[Device Plugin] Kobo Touch Extended Driver

[jgoguen]

I never even thought about crowdfunding. What a great idea. Unfortunately it looks like it takes a while for a PayPal account to get set up and verified, but once that's done maybe I'll go look for ChipIn (R.I.P.) alternatives.

[jgoguen]

Version 1.3.0 has just been released. Look for calibre to tell you to upgrade soon, or grab it from the first post if you're especially impatient

Version 1.3.0 - 2013-05-08

• Firmware 2.5.1 is now supported
• A new option to smarten punctuation during conversion is now available
• Spaces are properly added where text is followed by XHTML tags
• Error position reporting is improved
• Extract Kobo JavaScript from a provided KePub (see the README file for details)
• Issues resolved detecting where to add Kobo span tags

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

Version 1.3.0 has just been released. Look for calibre to tell you to upgrade soon, or grab it from the first post if you're especially impatient

Thanks for this! Calibre told me to upgrade today so I did. The new version seems to work just fine for me, based on a test size of 1 book mind you This is on an Aura.

[Quexos]

Could someone give me the basics of this ?
I installed Calibre and successfully installed the Kobo extended driver but that's it. I see nowhere in Calibre something called "epub to kepub conversion" I see pretty much all the other output conversion formats though.
Thanks

[PeterT]

Read the initial post in this thread. Unlike many other conversions, this converts the books ON THE FLY as you send it to the Kobo; it does NOT store the converted material in your library.

[jgoguen]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Could someone give me the basics of this ?

Sure. Select the books you want to convert and click the Send To Device button.

[Quexos]

But how does it know I want a Kepub instead of an epub or anything else if it does not even say anywhere convert to Kepub ?
And what do I select for that matter ? convert from epub to epub since no epub to Kepub is to be selected ?

Originally Posted by PeterT

Read the initial post in this thread. Unlike many other conversions, this converts the books ON THE FLY as you send it to the Kobo; it does NOT store the converted material in your library.

[jgoguen]

Originally Posted by Quexos

But how does it know I want a Kepub instead of an epub or anything else if it does not even say anywhere convert to Kepub ?

Because the plugin options tell it to enable extended features. Kinda pointless to have a plugin to convert to KePub if it doesn't convert to KePub

Originally Posted by Quexos

And what do I select for that matter ?

The books you want to upload to your device.

[Quexos]

Ok now that I tried it, it works. I was just trying to figure this out from the perspective of one that never tried it before.
However I don't understand the point of having to connect the device to get the Kepub. What's wrong with getting the kepub on my computer first then sideload later on the device. But this is not much of an issue, what matters is that it worked, thanks again for the help

Originally Posted by jgoguen

Because the plugin options tell it to enable extended features. Kinda pointless to have a plugin to convert to KePub if it doesn't convert to KePub

[jgoguen]

Originally Posted by Quexos

What's wrong with getting the kepub on my computer first then sideload later on the device.

Primarily it's that a driver plugin is not supposed to update your library and the simplest way of doing this is as a driver plugin. When I was starting this work, I tried both a GUI plugin and a format plugin but neither was as nice as a driver plugin.

[Quexos]

On the subject of kepubs that don't come from the Kobo store, has anyone tried to archive (upload) them to the Kobo cloud ? I mean would that work or is it restricted to kobo store kepubs ?

[PeterT]

The only material that sync's with the kobocloud is material that came from it, and in reality it's a one way sync downwards with just an upload of just the location in the book.

[Thalinor]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

Do you have a link to this fix?

I searched forever and could not find it again, I think it was about the reference file, and I see the guide you have now talks about reference.kepub.epub, so I am going that a shot as I type this post.

I downloaded a free kepub "The Idiot" but when I told Calibre to import it off the Glo, it told me it could not do it because it was a "Virtual" book. I then found the file on the Glo through windows explorer, which did not have a file extension, even with the "hide known file extensions" unchecked (which I keep it that way anyway). It was a string of numbers & letters, but I was able to rename it to reference.kepub.epub and it opened in Calibre's internal ebook reader, so I figured I am good to go. It has been copied to the plugin directory.

I deleted all the books on the Glo, and am now sending them back via Calibre. This is all I should have to do correct? I found it odd that I can't seem to find an actual DRM free book in kepub from kobo? Did they get wise to this or is it just a US region thing they are doing? If I go to the Kobo bookstore via my PC and look at every free ebook, all I see are epubs and pdf's? I tried one and it was just an epub on my device as it did not open with the "Reading Stats" option I get with (faked) kepubs. The books I downloaded via Kobo bookstore directly on the Glo device (Calibre calls them "Virtual") are kepubs because they have Reading Stats. Again, one of these "Virtual" books is what I used for the reference.kepub.epub fiel, so I hope it will end up working correctly.


Edit: Negative. I don't think it worked. Still resetting me back to the first page of a chapter and the bookmark feature (which once worked "ok") now also resets a bookmark back to the first page of a chapter. My guess is that "Virtual" kepub I downloaded via the Glo may be the problem.

Is there another place to find a legal DRM-free kepub to use as the reference.kepub.epub file? Again Kobo seems to have changed some things around on the bookstore.

[jgoguen]

There still seems to be issues around setting the kobo spans properly. If you rename a book file from your device to have a .zip extension, you can open it as a ZIP file. If you see a kobo.js file, the reference.kepub.epub file was properly referenced and you've found a book that still has issues with the Kobo spans not being set properly. I'm working on that.

[Thalinor]

Originally Posted by jgoguen

There still seems to be issues around setting the kobo spans properly. If you rename a book file from your device to have a .zip extension, you can open it as a ZIP file. If you see a kobo.js file, the reference.kepub.epub file was properly referenced and you've found a book that still has issues with the Kobo spans not being set properly. I'm working on that.

Got it, thank you. I just checked and that book I got directly from the on device bookstore, was in fact a kepub. It did not have a file extension, but when renaming it to zip, I can see the js file you are talking about /js/kobo.js

Edit: Ok I figure epub's are just container formats (like mp4) which is why the .zip trick worked and files were inside; I just checked all the books that were copied to the Glo via Calibre and the plugin, they all have a "kobo.js" while the originals on my HD do not have that file inside. I assume that's the file the plugin added renaming the one in the reference file "kobo-android.js" to just "kobo.js". If that's the case, the plugin is working correctly and its not something with that "virtual" kepub I used. Does that all sound correct?

If so...

For reference, people who are looking for a kepub DRM free, use the on device Kobo bookstore to search for "The Watchers" by Lynnie Purcell, it will say download; not buy. Once you download it plug the Glo into a computer and navigate to \.kobo\kepub or \koboExtStorage\kepub look for the file w/o an extension [even with the setting unchecked to hide known file extensions] and copy it to the desktop. You can try to rename it to Test.epub and verify it opens as an epub as well as rename it to Test.zip and check for the kobo-.js file inside. This file can be used as reference.kepub.epub, even though Calibre will not import it off the device directly. This may help anyone looking for a Free, DRM-Free, kepub to use in the plugins folder.


I originally used "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, but the .js file said kobo-android.js where the other book above only says kobo.js which is exactly what this plugin seems to be using as its naming convention. While it worked with "The Idiot" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, I noticed the kobo-android.js file was larger, and figured it had formatting for android based readers.