Calibre (& Calibre web?)

[girish]

@ultraviolet I tried to move the app package forward. Can you tell me how those database files are created (and why are they needed?). Meaning the files here - https://github.com/euanmcgregor/calibre-web-cloudron/tree/master/Library

[girish]

@ei8fdb I put a small tutorial here - https://forum.cloudron.io/topic/3102/building-custom-packages . Feel free to ask questions there.

[ultraviolet]

@girish Yes they are needed that is the base database for calibre, they are copied to the app/data on build (if I recall correctly)

[girish]

@ultraviolet I see but how did you generate them or create them? Are they provided by the upstream project?

[ultraviolet]

@girish ah with you. No it needs to be generated by the calibre project it is an empty database created that the web app uses to connect to. I created it as I would then need to install calibre into the app container then use the api to generate the empty db then remove calibre. Seemed a waste of time so I created a blank one for the purpose of ease.

[girish]

Got to hack on the app this weekend. Still have to figure how to automate the settings but I wanted to ask how this integrates with mobile apps. It seems to me that this is done via the calibre content server (and not calibre web). I think it would not be very useful if we just had calibre web but no way to access the books from the mobile apps. I think what this means is that I have to set up the app so that the content server is also running (and authenticates via LDAP or something).

Am I correct about this?

[jdaviescoates]

@girish I don't know, but I'd still find it useful even if I couldn't use mobile apps (my phone is full up and has no space for any more apps anyway - it's so annoying I can't delete all the Google apps I never user, once this phone dies I'm definitely going to get a 2nd hand phone that will run https://e.foundation/ or https://lineageos.org/ )

[thetomester13]

@girish the combination of Calibre and Calibre-web is quite tricky. That being said, there are plenty of apps that can read from Calibre-web's OPDS server. I personally use MapleRead SE on iOS, but any app that supports OPDS can plug into Calibre-web's server.

Also, I could be wrong here, but I believe Calibre doesn't support LDAP whereas Calibre-web does.

[girish]

@thetomester13 said in Calibre (& Calibre web?):

OPDS

Ah, thanks for this note. This is what I was missing. I was wondering how to get books out of the app for mobile use and this seems to be it.

@jdaviescoates I also managed to figure out how to automate the LDAP parts, so I will get it published soonish.

[jdaviescoates]

@girish said in Calibre (& Calibre web?):

@jdaviescoates I also managed to figure out how to automate the LDAP parts, so I will get it published soonish.

Woohoo!

[mehdi]

So, anyone know if the desktop apps can synchronize with the web app ? I have a quite large Calibre library locally, I'd appreciate uploading it and keeping it in sync

[thetomester13]

@mehdi Yes, Calibre is the 'backend' for Calibre-web. If you manage to upload your local Calibre to this Calibre, then Calibre-web should have it all synced up for you. I managed to do this upgrade before (with a relatively small library). I wonder if I can dig up the instructions somewhere...

[jdaviescoates]

@mehdi from a quick search around it also seems one possible option (which I think I might try once we've got Calibre-web in Cloudron) is to store your Calibre library in a Nextcloud folder and then connect/ sync both the desktop Calibre and Calibre-web to that.

[girish]

Alright, almost there. There's a few bugs I have to report upstream and learn some python along the way to get those fixed.

[robi]

I hope there's a dark mode!

[girish]

I have opened https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web/issues/1656 for a start.

[girish]

I have pushed this to unstable now. Still some work to be done, hopefully should get done next week.

[thetomester13]

@girish thanks! This is definitely something I've been wanting for a while. I'll play around with this soon and try and post instructions on migrating from a manual installation (@ultraviolet 's package) to this one.

[girish]

@thetomester13 yes, I want to move in all my books as well. The app itself works well , just the integration points need to be ironed out. Also, let me know if the OPDS works for you.

[thetomester13]

@girish Ok, got it up and running! I'm not seeing LDAP working, I'm only able to logon using the admin/admin123 credentials, but I know you mentioned this as an issue. I am able to get the OPDS link to work though. I'm using the MapleRead SE iOS app, and the link should look like https://calibre.my.cloudron/opds.

In the way of migrating things over from a manual instance to this instance:

1. I went to the Terminal of the old instance and hit 'Download' and downloaded the /app/data/Library directory
2. In your new instance, go to the File Manager. Upload this Library folder. Change permissions to the folder from 'root' to 'cloudron'.
3. In your new Calibre instance, go to the 'Admin' view page. Under 'Basic Configuration' => 'Library Configuration' put /app/data/Library and hit 'save'.
4. Back in the Admin view page, hit 'Reconnect to Calibre DB'.
5. If you go to your Calibre-web home you should now see your library!