Kobo Extended driver use suprise

[jackastor]

I have to admit that when a plugin that comes out for calibre is introduced I am very leary to use it in relation to the Kobo Devices. However I have started using the the extended driver for the glo with calibre on a very limited basis. I started by transferring one book over and seeing the results. The result was a very pleasant surprise. I am just using it to convert to the kepub format and although I don't like the page number format of the way the books are displayed pages by chapter I do like the stats and the other features that are enabled with the kepub format. I am up to transferring 65 to 100 epubs at a time with no ill effect. Although they are not going exactly where I wish them to go on my sd card I have a directory that I store all my ebooks in. Its a minor detail to cut and paste them to the correct directory on my ereader. It would also be nice to save kepubs directly to the hdd on my computer with out transferring to the book, but the ability to save the converted kepubs to a named directory on the computer helps to mitigate this issue somewhat. While not ideal, (it dumps all kepubs no directory format to the named directory on the hdd) its a small matter to scoop the Kepubs and cut then paste them to a an author named directory. Although the plugin does save the kepubs similar to the calibre format on the ereader.


I guess On a scale of 1 to 10 I would have to give this plugin a rather suprising rating of 9.5, I had the driver crash twice but no ill effect to the ereader and was able to recover no problem.



Regards

Jack

[paola]

Originally Posted by jackastor

I guess On a scale of 1 to 10 I would have to give this plugin a rather suprising rating of 9.5, I had the driver crash twice but no ill effect to the ereader and was able to recover no problem.

welcome to the kepub fan club

[John F]

Be careful, the extended plugin, while it may be useful, is perhaps the most dangerous plugin out there. it can play with your Kobo data base and you run the risk of servere corruption leading to many hours of frustration.



Also, please excuse the plagiarism in the above post.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jackastor

Although they are not going exactly where I wish them to go on my sd card I have a directory that I store all my ebooks in. Its a minor detail to cut and paste them to the correct directory on my ereader.

As the extended driver just passes the modified file to the main driver for the copy, I'm interested in any errors like this. How is it putting them in the wrong place? Have you configured the save template in the driver configuration?

[tempest@de]

I noted that the kepubs send to the device are named as is in the configurations in the save template field {authors}_{series} {series_index}_{title} but the ones that are send to the directory are named {title}_{authors}, shouldn’t they be named the same way? It would make the process off separating the books and putting them in separate directories so much easier.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

As the extended driver just passes the modified file to the main driver for the copy, I'm interested in any errors like this. How is it putting them in the wrong place? Have you configured the save template in the driver configuration?

Not absolutely certain but when I played with the extended driver and used it's save to disk, it saved all the files in a single directory after converting them to kepub. I suspect that this is done before sending the kepubs to the device.

Regards,
David

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by tempest@de

I noted that the kepubs send to the device are named as is in the configurations in the save template field {authors}_{series} {series_index}_{title} but the ones that are send to the directory are named {title}_{authors}, shouldn’t they be named the same way? It would make the process off separating the books and putting them in separate directories so much easier.

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not absolutely certain but when I played with the extended driver and used it's save to disk, it saved all the files in a single directory after converting them to kepub. I suspect that this is done before sending the kepubs to the device.

Yes, the save to disk option uses one directory and I hadn't noticed the file name. If someone wants to suggest using the save template within that directory, that might be a good idea. But...

Jack said "not going exactly where I wish them to go on my sd card". That sounds like he is talking about the copy that goes on the device. So, either a bug in the copy, or the save template is not what he wants.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Jack said "not going exactly where I wish them to go on my sd card". That sounds like he is talking about the copy that goes on the device. So, either a bug in the copy, or the save template is not what he wants.

When I was playing with the driver, I added a subdirectory name to the save template so when I saved to the internal storage, it didn't clog up the root directory. For some reason, I had the impression that this was what he was trying to do.

Regards,
David

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

When I was playing with the driver, I added a subdirectory name to the save template so when I saved to the internal storage, it didn't clog up the root directory. For some reason, I had the impression that this was what he was trying to do.

Regards,
David

Sorry for not replying sooner. Ok so that's basically what I mean. But when I save books to computer save to disk Calibre automatically saves author/book title. That's basically How I want things to go via the extended driver. If there is a way to do this it would be great. I am still not sure how to configure things so that this happens. I don't quite get how to accomplish this. Can you advise?

regards

Jack

[Tachikoma]

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, but I was wondering if Calibre does, or could in the future backup the Kobo database(s) in case of corruption/firmware fiddling/device replacement. I know that isn't its main function, but it's a pain losing reading stats/bookmarks/etc for side loaded books.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Tachikoma

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, but I was wondering if Calibre does, or could in the future backup the Kobo database(s) in case of corruption/firmware fiddling/device replacement. I know that isn't its main function, but it's a pain losing reading stats/bookmarks/etc for side loaded books.

Get the Kobo Utilities plugin. Backing up the Kobo DB is one of its functions.

[PeterT]

Check out the Kobo Utility plugin; it has a backup option (and also separate options to backup the reading status of material; ie where you are in a book).

[paola]

Originally Posted by Tachikoma

Forgive me if this has been covered elsewhere, but I was wondering if Calibre does, or could in the future backup the Kobo database(s) in case of corruption/firmware fiddling/device replacement. I know that isn't its main function, but it's a pain losing reading stats/bookmarks/etc for side loaded books.

not sure about Calibre, but you can save your database file and replace it for a corrupt one should this ever happen to you. Of course, you should back it up regularly.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jackastor

Sorry for not replying sooner. Ok so that's basically what I mean. But when I save books to computer save to disk Calibre automatically saves author/book title. That's basically How I want things to go via the extended driver. If there is a way to do this it would be great. I am still not sure how to configure things so that this happens. I don't quite get how to accomplish this. Can you advise?

The save template in the driver configuration defines the filename to be used when putting the book on the device. I use:

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

Which puts the book in a subdirectory created from the author sort field. And names the file using the title and authors. Calibres "Save to disk" is also configured using a template. The same one should work in both places.

[John F]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The save template in the driver configuration defines the filename to be used when putting the book on the device. I use:

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

Which puts the book in a subdirectory created from the author sort field. And names the file using the title and authors. Calibres "Save to disk" is also configured using a template. The same one should work in both places.

I got a little confused with what to change in preferences...

I think you want to use:

Preferences - Advanced - Plugins -> Device Interface plugins -> KoboTouchExtended -> "Save Template"

NOT

Preferences - Import/Export - Sending Books to devices -> Save Template

Sorry if this obvious or has already been said.