[GUI Plugin] Overdrive Link

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by jhowell

Regarding the automatic creation of a custom column for library availability: While several existing plugins rely on custom columns, I don’t know of any that automatically creates a custom column. Perhaps someone with more experience with the internals of Calibre could comment on this.

I wouldn't go there. The user will have a particular idea about what the column should be named, among other user preferences, like column location. They're going to end up in Preferences|Add custom column no matter what you do.

Instead, I'd suggest adding a paragraph to your help documentation explaining the steps.

G

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by GRiker

Instead, I'd suggest adding a paragraph to your help documentation explaining the steps.

Thanks. I'll do that.

[kiwidude]

@jhowell - it is technically possible to create a custom column from a plugin. I've just (as you have noticed) always chosen to leave it up to the user to do outside of the plugin. The reason being it avoids a whole bunch of complications for me as a plugin developer . For instance - what name should the custom column have, what to do if it conflicts with an existing one etc. What if the user wants a different datatype (sometimes for custom column purposes a number of options are available). Do you make the column visible so the user knows it is there - possibly upsetting them depending on its purpose. Plus sometimes the user already has an existing column they want the plugin to use - page counts being a classic example. And you have the issue of restarting calibre etc.

Plus on top of all that I just don't like "intruding" on a user's library by forcing custom columns into their library if they just downloaded a plugin to give it a quick whirl, and are then left with a mess to cleanup afterwards when they uninstall it. The plugin doesn't know when it is uninstalled so it can't do any cleanup itself. They might be confused as to what is safe to remove and what isn't if a whole bunch of plugins installed all secretly created their own columns.

So it is just a choice I make as a plugin developer, it isn't because it isn't technically possible to do. I think the nicest solution would be to add a button (with any necessary options if you offer them on a dialog like column name, type etc) to allow the user to create the columns from the plugin. That way it is still optional for the user to do so, and they are visually being reminded about what is going on.

However of course it is one more screen to code up etc - like I said I have never bothered and it hasn't been an issue that anyone has complained about

[Gunnerp245]

Originally Posted by GRiker

You can change the logic of the template to show a check mark whenever there's any odid content associated with the book:

{identifiers:contains(odid,Yes,)}

I'll edit my original post to reflect this alternative
G

@GRiker
@jhowell

This is exactly what I meant.

[jhowell]

I have updated the plugin to version 1.1.0. The main new feature is the ability to search by author for books that are available through Overdrive, but missing from the user’s calibre library.

[copyrite]

You are a mind reader. I was thinking that would be a helpful search! Thanks!

[GeckoFriend]

First let me thank you for writing this plugin jhowell. I think it will be very useful.

I have run into a small poblem and don't know if it's something I'm doing wrong or an error in the plugin.

I installed the plugin, added it to the menu bar and everything worked fine. I then added the plugin to the favourites menu button and that worked also, until I removed the plugin from the menu bar.

I've tried restarting calibre as well as removing and replacing from the favourites menu. Nothing seems to make it work unless it's also on the menu bar, which I don't normally use.

Has anyone else successfully added the plugin to just the favourites menu?

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by GeckoFriend

...
Has anyone else successfully added the plugin to just the favourites menu?

The Overdrive Link plugin generates its menu choices dynamically based on the current selection when its icon is clicked. It appears that doing this makes it incompatible with the Favourites Menu plugin.

I’ll look into making this work better in a future release by generating the most important menu actions ahead of time. I need to do something like that anyway in order to allow keyboard shortcuts to be used with the plugin. But even with this change, the Favourites Menu plugin just isn’t going to show the Overdrive Link menu exactly the way clicking the original icon would.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by GeckoFriend

I installed the plugin, added it to the menu bar and everything worked fine. I then added the plugin to the favourites menu button and that worked also, until I removed the plugin from the menu bar.

I just checked and my Overdrive was working fine from the Favorites menu, but I did have it in my right click context menu for my library list. So I removed it from the context menu and sure enough I ran into the same problem you experienced.

This isn't a problem for me because as a rule if a menu item requires you to select a book I put that menu item in the context menu. Bottom line is you helped me clean up my menu a bit since I would most likely never use the Overdrive plugin from the Favorites menu.

[GeckoFriend]

Thanks jhowell and dwanthy for your replies. For once it isn't something I screwed up!

I'll use a menu bar for now, add it to the context menu, and remove it from the favourites menu.

[jhowell]

I have updated the Overdrive Link plugin to version 1.2.0. The main new features are support for calibre keyboard shortcuts and better compatibility with the Favourites Menu plugin.

[GeckoFriend]

Thanks jhowell; plugin now seems to work okay from the favourites menu without also being on the menu bar.

[copyrite]

In the first version of this plug-in a link to the Overdrive available item was added to the ID field in the book details window. This is not occurring for any more. I have not changed any settings.

[jhowell]

Originally Posted by copyrite

In the first version of this plug-in a link to the Overdrive available item was added to the ID field in the book details window. This is not occurring for any more. I have not changed any settings.

It still works for me.

The display of the link in the book details panel is a bit of a hack and installing or changing other plugins may cause the feature to become disabled until the next restart. Try restarting calibre and see if that corrects the problem.

If that doesn’t work, double check the plugin configuration and make sure that the option to disable that feature has not been checked. (It’s the last option in the left-hand column.)

If neither helps then you could try running calibre in debug mode (calibre-debug -g) and see if any errors are displayed in the console window when you select a book that should contain a link in the details panel.

[copyrite]

Huh... a Calibre restart shows the link. Did another search for a known title @ Overdrive, did the same thing (no link) but when I restarted it showed up. I can live with that, since the link is available to me later when I need it.