing code and some searching it should be doable

Nice. While C++ is/can get complex, it also has come a long way, and you can indeed work from existing work (do at first avoid older WIN32 API code ).
Installing the compiler/buildchain may be the most cumbersome part, on Windows at least, and easiest on Linux. What platform do you use BTW?

It might also be doable to integrate, say, Python code. Only for Windows I suspect that will pull in a lot of additional libraries and cruft - might just disable it there (using a compilation ON/OFF flag). Might be worth a look. Let's keep in touch.

[wold]

Also, AVATeR v0.14 has been released.
It adds Kobo and Sony annotation support, and some fixes.

Downloads: https://www.syncoda.nl/software/avater/releases/0.14/

0.14 Januari 3rd 2024
- fixed HTML export RGB colorcodes
- fixed HTML export table borders
- fixed exporter deleted annotation markup
- fixed checkDB warning on local DB errors
- changed: sort-by-date is default again

- added Kobo and Sony annotation support
- added Kobo and Sony Local Mirror support (Sony limited to one storage)
- let checkdb tool report warnings separate from errors
- update check now enforces/checks for HTTPS/SSL

Manual backup/Sony
- fixed: manual backup file count report (ignores directories)
- fixed: Sony backup now includes /Sony_Reader/ media subfolder
- added: Sony database backup now includes note/drawing files
- changed: new method to in/exclude system directories

- Windows: updated Qt to 6.6.1 and Libzip to 1.10.1
- Minor fixes

And forgotten: on Windows the manual backup timer may(!) stall less now.

[Loopscoop]

I'm really sorry to say that I have betrayed the cause after excitedly hopping in full steam; I returned my InkPad 4. I was really looking forward to setting up a sort of suite for managing the ereader, consolidating and improving the usability of some tools (with the authors' approval and maybe even collaboration of course), and your software seemed a good place to start from. I was sure that the Inkpad 4 was going to be my new pal for years, even after realizing it was very slow with ancient hardware, and even despite the washed out display made worse by the anti-scratch/glare layer, but ultimately koreader's inability to wake the wifi connection made it too frustrating (it needs a live, as in not in standby, connection before you open the app).

At any rate I'll reply since you've taken the time; maybe someone with a compatible device will get inspired.

Nice. While C++ is/can get complex, it also has come a long way, and you can indeed work from existing work (do at first avoid older WIN32 API code ).
Installing the compiler/buildchain may be the most cumbersome part, on Windows at least, and easiest on Linux. What platform do you use BTW?

It might also be doable to integrate, say, Python code. Only for Windows I suspect that will pull in a lot of additional libraries and cruft - might just disable it there (using a compilation ON/OFF flag). Might be worth a look. Let's keep in touch.

I'm on Linux and have environments set up for when I need to to some minor C++ stuff for work, so it wouldn't be an issue. Sorry for wasting your time (for now at least), but I hope the good faith excitement for your nicely made tool was worth something at least. If I get a compatible ereader (gonna try a boox first), I'll be back. Good luck!

[wold]

Originally Posted by Loopscoop

I'm really sorry to say that I have betrayed the cause after excitedly hopping in full steam; I returned my InkPad 4. I was really looking forward to setting up a sort of suite for managing the ereader, consolidating and improving the usability of some tools (with the authors' approval and maybe even collaboration of course), and your software seemed a good place to start from. I was sure that the Inkpad 4 was going to be my new pal for years, even after realizing it was very slow with ancient hardware, and even despite the washed out display made worse by the anti-scratch/glare layer, but ultimately koreader's inability to wake the wifi connection made it too frustrating (it needs a live, as in not in standby, connection before you open the app).

At any rate I'll reply since you've taken the time; maybe someone with a compatible device will get inspired.



I'm on Linux and have environments set up for when I need to to some minor C++ stuff for work, so it wouldn't be an issue. Sorry for wasting your time (for now at least), but I hope the good faith excitement for your nicely made tool was worth something at least. If I get a compatible ereader (gonna try a boox first), I'll be back. Good luck!

No problem at all. Also thanks for the compliments. In the end, use what suits you best. I've had my share of compromises with regard to OSes, soft- and hardware, and generally it's a relieve to move on to something more suitable.

I almost had a similar experience with my Libra 2 down the road, due to misformatted epubs (crashing it), which turned out fixable with kepub conversion. Judging from the reactions here it does look like PB could have done better with the Inkpad 4. Still curious as to how that went about (internally), most likely Covid stock issues played a part, as mentioned in your other thread.

As for AVATeR, you're welcome to contribute if your device allows it. AVATeR should be able to support other brands of readers (including android), and any apps on them, without too much work. Any suggestions are always welcome.

In the meantime, I'll try figuring out KOReader support. There were also some previous requests to do so, and everyone seems to be using it (here on the forums )

[wold]

A lot of minor fixes went into v0.15:
https://www.syncoda.nl/software/avater/releases/0.15/

0.15 February 10th 2024
- fixed: exporter image embedding (removed redundant quote)
- fixed: exporter HTML, convert linebreaks
- fixed: exporter HTML, external image tag
- fixed: exporter HTML, various w3c compliance fixes
- fixed: exporter Markdown, escape additional characters (WIP)

- fixed: top-align metadata for long annotations
- fixed: set uncategorized annotations to other category
- fixed: flag empty drawings as deleted
- fixed: hide "open archive" option (unreleased feature)

- added: annotation type/flag filter
- added: export row media to clipboard HTML (experimental)
- added/improved: regex filtering for title/author search fields
- added: PB translation support (context/dictionary)
- added: viewer option for showing all columns

- changed: flags column (was delete)
- changed: keep text filters on device change (toggleable)
- changed: sort devices by vendor
- changed: extra checks for PB annotation import
- minor internal improvements (toggling case-sensitive, etc.)

Last few times I only quickly checked the exporter - I went lighter on testing. Things are simple, and else nothing gets done

Complex drawings also slow things down, to be fixed in the next release. By chance, I got a PB annotation db used by kids, and there's no better way to test things It has *huge* drawings, which slow things to a crawl at times, but it keeps running. If you're stuck with this, use the new filter to filter out any drawings.

[wold]

A Windows qt5 release was added for the existing 0.15 release, for backward compatibility.
A while ago 0.13.x didn't start on Win11 due to qt6, don't want that again.

From: https://www.syncoda.nl/posts/2024/20...r_windows_qt5/

A Windows Qt5-based release has been added to the AVATeR 0.15 downloads, for backward compatibility.

While v0.15 (Qt 6.6) runs fine even on Win10 21H2, in the past v0.13 and older versions failed to start on newer Windows 11 versions due to some Qt 6.2.4 issue. To avoid similar situations, a Qt5 based version has been added; it might also run on older Windows 7/8 systems, as Qt6 requires Win10 at minimum.

Note

- Qt5 lacks some features of Qt6, better HDPI support being one
- included (C++) libraries could still prove incompatible with older Windows versions. It was tested with Win11 23H2 and Win10 21H2.
- Only a .zip archive version is shipped
- used are Qt 5.15.2, build for AMD64 on Win11 23H2 using MSVC 2022.

Development has been slow due to other things, but I'm picking it up again.

[wold]

0.16 will arrive soon. Fixed are:
- PB title sorting bug, for titles with an empty author field
- image caching for drawings
- darkmode related fixes (due to Windows Qt 6.7.x)

And some internal code cleanup

There remains an odd syncing bug when enabling a local mirror feature, requiring a device refresh.

[wold]

Released v0.16, with a number of fixes:
https://www.syncoda.nl/software/avater/releases/0.16/

The aforementioned issues were fixed, including the local mirror issue which seems like a Windows only issue.

BTW, I'm curious about the new PB Eo firmware/database compatibility. If anyone can drop a line, thanks in advance.

0.16 July 27th 2024
- fixed: PB title sorting for empty authorfields
- fixed: condition where enabling Local Mirror, LM copy fails (sorting issue)
- fixed: upon Local Mirror label change, retain the device name
- fixed: also top-align texts for media/screenshots
- fixed: prevent duplicate model creation
- fixed: removed redundant LM removal message

- fixed: improved darkmode support (text and background colors, icons)
- fixed: Windows 11 darkmode for Qt <6.7.3 (force fusion style)

- added image caching for media and SVG drawings
- added PB color 3 detection (WIP, see release notes)
- exposed column resize delay setting under Settings > Advanced
- added open prefs directory shortcut in Main menu
- added icon for deleted/faulty media/svg
- added report Git commit hash and Qt GUI theme

# Various internal changes/fixes
- fixed: PB and Kobo annotation IDHash and modification time (incorrect columns, unused)
- moved LM scanner into ReaderManager
- signal const references

- added exception handler in main for release builds
- cleaned up CMake, enabled CCache
- added CMake flags for ZIP, XML, GUI support (WIP)
- moved most Qt metatype registrations out of QtExports.h
- removed most header interdependencies/references