I thought about several options and even wrote small code snippets trying different approaches, but unfortunately almost all of public book’s information APIs sucks, each one differently. The most promising and most annoying effort was to write a wrapper around ISBNDB.com service.
I guess they are not interested in promoting their site and service, otherwise why make users like me suffer?
Yesterday I cleaned up several Gb of junk from my home PC and I discovered a small Java application in downloads directory. It is
called eKitaab and you can find it here. Apparently I never tried it and it laid forgotten for months. Imaging how surprised I was when It did exactly what I was looking for so long. It is like MP3 tags editor which allows you to rename your file according specific format and correct names according to information from online services.
Pros :
- Works with large amount of files
- Renames files according to information retrieved from Amazon web service.
- Allows tagging ( instead of folders) similar to gmail labels (I.M.H.O killer feature)
- Supports reading lists
Cons:
- Has a very sever bug - adds ‘#’ sign as part of file name, thus renamed chm files will not be readable.
- It is java application, i.e. not native look & feel, slow and takes days to start
- Requires latest java version, but does not have java web start ( can save dependencies problems)
- Checks for latest version, but not smart enough to update itself
Conclusion:
Yes it is buggy and looks non-professional, but it is the best option available. It is free and open source. Bottom line - it does what it intended to do. It’s worth giving a try.
I wish a good luck to developers of this application, I event could have spent some time debugging and fixing things if it were .net application.
Post a Comment