📕 subnode [[@neil/setting up calibre web and koreader via yunohost and nextcloud]] in 📚 node [[setting-up-calibre-web-and-koreader-via-yunohost-and-nextcloud]]
📓 garden/neil/setting-up-calibre-web-and-koreader-via-yunohost-and-nextcloud.md by @neil ️👁 ️📝

Setting up Calibre-Web and koreader (via YunoHost and NextCloud)

[[Calibre-Web]] is a web interface for your Calibre library.

I have a [[Kobo]] and I use [[koreader]] on it. koreader can download books from a Calibre-web install.

You could just copy your books directly between your Kobo and your computer via USB. But I find often when I want to download a new book, I'm not near my computer. So this is a nice way of being able to access your library anywhere you have wifi. And it looks nice with the book covers and all. If you feel bad about not having a physical bookshelf, you can show this to people so they can see how many clever books you've bought but not read.

⥅ [[images/calibre-web.png]]

Installing Calibre-Web

You could manually self-install it somewhere, but I installed it on my [[YunoHost]] server, which I already have set up for various other things, including [[NextCloud]].

During the install there's an option to create a shared folder where it will look for your ebook. The default is a directory that is also available in NextCloud: /home/yunohost.multimedia/share/eBook. I used this, as I already use NextCloud for syncing some files between devices. You could sync other ways if you wanted - see the next section.

Syncing your Calibre library to Calibre-Web

OK - so we'll assume you have [[Calibre]] on your local box already with your ebook library in it.

Now you want to sync your Calibre library to where your Calibre-Web install is expecting to find books.

Two main filesync options I would possibly use here - [[syncthing]] or [[NextCloud]].

I love syncthing and use it a lot, but haven't fiddled much with it on YunoHost yet.

I went with NextCloud for now, as it already includes the 'Shared multimedia' folder that the Calibre-Web default install used.

You need the NextCloud app installed on your desktop in order to sync. By default it'll sync to and from a folder in your home directory called 'NextCloud'.

I had an existing Calibre library in a different place on my box, so I moved it to the eBook folder in my NextCloud folder (instructions on moving your library as per How to Backup, Move and Export Your Library in Calibre - Calibre Blog)

Pulling the books down to koreader

Calibre-Web exposes your books as an OPDS catalog. koreader has built-in support for OPDS catalogs so you can browse them straight from koreader. (https://github.com/koreader/koreader/wiki/OPDS-support).

In koreader:

  • Go to OPDS catalog
  • Choose Add new catalog
  • Put the address of your Calibre-Web install and your YunoHost user creds (LDAP working on all these apps is super handy)

I found a few bits of flakiness with the OPDS catalog.

  • It appears that only some catalogs work
    • e.g. unread books works
    • others show "catalog not found"

But, all being well, you should now be able to download your books from your library straight to your ebook reader.

Misc Notes

Is it worth it? I'm not convinced, if you're just using it on one device - maybe just easier to sync directly.

That said, syncing the library to NextCloud seems like a reasonable idea anyway. It then gets picked up automatically in my server backups.

I'm using [[Z-Library]] to download books that I've paid for already via the Kobo store, but want to read DRM-free on koreader. I own them dammit, I can read them wherever I want.
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