Fully automatic Calibre autoupate solution (Windows)

[Tscherno]

Hi,

because i love Calibre and because i like to keep it always up2date, i try to install every new version. And thanks to the great developers there are a lot of it. What me really annoyed was the fact to go to the website, download, start installation, click, click and start calibre again. That's why i started up NSIS and created a small autodownloader for the task.

At the moment it does the following:
- End calibre nicely (calibre.exe --shutdown-running-calibre)
- Download latest 64Bit Version to temp
- Installs via msiexec silently
- Starts calibre.exe (so you need to have it on %path%)

Attached are both the compiled .exe and the script if you like to compile it yourself. You just need to install NSIS from sourceforge.net

Have fun. PS: Maybe i can include this into a plugin for calibre.

[Jaan Ruud]

Genius, grate idea.

[At_Libitum]

Alas I get the following.

calibre, version 1.5.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>error</b>:(740, 'CreateProcess', 'The requested operation requires elevation.')

calibre 1.5  isfrozen: True is64bit: False
Windows-7-6.1.7600 Windows ('32bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '7', '6.1.7600')
Python 2.7.5
Windows: ('7', '6.1.7600', '', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre_plugins.open_with.action", line 159, in open_with
  File "calibre_plugins.open_with.action", line 221, in launch_app
error: (740, 'CreateProcess', 'The requested operation requires elevation.')

Changing the program properties to tick the box "Run ad Administrator" had no effect

PS. dunno about making it a plugin, but can already be launched from OpenWith dropdown menu (use cover as file type in plugin config as dummy coz it needs a selection)

EDIT:
Nvrmind... :S peachy with a true 64bit..

[Tscherno]

The precompiled is only for 64 Bit. If needed i can also compile one for 32Bit.

[carpetmojo]

This sounds like a fantastic idea - I think I'd need a 32-bit, have to check should you proceed any further with it.

But, could I make a plea for it to be as simple to install as possible ??
I appreciate 99% of MobileReaders are tech savvy, but i'm afraid I'm one of the minority who sort of muddle through, often getting it right by accident !

Just had it happen with the latest ... ummm ... "Tools" kit, which has installed beautifully, without me being enough aware of what happened, to be confident of repeating it next time !

[onebadpenny]

I just tried this autoupdater. Works GREAT! I love it!. But I couldn't get the 'Open With' plugin to work as At_Libitum suggested. Kept getting that same error. And being somewhat computer illiterate in some areas, I didn't understand the "Nvrmind... :S peachy with a true 64bit" edit from the same post, since I'm running a true 64bit :P

So I added an Empty Book using the add books dropdown and named it "***Calibre AutoUpdate" with author "*Update, *Auto". Then I gave it a cute cover image and edited the comments field to have an explanation as well as a link to the .exe file on my computer.

Now it's the first book in my library and the link runs the update perfectly
Thank you!

[At_Libitum]

Originally Posted by onebadpenny

being somewhat computer illiterate in some areas, I didn't understand the "Nvrmind... :S peachy with a true 64bit" edit from the same post, since I'm running a true 64bit :P

the nvrmind reflected my 'blindness' to not spot that it was only for the 64bit Calibre. I was trying it on the 32bit portable...

But I must say, yours is probably the most original way to launch an external tool. I would never have thought of that option

[mrmikel]

This tool is fine for the few people that need it. But for the most part, it is not necessary to update calibre every Friday. Kovid has to pay for the bandwidth for downloading, so there is no reason for everyone to download versions that contain trivial changes for them.

About the only people currently that might be on the every new version schedule are people who know of a particular bug that has been corrected, or those actively using the new editor feature which is currently being actively changed each week.

[At_Libitum]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

This tool is fine for the few people that need it. But for the most part, it is not necessary to update calibre every Friday.

This tool also doesn't... the auto-update refers to the fact that you do not need to go the site, download, exit Calibre, run msi. The tool does all that in one click. That is as far as its automatic capabilities go. You're still the one that needs to make the decision to update or not.

[mrmikel]

Sounds like a good idea to me then, especially since I am one of those following the astounding development of the editor function in Calibre.

[onebadpenny]

Originally Posted by mrmikel

This tool is fine for the few people that need it. But for the most part, it is not necessary to update calibre every Friday..

Personally I check the "what's new in this version" blurb every time I see a new version available. Mostly the updates are nothing I really care about, but every once in awhile I go, "Cool! Gotta have that". LOL. And in those instances I'll be quite happy to let the autoupdate do it's thing with only one little click from me

[eschwartz]

You could always run that as a bat script. Only two command-line commands are needed:

calibre.exe --shutdown-running-calibre
msiexec /i http://status.calibre-ebook.com/dist/win32

or use win64 for the 64-bit version. No need for compiling a program to do the same thing, since msiexec can use an http location. It is (obviously) 64-bit compatible, you can switch it yourself in 8 seconds.

Then if you really need to, you can also add this as a scheduled task, to run every week at 5:00 AM Friday, just hours after it is usually released and in the middle of the night when you're not up anyway.

Based on the discussion here (although it was for linux): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=24

You could always modify that script into a bat script. It was mainly for testing to see if the latest version was installed. The whole discussion was pretty cool though.

[sherman]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You could always run that as a bat script. Only two command-line commands are needed:

calibre.exe --shutdown-running-calibre
msiexec /i http://status.calibre-ebook.com/dist/win32

or use win64 for the 64-bit version. No need for compiling a program to do the same thing, since msiexec can use an http location. It is (obviously) 64-bit compatible, you can switch it yourself in 8 seconds.

Then if you really need to, you can also add this as a scheduled task, to run every week at 5:00 AM Friday, just hours after it is usually released and in the middle of the night when you're not up anyway.

Based on the discussion here (although it was for linux): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...3&postcount=24

You could always modify that script into a bat script. It was mainly for testing to see if the latest version was installed. The whole discussion was pretty cool though.

Oooh, I never knew you could feed msiexec a URL instead of a local file.

Currently I use a batch file that uses cURL to download the file to a temp file.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by sherman

Oooh, I never knew you could feed msiexec a URL instead of a local file.

Currently I use a batch file that uses cURL to download the file to a temp file.

I once looked up how, trying to see if there was any way to duplicate the way you can easily do simple command-line installation on linux. Turns out there's a way.

Not as easy, but at least once you know where the msi is, it's just one command.

It should probably look something like this:

@echo off

calibre-debug.exe -c "import urllib as u; from calibre.constants import numeric_version; raise SystemExit(int(numeric_version  < (tuple(map(int, u.urlopen('http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/latest_version').read().split('.'))))))"

if %ERRORLEVEL%==0 (
echo calibre is up to date.
)

else (
calibre.exe --shutdown-running-calibre
msiexec /i http://status.calibre-ebook.com/dist/win32
)

But I make no promises.

Also, you can put whatever you do decide to use for upgrading, into a weekly task. Running it every week on Friday at 6:00 AM will mean it gets upgraded just hours after each new release, while you are most likely asleep. (Unless you are still up organizing your metadata. )

Setting a scheduled task,

• Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308569
• Windows 7: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/w.../schedule-task

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Running it every week on Friday at 6 AM... while you are most likely asleep.

Kovid is probably also still in bed at 6 AM on Fridays. He normally uploads new versions on Friday mid-afternoon

Time differences - Mumbai

BR