[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by aleyx

My current workaround is to convert to .kepub and use the precise page numbering to make sure not to actually close the book. It technically works, but I now have to deal with all my books staying at 99% read, making it hard to know which books I've actually finished...

I know that this plugin's original author is no longer with us, but I wanted to know whether someone else was working on an enhancement for this particular issue, before I fire up PyCharm and start tinkering on it myself? Or maybe a better workaround/workflow?

Sorry, but I don't get exactly which "enhancement" you expect or which is the real issue? Resetting the book? 99% not marked as Finished in the ebook? 99% not marked as finished in calibre?

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Sorry, but I don't get exactly which "enhancement" you expect or which is the real issue? Resetting the book? 99% not marked as Finished in the ebook? 99% not marked as finished in calibre?

Ideally I would like to let the Kobo mark a book as "Finished" as normal, and if/when it gets updated I would like the book (on the Kobo) to be set as "Unread", and the reading progression set to the first updated chapter. Or alternatively, set the reading progression to the last page if a book is set to "Finished".

Curently the out-of-the-box workflow for a Kobo when reading a serial is (as I understand it):

1) Upload a new book on the Kobo. Read the book until its end: The Kobo reclasses it as "Finished" (this is good). Reading progression is reset (this is not so good).
2) Connect the Kobo to Calibre: column "% read" is set to 100, column "reading location" to "OEBPS/cover.xhtml".
3) The book is updated with new chapters (by FFF or othe means): Use Kobo Utilities to resend the book to the Kobo, then update the ToC.
4) On the Kobo: the updated book is still marked as "Finished" (fair enough), reading progression is still reset: not good, since now I have to check the beginning of the last few chapters and try to remember which one I've read and which I haven't yet.

My workaround right now is to just not "finish" the book and keep the reading progression alive at the very last page.

Pro: I can continue reading where I left off whenever new chapters are added, which is my main concern.
Con: Every book on my Kobo is at 99% progression. Any updated book is therefore lost in a sea of unfinished books. I could manually move the books I "finish" to a custom collection and back again, but... Yeah, no. You don't do library management when you finish a book. You either open another one or you close your book and go to sleep.


FFF's ability to "mark" new chapters is useful, but only if you manage to read every new chapter before the next update. It has no concept of reading progression (it's not its job anyways).

Kobo Utilities' ability to set a reading position is useful, but only if this reading position is known to Calibre. In this usecase, I would have to pause my reading at the last page, connect to Calibre and save the position, unplug and "finish" the book, and restore position when I update the book. Many manipulations, feasible for one book at a time but in practice I follow many, many webseries.

N.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by aleyx

on: Every book on my Kobo is at 99% progression. Any updated book is therefore lost in a sea of unfinished books.

About this... order by date, they will appear at the beginning.

Originally Posted by aleyx

I could manually move the books I "finish" to a custom collection and back again, but... Yeah, no. You don't do library management when you finish a book. You either open another one or you close your book and go to sleep.

Add a custom column that is set to a value when the book is updated, and reset when the progress reach 99%. Create a collection in Kobo based on this custom column. You don't do any manual process here, and you have a collection with the books you've changed.

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

About this... order by date, they will appear at the beginning.

The Kobo Clara proposes sorting by "recent" (which is the "last opened" date) or "Date added". Neither is the update datetime. I've tried to look for a way to set the "date added" to the update date, but haven't found any yet.

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Add a custom column that is set to a value when the book is updated, and reset when the progress reach 99%. Create a collection in Kobo based on this custom column. You don't do any manual process here, and you have a collection with the books you've changed.

I will try that, thanks!

N.

[ownedbycats]

Read this:

https://github.com/JimmXinu/FanFicFa...d-fics-to-kobo

Additionally, I use this template in a composite column. It displays fanfic chapters as currentchap/totalchap.

program:

	input = $#kobobookmark;
# Don't change this to 'count' as that's a function
	ccount = $$#chaptercount;

	if 
## Checks that a Fanfiction has a Kobo bookmark and is not anthology|oneshot
## You may want to use '$#fandomcolumn' instead of '$#booktype=='Fanfiction''
		$#booktype=='Fanfiction'
		&& 
		substr(input, 0, 10) == 'OEBPS/file'
		&& !$#fanficstatus in 'Anthology,Oneshot'
	then
## Extracts the 'current chapter' from the bookmarks, subtracts 1, and then formats them as 'currentchap/totalchap'
## You can remove the '- 1' if you want, just make sure to leave the comma.
			strcat(format_number(re(input, '.*\/file(\d+).*', '\1') - 1, '{0:,d}'), '/',ccount)

## Display 'Not Set' if there's no chapter count
	elif
		ccount == 'None'
	then
		'Not Set'

## Display regular chapter count for other books that have at least two chapters
	elif
		$#booktype=='Fanfiction' || ccount >#1
	then
		ccount
	fi

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Read this:

https://github.com/JimmXinu/FanFicFa...d-fics-to-kobo

Additionally, I use this template in a composite column. It displays fanfic chapters as currentchap/totalchap.

Thank you; I did find a previous version of your composite in my research (that one didn't have the "Not Set" part), and I adapted it. However it seems to only work for books you are currently reading: if you finished it, the current chapter becomes "OEBPS/cover.xhtml" instead of "OEBPS/file####.xtml" and breaks the template.

This Clara BW of mine is my first Kobo though; maybe previous devices/firmware had a different behaviour regarding reading position?

Your column is actually the reason I wanted to start tinkering with the plugin, starting by adding a custom column for the current number of chapters as per the Kobo database rather than the filename, and why I first asked if someone else was already thinking about it.

N.

[ownedbycats]

What I do is leave it at 99% on the Kobo. Then in Calibre I deliberately change it to 100% and then restore the bookmark to device (setting reading status). This keeps the current reading position.

[ownedbycats]

If you want, try this Action Chain while your device is connected. I use it myself.

You'll want to check the template in the single-field edit action and update the columns to your own.

program:
	input = $#kobobookmark;
	status = $#fanficstatus;
	percent = $$#percentread;

	if 
		'(In-Progress|Dormant)' in status 
		&& percent ==# 99
	then
		a = re(input, '^OEBPS/file(\d{4})(\.xhtml.*$)', '\1');
 		strcat('OEBPS/file', format_number(add(a, 1), '04d'), '.xhtml#kobo.1.1')
	else 
		input
	fi

Make sure not to open the book on device before the next update, it'll reset to the beginning.

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

If you want, try this Action Chain while your device is connected. I use it myself.

I didn't know about Action Chains! Oh, this is going to be fun, thanks!

N.