Hello all!
Recently I've started using two seperate Android devices to read books
using FBReaderJ for Android, a NookColor, and my phone, a Sprint EVO
3D. Very quickly, I ran into a problem. I read the same books on both
devices, so I ended up spending a lot of time looking for my place
whenever I switched devices (I used the NC at home, and my phone
everywhere else).
I imagine that this must be a problem quite a few people are having,
or will be having as android devices become more popular.
So, I wrote an android app to synchronize my place in each book
between the two devices.
App Name: FBSync
Current Version: v1.0.26
Revision History:
1.0.26 - Removed Auto-Sync feature (hopefully just temporarily. I want to get this working, but the FBReader API just doesn't provide enough functionality to get it working smoothly). Removed syncing of "recent" books (It caused more trouble than it was worth, sorry, you will have to manually open your book if you changed books on another device). Added a "Sync" item to the FBReader menu that pulls up FBSync.
1.0.24 - Updated Dropbox support to use latest Dropbox API. Fixed Auto-Sync feature to properly sync new book positions (broken due to a change in FBReader). Due to limitations in FBReader, the Auto-Sync feature is still rather rough.
1.0.23 - Added a Dropbox support for your book position data, an Auto-Sync feature that makes use of the FBReader API, and (in theory) the program has been translated into Russian (thanks Dmitry!). If you have set up your own synchronization server, you will need to update the PHP files to the files in the attached sync.zip
1.0.19 - Fixed another bug that affected Honeycomb devices. Confirmed working on an Acer Iconia A500.
1.0.18 - Fixed a bug that affected Honeycomb devices (I hope!)
1.0.17 - Added "Alternate Sync URL" functionality for those people who want to set up their own sync server instead of using mine. See below for more instructions.
Requirements:
1) Root. Your devices must be rooted. This application only uses
root for two things. First, it uses root to get access to the
FBReaderJ books database, and second, it uses root to kill the
FBReaderJ process before it syncs the data (it has to kill the process
to force FBReader to reload the database).
2) FBReaderJ must be installed on the device (you will be prompted to
install it if you haven't already when you load my app)
3) You must have already opened FBReaderJ at least once, and viewed
it's library (Menu button, "Library"). This creates the databases
that my application needs.
Download:
An older version is available on Google Play, but the latest version can always be found at the bottom of this post.
Instructions for Use:
As of v1.0.23, you have the option of either syncing book positions to my web server, or to Dropbox. If you choose to use Dropbox, it will create a single file on your Dropbox account (under \FBSync) that contains the book position data.
If you desire to sync the book positions to my web server, you can also enable a new, experimental "Auto-Sync" feature that syncs your position whenever you open or close FBReader (or a book in FBReader). This functionality only works when using my web server, it does not currently work with Dropbox.
The auto-sync feature make use of FBReader's API and makes FBSync work as a plug-in for FBReader. Unfortunately the API does not contain all of the features needed to completely remove the root requirement for FBSync.
If you are going to use my web server to sync:
After you install it, go into the settings (blue icon, or menu/
settings), and enter an email (doesn't have to be an email, any unique
string will work) and numeric pin # (this isn't secure, so don't use a
pin you care about). The email/pin is just to uniquely identify you.
You should use the same email/pin on each device.
On the same screen, you can choose to sync the actual book files to Dropbox. Since your Dropbox account is used, only your account can access the books, if
you choose to sync them. It only uploads/downloads the books when it
needs them, so it may take a while the first time you sync, but after
that it shouldn't take more than a minute MAX (my typical sync times
for 90 books is about 5-10 seconds)
Click the middle, orange icon, to begin the sync process.
If this is the first time you've synced since selecting the "Enable Dropbox" setting, you will be prompted to allow FBSync access to your dropbox account.
The sync process first uploads, then downloads. It only updates the book's "place" on the web (or Dropbox) if it's farther ahead than the web's "place" for the book.
If you are using the Auto-Sync function, the above statement is not true. It always saves the exact position of your book upon closure of FbReader or closing the book.
Miscellaneous Info:
This program is still in beta. I have used and tested it extensively,
but I'm not liable if you manage to break it somehow. Since it does
alter the data in FBReader's databases (it does not, and never will,
alter the database structures), it is possible, but very unlikely,
that it could lose your book's places. I would suggest that you back
up FBReaderJ using something like Titanium Backup before you start
using FBSync, just to be on the safe side.
The synchronized book position data is currently hosted on my personal web server, or your Dropbox account (as of v1.0.23). Your book files are only stored on your Dropbox account.
UPDATE: As of v1.0.17, I added the ability to define your own "Sync Server". Here's how to use it:
In the Settings (Menu, Settings), there is a new option "Alternate Sync URL" where you can enter your own URL. Leave it blank if you want to use my server.
If you want to use your own, you will need the file attached to this post. I wouldn't recommend trying to set up your own server unless you are pretty comfortable with web servers, php, and mySql.
Sync.zip contains a .SQL script, and several .PHP files that are required to set up your own sync server.
The primary thing that you need to set up your own Sync server is a HTTP Web server that supports mySql and PHP.
On your server, create a new mySql database (name doesn't matter, just make sure there's a user attached to it that has insert/update/delete rights), then run the sql code in the sync.sql to create the two tables that are needed.
Edit the common.php file and replace the '' values in this block:
Code:
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbuser = ''; // Fill out the database user name here
$dbpass = ''; // Fill out the database user password here
$dbname = ''; // Fill out the database name here
with the correct values for your server. $dbhost can probably remain 'localhost'.
Then create a directory on your web server that is accessible from your devices, and put the 5 PHP files into it.
Launch FBSync, hit Menu, Settings, click the "Alternate Sync URL", and type in the URL that points to the directory you put those PHP files in (ex; http://sync.splitmatrix.net/alternate_sync ). You must start it with http://, and it should not end in a /.
After you enter the URL, save out of it, back out to the main FBSync window, and click the Sync button. If you set up everything correctly, it should sync to your server now instead of mine.
Please let me know of any issues you find, or any improvements you
want.
Thanks,
Scott
6/27/2012 Edit - Updated Sync.zip to remove some buggy code from addbook.php
Hi Scott,
I only have 1 device right now, so no need for sync, but I would be interested in how you can read your BN books with FBRreader. I have installed FBReader, but don't know how to read the books with it.
Also, I installed the dolphin web browser and clicked on a few epub links but nothing happens, is there a way to get it to bring up those files in FBRreader?
droidly said:
Hi Scott,
I only have 1 device right now, so no need for sync, but I would be interested in how you can read your BN books with FBRreader. I have installed FBReader, but don't know how to read the books with it.
Also, I installed the dolphin web browser and clicked on a few epub links but nothing happens, is there a way to get it to bring up those files in FBRreader?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't actually purchased any books from B&N, but assuming the books you purchased are DRM free, you should be able to just move them into the \sdcard\books directory, and they should appear in the FbReader library. I believe, by default, the B&N books go into the internal storage, in the B&N Downloads\Books directory. Use a file manager like estrong's, astro's, or root explorer to copy them.
Via your web browser, save the epub books to \sdcard\books (or move them there after they download), and they'll show up. I don't believe that you can associate any book reader with epub files, I don't think android supports that. You have to open the book with the app, not the app with the book.
Scott
I use FBReader on multiple devices and would be extremely interested in such an app!
Thanks for your interest in my syncing app.
One pretty major requirement for this app is that your devices have to be rooted. Android doesn't like one app accessing another app's data, so the only way I could do it was to use root privileges.
It's still in beta, but you can download a copy of it at:
http://sync.splitmatrix.net/apk/fbsync.apk
Currently v1.0.9.
After you install it, go into the settings (blue icon, or menu/settings), and enter an email (doesn't have to be an email, any unique string will work) and numeric pin # (this isn't secure, so don't use a pin you care about). The email/pin is just to uniquely identify you. You should use the same email/pin on each device.
On the same screen, you can choose to sync the actual book files as well as their positions. It only uploads/downloads the books when it needs them, so it may take a while the first time you sync, but after that it shouldn't take more than a minute MAX, my typical sync times for 90 books is about 5-10 seconds.
Obviously you should have Fbreader already installed, and you need to have ran it, and gone into the library (menu/library) at least once (this creates the fbreader app database).
Click the middle, orange icon, to begin the sync process. It first uploads, then downloads. It only updates the book's "place" on the web if it's farther ahead than the web's "place" for the book.
Please let me know of any issues you find, or any improvements you want.
Thanks,
Scott
Cool
I just tested and it does work as stated. One question though, where is it uploading the data too?
Personal website, sync.splitmatrix.net. if the app takes off, i'll figure out something more secure and permanent.
Scott
Interesting. I'll try it out. Thank you!
One thing to think about however, especially if you open this up to general usage, is that by uploading/downloading the book file itself rather than just the current read-to position, you could potentially run into copyright issues. There is reason to believe that this could fall under Fair Use, but past rulings on similar commercial services for other media have been inconclusive. That may be a can of worms you don't want to open.
I am not a lawyer, but I do play one on web forums.
One thing I would try would be saving it on Google's servers through IMAP or something like SMS Backup does. Then no need to have to pay for a server. Don't know if it is at all possible but just thought I would see how you liked it.
RoboRay said:
Interesting. I'll try it out. Thank you!
One thing to think about however, especially if you open this up to general usage, is that by uploading/downloading the book file itself rather than just the current read-to position, you could potentially run into copyright issues. There is reason to believe that this could fall under Fair Use, but past rulings on similar commercial services for other media have been inconclusive. That may be a can of worms you don't want to open.
I am not a lawyer, but I do play one on web forums.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, this is something I'm aware of. Not sure what I'm going to do about it yet. That's why it's a setting
Scott
qwerty017 said:
One thing I would try would be saving it on Google's servers through IMAP or something like SMS Backup does. Then no need to have to pay for a server. Don't know if it is at all possible but just thought I would see how you liked it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The server it's currently on is hosted by a friend of mine for free, so I'm not concerned about it at the moment. If thousands of people end up using this, then obviously I'll have to make some changes.
Scott
I wonder if there's a way to store and retrieve the sync data with each user's Dropbox or something...
RoboRay said:
I wonder if there's a way to store and retrieve the sync data with each user's Dropbox or something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd imagine that there is a way to do this, since programs like Titanium Backup support a dropbox interface.
If enough people think this would be a good feature to add, I can definitely look into it.
Scott
I'm just thinking that using each person's Dropbox would get you off the hook for not only server space and bandwidth, but also any potential copyright liability for book copies made by users synchronizing their files.
Valid points. I'll do some digging and see what it will take to implement the dropbox API in this app..
Thanks,
Scott
Edit: Updated first post with useful information - added download link.
Updated to v1.0.10 to fix a problem when used with the latest FBReader beta. Same URL as before:
Edit: Download the app off the market
Thanks,
Scott
This is a great app this is the missing link in fbreader. I hope you continue to support and enhance it.
Now that my archos tablet is rooted i can really enjoy it. I used to read my books on my phone and occasionally I still do.
Thx for the great work.
This looks like a dang good app. Since getting my nc i've quit using my evo for reading. This sync will bring joy back to my bathroom bbreaks at work!
Thanks for your kind words!
Since the last time I posted to this thread, I've added a dropbox interface to the program, and posted it to the Market (for Free of course!), so if you've downloaded the APK from the web, please re-install it from the market for the latest and greatest version.
Thanks again,
Scott
Oh, great! I'm checking out the Dropbox syncing now.
Edit: Works great!
If I may make another suggestion, you should post about your app at the MobileRead forum. I think you'll pick up a lot of users there.
Also, I know that the Android version of FBReader is different from the PC versions, but syncing with the Linux and Windows versions would be the icing on the cake. MobileRead might be a good place to find others wanting to help develop that capability
Just opened my viewsonic Gtablet from Tigerdirect. Ran the OTA update and now running 3588, otherwise straight out of the box.
I am unable to log into any account using an app (mail, contacts, skype, tdameritrade, twitter apps). I am able to log in fine when I visit the website and login through the web.
Is there someplace I have to grant apps permissions to use the internet? Why can't I log in?
Thanks.
Just checking if anyone else had this problem. If not other responses, I'll let this thread die. Thanks for reading.
seldeen said:
Just opened my viewsonic Gtablet from Tigerdirect. Ran the OTA update and now running 3588, otherwise straight out of the box.
I am unable to log into any account using an app (mail, contacts, skype, tdameritrade, twitter apps). I am able to log in fine when I visit the website and login through the web.
Is there someplace I have to grant apps permissions to use the internet? Why can't I log in?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No. There is no special place to grant permissions to use the internet. Do you get any kind of error message? Force Close? Some indication of symptoms might help us diagnose the problem.
Get an app called Superuser. You will need to root the tab, as well. I think there's something like "oneclickroot" out there.
Honestly, grab a custom ROM, they all come with this standard.
Rooting shouldn't be necessary to make any of those apps work so I doubt that will help him.
Google login fails, 2 step verification is culprit
This may not solve your problem, but it knocked me for a loop for a whole evening with my new motorola defy this week.
You get a new android device, and everything looks so nice, but then you try to log in to your google account. Repeatedly. You keep getting an error that says the username or password are wrong, even though you can log in on your pc. OBVIOUSLY the password is fine, but it wont work on your new android device.
Well, if you turned on 2-part authentication then you have a problem. (If you have never heard of 2-part authentication then move on, you would have to have done this on purpose and it is way to painful to forget having done it.)
Android doesnt support 2-part authentication. So you have to generate a special password for your android device.
Start by logging in to gmail, or whatever google service you wish. Go to your account settings (the little gear-looking thing in the upper right.) Under Personal Settings, Security you'll see an entry called "Authorizing applications & sites". Go here and make an entry for your device, and it will generate a special password for that specific google application that doesnt happen to support 2-part authentication. Enter your super-secret password.
Suddenly the world is golden.
Probably not what the OPs problem was, but I wanted to put it SOMEWHERE.
grrrr....
Hi All
I have a problem with the Restricted Profile on Kitkat on my Nexus 7
I have been letting my kids play "Clash of Clans" on my N7, in my wisdom I created restricted profiles for them to play on. They are getting tablets for their Christmas and I want to migrate their games to their new tablets and here begins the problem
To migrate their accounts to the new devices I need to generate a Link Code in Clash of Clans.
To generate the link code I need to have a Google+ account linked to the profile.
The problem I have is that the Android restricted profiles are not able to have a Google+ profile connected to the account.
Have been trying to find out if it is possible to upgrade a restricted profile to a full profile, but this does not seem possible.
Alternatively some way to link a Google+ account to a restricted account, all seems not doable.
Anyone have any other suggestions for a work around on this problem?
Thanks
JohnB
sc00bs said:
Hi All
I have a problem with the Restricted Profile on Kitkat on my Nexus 7
I have been letting my kids play "Clash of Clans" on my N7, in my wisdom I created restricted profiles for them to play on. They are getting tablets for their Christmas and I want to migrate their games to their new tablets and here begins the problem
To migrate their accounts to the new devices I need to generate a Link Code in Clash of Clans.
To generate the link code I need to have a Google+ account linked to the profile.
The problem I have is that the Android restricted profiles are not able to have a Google+ profile connected to the account.
Have been trying to find out if it is possible to upgrade a restricted profile to a full profile, but this does not seem possible.
Alternatively some way to link a Google+ account to a restricted account, all seems not doable.
Anyone have any other suggestions for a work around on this problem?
Thanks
JohnB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am fairly sure that it isn't possible to upgrade a restricted account.
but...
in my experience, Kids get over these inconveniences fairly quickly.
Have been thinking about this a bit more, and may have an idea as to how to solve this problem.
Does anyone know if it would be possible for me to copy the "Clash of Clans" data from the restricted profile to a full profile on the device that I could then link to a Google+ account and migrate over to the new device?
JohnB
sc00bs said:
Have been thinking about this a bit more, and may have an idea as to how to solve this problem.
Does anyone know if it would be possible for me to copy the "Clash of Clans" data from the restricted profile to a full profile on the device that I could then link to a Google+ account and migrate over to the new device?
JohnB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I faced a similar dilemma yesterday, that I was able to solve. Root is obviously necessary, but it is possible to "upgrade" a restricted profile. In a nutshell, you need to modify the "/data/system/users/[nn].xml" file, and remove some files from "/data/system/users/[nn]/ folder, where [nn] corresponds to the numeric value of the restricted user.
So, if I remember correctly, this is what I did (I assume you have adb setup, and know your way around that):
Code:
adb pull /data/system/users/nn.xml
(replace "nn" with the right number for the user you want to modify; same for below)
Open the file you retrieved in a text editor like Notepad++, that won't mess with the line endings, and change
Code:
flags="24"
to
Code:
flags="16"
. Delete the contents of
Code:
<restrictions />
Save, and upload back to device:
Code:
adb push nn.xml /data/system/users/
Now delete some files from the user profile, related to restrictions:
Code:
adb shell
su (necessary if you don't see "#")
rm /data/system/users/nn/package-restrictions.xml
rm /data/system/users/nn/res_com.google.android.gms.xml
exit (twice, if you had to "su")
adb reboot
You should now be able to login as the user, and have access as a secondary user. You may need to remove/add some applications if they don't behave, and/or delete cache/data for the Play store and Google Framework. You may also need to remove all the Google accounts attached to the profile, and add them again for Play store to be able to install apps. I was getting errors, which cleared up after doing that.
So after completing the above, I was able to attach my son's CoC to his Google+ profile, and enable transferring it's data to another device, if I want to in the future. I decided to give "Screen Time Parental Control" a go, instead of the frustrating "restricted" profile. So far so good. Not sure yet if I want to shell out the $$ for the dude's Remote Control app, but so far I'm liking it. I think after the 15 day trial, though, I'll be hooked. Anyway, HTH anyone else trying to figure this out.
Edit: Forgot another detail: I did try to copy off the CoC data, and populate it into a new unrestricted profile, "chown"ing the files for the user, etc, for the new account, and it was a miserable fail. I also tried the flags="16" hack, installed Titanium Backup, and backed it up, but the resulting backup was useless. It was unable to be restored in a new profile. This is when I discovered that deleting those 2 files completely unlocked the profile, not just changing the flag, as mentioned on another website.
hondoslack said:
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but I faced a similar dilemma yesterday, that I was able to solve. Root is obviously necessary, but it is possible to "upgrade" a restricted profile. In a nutshell, you need to modify the "/data/system/users/[nn].xml" file, and remove some files from "/data/system/users/[nn]/ folder, where [nn] corresponds to the numeric value of the restricted user.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have this same issue where I m trying to get COC and other data from a Nexus 7 using 4.4.2, Kernal version 3.1.10-g4776c68 and a restricted profile. I am a noob and not familiar with adb. Is it possible to change a restricted profile to unrestricted without rooting? I searched many forums and could not find a solution.
I'm having a similar problem backing up a different game app on my son's restricted account. How do I find the numeric value for the restricted user account?
LilacPhoenix said:
I'm having a similar problem backing up a different game app on my son's restricted account. How do I find the numeric value for the restricted user account?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A restricted account is a separate profile of a main account and cannot have a separate google account or gmail address associated with it. It is not possible to change the status to a regular account. You can set up a new account for your son with a separate gmail address, download the game and contact their support telling them you cannot access your account. Just make sure you copy all of the game ID information for the user so they can search for it. And don't access the game on the restricted device, otherwise it may appear that you are just trying to steal someone's ID.