Android App

An Android app would be very appreciated! I'm sure that a lot of us have multiple book shelves throughout the house. An app would make it easier for me to input what I have without having to carry books to the computer. It would be incredibly cool if the app could use the built-in camera on my phone to scan the ISBN from the book. Merely a suggestion....

Thanks!

So agree!!

There is a (third-party) app, LibraryThing Scanner - it works, but is incredibly slow (on my Galaxy S, anyway). You can also use barcode2file to scan a batch of ISBNs, transfer the file to a computer and import them. Neither are a full solution, but they might help.

Until recently, Amazon blocked LT (and other similar sites) from having real mobile apps because they'd be displaying Amazon data...they finally got a rush of brains to the head and canceled the ban a few months ago, and I believe an app or two are under consideration if not development.

I have an Incredible and the above-mentioned app (LibraryThing Scanner) to add books works great for me. It's much more reliable for newish barcodes than old ones, but it still reduced the number of books I had to drag to the computer by at least half.

This got my inner tech geek all excited when I thought about being able to use a tablet in conjunction with the cue cat.

Come to think of it, it could also be done with a netbook if there's one available.

Here's another vote for a dedicated Android app that allows both browsing of existing collections on LT, and also adding volumes through use of the barcode scanner (camera). This would turn LT into a killer book app. As noted elsewhere, the current mobile version has some functionality and formatting issues and the 3rd party app for LT is not well done.

Another plea for an android app here.

I would (and have) pleaded for an HTML5 version of the site that was optimized for Android and iPhone and other small screen devices.

>8 r.orrison:

I think this is the most practical approach. Elsewhere I gave some very simple changes that could be made to the /m site to allow it to be zoomed with the pinch gesture.

In one such thread it was hinted that mobile site or app improvements are in the works or at least planning stages.

The app approach has the benefit of working "offline". Most web site approaches require an Internet connection. However, HTML5 generally provides for a database like SQLite to store data. I don't know how common this us in Android phones and devices.

I'm an iPhone user myself but these threads interest me.

James

HTML5 generally provides for a database like SQLite to store data

Sadly, that part of HTML5 (and HTML5 is really just an umbrella term, and different browsers can be "HTML5 browsers" without supporting them all) hit a dead end. So the future of the technology is kind of up in the air. On the plus side, iOS and Android currently support it.

http://caniuse.com/sql-storage

But this is a bit beside the point, as there is also Web Storage, which is a non-SQL database that is very widely supported:

http://caniuse.com/namevalue-storage

(And the less said about IndexedDB, the better.)

Obviously the advantage with a database on the phone is that the catalog can be stored there so it is not necessary to have an Internet connection to view one's catalog. I generally can get a signal but sometimes I'm out of area at inconvenient times, especially when shopping at book barns back east and the like.

A few book catalog apps for the iPhone exist. Several of them can import CSV content if you can arrange your LT data in the right column sequence and with the columns desired (they don't always align!). One of these had a hard time with my 7,200-book catalog but I found a feature so that it did not try to search against the catalog for every character entered in the search box. Then it became functional but it did not know of my LT cover images, of course, and I could not work out a system to let it import from them.

I also have Opera on the iPhone and it appears to load the regular LT pages quicker but it is still an issue to avoid clicking on one of the hundreds of links on a page while trying to zoom in to read it.

I have not found a browser app for the iPhone that lets me supply a custom CSS file so I could redefine the appearance of pages like Talk to make them easier to read on the iPhone.

Here's hoping that our LT developers have time to make us something good, whether it is app for the iPhone and Android or a web page optimized for these browsers.

James
PHP/MySQL web developer since 2000

Coming to this very late, but I would add my plea for an Android App.
I'd love to take my wishlist with me to a bookshop, and to be able to check my library - "I'm sure I've read that book, but this copy is such a bargain, do I have it or did I borrow it?"

For checking my books - I export my library (Export/Import is under the More tab) in tab-delimited format, clean it up in Excel or Calc, and import it to HanDBase on my phone. If you don't have HanDBase or another database program that can see CSV files, the office suites can usually see CSV or XLS and many have free versions or are available free now and then. It's not as good as direct access to LT would be, but it's saved my skin dozens of times while I'm waiting for there to be a real app - and it works when I don't have Internet access.

I was logging into LibraryThing some books I received over Christmas, when I thought, might as well see if there's an app for that (yet). I've used LibraryThingScanner, that's a bit clunky, but works (works better from the tablet than my phone), so I am aware there are some things out there. But I figured I'd come back to this group, and see if there was an actual Android App out there. http://www.librarything.com/m works, but is a poor substitute for the real deal, native app wise. Unfortunately, I could not find anything, searched here and at the marketplace. http://www.librarything.com/more/sites does say something is in development, but I feel a little "Waiting for Godot"ish.

I did find some interesting apps, from others:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_navbox_shelfari?nodeI...

It appears that Amazon built in Shelfari support into the Kindle, I had not known about that before doing the search. Interesting.

I did find these Android Apps in the marketplace:

* Book Catalog (Free, seems to search Google book catalog instead of Amazon, but otherwise similar to LibraryThing)
* LibraryAnywhere (LibraryThing for Libraries - seems to be Library oriented, not end-user)
* My Books / My Books Pro (Free/$3, again similar but different, see https://market.android.com/details?id=com.metosphere.bookfree&hl=en for details)
* Book Mobile (Free, see https://market.android.com/details?id=com.wilson.android.bookmobile&feature=... )
* MyBookDroid (Free, see https://market.android.com/details?id=org.zezula.bookdiary&feature=related_a... , seems to be associated with Goodreads)
* GoodReads (Free, see https://market.android.com/details?id=com.goodreads&feature=related_apps )

I realize there's a bit of a "thing" between the LibraryThing and Amazon, so I imagine that the shelfari/kindle thing is especially irksome. But, I'd like to see LibraryThing continue to succeed, so getting these mobile apps out is I think a key part of the strategy. I think LibraryThing works best if it can remain agnostic, in terms of formats and bookstores and book formats.

Any updates or hope for a native LibraryThing app?

Apparently no updates. Hmm....

Anyway, I've been playing with Goodreads, as they have an Android app, and I have to say, so far I'm very impressed. You can do about anything you would do through the mobile web, and it has a batch scanner mode, you literally can scan and add to your booklist at 2-3 seconds per book. And you can check their forums out, etc. Fast and a LOT more readable than the mobile site. Pretty much for them, all you need is a phone. They did a very nice job.

You're a little late to the subject, is all. There have been long threads on an iPhone app (most of which discussion also relates to an Android app) and on LT vs GR recently (over the past month or so). So everyone who has something to say is talked out for the moment. Check the other threads and you'll get answers.

(17) Thanks. Doing a bit of sifting through the threads I could find, some interesting reading. I had not looked for iPhone, do not have one. Searching the LibraryThing by topic category is eluding me at the moment, must be there somewhere but this is the thread that comes up on Google.

I have to say, for me, the Android App that Goodreads has may be a game changer. I have my main library catalog on Librarything, and aside from the lack of mobile apps, it's been OK for me for years. But when I was playing with the Goodreads app on Android, the speed with which it read in books kind of made me think seriously about going and doing my backstacks of books. I had been putting new ones into LibraryThing ever since I got the account, but there's some old shelves, well, who's got the time. Carrry them up, use the CueCat (which lets face it, is slow), or the LibraryThing Scanner App (also, sorry, slow). Just took too long. Well with Goodreads, it's so much faster, I'm sorely tempted. Have to run some more experiments, to see if that's consistent against a large number of books.

Against books with ISBN bar codes, that are listed on Amazon, and you don't care much about getting fully correct info - I'm sure the GR app is a lot faster (I know it's a lot faster to add books to the GR website, too). I'd rather spend a little more time and get my books accurately cataloged - and the older ones, that don't have ISBNs and that have correct data in, say, the Library of Congress vs something approximating title and author on Amazon, are likely to be a pain on GR. Which isn't to say that I wouldn't love an Android app for LT, but for adding and searching LT is rather more complicated than GR and I like it that way.

>20 jjmcgaffey: Agreed re: more time is worth it for better accuracy etc.

However, I don't think GR necessarily has worse data for ISBN-less books; there are plenty added on there by users that have the books in hand & fill out the rest of the info. Of course there are instances of faulty/incomplete info, and it's likely plenty more common there than here - given that on here the info is still often pulled straight from competent sources as opposed to relying strictly on users to fill in all possible fields (plus the different type of users that tend to be found here). But there are still many GR users, especially those who act as "librarians" for the site, who are as thorough as possible when adding new books/information.

#18 by @pwjone1> Searching the LibraryThing by topic category is eluding me at the moment, must be there somewhere but this is the thread that comes up on Google.

In the box at the top-right of this page (and all pages), type "android" and hit return. Then when the results come up, click "Talk" on the left sidebar. You can further narrow it down to "Messages" (post body) or "Topics" (post title).

21> Yeahhhhh....but how is that faster than entering them on LT? It's the speed thing. GR is faster for ISBN books, no question. For ISBN-less ones, I think it's a wash at best - and the app is unlikely to improve that (might make it worse, because typing on your phone is pretty awkward. I do it quite a bit, but a real keyboard is _so_ much easier...).

Which isn't what I said, but it's what I meant! :P

>23 jjmcgaffey: Ahh I see where you were going with that. True, for ISBN-less you have to go through the "more editions," and they even changed it a little while back from automatically displaying the "extra" relevant info to now only displaying the bare minimum, making you have to go through plenty of clicks to find details to match what you want. So yeah, totally slower going there for that part.

I was thinking more of the Android aspects on this thread, but let me say I did not really find any great difficulty in adding books in GR, it went pretty quickly (I had something that was newer than their database). If there was a flaw, it was the multiple-edition thing, which took a librarian (volunteer) to sort out. I'm trying at the moment to convince the GR folks to allow ISBN/ASIN/eISBN aliasing, so that the process could be made easier, but as it stands now, adding a book catalog entry on GR is about the same or slightly easier than LT. I do like GRs multi-edition thing, when it's all sorted, slightly better, too. LT does slightly better on the initial book add from the web, and for searching out if you have a book, or at least slightly the case (fewer clicks). It's really only the Android App that I'd consider GR to be way ahead of LT, particularly the library add scanning.

The android and iPhone app, any news yet? I don't mean a scanner but the development of the full-fledged app Librarything is speaking of on
page http://www.librarything.com/more/sites.
Until then we are advised to use librarything.com/m

This text has been there for at least 1,5 year if I'm not mistaken. So I'm hoping to hear some progress soon.

I tried all the "LibraryThing" applications for Android. I couldn't find one that is basically doing the following:

- Importing locally all your list of books into Android (handy when you need to look-up what you have in a library)
- Scanning and adding books into your LibraryThing bookshelf from your Android phone

Extending "Book Catalogue"1 to support LibraryThing (it's already supporting LibraryThing for the look-up only) might be the fastest option. Could we sponsor the LibraryThing team to extend the application?

Thank you

1 https://github.com/eleybourn/Book-Catalogue/

Some people change phones every year or so. If anyone is considering an iPhone, take a look at the LT Catalog app that was made by an LT member. It is very new so doesn't have all of the features it may have in the future.

It does let you take an export of your LT library and load it on the iPhone. Browsing is presently by title only but an author sort is planned.

You can use the built-in barcode scanner to scann several titles and email the list of ISBNs to yourself for use in uploading to the LT bulk import feature. However, it is not an entry by entry scan. I don't think it should be either but that's me.

I was a beta tester for the above app. My only stake in it is making sure enough people use it so that it will be improved and maintained over time.

James

For any users that are interested, I have written a simple Android app which takes the tab-delimited LibraryThing export file and allows you to search for books in your library, and browse by title, tags, collections, and so on. I was inspired by the app recently written by jouni for iOS. My app has some significant shortcomings, some of which I plan to fix when I get time. At the moment the biggest problem is that it is only available for Android versions > 3.0. I will fix that first.

It is available on the Google Play Store under the name "LibraryThing Browser". The code is open source and any help, advice, criticism, or bug reports are welcome (I am a newcomer to Java).

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nietky.librarythingbrowser
https://github.com/nietky/LibraryThingBrowser

>29 seabear:

An update was available today, it's great to see that you're actively working on the app :-)
I suppose it's on your TODO list, but in my opinion it is very important to make the data import into the app as automatic as possible. Enter your LT username, perhaps your password (probably needed for the tab-delimited export), press OK and be done with it. However, I agree that supporting more Android versions is more urgent...

>30 Felagund:

Yes, you are right. Unfortunately I don't know how to implement a more automatic import yet, but I will keep thinking about it and working on it. Thanks for trying it out :-)

Would love a LT android app as well.

yes pls more android versions. htc desire here with 2.2.2

>33 JerryMmm:

Yesterday's update of seabear's app is supposed to support more devices. I hope direct import of LT data will be next :-)

yes, it showed up in the play store now, installing as I type

eta:
And crashing as I open..
report sent.

> 35

Sorry about that (and thank you for sending the report). I believe I've fixed the problem, and put a new version (1.4) on the Play Store; it should be available sometime in the next few hours.

> 34

Yep, a more direct import is definitely the next thing to do, when I get some more time! :-)

>36 seabear:
Thanks for your work, seabear. Perhaps I'm just lucky, but now that I'm really testing it, your app seems to import data almost directly. Following the github link and then clicking on the tab export link, LT Browser is apparently the first app on my phone to intercept the .XLS download... nice :-D

Worked now, looking forward to direct imports and covers in future

The LibraryThing App is welcome. Not only to add books but also to navigate through collection. I use it while I'm in bookstores regularly to either confirm I don't have particular book OR to check if my Fiance has a book I'm going to buy her.

I've just uploaded a new version of LibraryThing Browser (1.5) to Google Play. It's now able to download your catalogue directly from the website, so all you have to do is enter your login details and from then on, if there are no errors, everything is automated. You can update your library as well whenever it suits. The app now obviously needs the internet permission: it's only used for logging in to LibraryThing and downloading the tab-delimited export file.

Also I've seen a handful of crash reports about errors parsing the export file. I'm working on those. Thanks to anyone sending reports in.

>40 seabear: Very nice, cheers!

Not showing up in my Play again, when I use the direct link it says not compatible.
htc desire here with 2.2.2

40> VERY nice, and handy. One bug - if I do a search and it comes up with nothing, it asks to download my library again. I guess...it assumes there should always be an answer, and if not it must not have the records? But I often search to see if I own a book, and sometimes the answer is no. I can back out and not re-download, but it's disconcerting at best (because it doesn't say why it wants to redownload). And if I'd run into that for the first time in a bookstore, when I'd have to download over my cellular data connection, I would have been extremely unhappy with the app. Fortunately I was experimenting at home, and realized the second time it happened that it wasn't that it had suddenly forgotten my library but that getting a 0 result made it assume it needed to download again (and that I could back out and refuse to download).

Galaxy Note (original).

> 42 I seem to have added something unnecessary that required 2.3+. I think I found it, and have removed it, and will push out a new version. Sorry, my mistake there. It's back to supporting 2.0+ until I get crash reports saying otherwise...

> 43 Yikes, you are 100% correct. I agree, that would be disconcerting when in a bookshop -- it was a silly temporary thing that I forgot to remove before release. Fixed in the new version to come out later today.

I have almost finished making some changes to the way searches and tags and collections work internally. This will enable features in the future like:

1. Sorting the main list of books by title, last name, first name, etc., including the date fields.
2. A screen for making advanced searches (e.g. query only in specific tag/collection); and/or perhaps a user setting to restrict all searches to certain tags/collections in advance, with a way to click through to a full unrestricted search on the results screen. I guess the latter might be especially handy for bookstore use, to exclude Wishlist etc. collections.
3. A way to customise which fields are shown in the main list of book titles
4. More user settings in general, like taking specific fields (comments/private comments especially) out of the search

Let me know of anything else you'd be keen on. These are at least on my to-do list, although I have limited time so they might be slow coming. Book covers are probably not going to happen. They're hard to get from LT (member-specific ones at least, AFAIK), and working them into the app would be a bit too much work for me, with limited Java knowledge. But there's plenty else I might be missing.

I am concerned the latest internal changes have slowed things down though. Please let me know whether this is a problem on your phone, and I'll look into where it needs optimizing. As always you can install old versions, if you allow 'Unknown sources' in the Security part of your system settings, from here: https://bitbucket.org/sbearlt/librarything-browser/src/master/APKs

#44 by @seabear> Has the 2.0 version already landed? For some reason, my T-Mobile LGE LG-P509 isn't allowed to install it. It's a wimpy phone, but it does have 2.2.2.

#45 by @brightcopy> Nope, not yet, I was premature. I'm cleaning out bugs and will post here when I push it out (in an hour or two I expect). The Play Store may take a few hours to propagate it too.

44> You're going to make my previous process - exporting, fiddling in Calc, importing to HanDBase - completely obsolete. Well, almost. The one thing HanDBase can do that you can't (yet) is let me edit a record. There's no way to pass it back to LT, of course, but I can, for instance, enter a Date Started - or a rating, or review - then retype or copy-and-paste the info back to LT.

Not sure you need that at all. Though - an editable Note field attached to each LT record? I don't know if it could be done, and it might even be overkill (definitely, if it would noticeably slow things down) but it might be handy. But it's faster (the version I have, haven't gotten the new one yet) to search than HanDBase, and covers most of what I want to know - your proposed new features cover basically all the rest (limiting to/ignoring Wishlist, for one).

I've just uploaded the new version (1.6) to Google Play.

47> Sounds like a good idea. An editable Notes field would not be that hard, and the app could even do something like send an email to you with your changes organised per-work, with a link in the email to the correct LT page for each work for copy-pasting. I will put it on the to-do list.

Thank you. I now have my library on my Droid Razr HD. I have version 1.6; apparently the sorting you mentioned in 44 is a future upgrade. With search and the achievable cost of the program I can live with it.

Is there any way that you could convince Barnes and Noble to carry it for the Nook? Your problem with that besides whatever else they burden developers with is that you'd have to get them to carry your upgrades as you went along. The devices don't accept upgrades from outside which I found with sad consternation when I was unable to upgrade Evernote.

Robert

49> Yep the features I mentioned above are a rough to-do list. Sometime soon, which could be days, weeks, or months. Probably weeks.

I hadn't thought of the Amazon App Store or the Nook, but it sounds like a good idea. Although these questions for the Nook are rather demanding. I'll give it a try sometime. I'll also look into Amazon.

seabear>

Well, haven't had too much luck. I got the just-uploaded version and installed it on my T-Mobile LGE LG-P509 phone. Crashes every time when I tell it to download. I sent in a crash report so hopefully that makes it back to you.

On my Acer Iconia A100 running 4.0.3, it doesn't crash but does continually tell me my login failed. I've quadruple checked to make sure the login info is right and that my internet connection is working. No dice.

Suggestions?

#51 by @brightcopy> Thanks, got the crash report and looking into it now. Are you able/willing to install a custom APK? If so I will try and modify it to create a debug log to try and figure out the login problem. Thanks for testing BTW.

#52 by @seabear> Yup, just let me know.

#53 by @brightcopy> I've put a debugging log option into the proper app on the Play Store, in version 1.6.1. Once it's available, after it installs, go to the menu > Settings > Debugging section (or spanner icon on higher versions of Android), and enable logging. Then go ahead and try to download your library, and after the problem occurs, go back to Settings > Debugging > View log > Send. It'll post it direct to me. Hopefully I can figure out what's going on. Once solved, best to turn logging off as it may slow things down.

FYI, and for anyone else concerned about privacy, your LT username and password aren't logged or sent off your phone during this process. Your LibraryThing home page is sent to the log, but only if you choose to enable logging in the settings, which is turned off by default. In any case, nothing is sent off the phone unless you press the Send button, and you can view the contents of what's being sent before sending.

got it, and after it kept crashing on wrong login details, I managed to remember the correct ones and it downloaded my library fine.

re: speed, I don't have enough books I think to decide. It seems fast enough.

re: features, enable search in the comments view?

I guess it doesn't download the CK fields, so can't search or display Series?

Yeah. CK never downloads. I copy the series info I find important (no more than one per book) to Comments, just so I can export it (or, now, use it in LT Browser). Of course, I don't use Comments for anything _else_, so that works. And it also lets me sort by series and sequence, which is occasionally very useful (on LT itself, I mean).

>54 seabear: @seabear I just wanted to report that I was able to download and use the app with no glitches...something I wasn't expecting since my catalog is a bit large and has some oddities in it. Good job.

Hi seabear, just downloaded the update and my collection again. It all went smoothly. Navigating, searching, etc all goes very quickly for me.

One thing that could be a useful addition is being able to copy info (titles, ISBN, anything really) from within the android app to paste it elsewhere. I couldn't figure out how to do this (it may be me) so I'm assuming that's not possible right now.

#55 by @JerryMmm> Searches do currently look at both comment fields (public and private) at the moment. CK fields are probably not coming any time soon. As jjmcgaffey says, they don't come in the export file, although there is a separate API for them.

#58 by @igorken> Yep, copying text sure would be handy, and no it won't currently work. I'll have a look at it.

Yesterday's update (1.6.2+) has better scrolling for the lists of tags & authors, with the thing on the side that brings up letters as you scroll, like in the contacts list. Not much use for the book list until that has better sorting options, which is my next aim.

Just came acorss this. Excellant. Cheers.

Sent logs from both.

#59 - I meant, the view where you can see just the comments, there is no Search function on that view.

#61 by @brightcopy> Thanks -- pretty sure it should be fixed now. Try version 1.6.4 here or it should come over Google Play in a few hours.

#62 by @JerryMmm> Ah I see what you mean. Yep, I'll work on it.

#63 by @seabear> That looks like it cleared it up for both devices. Thanks!

>58 igorken: a useful addition is being able to copy info (titles, ISBN, anything really) from within the android app to paste it elsewhere

This is in an update I've just published to the Play Store (version 1.6.6; direct download here). Long-press on any of the fields on the Book details screen (or the List of comments), and it'll bring up a dialog where you can copy the whole field or select a part as usual. More awkward than the usual method, but I want to keep it compatible with old versions of Android. I've also added fields showing the Dewey decimal and Library of Congress numbers (although note that you have to have added these to your catalog; the green numbers showing up in Your books on LT, are, so far as I understand, coming from CK and not in the export file, so LT Browser doesn't get them).

A bunch of bug fixes too, and I've disabled the old import method, because it clutters up the operating system's app-selection dialog unnecessarily. Let me know if you were still using it that way; I'll happily publish custom versions that have it enabled, but I don't want them on the Play Store.

I've been working on better searching and sorting but ran into some problems (and real life), so it'll have to wait for another time.

... sorting problem solved; I've just published a newer version on the Play Store (1.7; direct link), with which you should be able to sort your catalog by a number of fields (not all; still working on that).

thanks, works on htc desire with 2.2.2

Not here (nexus S with Android 4something). It downloads my library, adds the books into the database.... and crashes. If I restart the app, it crashes immediately. First version to do that, really! I'll try some more before I submit a more detailed report.

Mine works (Galaxy Note, 4.0.4) but it's very slow. 25 seconds from one sort to another, 46 seconds to open, about 12 seconds to search for a word that appeared in 6 titles and one review. On opening it showed the title bar and a black screen for 46 seconds, then the list appeared. This was all from the previous downloading of my library - try a reload. 5000+ books in the library. I haven't tried the copy from field - I missed that that was the update previous to this one.

Hmmm! On downloading - when I close and reopen the app, the library shows up instantly. No, maybe that was because it was a quick reopen. Resorting and searching take about the same time.

Also - you're getting the date from the td export? As the new reading dates aren't currently exporting, it's not getting them into the app. Nothing you can do about it, and presumably at some point Tim will fix the export. I hope it comes faster than collections, though. If you're getting it some other way - the new reading dates aren't showing up, neither finishes after 4/22 nor starts. Entered dates work, and I get the reviews of books I've finished, but not the dates.

Argh, worse than that! Some of the reading dates are just plain wrong. I've got two books, my most recent entries, which have not been read - no reading dates. Both of them show with dates in the app. I'm checking the export, but they don't have dates on LT. OOOkay...that's an export problem, they DO have dates in the export (and books that should have them, don't). I'll bug that for Tim.

OK. My sorting code is badly written; the speed is not scaling well for larger libraries. My apologies for not testing more thoroughly. I'm going to revert back to the old version in a new update.

Sorry everyone.

And yes, unfortunately the missing dates are thanks to the new system. They're not going into the export file any more (and yeah, LT Browser gets everything from the tabbed export file).

OK, I've pushed another update so others don't run into these problems.

- version 1.7 has the slow-loading bugs that Felagund and jjmcgaffey have described
- version 1.7.1 (just published, so may not be available for a couple hours, or you can try the direct link) and 1.7.2 (direct) and version 1.6.6 are identical. They lack the ability to sort but should be faster.

If you keep it updated via the Play Store you should (eventually) get 1.7.1 1.7.2 and avoid the slow-loading problem.

My LT library is only 125 books (for now), and it updated the catalog fine, didn't seem slow, and I'm not using LT for keeping track of reading dates, so that doesn't matter to me.

>72 JerryMmm: Unfortunately I need to get the sorting code working properly for libraries of all sizes. Sorting larger ones will always be slower, but in this case it it was much, much slower than it ought to be. I suspect most people using this app will be using it with quite large libraries (hence the need to search it).

>73 seabear:

1.7.1 works much better for me, thanks (4600 books in my library).

Copy-paste functionality is working nicely. I don't particularly mind that it's whole fields only, though I suppose getting author + title at once would've been nice.

I also had some problems earlier with it crashing on downloading the collection (on a bad connection though), but it seems OK now.

>75 igorken: Good idea for author & title copy-paste, I can do that.

Also thanks for the report about downloading -- in general that part of the program is pretty patchy and unstable. Do you recall if it deleted your books after crashing when trying to download? I really want to avoid that happening.

>76 seabear: Yes. All was gone after the crash.

I love going to used book stores to find bargains but sometimes I forget which books I already have because I have so many. It'd be great to be able to have an app so I can check my collection any time I want. It'd also make it easier to just scan books in as soon as I buy them.

So did you check seabear's app? It's great for checking (doesn't do the scanning in, though). Librarything Browser is seabear's (it's on Google Play). There's also Librarything Scanner, which (is supposed to) helps you enter books - you scan a barcode and it opens on to Add Books with that ISBN in the search box. I found it painfully slow - but that was several years and at least one gadget ago. You could try it.

Question for seabear: Does it work for private libraries? I'm asking because login fails for me. (and I tried multiple times)

And thank you for this app, even if it doesn't work for me! It works for most LTers & that's what counts.

On Google Play there's a note that login is broken at the moment - sorry! As of the July 5 version, not really working (it's a connection problem - I forget whether it's LT or Android that changed something, but it's not in seabear's direct control). Hoping for a new release soon.

Thanks! I didn't see that note.

I will wait patiently.

I can do patient.

Hey. I've been snowed under with work lately, but am having a look at it now. Sorry about this bug and the length of time it's been out.

To answer your question skittles, my app works with both public and private libraries in the same way.

seabear, I am in no hurry at all. Finding the app is a bonus.

and I completely understand having a very busy life.

Thanks for making this app and I'll be fine working with it when you make the fix. I'm in no rush or hurry at all.

Hey again seems to be working now, in version 1.7.4. I've only just uploaded it so, as usual, it may take a few hours for it to appear in Google Play for you guys. Let me know if it's still broken in some way.

Hey,

I can logon and import fine.

However when I click the tag icon in the right corner of the "home screen", it only lists the tags for the first book in my collection.
The other tag info is available though as I can access it from the individual books, just not from this screen.

Similarly if I click the collections (folder) icon besides it, it shows me (0) collections.
However I can still access collections indirectly from books.

So somehow it seems the lists that i would expect to see when clicking those icons aren't being generated properly.

Let me know if you need me to clarify further.

Thanks

#86 by @igorken> Fixed in version 1.7.5, I think. Thanks for the report!

#87 Thanks for the quick response. Downloading fine and tags seem ok but it's still not showing all collections, just my library and to read.

re: #83

I have successfully logged in.
Looks like all books came through, but 3900 is a bit much to check so quickly..

and, Thank you so very much!!

#88 by @igorken> Hmm not sure. The same bit of code is doing the work for both the tag list and collection list screens. Just to clarify, after updating the app to v1.7.5, did it go from showing zero collections to showing two collections "Your library" and "To read"? And there are still some collections not showing up on the collection list screen. Can you check to see if the missing collections show up on the screens for any of the books belonging to them?

#89> enjoy!

It shows all my collections. And after some delay downloading, all my books. I haven't checked dates. Does this version have any sorting, or is that still problematic?

#91 by @jjmcgaffey> Nope, haven't tried to tackle sorting again. Some day.

#90 Yes. It went from 0 to 2 and the others (such as wishlist) aren't showing up in that list, but the books are there and the "missing" collections indeed do show up on the book screen.

I also verified that tags that I've only used for books not in either of those 2 collections are in the tag list. They are.

I download the app yesterday for the first time - not sure which version. I think I'll love it. What I noticed, though, is that it looks like all my collections are in there twice. For sure, every title I called up as a test showed up twice. It won't stop me from being able to use it, but it seems an unnecessary use of memory space on my phone.

For those of you using the LT Browser app for android, is it pretty easy to regularly update the database?

Yes, but you have to remember to do it yourself.
It's just an option in the app, then it downloads your library again.

Does it overwrite, or duplicate? Do I have to delete the data first before updating?

Overwrite.

Another RSI: link back to the book page on LT.

#99 by @JerryMmm> If you click on the book's title in the app it should load the LT work page in your phone's browser.

#94 by @sjmccreary> Something funny seems to be going on with collections, given the bug which igorken has reported. Sorry about that. Thanks for trying the app!

For what it's worth, the duplicated/missing collections bug is probably coming from issues other than duplicated storage of information. You can check how much memory the app uses to store your catalog by going to your device's system settings > Apps > All > LibraryThing Browser, and looking at the number under 'Data'. Unless you have a very large library, it should be less than a couple of megabytes.

FYI, I tried it on my shiny new Nexus 7 v2 and it worked like a charm. Thanks, again. :)

#93> Having items in my "currently reading" and downloading my library again, that collection is listed as well now.
All the collections it shows now are those that also have books that are part of "my library". The ones not shown are not part of that. Could be a coincidence, just thought I'd add the observation.

Clicking titles to go to the LT works perfectly.

I'm just one more person (who just got a smart phone yesterday) who would like to see an official LT app...I don't even care about scanning books, but I'd like access to my collection on the go, because I've been buying doubles of my books lately.

I just downloaded the seabearlt1 app, so we'll see how that works. Being able to edit the collections on the go would be nice too.

In that app, you can basically make notes to yourself and send them - that is, there's a way to copy bits of your LT record to a note page and make the changes, then email them to yourself for cut-and-paste on the site. At least, there's supposed to be - I haven't actually done it yet. And it's not _exactly_ editing on the go, but at least you can mark what you want to do at the time. (see msgs 65-75).

Yes, a real LT app would be great. Here's hoping.

Here's a vote for putting back in a sort function for smaller libraries. Just disable it if library size is over X (whatever that is).

Seabear thanks for a great app. just downloaded yesterday. my collection is small and on LibraryThing the books are in alphabetical order. why then isn't it in alphabetical when I download the books into your app? It's annoying to have to scroll through all the titles? Is there a way to sort on my phone alphabetically?

#107 by @cgunning> See 73, 91, 92 and 106. :D

Is there a way to sort on my phone alphabetically?

No, sorry. But there will be! I had it half finished a few weeks back, and I'll try to make time to finish it soon. It may not work very well for those of you with large libraries though.

Thanks for the prod! I've put a sorting function into a beta version of LibraryThing Browser. I'm not sure it's particularly reliable or fast but I don't have the time at the moment to test it before release. The beta version is available through the Google Play Store, so there's no security issues. You can try it by:

1. Joining this Google Group: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/librarything-browser (only I'll be able to see that you've joined, despite what it says on the "Join this group" pop-up)
2. Then visiting https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.nietky.librarythingbrowser to opt in.

I gather you can opt out of the beta at any time and go back to the app the way it was.

(Update: or you skip all the above and try the beta by installing the apk directly from https://bitbucket.org/sbearlt/librarything-browser/downloads/LibraryThingBrowser...)

So, in the beta version, the option to enable sorting is via menu button > Settings > Sort books by. Note that it'll let you sort by date fields but it's really not much use, partly because my algorithm is no good (it arranges books by oldest--newest--undated, which is a pain), and partly because as far as I'm aware the LibraryThing site update a few months ago broke the export file. They may have fixed that though, I'm not sure.

Sorting by the title, or author's first or last names should work OK though.

Those who try out the beta version, let me know what you think (esp. the number of books in your library, or if you're on an older and slower device). If it seems good to go I'll update the normal Google Play Store version.

Bug I think:

I reimported my library as usual.
Used the menu button to get to collections. That did not show my Wishlist.
So, searched for a book on the Wishlist.
It found it, I went to that book.
It shows the pastel wishlist button.
I tap that and it does show my Wishlist.
I use menu again to go to collections, it shows (0).

I have to go back using the back button to all books before the collections show up again.

Also, I'm expecting to be able to press menu for the menu on all screens.

Oh, latest version,updated just now from playstore Still the Desire.

>111 JerryMmm: That's the same bug I mentioned a while ago of some missing collections and I can confirm it still occurs on the current version.

No biggie though, still like the app.

Yeah sorry about that collections bug. I'll let you know when I expect to have it fixed. I don't know why it's happening so need some time to figure it out.

This is why EVERY weekend should be a long weekend :-)

I've just noticed a huge speed improvement with the latest version. Thanks seabear, your work is highly appreciated :-)

I got the same wishlist collection bug, but it does have all my wishlist books with the correct tags :)

Is it possible to add the counts to the tags?
For example, when using the app I'd also like to know how many times I've used a certain tag.

>116 mene: Thanks for the suggestion, I'll add it to the list of things to do!

I see above that when you update your library, it's supposed to overwrite? Mine is duplicating. I now have many copies of the same book listed. How do I fix this?

>118 swensonj: That's odd. What happens when you select the "Delete library from device" option from the menu?

In light of the security issues with LT I figured I should probably let you know how LT Browser handles your LT username and password. When you enter them on the app it logs in just like you would in a normal web browser (i.e. NOT an encrypted https connection). It then downloads the books and, if you clicked "Remember me", stores your username and password, unencrypted, in a place called SharedPreferences. They live there until you go to your device's "App info" section and click "Clear data" for LT Browser (which would also clear the local copy of your books).

The SharedPreferences are stored in a part of your device's filesystem which only (1) a user with "super-user" permissions or (2) the LT Browser app is allowed to access. If you have "rooted" your device then it would certainly be possible for another program to request super-user status and therefore access the SharedPreferences and potentially your password. If you have not rooted your device then it's not possible for any malicious programs to access it.

I have not encrypted the passwords in the SharedPreferences because as far as I can tell it would be pointless. The encryption key would still have to be accessible from the device, and if someone had access to SharedPreferences, they'd also therefore have access to the key. The most secure way to log in (and the way most apps do it) would be to use your username & password to obtain an authentication token from LT which can then be stored locally on the device and used to log in. But LT haven't got an authentication API like that, so it's not an option.

I suggest if you have a rooted device and are concerned about your security to ensure that you click "Clear data" for LT Browser and in the future enter your password each time you download your books, and do not click "Remember me". If you do not have a rooted device then it should be fine as is.

Dumb question : What is a rooted device ?

It is possible to change things on an Android device so that you have "root" access - which means you can get to the top-level folder in the system, and from there get to anywhere in the system. You can make changes that way that you can't if you just use what Android offers you. Think of it as getting a super-admin account - in Windows, a user account can run programs but often can't install them, an admin account can install things and make some changes to preferences...a super-admin could do anything, make the screen show upside down or whatever. Or take out bits of the operating system and replace them with other things.

I've rooted various of my devices, just because there's no way to really back up Android otherwise. I truly love Titanium Backup - but it only works on a rooted device. That sort of thing - tools that only work if you have root access,or putting on a different version of Android - are two reasons to root your device.

If you haven't jumped through all the hoops to root your device, you don't have a rooted device (ok, maybe someone else could have rooted it for you... but they'd have told you, surely). So if you don't know what it is, don't worry about it.

>122 jjmcgaffey: : Thank you !

Any reason not to use https? LT accepts it. Seems like a good idea rather than having passwords potentially go across public wifi hotspots in the clear.

No reason, I overlooked it. I'll change it to go by https.

Sorry if my post sounded harsh! On re-reading it I could see that being misunderstood. I was legitimately wondering if you had run into a showstopper. I had also not even thought about mentioning https until you brought it up above.

No no, I don't mind. I'm glad you mentioned it! In the rush of trying to get the streamlined download process I wrote a bunch of stuff quickly and never really looked back over it. And in any case, I still have to test whether https works reliably :-)

#127 by @seabear> Hmm, you're not a member of the BETA group. You should PM Tim to join. There's an upcoming change to https on LT that you should be aware of.

He partly just released it (ten minutes after your comment).

Well there ya go. :D

I can no more login from my smartphone, I get the message "Login failed". JerryMmm suggests that it's maybe due to the https thing (here : http://www.librarything.com/topic/168819#4542717). Sorry I can't explain better.

Nor can I - login, that is. I actually managed to crash it, and sent a report; also sent a debug log. I don't know whether it's related to the https thing, or just the new password - my new one is considerably longer than my old one, I don't know if the app has limits on that...or if it's something else entirely.

It's not is the https thing (I haven't done anything about that yet), or your new password, they've probably changed the login form. I'll have a look ASAP.

Eh, forget that. I'll fix it ASAP.

OK version 1.8.6 should be working for everyone. Now LT Browser uses https. Sorry about the delay.

As usual the update will take a few hours to propagate through the Play Store. If you need/want it more urgently the APK is at https://github.com/kinverarity1/librarything-browser/raw/newmaster/APKs/LibraryT...

How dare you take so long to update your completely free app that otherwise works wonderfully!

;)

In other words, thanks again for all the effort. As a programmer, I know that most of the "fun" part is in the first 80% of the app that takes 20% of the effort. I appreciate you sticking with it.

Unintended consequences

Thank you, Seabear ! I just got an update and the "Successfully logged in" message.

Thanks! Works fine and helped me verify I indeed dit not have this book I then bought this afternoon :)

hi seabear

could you make librarything browser search not accent sensitive
ex. searching for "metro" would match "métro"

and thank you for this app

>140 illogique:

I'll look into it, illogique. Short of time at the moment, but it's on my list! Thanks for the suggestion.

Ouch - apparently Google thinks LT Browser is in violation of their spam policy. I just got an email from them. I'm following it up ASAP but thought I would let you all know in case the app suddenly disappears off the Play Store or you get a message or something weird. PS: I am also looking into your various enquiries and bugs, just very short on time at the moment, as always.

How can an app be in violation of a spam policy? Do they think it's a program designed to help people create spam? Do they think that you've been spamming to promote it?

Not sure. I think it's probably been flagged automatically for overuse of the term "LibraryThing". There is a lot of useless trash in the Play Store, but I'm guessing "spam policy" sounds better than "misleading and/or useless content policy".

Google have apparently now removed LT Browser from the Play Store: "REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the intellectual property and impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the IP infringement and impersonation policy help article for more information." Beats me what I did wrong, as I did update the app's description a few days ago to remove all but one occurence of the word "LibraryThing", and that change didn't even show up on the Play Store, which is notoriously slow to update anyway.

My emails to Google and LibraryThing have both gone unanswered. You can still download the app from Github -- just use your Android device to download the APK (application package) via this link:

https://github.com/kinverarity1/librarything-browser/raw/newmaster/APKs/LibraryT....

It will only work if you have a setting activated somewhere in the Android settings screen to allow "unauthorized" applications. I'm not sure if that's still available in recent versions of Android.

I don't really know what to do -- I'm reluctant to rename and republish the app on the Play Store until I can get confirmation from LT that it's okay with them, as Google say in their email they might suspend my google account if there are repeat "offences".

Damn shame, seabear. I hope you have more success getting LT to talk to you than I did when I wanted to give people a free mobile app. There were always things they considered more important, I guess.

It's also weird you'd get a problem with a bogus violation of the IP provision. I can't think google seeks out these things. I really wonder if someone at LT reported you.

Yep, it's disappointing. I would have pulled the app if there were a viable option from LT, but there isn't.

Glad I installed it on my new phone just before it was removed and a real shame it's gone.

Seabear, I bought my smartphone mainly to use your application and I'm really glad about it.

Is there anyway the users could help? Or perhaps the LT staff?

I'm not sure, Felagund. If someone from LT could get in touch with me that might be helpful.

>151 seabear:
Did you try asking the LT staff (info AT librarything.com) ?

I've had the app for a while but am only just starting to use it now I have the main collection loaded. Is there a reason why I only ever see 2 collections instead of 14 I have? When I'm trawling through a book dealer, I'd like to see the wish list as default as they are my must-haves.

> 152 Yeah, no response. Frankly I'm not keen to re-release anyway as from what I understand Google will delete your account upon repeated violations. There appears to be no human reviewing this stuff, and it's my personal Google account.

> 153 Unfortunately that's a long-standing bug which I haven't been able to fix. Sorry :-(

> 152 I've tried sending another email to LT.

Check your inbox seabear. I wrote to you earlier, but it went to the wrong place--my mistake, not yours. Basically, I want some things clarified, but I have no objection to your app if they are.

Thanks for the email. Hopefully LT Browser will be back online sometime soon!

Hope it returns! I have it and I have found it a wonderful tool! Beats banging my way through a spreadsheet on a dinky screen!

Hi ulmannc, I'm glad it's been useful for you!

Just in case anyone is wondering, I want to clarify that LT has been very helpful and the only thing stopping LT Browser returning is my lack of time! I'll try to get around to it this weekend.

>159 seabear: I have a question about a field not showing up. How should I get the info to you?

>159 seabear: I have a question about a field not showing up. How do you want me to send the information to you?

Hey - feel free to send me an email at sbearlt1@gmail.com

Any progress on this front?

Thanks for posting the apk file. I have your app on my tablet and now (finally) on my Samsung phone. I was in the store today with no wifi/4G connection and couldn't figure out whether or not I had a certain book already. Your app is really great for those moments when I'm in the store!

@163 - I haven't been able to get the app to compile after reinstalling Windows on my machine. Something to do with not getting Java/Android developer tools set up.

Also after LT confirmed to me they were fine with my app I appealed via Google, including LT's approval, and got the below response. Given that there are possible consequences for republishing and remaining in violation (sometimes they say suspending my Google Play Developer account, which is not so scary, and sometimes they say "Google account", which is not an fun option for me), I'm not really that interested in going near the Play Store again. As described above you can still install the app directly by downloading the APK file from Github via your phone or tablet (you'll need to disable a security option in your device's settings to allow "non-authorized third party" apps). I could republish it with no reference to LT at all but I can't see the point, since no-one would be able to find it.

----

Hi,

We have reviewed your appeal and will not be reinstating your app. This decision is final and we will not be responding to any additional emails regarding this removal.

If your account is still in good standing and the nature of your app allows for republishing you may consider releasing a new, policy compliant version of your app to Google Play under a new package name. We are unable to comment further on the specific policy basis for this removal or provide guidance on bringing future versions of your app into policy compliance. Instead, please reference the REASON FOR REMOVAL in the initial notification email from Google Play, or the one listed below:

Violation of the impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the impersonation policy help article for more information.

- Your title and/or description attempts to impersonate or leverage another popular product without permission.

Please note that additional violations may result in a suspension of your Google Play Developer account.

Regards,
The Google Play Team

Wow. That's... unfortunate.
I hope you'll continue developing the app, even for the handful of users comfortable with getting it from Github.

@166

Will do, might be slow, but I still use it so will continue working on it when I get a chance :-)

Have you looked into the Amazon App store? From what I understand, they are totally separate from Google, so maybe you could submit it there?

@168 I haven't, but I'll certainly have a look into it. Thanks for the suggestion.

Yeah - I wouldn't get it from the Amazon App store, I don't like their policies (specifically: must have the Amazon App Store installed in order to run any apps you bought through it, and at least at one point the App Store wouldn't install on my rooted device. Which meant that all the apps I bought through it instantly became useless. Currently my device is not rooted, so I could probably install the App Store - but now I _won't_.)

I have LT Browser already (got it from Google Play some time ago). I'm sorry they're being idiots. I'll keep an eye on the Github page - it's an immensely useful app, and I'd love to see what you come up with for additions. Thanks for your work!

Mmm not surprising. Still it's probably a good thing for me to try. I'm not sure how Amazon Kindle Fires work.

For all my griping about Google it's worth nothing that they do at least maintain the ability in Android to install non-approved/authorized/vetted apps, unlike (I presume) Apple.

I've finally figured out Google's horrible new system for building Android apps and got it to work, so LT Browser - now renamed "Offline Bookshelf Browser" to avoid any trouble - is back on the Play Store! Or will be -- the link below is not working yet, I think it takes a few hours to update.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kinverarity.offlinebookshelfbr...

The code is more or less exactly the same it was so it should work (or not work, depending on whatever particular bug you've been politely asking me to fix for months years... sorry). Obviously it's still working off the CSV export rather than the new JSON one. I might try to update it one day.

>172 seabear:

Wonderful news!

IMHO it is not worth the trouble to use the JSON export if you already have something that works with the CSV export. There are only a few extra data in the JSON export and they are not really useful for anything.

#170 by @jjmcgaffey>

I've only dabbled with app development in conjunction with taking a course and a client project. In the class we distributed our apps on Amazon because it was free.

The requirement to install Amazon's App Store app is not really any different from having the Google Play app installed. The difference is most non Amazon/Kindle devices don't have it installed by default as is the Google Play store app.

For the class I bought a very inexpensive LG Realm ($40) with no contract and I use it just on WiFi and with USB for app development. My daily phone is an old iPhone 4S and for a tablet I have the iPad Mini 2 with 4G.

Good luck with getting this version of the Android app available again.

James

#172 by @seabear>
The link works now. Thanks!

>172 seabear: It's wonderful to see this back! I really enjoyed it before and I am a happy camper. I asked back a while ago if you would be able to add publication date to the display? Could you add that to your futures list for the next time you update the code?

If you need a tester (remember I am the electronic Luddite) or someone to try something, please don't hesitate to ask.

I'm heading to FL in a week or so and will be wandering around book stores for a couple of weeks (what few are left. . .they continue to disappear) in between orchid nurseries and orchid shows so I'll be putting it to use!

I see this thread is getting a bit long. Shall we start a new one?