[GUI Plugin] Open With

[kiwidude]

This plugin allows you to launch external applications for editing your books in Calibre.

Common uses are to allow editing a specific format of a book in an external editor (such as to edit an EPUB in Sigil), or to edit the cover of a book in an external graphics program to crop/resize it.

Main Features:

• Launch external applications for a particular format or cover of the selected book.
• Easy to use configuration dialog accessed via right-click context menu or Preferences->Plugins
• A number of predefined default applications (per platform) for you to choose from, plus the ability to edit/add your own.
• Menu is fully customisable to change ordering, add submenus, keyboard shortcuts, images and command line arguments.
• Import and export capability for backup or sharing with other users.
• Help file web page available from the configuration dialog.

Special Notes:

• Help Documentation
• Change History
• Requires Calibre v2.0.0 or later.

Paypal Donations:

• If you find this or any of my other plugins useful please feel free to show your appreciation. I have spent many hundreds of unpaid hours in their development and support so any encouragement for me to continue is appreciated!
  

[Ralob]

Using Source of Calibre (rev 7833 atm), I get this error when trying to start the gui:

File "/home/laptop/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/main.py", line 253, in initialize
self.initialize_db()
File "/home/laptop/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/main.py", line 234, in initialize_db
self.initialize_db_stage2(db, None)
File "/home/laptop/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/main.py", line 203, in initialize_db_stage2
self.start_gui(db)
File "/home/laptop/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/main.py", line 159, in start_gui
main.initialize(self.library_path, db, self.listener, self.actions)
File "/home/laptop/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/ui.py", line 145, in initialize
ac.do_genesis()
File "/home/laptop/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/actions/__init__.py", line 97, in do_genesis
self.genesis()
File "/home/laptop/.config/calibre/plugins/Open With.zip/open_with_plugin_code.py", line 603, in genesis
File "/home/laptop/calibre/src/calibre/gui2/actions/__init__.py", line 142, in load_resources
with ZipFile(self.plugin_path, 'r') as zf:
AttributeError: ZipFile instance has no attribute '__exit__'

[kiwidude]

Ralob - I have seen that error posted previously. See the response from Kovid here, and the original user's post two above it:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...57#post1298257

Upgrading Python was the gist I got from it.

[kiwidude]

For users who upgrade to the now available Calibre 0.7.43 or later, you should also upgrade to v1.3 of Open With plugin.

Special thanks to GRiker for adding OSX support and some suggested OSX application paths/icons.

Changes in v1.3:

• Support for OSX (Windows/Linux already available)
• Default applications list is now platform specific - don't display Windows applications to Linux/OSX users etc.
• Added more applications for Windows - Adobe Digital Editions, EPUBReader (Firefox plugin)
• Added default applications for OSX (Sigil, ADE, EPUBReader, Photoshop CS5, Pixelmator, Preview, Acrobat, Adobe Reader, Skim)
• Added default applications for Linux (Sigil, EPUBReader, Gimp)
• Bug fix for keyboard shortcuts not working if switch rows without reopening context menu

[Ralob]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Ralob - I have seen that error posted previously. See the response from Kovid here, and the original user's post two above it:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...57#post1298257

Upgrading Python was the gist I got from it.

Unfortunately, I have the newest python 2.6. Thanks for the help anyways.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Ralob

Using Source of Calibre (rev 7833 atm)

I have to admit my ignorance here, what version of calibre are you trying to run and on what OS are you running it?

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by Ralob

Unfortunately, I have the newest python 2.6. Thanks for the help anyways.

"Newest"? I use Python 2.7 with Calibre.

[Ralob]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I have to admit my ignorance here, what version of calibre are you trying to run and on what OS are you running it?

I am using the latest, but through Develop_From on Linux. And I pull the latest rev daily, so I am always on the latest.

Basically, I don't use a binary installation, but rather run it through my home directory.

[Ralob]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

"Newest"? I use Python 2.7 with Calibre.

The calibre homepage lists python 2.6 as the required dependency, hence the reason I named it. I also have the newest 2.7, and the error persists.

It isn't too big of a deal, I know how to work around it. I just thought that I would bring it up in case anyone else has a similar error.

[Visuddhi]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Changes in v1.3:

• Support for OSX (Windows/Linux already available)
• Default applications list is now platform specific - don't display Windows applications to Linux/OSX users etc.
• Added more applications for Windows - Adobe Digital Editions, EPUBReader (Firefox plugin)
• Added default applications for OSX (Sigil, ADE, EPUBReader, Photoshop CS5, Pixelmator, Preview, Acrobat, Adobe Reader, Skim)
• Added default applications for Linux (Sigil, EPUBReader, Gimp)
• Bug fix for keyboard shortcuts not working if switch rows without reopening context menu

Seems to work pretty well

Please add 'open with Briss' option

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by Visuddhi

Seems to work pretty well

Please add 'open with Briss' option

So I googled Briss and came up with "the Jewish rite of circumcision" - I guess that wasn't the one you were after...

One of the ideas for the Export feature was exactly this scenario - users sharing shortcuts to their favourite applications without me having to continually re-release the plugin. When/if I get around to a future release of the plugin I will add any posted in this thread to be included in it.

So I just created the menu item in the plugin config dialog, right-click to "export" and renamed the resulting briss.owip file to briss.zip (forum blocks unknown extensions as attachments unfortunately).

For anyone wanting to use it, download the attachment, rename it to 'briss.owip', then from within the plugin preferences right-click on your list of menu items and choose "Import". You will almost certainly need to modify the path, but at least I have saved you the trouble of grabbing the icon etc.

[redynstruc]

I'm a Mac user who uses a Kindle and, until I downloaded this plugin, I had no way to open drm protected books which had been stored in Calibre. Leaving them in "My Kindle Content" for Kindle's desktop ereader to open was not much of an option because (despite how good of a library manager the Kindle, itself, is) the desktop reader is nothing more than an electronic way to thumb through hundreds of books until, hopefully, you find what you're after.
This plugin makes Calibre so much more useful by allowing me to not only read drm protected books with my desktop Kindle software, but, also, manipulate other books in my library with Sigil, Skim, etc. - without needed to drop out of Calibre to do so. Thanks a bunch.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by redynstruc

I'm a Mac user who uses a Kindle and, until I downloaded this plugin, I had no way to open drm protected books which had been stored in Calibre.

This plugin works great for this but you can also turn off calibre's internal viewer for your Kindle books and it will use whatever program your Mac is set to use for these files.

[jackie_w]

@kiwidude,

Thank you for this plugin. I have been able to successfully add a couple of items via the customisation screen?

I was wondering whether it is possible to add your own programs to the list if your programs are either a Python .py file or a Windows .bat file (i.e. no .exe available) which expect a single input argument which is the selected book's EPUB for instance?

I have a couple of home grown utilities which I run just by 'Click to Open' on the book details panel followed by right-clicking on the relevant book format in Windows Explorer and using the Send-To option to drop it onto a one-line .bat which calls a .py file.

It would be quite convenient to have the option to run these directly from the calibre library window. It's not a big deal to carry on as now, but I thought I'd ask.

[kiwidude]

@jackie_w

Sure you can add your own - in fact I thought you indicated with your first sentence that you had managed to do that already?

Adding and running .bat files is no problem at all. The only issue you may have is if you need a command window to stay open to see the results of some output. I'm sure there is a way of doing that with a batch files that uses start with some arguments but can't remember what they are off top of my head. I think you could also run python scripts directly if you didn't want a .bat file wrapper - specify python.exe as the executable and in the command line arguments column specify the path to the script.