[Android App] Coming: Android app to connect as a device to calibre using wifi

[g007]

This would make you a miracle worker in my book. I'd love to try the beta too —*I have a Nexus 7.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by g007

This would make you a miracle worker in my book. I'd love to try the beta too —*I have a Nexus 7.

This post could confuse things more than help, but I will give it a try.

Our app displays the metadata you see in calibre. It ignores the metadata stored in the books. This means that if you change a tag or a series or what-have-you in calibre, you can see those changes in the app without resending or reconverting the books. Turn on calibre's automatic metadata management, then simply connecting the app to calibre will do the necessary metadata updates. Having this behavior is probably the major reason I wanted to build this app.

On the other hand, our app does nothing more than calibre does with the books themselves. If you send a book to your device via our app and then open it with aldiko or fbreader or ???, then you will see the metadata inside the book. That metadata could very easily be different from what you see in calibre. We have no control over this behavior. Updating metadata in books is extremely complicated and far beyond what we can implement. For evidence, look at threads like the one for modify epub.

One reason that we are working hard at making our app be a "director" (able to open books using other reader apps) is to avoid all the kerfuffle around metadata inside the book vs calibre's metadata. OK, I admit that I like this feature and that is another reason we did it. We have succeeded at that with some apps like FBReader, Cool Reader, and Adobe Reader (this list is not exhaustive -- for example I haven't tried Moon+ or Aldiko). Unfortunately, some reader apps don't play nice and publish what kinds of books they can open (Kindle for Android, for example), so people who "live" in those apps won't get many of the updated-metadata benefits.

As I said above, I hope this info helps more than it confuses.

[FlareHeart]

@chaley

I am very very interested in your app at the moment, regardless of metadata, because right now, there is no easy way for me to sync my books with Calibre. I have to manually copy the books, there is no way for me to easily see which books are on my device versus my library since Calibre cannot connect to MTP devices (my Nexus 7). The ability for me to see the "On Device" column and whether there is a checkmark there, and then send it to my device if it's not, is a HUGE boon for me. I can manage my own metadata via the Modify-epub plugin, so that's not a huge concern.

I'm very excited and very thankful for all of your (and your son's) hard work! Thank You!

[rita book]

As you know, have been waiting with bated breath! Right now the only way I can figure out to get my books onto the Nexus is to email the file to my kindle account and d/l wirelessly from Kindle (using the Kindle app on the Nexus). Did you post as to the eta of the beta? I seem to have overlooked that, if you did. You mentioned that you are waiting for the next update of Calibre---has that happened?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by rita book

You mentioned that you are waiting for the next update of Calibre---has that happened?

Yes. Today's release of calibre (0.8.64) contains support for our app.

We have finished development of the beta product and are now testing it with the calibre release on a wide variety of devices. As expected, there are some incompatibilities between releases, especially with themes and menu handling. My son is cleaning up the worst of these now. We both need some sleep, so we expect to have the app ready for beta tomorrow (Saturday) at around 13:00 UK time.

[rita book]

Just d/l'ed the latest version of Calibre and see the link for wireless send. I am hyped!

[g007]

Originally Posted by chaley

On the other hand, our app does nothing more than calibre does with the books themselves. If you send a book to your device via our app and then open it with aldiko or fbreader or ???, then you will see the metadata inside the book. That metadata could very easily be different from what you see in calibre. We have no control over this behavior. Updating metadata in books is extremely complicated and far beyond what we can implement. For evidence, look at threads like the one for modify epub.

Believe me, I get the whole embedded data thing — it's why I don't sideload my books in bulk onto my Nexus 7. If you "download" (i.e., use the function provided within the app to grab a book) the books from your Calibre content server into Mantano or Moon+ (I tried Aldiko, FBReader and CoolReader and for a variety of reasons didn't like them nearly as much), the metadata (including tags, series, description) comes with the books. If, however, you sideload the books and then open them in the readers, you're stuck with whatever metadata was in the file itself.

Originally Posted by chaley

One reason that we are working hard at making our app be a "director" (able to open books using other reader apps) is to avoid all the kerfuffle around metadata inside the book vs calibre's metadata. OK, I admit that I like this feature and that is another reason we did it. We have succeeded at that with some apps like FBReader, Cool Reader, and Adobe Reader (this list is not exhaustive -- for example I haven't tried Moon+ or Aldiko). Unfortunately, some reader apps don't play nice and publish what kinds of books they can open (Kindle for Android, for example), so people who "live" in those apps won't get many of the updated-metadata benefits.

As I said above, I hope this info helps more than it confuses.

Admittedly, I wasn't really thinking about really truly using Calibre as the front end book manager for my ereader apps — that's pure genius on your part. Since none of the ereader apps seem to grok the concept of getting books (really? they don't think anyone is going to want to pull more than 1 or 2 books at a time into their reader??) or browsing books (don't you think Barnes & Noble, who's been selling books for a trillion years would know people like to scan the back cover or inside flap before starting a book?) — with the sad sad sad exception of the now extinct Stanza, RIP Stanza — an external app like yours should make up for all their idiocies and offer more library management functionality too.

I'm assuming (I know you mentioned this in a post somewhere, but I couldn't find it) that in your app the book files on the device will stored/organized similarly to as they are on desktop Calibre — and all in one location?

Regardless, hats off to you for addressing and solving every other ereader's blindness around the need to actually manage and browse books as well as read them on a device.

For what it's worth, in my opinion, Mantano comes closest to providing good management/browsing features (you can group/filter by collection, tag, or author and sort within group) and reading display options (font size, etc.). (And I think Mantano Premium has more extensive control over how books display.) Moon+ Reader runs the closest second with their 'library' options, and a ton of reading display options all in the free version, and Aldiko a distant third — you can only import from local (SD) storage,it ignores tags, doesn't seem to support collections, and has limited grouping/sorting. Plus, its reading display options are minimal.

Can't wait for the beta!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by g007

I'm assuming (I know you mentioned this in a post somewhere, but I couldn't find it) that in your app the book files on the device will stored/organized similarly to as they are on desktop Calibre — and all in one location?

For the beta this is true, there is one user-settable folder that books live in. However, one feature that will arrive real-soon-now is format routing, where you can specify a different folder for each book type. The purpose of this feature is to permit routing received books into the "import" folder for readers that can handle that kind of file. I think this will be useful, but time will tell.

Regardless, hats off to you for addressing and solving every other ereader's blindness around the need to actually manage and browse books as well as read them on a device.

Thanks for the encouraging words. We hope that the app will live up to its potential.

For what it's worth, in my opinion, Mantano comes closest to providing good management/browsing features (you can group/filter by collection, tag, or author and sort within group) and reading display options (font size, etc.). (And I think Mantano Premium has more extensive control over how books display.) Moon+ Reader runs the closest second with their 'library' options, and a ton of reading display options all in the free version, and Aldiko a distant third — you can only import from local (SD) storage,it ignores tags, doesn't seem to support collections, and has limited grouping/sorting. Plus, its reading display options are minimal.

Good info. I need to try more readers to a) see how they work, and b) to see if they can interoperate with our app.

FWIW: my son has verified that the stock Samsung reader app (whatever that is) publishes its capabilities, so it interoperates with our app. IIRC he tried it on a tablet running Honeycomb. It worked as hoped, appearing in the list of available readers when he tapped on a book to open it.

[Steve_Haley]

Originally Posted by chaley

FWIW: my son has verified that the stock Samsung reader app [...] worked as hoped.

Yep. I tested with a Samsung Galaxy 10" tablet, and our app integrates with theirs. If you tap the book in our app, it gets imported into the Samsung reader and appears on its bookshelf, available to be read.

[daviddem]

One problem becoming more and more common with the first method, and a major driver for this app, is that newer Android devices cannot be connected to calibre by a cable. These newer versions of Android (versions 3 and up, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, and Jellybean) do not support being connected as a "disk drive", something calibre requires to be able to "see" the device. The app we are developing gets around this problem by connecting to calibre wirelessly (wifi, no cable).

This app seems like it would be very useful to lots of us. However, concerning the problem in your OP, I would like to mention that there may also be other solutions, such as this free app , which allows your external sd card to be seen as a disk drive / usb mass storage. As mentioned in the article, this may or may not work with your particular device, but there may be equivalents of it for your device (search xda).

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by daviddem

However, concerning the problem in your OP, I would like to mention that there may also be other solutions

There are always other solutions, but the topic of this thread is the new app being developed by Charles and his son Steve.

Moderator Notice
If you wish to talk about possible android connection solutions please take it to another thread.

[chaley]

See the thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...89#post2181489

[NSILMike]

what app do folks recommend for reading the downloaded content?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by NSILMike

what app do folks recommend for reading the downloaded content?

I've been testing quite a few and I have settled on Moon+ Reader with Cool Reader as my secondary choice.

[Mr. Goodbar]

I second Moon+. The best combination of features and customization I've seen and i think I've pretty much tried them all.