Having difficulty opening EPUB file with E-book Viewer directly

[swampwiz]

I am running Calibre in Window 7, Home Edition.

Here is my situation. When I double click on an EPUB file, I do not want the Calibre library application to open up, which shows me the list of books; I want the E-book Viewer application to open up the EPUB file. I want the file opening to be as easy as opening up a PDF file in Foxit, or even Adobe!

I could not figure out how to change the settings to accomplish this. I used a tool called Default Programs Editor to change the default application that runs for a double click on a file. However, opening up the file this way results in the error "Input file must have an extension". Evidently this same error happens when trying to open up the EPUB file via the Recent Documents menu item in Windows.

If this is something that is absolutely impossible to do, I would like advice on an free EPUB viewer that is as nice as Calibre. It seems that a few other viewers that I have downloaded that allow for this simple way to open up a file all look bad.

Thank you in advance.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by swampwiz

I am running Calibre in Window 7, Home Edition.

Here is my situation. When I double click on an EPUB file, I do not want the Calibre library application to open up, which shows me the list of books; I want the E-book Viewer application to open up the EPUB file. I want the file opening to be as easy as opening up a PDF file in Foxit, or even Adobe!

The viewer is 'ebook-viewer.exe' in the Calibre directory. If you associate epubs with that, it will do what you want.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by swampwiz

Here is my situation. When I double click on an EPUB file, I do not want the Calibre library application to open up, which shows me the list of books; I want the E-book Viewer application to open up the EPUB file. I want the file opening to be as easy as opening up a PDF file in Foxit, or even Adobe!

You have the calibre.exe file associated with .ePub files, you need to associate epub files with ebook-viewer.exe.

Originally Posted by swampwiz

I could not figure out how to change the settings to accomplish this. I used a tool called Default Programs Editor to change the default application that runs for a double click on a file. However, opening up the file this way results in the error "Input file must have an extension". Evidently this same error happens when trying to open up the EPUB file via the Recent Documents menu item in Windows.

If the first guide I linked to doesn't help you try any from this Google search. Please understand that this is a Operating System problem not a calibre problem. I do not experience the "Input file must have an extension" error unless the file does not have an extension.

Originally Posted by swampwiz

If this is something that is absolutely impossible to do, I would like advice on an free EPUB viewer that is as nice as Calibre.

It is easy to do, we all do it everyday with calibre and multiple other programs.

[BetterRed]

@swampwiz - I had this exact same problem on Saturday.

There are situations where the Windows registry entries for the epub (other file types too) can get corrupted so that you can't re-associate it. It's known to have been caused by a failed Calibre install - in my case I think it was related to an uninstall of 32bit Calibre that I did on Thursday last week.

Anyway I fixed it by running the CCleaner registry cleaner, I ran it several times until there were no more discrepancies.

Make sure you backup the registry before the first run. CC Cleaner will offer to do the backup, you only need to do one backup - the first one.

After 'cleaning the registry' I was able to associate the 64bit version of the viewer with the EPUB file extension.

CCleaner is not an 'aggressive' registry cleaning tool like some are. I rarely use it, but this is the second occasion its got me out of a hole in the past couple of weeks.

BR

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

There are situations where the Windows registry entries for the epub (other file types too) can get corrupted so that you can't re-associate it. It's known to have been caused by a failed Calibre install

Since calibre doesn't mess with file associations during install I find this assertion interesting. I may be wrong but I do not think there is any corruption of the Windows registry involved.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

in my case I think it was related to an uninstall of 32bit Calibre that I did on Thursday last week.

Since a calibre install or uninstall doesn't mess with file associations, when you remove the 32 bit version and change to the 64 bit version any previous association stands and is still pointed to the old folder. In order to re-associate ePub with the new 64 bit version you do need to find the registry entry and change the path or as you did run a registry cleaner.

[swampwiz]

OK, this is what I just tried:

Context menu on EPUB file icon, "Open with" command, then selected the "ebook-viewer" file.

The result was the message "Input file must have an extension", with the dump data:

calibre, version 0.9.35
ERROR: Could not open ebook: Input file must have an extension

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\viewer\main.py", line 40, in run
File "threading.py", line 763, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\iterator\book.py", line 88, in __enter__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 678, in __init__
ValueError: Input file must have an extension

I will try CCleaner. What exactly must I clean?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by swampwiz

OK, this is what I just tried:

Context menu on EPUB file icon, "Open with" command, then selected the "ebook-viewer" file.

The result was the message "Input file must have an extension", with the dump data:

calibre, version 0.9.35
ERROR: Could not open ebook: Input file must have an extension

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\viewer\main.py", line 40, in run
File "threading.py", line 763, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\oeb\iterator\book.py", line 88, in __enter__
File "site-packages\calibre\ebooks\conversion\plumber.py", line 678, in __init__
ValueError: Input file must have an extension

I will try CCleaner. What exactly must I clean?

It sounds like the second set of quote marks are missing in the Registry entry: (XP shown)
Key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\ebook-viewer.exe\shell\open\command

Value:

"C:\Program Files\Calibre2\ebook-viewer.exe" "%1"

as with all registry entries... Use care (export the key for backup is a good idea)

[swampwiz]

OK, I did the CCleaner Registry cleanup (it found a whole lot of stuff!) Then I tried to open with the viewer. and it still said that there needed to be the proper extension.

I then wanted to check what the actual DOS filename was. I do this by moving the file to a C: level directory and then use the Command Prompt (i.e., DOS Window) app, and do a DIR command there. I noticed that one of the files had a double 'epub' extension, and so to change the extension, I need the base filename to have no spaces, so I changed that filename as such.

To my surprise, the double click Open worked! : But then the other file, that had the regular single 'epub' extension did not. On a hunch, I came to the conclusion that the only thing different between the files is that one had spaces in the name, while the other did not, so I went and changed the names back to the original ones - although now with underscores in lieu of spaces - and they worked. :

So there it is - there is a bug in the program in that it does not allow spaces in the filename (although using the Calibre library to spawn the viewer app, such names with spaces does work.)

[swampwiz]

I found a further aspect of this error/ Not only does the filename need to have no spaces, but the complete path also needs to have no spaces. I verified this by moving the EPUB files between directories that either had of did not have spaces.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by swampwiz

I found a further aspect of this error/ Not only does the filename need to have no spaces, but the complete path also needs to have no spaces. I verified this by moving the EPUB files between directories that either had of did not have spaces.

No need for head slapping. What you describe is not normal Windows 7 behavior. Once the proper file association is set you should be able to double-click any ePub file whether it has spaces or not and have it open up in calibre's viewer. At least you have more info if you decide to keep investigating this problem.

[chaley]

@swampwiz:My guess is that the tool you are using to set up associations is not quoting the file name, which it must do. Use the builtin win7 tool to set the association. I just did it and it works find, even if the file name has spaces in it.

Right click on an epub (or whatever) and select properties. Near the top there will be a section "Open with ...". Click the button, press "Browse" and navigate to calibre-viewer if it isn't offered as an option then press OK, select calibre-viewer. See the attached image.

As I said, I did this and it works fine. You can see that the file name of the book displayed in the attached image has spaces in it, and it opens.

[swampwiz]

Originally Posted by chaley

@swampwiz:My guess is that the tool you are using to set up associations is not quoting the file name, which it must do. Use the builtin win7 tool to set the association. I just did it and it works find, even if the file name has spaces in it.

Right click on an epub (or whatever) and select properties. Near the top there will be a section "Open with ...". Click the button, press "Browse" and navigate to calibre-viewer if it isn't offered as an option then press OK, select calibre-viewer. See the attached image.

As I said, I did this and it works fine. You can see that the file name of the book displayed in the attached image has spaces in it, and it opens.

OK, I put the '%1' in quotations in the Default Program Editor, and now everything works fine.

[bla]

Have you tried a right click ? on my windoze pc the context menu gives me an option " to pick the "Viewer for all ebook formats" and this opens the calibre viewer and loads the book it also gives me the option to use the sony reader

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by bla

Have you tried a right click ? on my windoze pc the context menu gives me an option " to pick the "Viewer for all ebook formats" and this opens the calibre viewer and loads the book it also gives me the option to use the sony reader

Please do not necropost.

Notice the OP had his problem solved over a year ago -- the third-party program used to edit file associations had a flaw.

Edit: Now I think about it, you may have fallen victim to a spammer who was making the rounds today copying peoples' posts and inserting tracking images. And then the moderators deleted it in between your and my posts.

If so, sorry for the confusion.