[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[taming]

wrong thread. oops.

[gers1978]

How do I actually get it to display the % read, location, etc, in the custom column?

[speakingtohe]

I have just used this plugin with PeterT's finished shelf instructions.
On the mini I had no finished books , so no finished shelf. Strangely it put a book I had not opened on the cover as the book I am reading and buried the one I actually was reading somewhere. The book I was actually reading still has its place more or less correct.

Recently read books have all been resorted although I did not add any books. Not sure how they are sorted or why.

On the Aura I ran the plug-in three times.
The first time all of the recently read books stayed the same. Two new icons appeard on the home page with a bar and new instaed of a cover and these books couldn't be opened because couldn't find a reader. I have had this happen before and managed to delete the books, and did not add any, so why these suddenly showed up I have no idea. Not saying this is a bad thing.

Second time I added some books and everything remained the same AFAIK.

Third time I set a book to finished A different book book appeared in the first space instead the one I was reading. It was a book I re-added the second time as it said not in library. It is a book I was reading last week and seems to have the same status in calibre. When I opened it though a different book opened, another I was reading. I am thinking that I must have touched something else at the same time, because nothing like this has happened before.

Bizarrely when the reader went to sleep there was no cover, just said sleeping near the bottom with no box around it.


Not complaining, just mentioning what happened before it fades from my mind.

Also would mention that when I set the book to finished I ran the restore book marks and it said finished, but still had the same reading location in the reading location field.

I still don't have a finished shelf, but I'm probably missing something.

Anyway thanks again guys, I am sure it will be very useful the minute I know what I am doing

Helen

.

[speakingtohe]

The book I marked as read using the plugin did not show up in the Finished column although I tried it several times.

I opened the book on the Aura and went to the last page. Then I ran the restore bookmarks plugin again and it was in the finished column (the column said finished.)

Helen

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Here's one way I am using this plugin. After configuring it to store reading locations (four custom columns; koboreadpct integer, koborating integer, kobolastread date, and koboreadloc, text and associating them with the corresponding fields in the plugin setup), I added a new custom column

Name: finished
Column Heading: Finished
Column Type: Column built from other columns
Template: {:'cmp(field('#koboreadpct'),100,'','Finished','Finished')'}

and then added the field #finished to my shelf definitions which now read

#myshelves, #finished,  series

This has the effect of when I update the reading stats (I find the easiest way for ME at least) is to sort the Library view by the On Device field, select all the books shown as being on the Kobo and then select the plugin's option to store reading location, the Finished column gets set to the word Finished for all books at 100% read.

The next time I attach the device and the automatic metadata management runs, all the books I have finished now appear on a new shelf Finished.

I now have a finished shelf, Waves of maniacal gleeful laughter ring through the deserted halls

Thanks a bunch

[0x55]

Wow, davidfor & kiwidude – this is terrific! Thank you very much!

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by PeterT

This custom column seems to work for adding a book to either a Reading or Finished shelf based on the pct read.

Lookup name:    readstatus
Column Heading: Reading Status
Column Type:    Column built from other columns
Template:       {#koboreadpct:'cmp($, 100, cmp($, 0, '', '', 'Reading'), 'Finished', '')'}

with of course the corresponding change to add #readstatus to the list of fields used for shelving in either the Kobo or ExtendedKobo drivers. (I tend to update them both even though the Extended driver is normally disabled on my system).

In effect this is saying if the Pct Read is 100, the book is Finished, else if it's greater than 0, then the status is Reading.

I put in the reading status column and could not get a Reading shelf.

I duplicated the Finished column and called it Reading, with the same template as in readstatus I think and now I have a Reading shelf. Not sure what I was doing wrong with the readstatus thing, as the column was filled in correctly by the plugin.

Two columns is fine though one would be better

Helen

[PeterT]

I also saw some weirdness with columns; I will admit that I broke down, dropped all my custom columns, manually edited metadata.calibre to clean out all the stuff that had built up there, and started from scratch.

Seemed to work a lot better then!

(metadata.calibre seems to contains for each entry, a full copy of the column definitions).

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I also saw some weirdness with columns; I will admit that I broke down, dropped all my custom columns, manually edited metadata.calibre to clean out all the stuff that had built up there, and started from scratch.

Seemed to work a lot better then!

(metadata.calibre seems to contains for each entry, a full copy of the column definitions).

EEEEK!

[speakingtohe]

Seems I am your most frequent visitor to this thread

I have two Kobos, a Mini and an Aura.

I managed to get both the finished and reading shelves on both readers.

While doing this with the mini I selected all books with a reading status and used the restore bookmark function. I have quite a few books accidentally opened on both readers and maybe a dozen or so in progress books.

I looked at the Reading shelf on the Mini and had 47 books which seemed excessive. Then I noticed that some had an unread status and thought they had been reset, but remembered that I was actually reading them on the Aura.

I can avoid this happening again by filtering by ondevice , but thought it might provide a way for those who want to sync between Kobo readers with sideloaded books to do it.

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Seems I am your most frequent visitor to this thread

Which is not a problem as your thoughts are always welcome

I have two Kobos, a Mini and an Aura.

I managed to get both the finished and reading shelves on both readers.

While doing this with the mini I selected all books with a reading status and used the restore bookmark function. I have quite a few books accidentally opened on both readers and maybe a dozen or so in progress books.

I looked at the Reading shelf on the Mini and had 47 books which seemed excessive. Then I noticed that some had an unread status and thought they had been reset, but remembered that I was actually reading them on the Aura.

I can avoid this happening again by filtering by ondevice , but thought it might provide a way for those who want to sync between Kobo readers with sideloaded books to do it.

I have done this to sync my two devices. Mainly to prove it worked, but, I did mess up my Glo the other day and had to read on the Touch for a while.

But, it is most useful for a factory reset. I store the reading location for all the books on the device, then after the factory reset, put the books that are in progress back. Then do a restore of the reading status. As I also put already read books in a series back on the device, I can also set them to an appropriate status. Doing this has taken a factory reset from "avoid at all costs" to just a big nuisance.

For the books you have synced the wrong status, you can clear it using the Update Metadata option, or the Change Reading status option in the device list. But looking at it, Store/Restore probably should have the "Clear if unread" for the restore as well. And there isn't an easy way to clear both the library and the device.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Which is not a problem as your thoughts are always welcome


I have done this to sync my two devices. Mainly to prove it worked, but, I did mess up my Glo the other day and had to read on the Touch for a while.

But, it is most useful for a factory reset. I store the reading location for all the books on the device, then after the factory reset, put the books that are in progress back. Then do a restore of the reading status. As I also put already read books in a series back on the device, I can also set them to an appropriate status. Doing this has taken a factory reset from "avoid at all costs" to just a big nuisance.

For the books you have synced the wrong status, you can clear it using the Update Metadata option, or the Change Reading status option in the device list. But looking at it, Store/Restore probably should have the "Clear if unread" for the restore as well. And there isn't an easy way to clear both the library and the device.

I actually don't care if they are in the Reading Shelf. It could be useful as a reminder of which books I am reading on other reader.

I can say aha, I really want to finish that book

And maybe I can get the reading shelf on the Aura home page, making the home page slightly useful.

I am very very happy with this plug in. You and PeterT are very talented men.

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by gers1978

How do I actually get it to display the % read, location, etc, in the custom column?

If you have followed the instructions to create the columns and done the configuration for the plugin, you should:

- Connect the device.
- Wait for calibre to finish processing and show what books are on the device
- In the calibre library list, find the book you want to retrieve the reading status for and select it.
- Select the "Store/Restore" option from the plugins menu.
- On the displayed dialog, select the "Store" option and leave "Clear if unread" unchecked.
- Press the OK button.
- After a few moment, a message should be displayed with how many bookmarks were retrieved.

The updated details should be updated in the library list. But, you may need to select a different book in the list to get the details pane updated.

If the above doesn't work, tell me and we'll have to go through what is working.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I actually don't care if they are in the Reading Shelf. It could be useful as a reminder of which books I am reading on other reader.

I can say aha, I really want to finish that book

And maybe I can get the reading shelf on the Aura home page, making the home page slightly useful.

I like the new home screen, but shelves not appearing on it is a bad. Hopefully Kobo will fix that.

I am very very happy with this plug in. You and PeterT are very talented men.

[BobC]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you have followed the instructions to create the columns and done the configuration for the plugin, you should:

- Connect the device.
- Wait for calibre to finish processing and show what books are on the device
- In the calibre library list, find the book you want to retrieve the reading status for and select it.
- Select the "Store/Restore" option from the plugins menu.
- On the displayed dialog, select the "Store" option and leave "Clear if unread" unchecked.
- Press the OK button.
- After a few moment, a message should be displayed with how many bookmarks were retrieved.

The updated details should be updated in the library list. But, you may need to select a different book in the list to get the details pane updated.

If the above doesn't work, tell me and we'll have to go through what is working.

Glo with firmware 2.40
Calibre 0.9.34
Extended Touch/Glo driver 1.42
Kobo Utilities 1.0.0

I have followed the config instructions for Utilities and have a custom column set up named "percentread" of type "Integer". This is referenced in the Utility setup (as #percentread).

I connect my Glo and use the Utility menu to "Store" the current bookmarks of a single book I am currently reading which has a single annotation.

Utilities reports one book, no bookmarks found and the Percent Read column in my Library is not updated with any value.

Do I need to make any config changes to the Extended Driver ?

Thoughts would be appreciated as to what I am doing wrong.

BobC