MapleRead - eBook Reader and Server for iOS

[cedhax]

Thank you for your recent FAQ update (with accompanying screenshots)! It's one of the best app FAQs I've ever read.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by cedhax

Thank you for your recent FAQ update (with accompanying screenshots)! It's one of the best app FAQs I've ever read.

[Leo78256]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

@Leo78256 - The limit of 5 applies to the number of books you can download via MapleRead CX's PC Upload feature, if you're using the free version. To get unlimited access, you can easily in-app purchase "Pro Upgrade". (Tap the Library Settings icon)

If you're going to read also on iPad, then get SE or CE, depending on your need. For a very detailed description of the features of SE, CE, CX, please read this webpage on our website.

Thanks for the help. I've upgraded to Pro so I can read more books. This is cool.

I looked on that link, but still couldn't find the differences between the versions. It's not that critical, as I read on my iPhone. But in the future...

Perhaps some clarification of that page might be of help? I suppose others may share my confusion.

[sbaylor]

Great to hear that you get the CX Pro Upgrade.

The webpage describes the additional features of SE over CE (and CX) by highlighting "Features unique to MapleRead SE" in color gold, basically PDF and Server View.

[sbaylor]

What's new in MapleRead 1.5.1 (R2016.08.02)

- Fixed a regression bug that may produce mangled book titles for PDF files imported via PC Upload [SE only]
- Fixed a bug that may produce syntax errors in generated OPDS catalogs [SE only]
- Added support to a one-step bug report submission process when OPDS catalog syntax error is encountered when Diagnostics is turned on (in System Settings)
- Addressed some popover UI issues

See also Version History and a related FAQ on "How to share books in MapleRead SE's library via its built-in OPDS/HTML server?".

[sbaylor]

With the iPhone edition (CX) behind our back and a stable current release, we will continue working on other new features. The highest priority feature right now is better secure synchronization, which will continue to work among all 3 editions of MapleRead across all supported iOS devices.

[cedhax]

That's really good news. I'm looking forward to the next release of MapleRead.

FYI, sync of notes is much more important to me than other stuff. Thanks.

[sbaylor]

@cedhax - Sync of notes will definitely be there. Thank you for your support.

[glenm125]

I've just started using MapleRead on an iPad. Very nice overall. Look and feel while reading is as good as it needs ot be, for the things I read. I like the visual reading progress icon thing in the list view. I was able to setup connection to my Calibre library easily, and download some books, though I would be pleased if there were a little more power in finding and selecting the books to download (since there are several hundred overall).

A challenge I'm having is updating books I've already downloaded to the device from Calibre.

By way of background: I've been reading my Android phone for a long time. I use Calibre to maintain my library on the PC, including fanficfare plugin to keep fanfiction epubs up to date as authors publish more. On my phone, Calibre Companion checks for metadata updates, comparing the metadata on the phone already for books it has downloaded, to latest metadata on the PC. It updates the metadata on phone, and automatically re-downloads the book as needed.

I'm hoping for some way to accomplish the same net effect on MapleRead. I have connected to Calibre Server, have downloaded books within the MapleRead UI. All good. But downloading updates is hard, or perhaps I don't understand the easy way.

Ideally it would be automatic - as soon as the device reconnects to the library, it finds the updates for already-downloaded stuff, and downloads it again. Or perhaps one big friendly button, "Update downloaded books" or similar.

If that isn't possible, then at least I would like it to be easy to see what is updated - when viewing the server, put a flag beside things I'm out of date on. Give me a way to select those items easily.

Right now, I can see the list By Newest, but the UI doesn't show when it was updated, just the sorted list of titles/authors. Hence even if I remember I last downloaded on Tuesday, I can't easily see what has changed since Tuesday. So I going to the PC to do that, then come back to MapleRead to scroll down the list to the same point. But even so, I can't then select the range of books, I have to click each one to tag it to put in the download queue.

Right now, I have a book that I know is updated in my Calibre library, but when I try to download again it says Skipped - I can't figure out why. 36 chapters on server. 35 chapters in MapleRead. No reason given why it is skipped, or at least, I don't see how to access any reason if it is there.

Of course, maybe I just don't understand the easy way to do all this, or perhaps I've missed some confirmation that will make it easier.

In any event, this is one area in a product that seems very good overall. I hope my comments help. And suggestions would be eagerly appreciated.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by glenm125

I've just started using MapleRead on an iPad. Very nice overall. Look and feel while reading is as good as it needs ot be, for the things I read. I like the visual reading progress icon thing in the list view. I was able to setup connection to my Calibre library easily, and download some books, though I would be pleased if there were a little more power in finding and selecting the books to download (since there are several hundred overall).

A challenge I'm having is updating books I've already downloaded to the device from Calibre.

By way of background: I've been reading my Android phone for a long time. I use Calibre to maintain my library on the PC, including fanficfare plugin to keep fanfiction epubs up to date as authors publish more. On my phone, Calibre Companion checks for metadata updates, comparing the metadata on the phone already for books it has downloaded, to latest metadata on the PC. It updates the metadata on phone, and automatically re-downloads the book as needed.

I'm hoping for some way to accomplish the same net effect on MapleRead. I have connected to Calibre Server, have downloaded books within the MapleRead UI. All good. But downloading updates is hard, or perhaps I don't understand the easy way.

Ideally it would be automatic - as soon as the device reconnects to the library, it finds the updates for already-downloaded stuff, and downloads it again. Or perhaps one big friendly button, "Update downloaded books" or similar.

If that isn't possible, then at least I would like it to be easy to see what is updated - when viewing the server, put a flag beside things I'm out of date on. Give me a way to select those items easily.

Right now, I can see the list By Newest, but the UI doesn't show when it was updated, just the sorted list of titles/authors. Hence even if I remember I last downloaded on Tuesday, I can't easily see what has changed since Tuesday. So I going to the PC to do that, then come back to MapleRead to scroll down the list to the same point. But even so, I can't then select the range of books, I have to click each one to tag it to put in the download queue.

Right now, I have a book that I know is updated in my Calibre library, but when I try to download again it says Skipped - I can't figure out why. 36 chapters on server. 35 chapters in MapleRead. No reason given why it is skipped, or at least, I don't see how to access any reason if it is there.

Of course, maybe I just don't understand the easy way to do all this, or perhaps I've missed some confirmation that will make it easier.

In any event, this is one area in a product that seems very good overall. I hope my comments help. And suggestions would be eagerly appreciated.

Calibre Companion is coming out with a version for iOS. It's currently in Alpha. It will hand off the books to MapleRead to be read quite nicely. I'm not sure what the timeline for the final release, but it's coming.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by glenm125

I've just started using MapleRead on an iPad. Very nice overall. Look and feel while reading is as good as it needs ot be, for the things I read. I like the visual reading progress icon thing in the list view. I was able to setup connection to my Calibre library easily, and download some books, though I would be pleased if there were a little more power in finding and selecting the books to download (since there are several hundred overall).

Thank you. And we have the same wish too.

A challenge I'm having is updating books I've already downloaded to the device from Calibre.

By way of background: I've been reading my Android phone for a long time. I use Calibre to maintain my library on the PC, including fanficfare plugin to keep fanfiction epubs up to date as authors publish more. On my phone, Calibre Companion checks for metadata updates, comparing the metadata on the phone already for books it has downloaded, to latest metadata on the PC. It updates the metadata on phone, and automatically re-downloads the book as needed.

I'm hoping for some way to accomplish the same net effect on MapleRead. I have connected to Calibre Server, have downloaded books within the MapleRead UI. All good. But downloading updates is hard, or perhaps I don't understand the easy way.

Ideally it would be automatic - as soon as the device reconnects to the library, it finds the updates for already-downloaded stuff, and downloads it again. Or perhaps one big friendly button, "Update downloaded books" or similar.

Understood. We've looked under the hood again. The problem is that the OPDS Content Server of Calibre does not provide sufficient data, including the modified date of each book, in its generated XML files, which is what MapleRead sees. Thus, MapleRead can't tell if a given book is updated or not (compared against what's in MapleRead's library). I am not familiar with the inner workings of Calibre Companion, but I don't think it relies on (OPDS) Content Server at all.

It should be pretty straightforward for a competent Calibre developer to make the minor changes to include the modified date information. However we don't have the expertise in-house. Perhaps you may post a request in some calibre forum on mobileread with a link to this thread? Other users with similar needs are encouraged to help out to express your interest there too. The proposed change will potentially benefit not only MapleRead users, but also all OPDS client apps.

If that isn't possible, then at least I would like it to be easy to see what is updated - when viewing the server, put a flag beside things I'm out of date on. Give me a way to select those items easily.

Right now, I can see the list By Newest, but the UI doesn't show when it was updated, just the sorted list of titles/authors. Hence even if I remember I last downloaded on Tuesday, I can't easily see what has changed since Tuesday. So I going to the PC to do that, then come back to MapleRead to scroll down the list to the same point. But even so, I can't then select the range of books, I have to click each one to tag it to put in the download queue.

For the same reason as listed above, MapleRead or any other OPDS client can't do that.

Right now, I have a book that I know is updated in my Calibre library, but when I try to download again it says Skipped - I can't figure out why. 36 chapters on server. 35 chapters in MapleRead. No reason given why it is skipped, or at least, I don't see how to access any reason if it is there.

Check the menu items under Prefer. By default, Skip Book is checked. To do the update you want, select Download Book instead. See here for a screenshot, which is part of Exchange Books & Metadata.

Of course, maybe I just don't understand the easy way to do all this, or perhaps I've missed some confirmation that will make it easier.

In any event, this is one area in a product that seems very good overall. I hope my comments help. And suggestions would be eagerly appreciated.

Yes, your comments indeed help. Thanks.

Please think about expressing your wish to Calibre.

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

...
It should be pretty straightforward for a competent Calibre developer to make the minor changes to include the modified date information. However we don't have the expertise in-house. Perhaps you may post a request in some calibre forum on mobileread with a link to this thread? Other users with similar needs are encouraged to help out to express your interest there too. The proposed change will potentially benefit not only MapleRead users, but also all OPDS client apps.
...

Per your suggestion, I have posted a new thread in the calibre forum, and kovidgoyal has kindly responded. Would you kindly reply to his technical questions? It'll be great if you two can work out a new solution together. Anybody else interested too?

Take your time. I know this is the Labor Day long weekend. Thanks!

[glenm125]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

Check the menu items under Prefer. By default, Skip Book is checked. To do the update you want, select Download Book instead.

I did in fact find this option, thanks for the tip. I'd seen it earlier but had a mental block against it - I don't want to re-download things that are the same, only if they are updated. But as we've established in your prior response, you can't currently tell if it is updated.

Thanks for your complete response and thoughtful explanation, it helped me understand more about how this works.

And per your suggestion, I've added a comment to the thread over on Calibre that was started by cedhax. If you have a moment to weigh in on that thread with a more technical explanation of what additional content you would use, that would likely help the developer.

Thanks again

glen

[romad]

I just bought and installed MapleRead SE as it seem to be the best replacement for iBooks. However, I have a couple of caveats about it.

First, I set the sorting to Author+Series. I then imported four books of a 5-book series, but MR does NOT sort them according to series number but sorts by Author+Title so series is sorted books 4, 3, 1, 5 instead of 1, 3, 4, 5. How do I get the sorting into the proper sequential order? Is there a way to manually move the books into their proper order?

Second, why does the MR logo have to appear in the middle of EVERY page of the book? This tells me the vendor is either very egotistical or very insecure. We KNOW what is the software; there is absolutely no valid reason for such a blatant eyesore visual.

[glenm125]

Originally Posted by romad

Second, why does the MR logo have to appear in the middle of EVERY page of the book?

The rest of your comment notwithstanding, the simple answer is "it doesn't." While reading a book, tap in the middle of the page to get the controls, and use the brightness icon near top right. 'Switch theme' to the background that you prefer. The only ambiguity here is I don't think of a theme change as being a brightness feature, so I looked everywhere else before I found it in this menu - in retrospect, this menu is all about visualization so it kinda makes sense.

HTH

glen