Library instead of file browser

[midi1996]

Thank you again for this application and also for the new canvas and features added. However, I would like you to add a "Library", which actually will be updated and will hold the "books" and inside of them the chapters.
As i'm using a software to download mangas (FMD, on github), it has a main folder where it downloads the books and chapters, and they are organized by folders (each book in a folder) and each folder has its chapters.
Here is an example:

Code:

Download folder
  |__ Book1 (DIR)
  |     |__Ch1 (DIR CBR CBZ ZIP RAR PDF...)
  |     |__Ch2 (same as above...)
  |__ Book2 (DIR)
  |_...

A library will take the main download dir as root and will scan for books and their chapters, and what you're probably planning to do, is to add read status. Also, having the permission to manage (add/delete/move...) the library. The file browser may stay if we need to open an outside file.

thanks for the only application worth reading using it, since every other app on the Store is either broken, limited, or not as good as yours. Keep the great work.

[Ninja_Gah]

It seems like this is just a library that every other app implements. We opted against this during the initial design stages because the folder structure itself is an organizing utility. My philosophy has always been that if you are reading offline files, you are managing it through Windows explorer, and hopefully the reader will organize the folders there.

Secondly, there is a soft limit on Windows Store apps (at least for us) for the amount of items you can save in a "library" (it's 1000 files, imposed by Microsoft). I say soft limit because there are ways to get around this but we don't really want to implement a hack to get around this. In addition file access is highly restricted in store apps, we don't actually have free access to the file system, that why we force you to go through the file picker to pick root directory.

So sorry to say but it is not likely we'll add a library function. The good news is the file browser will be vastly improved in the next build, including read status, favorites, most recent, and sorting. The closest thing we can probably do for you is to allow you to favorite a folder. How does that sound?

and thanks for the continued support!

[midi1996]

Yeah Thanks! I understand now, also, i would like to report something really annoying: as I have like 200+ chapters, the app keeps reading each file and getting its cover, even with "first image" selected, it still takes a lot, and I cannot interact with it until it's done. I tried on my laptop (with i7 3rd gen and an ssd) and my tablet (i5 3rd gen and ssd too) and with performance mode enabled in energy settings to get it to load them a bit quicker. If you could also cache these pics (yes it will take some space) and do the scan in the background so that it will not hinder the experience. Thanks.

[Ninja_Gah]

You can still open the book while the covers are loading, it maybe just a bit laggy as cover loads are already asynchronous operations, and they are in a queue to fetch all the covers. The problem is the async task library provided by Microsoft is quite terrible. As an example in an early version of Comics++ if you flip pages really quickly by tapping the edges of the screen, the app would be perpetually loading because the decompression is happening for every single page that you just flipped through, with no effect way of canceling them. I ended up implementing a much more efficient task scheduler to fix this. This is kind of advanced command scheduling that no regular image viewing app would do. I didn't do this for the cover loads because I was betting on people who manage their comics in folders won't store hundreds and thousands of books in a single folder. Luckily not too many people complained. When we have time in the future I'll optimize cover loads the same way as the page loads so it won't hang or lag.

Anyways, but sorry to say again but we are not likely going to cache thumbnails, because this is really a library feature. And with what I described above there is really no reason for it.

However there is good news for you! For the next version there will be a list mode, so if you have hundreds of books it should load almost instantly because no thumbnails are fetched.


We'll probably add a setting as well such that if there are over X books in the folder it'll load in list mode automatically.

[midi1996]

amazing!! Thanks!! can't wait for the update

[ZodWallop]

(12-28-2016, 05:23 AM)Ninja_Gah Wrote:  My philosophy has always been that if you are reading offline files, you are managing it through Windows explorer, and hopefully the reader will organize the folders there.

Secondly, there is a soft limit on Windows Store apps (at least for us) for the amount of items you can save in a "library" (it's 1000 files, imposed by Microsoft). I say soft limit because there are ways to get around this but we don't really want to implement a hack to get around this. In addition file access is highly restricted in store apps, we don't actually have free access to the file system, that why we force you to go through the file picker to pick root directory.

For what you describe, you can just go through Windows explorer and use Comics++ as the default program to open the files.

I would still like to see a proper library added to the app. Your current file browser is practically a library now. Just an ugly one.

Would it be possible to add an option to default start the app in its file browser? Also, would it be possible to either change the folder icons to comic covers or at least use the open folder icon that shows thumbnails of the files inside? At that point you would pretty much have what other apps consider a library.

[Ninja_Gah]

I guess I should talk a little more about this:

Windows UWP apps does not have free access of files. For example if you open a comic book with Comics++ from Windows Explorer, the app does NOT have access of all the other files in that folder. There are many other restrictions like file access is only granted using the Windows file picker, or declaration of use of certain folders like Pictures, Documents etc. UWP apps cannot behave like Win32 apps because it is a contain environment with locked on access permissions.

The UWP is actually designed such that it encourage the user to implement libraries, because file access are stored as "StorageItems" not pointer to files. For example you can open a file as a StorageItem, and that storageItem is locked to that file even if the file was renamed, modified or moved. So this way the user can move the file around in Windows Explorer and the app would still have access to the file. However this is limited to 1000 items, and any beyond that you either need to request special app privileges from Microsoft directly or implement work-arounds to bypass this limit. Comics++ has some workaround that we implement to circumvent the file opened from outside of the app above right now, but it doesn't always work (it gives you a message if not accessible). Comics++'s Faviorates tab are also tracked by your root folder. So if you change the root folder you'd lose all permission to your favorites, that's why favorites are cleared once you change root folder.

In my personal opinion UWP's design conflicts with it's own intention. If you want to restrict file access don't limit the amount of files you can store. Otherwise provide an easier way to grant access to file system. So instead of implementing workarounds trying to circumvent library restrictions we just straight up implemented a file browser. It's straight forward to implement and simpler for user to understand without putting limits on the app.

And there are other arguments against a library like storing thumbnails I discussed in this thread, and nature of libraries in general differs from a file explorer.

TLDR The tools Microsoft provided is not very good for creating a compelling library feature. I believe a file browser better suited in this case.

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Do you have suggestions on how to improve visual so you wont think it's ugly? I'm talking about mostly a visual update without introducing any major browsing changes.

- We can try to fetch cover for the folder but it can only be the files in the immediate folder. (i.e. if folder is nested and there arn't any covers in the immediate folder then it wouldn't work, e.g. MY_FOLDER->thumb.jpg = OK MY_FOLDER->VOL_1->thumb.jpg = only VOL_1 would have the image, not MY_FOLDER)
- Yes we will add an option to start the app at the file browser.

[ZodWallop]

(05-18-2017, 05:56 PM)Ninja_Gah Wrote:  Do you have suggestions on how to improve visual so you wont think it's ugly? I'm talking about mostly a visual update without introducing any major browsing changes.

- We can try to fetch cover for the folder but it can only be the files in the immediate folder. (i.e. if folder is nested and there arn't any covers in the immediate folder then it wouldn't work, e.g. MY_FOLDER->thumb.jpg = OK MY_FOLDER->VOL_1->thumb.jpg = only VOL_1 would have the image, not MY_FOLDER)

For appearance, just try making the in-app library/explorer look less like the typical Windows explorer.

I'm used to comic reader apps in Android and perhaps options that are available there are not available in Windows. I especially like the way the library appears in Challenger on Android. Fairly large covers. Folders would use the cover of the first file as the image on the folder. There's option to sort the files and folders alphabetically so that for instance, the Moonshadow file (a single .CBR stored in the COMICS folder) will appear right next to the Moon Knight folder (stored in COMICS\MOON KNIGHT folder). I know this can be done in Windows, because Cover's library works the same way.

Quote:- Yes we will add an option to start the app at the file browser.

That will be a good start.

Also, I think maybe we're viewing libraries in two different ways. If I'm on my laptop at home, where my entire collection is stored, you are right. I can and do use Windows Explorer for that. In those cases, setting Comics++ as the default reader is easy enough to do.

But I'm expecting to use the Comics++ app on a tablet, where my library consists of some titles on a micro SD card. In that situation, when I finish a comic and want to browse my library for something else to read, the current way feels awkward.

---

By the way, thank you for replying to my message.

Maybe I sound like I'm complaining too much. But I do appreciate your work. I might like the current explorer to look more like the library feature in other apps. But I very much like your reader. It is nicely designed and easy to use.

[ZodWallop]

Here are a few more suggestions on the file browser:

1: Move the Pick A Base Folder icon from the bar and put it in settings. For the most part, once you pick a base folder, you are unlikely to change it.

2: Maybe have the bar run down the side of the screen as in other UWP apps

[Anvirol]

Any updates on this matter?

File Browser in the current version has very poor performance.
It seems to refresh files and thumbnails every single time a folder is accessed which takes a very long time.

I have a 57GB library (230 folders) on a SSD and it's quite nerve racking to browse currently.

Accessing a folder with 225 comics (zip & cbz) took:
33 seconds for files to appear
45 seconds for thumbnails to appear (program is unresponsive until updating is done)
78 seconds total to access a folder and then open a comic !

Also the library could be a little bit prettier

I understand that there's probably not a whole a lot of motivation to develop for Windows store atm. due to low amount of users, but I hope these issues can be fixed. Apart from library functions, the actual reader and touch interface in it works very well.

There's a paid application named Cover - Comic Reader that handles libraries quite well. The app can be used while it updates library in the background. You can download the trial version though and take a look.