Replace "Recent Books" with Library

[thefamousmoe]

This would be a big overhaul. But it would be cool to have a library option where you could sort/search by title, author, recent, etc.

I say this because when starting a new book, I usually go to browse files, and it always shows the whole file name. With all the books I have on there sometime it takes a bit to find the right one. And not all of the files are named the same syntax. I love how it looks inside of Recent Books, with the title and author.

If the search/sort option is too much. Maybe instead of(or in addition to) Recent Books you could set a dedicated Library folder your books live in. And have Crossink parse the data the same way so that it's easier to navigate. Does that make sense? Thanks!

[serkansabriali]

I use my X3 for reading articles. However, since the list is sorted alphabetically, it’s quite challenging to locate the recently added articles from the library. It would be fantastic if there were sorting options available.

[dvd123321]

Awesome idea. It would be great to have the option to sort libraries by author/book title/publisher

[bearfisty]

Surprised this isn't a feature yet, +1 would be great

[thefamousmoe]

This person has been working on something similar, might be good to keep an eye on. I tried it out, and my files were showing up kind of weird in the library with random characters. but the idea is there.

https://github.com/Chuckthe5th/crossfade

[Simplypheyie96]

+1 to this. One specific shape I'd love: a bookshelf grid view — a paged grid of cover thumbnails (2×3 or 3×3 per page) as an alternative to the file list, so the library feels like a shelf. The covers are already generated and cached per book (.crosspoint/epub_*/thumb_*.bmp), and Recent Books already renders them beautifully, so the assets mostly exist — this would be a layout + index on top. The sorting the OP suggested (title / author / recent) would apply to the grid too. Happy to test on an X4 Pro.

[jajabro1]

I'm not sure thats the case. If you've opened a book, sure yes it creates the bmp. But if you haven't opened an epud one hasn't been generated. If someone has a small library on their SD card this is probably not a big issue to let your device churn out the bmps. But if it's someone like me who carries a big library around of even just a handful of book an underpowered device like OG X4 and X3 will sit churning for awhile. I'm not expert in these devices, but I'm sure the devs have to consider that having a sizable library that doesn't have bmp generated will cause a huge slow down while they are being generated. I do know for a fact that at least as of 1.5.0RC3 I only have .crosspoint/epub_/thumb_.bmp files for books I've already opened and not for the dozens of others I haven't yet.

[uxjulia]

I'm not sure thats the case. If you've opened a book, sure yes it creates the bmp. But if you haven't opened an epud one hasn't been generated. If someone has a small library on their SD card this is probably not a big issue to let your device churn out the bmps. But if it's someone like me who carries a big library around of even just a handful of book an underpowered device like OG X4 and X3 will sit churning for awhile. I'm not expert in these devices, but I'm sure the devs have to consider that having a sizable library that doesn't have bmp generated will cause a huge slow down while they are being generated. I do know for a fact that at least as of 1.5.0RC3 I only have .crosspoint/epub__/thumb__.bmp files for books I've already opened and not for the dozens of others I haven't yet.

Yep, @jajabro1, you're exactly right. The current thumbnails are generated after opening a book. It's part of the delay on first open. Or if you've ever cleared a book's cache and it's taken you back to the home screen with a missing book cover and you see the "Loading..." popup to generate the cover... that's the wait you'd have to do for this bookshelf view multiplied by the number of books you have.

[Simplypheyie96]

Thanks for the reply, and apologies. I definitely over assumed. I intentionally keep my library small (is 30 books small?.. lol) and delete books as soon as I finish them, so I didn't realize the thumbnails only exist after a first open. I understand why a big library of unopened books would leave the device grinding away for ages just making covers.

Either way, thank you for the great work on CrossInk and for taking the time to respond. Looking forward to the other improvements you're working on 🙂

[uxjulia]

Haha yes 30 books is considered on the smaller side! There are people who add hundreds or even thousands of books to their device. How they find anything is beyond me.