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Tom edited this page Oct 23, 2023 · 25 revisions

First time users

  • You should configure the list of search-sites (data sources for searches) to reflect your usual book-genre. Go to "Settings", under the "Search" category, "Websites". Enable/disable and move them up or down the priority list. This can also be adjusted at any time on search-screens from their options-menu.

  • From the same "Websites" screen, tap the settings icon on top of the page, and on the next page choose "Amazon" and update the Amazon URL used for searches to your local/preferred site. Make sure it's a fully valid URL including the https:// part.

  • If you have no need for any specific fields, go to "Settings", scroll down to the "Advanced" section, and select "Field Visibility" and disabled any fields you don't care about.

  • The lending-facility can also be enabled/disabled in the "Advanced" section.

Styles

Styles are a very powerful way of customizing the main book list. Access them from the main menu panel "Booklist Styles". There are two types: "Built-in" and "User-defined". You cannot change a built-in style. Instead you duplicate it, give it a custom name and edit that copy. There is A LOT of customization possible. I'll add examples here as and when I get specific questions, but the best thing is just to experiment with them. Note that styles are set for each bookshelf. So you can sort/style each bookshelf individually.

All styles versus Preferred Styles.

By default no styles are preferred and the styles option menu (icons in the task-bar of the main screen) will show all of them. Once you add/modify a style, it will be flagged as preferred. Open the menu panel and select "Booklist styles" (read the 'tip'). Select or deselect styles (using the check-box on each row) and move them up/down with the "2-bars" icon button. Selected styles are preferred and will show in the options menu providing a shorter/easier menu. The greyed row will be the actual selected style; which obviously you can change on the book list using the options menu again .

Show a book in the list under all of its authors.

Suppose you added a book with 2 or more authors. By default you will only see the primary author in the book list. Open the menu panel and select "Booklist styles" (read the 'tip'). If you haven't done this before, the top one is the default "Author, Series". Either long-click or use the menu button on the row (3-dots) and choose 'duplicate'. Modify the name to something that suits you. Click OK and read the 'tip'. Scroll down... to the setting: "Show books with multiple authors" Switch that ON and you get "under each owner". When returning to the book-list, you will now see all authors on individual rows, and that single book will appear once under each.

FAQ

ISBN versus Barcode

All search-sites support ISBN lookup; some also support 'Barcode'. The latter is specifically for books where the barcode MAY be different from the ISBN (yes, this happens).

Using the "Synchronize deleted books" option during import.

Starting in 4.5.0, each time you delete a book its internal unique identifier is stored in a "deleted-books" list. This allows using 2 or more devices to properly synchronize such deletions. But this also means that when you delete a book inadvertently, and restore a previous backup, it will stay deleted even after the import. To prevent this and force the import of such a deleted book, two manual steps are needed:

  • Go to "Settings", scroll to the bottom, and select "Maintenance". From the menu, select "Clear the deleted books history"
  • Go to "Import", select the file/backup you want to import, and make sure to disable "Synchronize deleted books" before starting the import. A future version will simplify this.

Importing from Book Catalogue

Importing a Book Catalogue "bcbk" backup file is supported after converting the "bcbk" file (which is a "tar" archive) to a "zip" file. Just use any app which can open tar files and save zip files. When zipping, make sure the "INFO.xml", "books.csv" and all cover files are at the top level of the "zip" file. Preference and style files cannot be imported; don't add them (they will be ignored).

Network issues

  • This application will make DNS lookups and use http/https to connect to internet sites. If you have any firewall, DNS (e.g. personalDNSfilter) or other blockers make sure to add this app to the permitted list.
  • Slow network access? Adjust time-outs for individual web-sites: "Settings/Websites", and tap the settings button on the top of the screen.

Clearing all data / starting with an empty database

Make sure you close NeverTooManyBooks. Go to the Android system settings, and select "Apps" and navigate to the list of installed apps. Find this app, and open the details (depends on android version and device on how this is called and where exactly it is). It should have a line "Storage", click that and you should see a button "clear data" : this will clear ALL data related to the app. Careful! Then open (or install) again and it should be a clean/new install.

Maintenance (last option in the Settings)

Reset tips

Helpful tips are shown on some screens; you can disable them when read. Choose this option to re-enable all of them.

Cleanup Files

Cleans up some temporary files: logs, upgrade backup files and any orphaned cover images.

Clear the node state for all lists

Each bookshelf/style will store the state of the nodes in the displayed book-list, i.e. which nodes are collapsed or expanded. This option clears/resets that state globally.

Synchronize deleted books

All books will be checked versus the stored identifiers for previously deleted books and removed as needed. This uses the same process as what can be done during an import with the "Synchronize deleted books" option.

Clear the deleted books history

Remove all information about previously deleted books. This will allow the import/restore of a previously deleted book without automatically removing it again.

Rebuild Full Text Search (FTS) data

Not normally needed, it will clear and rebuild the entire local search-data and should only be used if requested to do so in a github issue.

Rebuild the indexes

Not normally needed, it will clear and rebuild the database indexes and should only be used if requested to do so in a github issue.

Bug report

When reporting an issue on github it's recommended to first generate a bug-report with the options "logs" and "preferences". A zip file will be generated which you then should attach to your issue on github.

Calibre

Known issues

  • The node-management, i.e. storing the tree-state of the nodes in the book-list is by design not foolproof. The nodes 'expanded' flag WILL get out of sync with the display from time to time. There are no plans to fix this for now as the foolproof solution would take far to much disk space. This will auto-correct if you tap a row once or twice (or use the "Clear the node state" in the options menu on the bookshelf and styles edit screens.)
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