Alternative to Updog

[skb]

Just found out that updog is going to stop working soon.

Currently, I store my calibre2opds version of my library to dropbox and then use updog to access it.

Does anyone have any alternatives to updog? Or should I just whack my OPDS version onto my web hosting?

[rojmiller]

I have found another site that works instead of Updog - Small Victories (https://www.smallvictori.es/). It was quite easy to set up/switch over from Updog.

1. "Sign in with Dropbox on the Small Victories website (top right). In a couple of steps it leads you through naming and creating your website (I just chose a "Homepage" site type). It creates this site in a primary folder in your Dropbox directory called "Small Victories" - note that this folder is not a subfolder under "Apps", as Updog was.

2. If you choose the same site name and library name as you used with Updog, moving everything over to Small Victories is very easy. E.g., if you previously had an ebook library in Dropbox/Apps/updog/YourSite/YourLibrary, you just need to move the "YourLibrary" folder from that location to Dropbox/Small Victories/YourSite/. I just opened the Dropbox app on my PC to cut/paste this folder to its new location.

3. Depending upon the size of your Library, you need to give Dropbox time to update itself - in my case, this took 10-15 minutes. You then need to update the links in your OPDS Reader, and in Calibre2opds as well. In my case I also had to rerun Calibre2opds before I could download books, as I have included a "Books URL" in the Main Options of Calibre2opds.

[rojmiller]

Note: Your new links will be to smvi.co, so if you kept your old site and library names, you just need to change "updog" to "smvi" to fix the links.

[church mouse]

Originally Posted by rojmiller

Note: Your new links will be to smvi.co, so if you kept your old site and library names, you just need to change "updog" to "smvi" to fix the links.

Sadly, I seem to be having a few issues with this route.

I can get the opds path working on Kybook 3 and Mapleread on my ipad but on Koreader (on my Kobo) it simply messages "cannot get catalog" (the old updog path worked on Koreader).

Also, the html path for accessing my library via a browser does not work for me - it messages "building your site" for about 5 minutes before eventually returning an "oops page not found" message.

I am not knowledgeable enough to understand what is going wrong.

[skb]

Originally Posted by rojmiller

I have found another site that works instead of Updog - Small Victories (https://www.smallvictori.es/). It was quite easy to set up/switch over from Updog.

1. "Sign in with Dropbox on the Small Victories website (top right). In a couple of steps it leads you through naming and creating your website (I just chose a "Homepage" site type). It creates this site in a primary folder in your Dropbox directory called "Small Victories" - note that this folder is not a subfolder under "Apps", as Updog was.

2. If you choose the same site name and library name as you used with Updog, moving everything over to Small Victories is very easy. E.g., if you previously had an ebook library in Dropbox/Apps/updog/YourSite/YourLibrary, you just need to move the "YourLibrary" folder from that location to Dropbox/Small Victories/YourSite/. I just opened the Dropbox app on my PC to cut/paste this folder to its new location.

3. Depending upon the size of your Library, you need to give Dropbox time to update itself - in my case, this took 10-15 minutes. You then need to update the links in your OPDS Reader, and in Calibre2opds as well. In my case I also had to rerun Calibre2opds before I could download books, as I have included a "Books URL" in the Main Options of Calibre2opds.

This is very exciting! I'll have to spend a few hours (days) retraining myself a to how this all works

It seems too that smvi.co actually does store the "bits" in the Apps directory (or, at least, it has mine).

Thank you! I'm looking forward to getting underway again!

Ready to create your first site?

You now have a "Small Victories" folder in your "Apps" folder in Dropbox.
This is where your sites will live.

[rojmiller]

Originally Posted by skb

It seems too that smvi.co actually does store the "bits" in the Apps directory (or, at least, it has mine).

It seems that the location may be controllable when you create your site - at the top left when you log in to the Small Victories website. I was able to authorize both locations, and it then gives me a choice of which one I want to make live.

[rojmiller]

Actually, that choice of locations is bugged. It creates a new subdirectory of "Small Victories" every time you make a choice e.g., /Small Victories/Small Victories/ etc. It doesn't actually create these in Dropbox, but because it seems to think that this is a new referral link, everything stop working (i.e., Calibreopds). The only way to correct this for me was to delete all my information in Small Victories and start over.

[rojmiller]

Also, for those interested, I can confirm that html does not work with Small Victories, I presume because it is a +Plus feature: (for $4 a month or $36 a year - from https://www.smallvictori.es/pricing)

HTML Site Hosting
Drop any HTML/CSS/JS files into your Small Victories folder for quick and simple website hosting.

[itimpi]

From what I can see Small Victories is not really functionally equivalent to Updog without going for their paid service and that is a bit expensive.

It might be better looking at some of the free web site hosting services instead? Not as easy to get the files loaded as doing it via Dropbox but should be fully functional as a web site.

[rojmiller]

Originally Posted by itimpi

From what I can see Small Victories is not really functionally equivalent to Updog without going for their paid service and that is a bit expensive.

It depends on how you use Calibre2opds. I have been using it for years, and in all that time have never bothered with the html setup. I use Calibre2opds solely to bring up the catalog of my eBooks on my ereader, and to download books to my ereader. In other words, I only use the xml setup of Calibre2opds, and that works fine with Small Victories, free version. I have already switched my Calibre2opds from updog to Small Victories.

[Mieeka]

Originally Posted by rojmiller

It depends on how you use Calibre2opds. I have been using it for years, and in all that time have never bothered with the html setup. I use Calibre2opds solely to bring up the catalog of my eBooks on my ereader, and to download books to my ereader. In other words, I only use the xml setup of Calibre2opds, and that works fine with Small Victories, free version. I have already switched my Calibre2opds from updog to Small Victories.

Well i have XML too, and it just doesnt work for me, instead tries to DOWNLOAD the XML instead of display.

Kinda irritating after the hour of setup.

[rojmiller]

I guess it is OPDS reader specific. I use FBReader, and it works well for me using that eReader.

[Mieeka]

Yep, Moon reader really doesn't like it, will display catalogue but wont download any of the books. FB reader does work fine though.

[Sirtel]

As I understand it, there's still no way to access the Calibre2opds catalog from another device via a web browser?