[GUI Plugin] Reading List

[kiwidude]

Thx to both of you for the excellent feedback, this version should address both the issues you raised (saving column when you switch lists, and aloowing sync now without auto sync turned on).

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Thx to both of you for the excellent feedback, this version should address both the issues you raised (saving column when you switch lists, and aloowing sync now without auto sync turned on).

Well, if I'm going to throw these bones for you to gnaw on, the least I can do is follow-up and try to help out where I can.

I'm happy to report that it seems to be working perfectly now.

Naturally, I had to go acquire a few more books to do a proper test - I can't do a sync "just because".

Luckily for you, I'm out of additional ideas for hybrid plugins at the moment.

[nynaevelan]

This one is a 100% winner here as well and I got so caught up in testing I forgot to say I love the way you added the count to the title, now I see at a glance which ones I need to sync to my device. Great job KD

[Stampercam]

I've been playing with the beta version (still procrastinating on the study thing ) and it is a great combination of both the plugins.

Having said that, I having workflow problems due to the way I'm trying to do things. If someone wants to suggest a different method, please feel free

Ok, so I'm running both my ipad (through itunes) and my husbands reader (connected to calibre directly) and will be adding my kids devices once I get workflow sorted.

the procedure I've been trying to use goes like this:

1. add title to list (works great with the addition of multiple lists) - add tag ie. "on ipad" or "on hubby's"
2. sync to device
3. read book
4. remove from device - remove the "on ipad" tag and add tag "read by cam"

At the moment using both plugins in combination I'm doing step 1 with the (original) reading list plugin which tags for me, then adding those titles to the book sync plugin when ready to send to device. Step 4 I've been doing manually with "remove from device" but changing the tag to "read by cam" beforehand.... does that make sense?

Using this new combined version of the plugins, as soon as the book is removed from the list the tag goes, which means that I don't have the tag in place telling me which books are on what device when the devices aren't connected.

My manual method is working but it is easy to miss steps so I'd love a suggestion

Cam

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Stampercam

Step 4 I've been doing manually with "remove from device" but changing the tag to "read by cam" beforehand.... does that make sense?

Using this new combined version of the plugins, as soon as the book is removed from the list the tag goes, which means that I don't have the tag in place telling me which books are on what device when the devices aren't connected.

My manual method is working but it is easy to miss steps so I'd love a suggestion

Cam

I manage two ereaders for myself and my roommate, so I get the "keeping track" issues. It's why I started using the plugin. One option is to uncheck the "clear this list after sync" checkbox and keep an ongoing list, which will also keep the tags in place.

That said, I've decided to keep separate lists - Kindle New (or Literati New) of new books to sync that clears after sync, and "Christa's Books" (or "John's Books") as a non-syncing ongoing list. Once the list is set up it's only one extra click to put the books on both applicable lists. That's what easiest for me, but your mileage may vary.

As for manually removing the tags after reading, I don't even bother. I have a saved search for unread books set as a restricted view that calibre starts up with. Unless I choose to show all books, I don''t even see the books I've already read. I mark books I've finished as "read" in calibre as I finish them, then once a week or so I connect the reader, switch to view all books, and remove from the device any that I've marked as read.

If you do use a custom column for read status and still want to change the tags too, you can also just use that to sort by status, select the finished books and use "search and replace" in the bulk metadata window to change those tags in one swoop. Not something that has to be done every time you finish, just as maintenance once every week or two.

I hope that made sense. I'm tired, and sometimes I don't make the most sense when it's late.

[Stampercam]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

That said, I've decided to keep separate lists - Kindle New (or Literati New) of new books to sync that clears after sync, and "Christa's Books" (or "John's Books") as a non-syncing ongoing list. Once the list is set up it's only one extra click to put the books on both applicable lists. That's what easiest for me, but your mileage may vary.

The separate lists idea is perfect , and it's simple enough to maintain even for my hubby when he feels the need to poke around in *my* database lol.

So, now a question for kiwidude, can I set up keyboard shortcuts for all my lists? I can only find the options for setting up for the default list. This new combined plugin works a treat by the way.

Cam

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by Stampercam

So, now a question for kiwidude, can I set up keyboard shortcuts for all my lists? I can only find the options for setting up for the default list. This new combined plugin works a treat by the way.

Cam

Thanks all for the feedback, sounds like I can release it soon.

At the moment you can only set shortcuts for the current list. I guess I could add the ability for each list to have an add shortcut as well.

Re the two list thing from CWatkinsNash. What are your reasons for maintaining two lists? Why nit just one list with clear turned off? Is it because when you sync it sends the entire list each time?

One of the ideas I contemplated was checking the ondevice value for each book so it would only send new ones. However there could be a scenario where say you reconvert a book and want that sent to your device, and it wouldn't happen because of this check. So then I thought I could add a "only sync books not on the device" checkbox option for each list, but apart from adding more complexity that wouldn't cater for a scenario of a list you normally want treated one way but had a book that you wanted differently this time. So I abandoned the whole change and instead all books on your list get sent each time. The only downside to this I am aware of is potentially slower to sync if your list is massive, and books on a kindle getting marked as new in it's ui each time.

[nynaevelan]

Kiwidude:

I get the following error when deleting a device although the plugin does delete the device:

calibre, version 0.8.4
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>KeyError</b>:u'syncDevice'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.reading_list.config", line 716, in _delete_device_clicked
KeyError: u'syncDevice'

[kiwidude]

Thx Nyn - I obviously made a further change after I tested it, darn it. Will be fixed in the next version.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Re the two list thing from CWatkinsNash. What are your reasons for maintaining two lists? Why nit just one list with clear turned off? Is it because when you sync it sends the entire list each time?

No, in my case it's because the "Kindle New" (sync) & "Christa's Books" (non-sync) serve additional functions in my overly-organized ebook universe. I'm not awake enough to clearly explain it fully, but because of that, it makes more sense for me to have both of them. One thing I am coherent enough to note is that, for example, I send the New York Times to the sync list, but I don't need it on my books list because I don't really "manage" news - just send, read, delete. So that's one example.

Also, occasionally I download a book straight from Amazon to the Kindle, and later use K4PC to put an alf'd backup copy in calibre - I know it's the same book, but the Kindle and calibre see it as a whole different animal. So in this case, it goes on my books list, but not the sync list.

So, doing it this way, the lists themselves don't require much in the way of maintenance.

Besides, since a quick perusal didn't show any duplicate/ondevice checking going on, I assumed (rightly, according to your post) it would slow down the sync, especially since I have over 900 books on my Kindle that, once I'm done organizing, will be on my book list. (Actually, I'll break it up into a smaller lists, but you get the idea.)

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Re the two list thing from CWatkinsNash. What are your reasons for maintaining two lists? Why nit just one list with clear turned off? Is it because when you sync it sends the entire list each time?

I would like to chime in on this conversation also because I too maintain two lists for my kindle, I have my sync list and my reading list. My sync list is the list which I maintain in order to keep track of all the books which should be on my kindle until I am ready to get around to reading them. I like to keep them all on there just in case I am in the mood to switch to something different when I complete a book. My reading list is just that, it consists of the books which I know I want to be read within the very near future. Originally this list started out with only about 10 books, but because I have alot of series books this list is now over 40 books large. Which means I need to spend time with it moving books around for various reasons.

And to make this process more complicated, I also keep a copy of the books of my reading list on my Galaxy tab in case I either want to read in bed or my kindle battery dies because I forgot to charge it (which I do alot because I read so much on my kindle). And I also have four additional lists which are lists to sync my books to backup folders on my hard drive. These lists are solely for backup purposes and are only synced once a week or every few weeks depending on how often I buy books from those vendors.

So you see, even with the simplification of the plugin, my life is still complicated because I am an organizing junkie.

Nyn

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Integrate the Book Sync functionality allowing specifying a device to send a list to
• Add a count of the items on a list to the menu
• Add optional keyboard shortcut to add to a specific list

I've already descrbied this previously so I won't bore our regular readers again but the main point of installing this version is that it supercedes Book Sync. So I suggest you:

• Sync any Book Sync lists first (if you don't want to completely lose them),
• Uninstall Book Sync,
• Install this version
• Configure your devices, as you would for Book Sync. See instructions on the first post if you have not done this before.

Thanks in particular to CWatkinsNash & Nyn for their testing of the betas. To any of you that did install the beta (and use plugin updater), force an install even though the version number shows the same as there were some fixes and additions since that last beta.

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

My reading list is just that, it consists of the books which I know I want to be read within the very near future. Originally this list started out with only about 10 books, but because I have alot of series books this list is now over 40 books large.

Oh yeah, I didn't even mention my other lists but I, too, have "priority" reading lists. Otherwise, things I really want to read soon would get lost in the shuffle. I make collections out of those. It keeps my TBR nonsense from clogging up my regular tags.

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

And I also have four additional lists which are lists to sync my books to backup folders on my hard drive.

You know, this is an excellent idea - I use Sugarsync right now to backup "to the cloud!" and also sync the whole shebang to my other computer, but I'm starting think I might want to keep local backups of certain subsets... I'm giving myself a headache thinking about it, but thanks for the idea!

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

So you see, even with the simplification of the plugin, my life is still complicated because I am an organizing junkie.

[beckywc]

I have a few questions, sorry if they are simple but, I'm a little confused:

Okay, I have both the book sync and reading list plug in.
1. Does this updated plugin take the place of the book sync?
2. What happens to my reading list?
3. Do I now add books to this list that I want to side load onto my kindle?
4. I have a TBR collection on my kindle and a currently reading on my kindle (by custom columns), how does the reading list affect these two collections? or do they?

[Stampercam]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Changes in this release:

• Integrate the Book Sync functionality allowing specifying a device to send a list to
• Add a count of the items on a list to the menu
• Add optional keyboard shortcut to add to a specific list

This is fantastic... Thanks for the shortcuts Seriously, I love the way you take suggestions and feedback on board and continuously make the changes to please everybody. I'm not sure when you find the time, but I'm certainly grateful. Definately donation time again.