1.5 will be the final release of Libgen Desktop

[libgenapps]

1.5 will be the final release of Libgen Desktop.

There will be no feature requests accepted or implemented except for the following:

• database dump downloader for the import window;
• search results column set customization;
• advanced and SQL search;
• saved searches and search history (will replace bookmarks);
• translation editor;
• scanning for files within archives;
• local library UI improvements.

[smaragdus]

@libgenapps

1.5 will be the final release of Libgen Desktop.

By final release you mean that it will be the last release of Libgen Desktop and after it is released there will be no maintenance releases any more?

[libgenapps]

There will be bug fixes, mirror and translation updates, but no new features as I will mostly focus on the second project: https://github.com/libgenapps/LibgenServer.

[smaragdus]

@libgenapps

Thanks for the quick response and the clarification. I have already downloaded version 1.4.0 and I will test it this week. If it happens that I encounter a problem I will report it. I was about to suggest a tiny GUI enhancement but I will refrain from doing it.

Regards

[ljlueloff]

Any chance for adding the other categories besides fiction, sci, and non-fict, such as comics, magz, standarts, pictures, and the one I can't recall off the top of my head, dumps as well as consolidating the local import function into it with the ability to add new DB names per the local imports? If not, totz cool, can't complain about a thing, if so, totz great and mucho grassy.

On a side note, have you looked at this opensource project https://bit.ly/3cnNjZ0 it used to be just commercial, and the they opened it up...may want to, the only thing that sucks about it is that it isn't this. It could be a boost that would make you want to do a 2.0 plus add functionality to the server side OR if one was to have an internal server, maybe add functionality to hit it from that app...

Thanks for all you do.

[libgenapps]

@ljlueloff, Libgen Desktop was started as a personal project, or more precisely, as a tool for more or less a single-time use that would allow me to run some searches and see more than 1000 results — something like a quick and dirty UI wrapper around a few SQL scripts. However some members of the Libgen community convinced me later to release its source code to the public. Initially it supported only the non-fiction collection, and the other two collections have not been added until almost a year later. Some of the design decisions made at the early stages of the project put a bigger emphasis on the import and search performance rather than on abstracting the differences between the collections (because there was only one collection at that time). In other words, import and search operations are relatively quick now but adding a new collection requires a huge amount of effort: almost every part of the functionality needs to be implemented again for that collection, from things like search, import, and export to a multitude of minor details like localization support and storing the widths of the search table columns in the configuration file. On top of that, the owner of the mirror currently hosting the database dumps for the collections other than the main three is known for making sudden unannounced database changes that may break the app's functionality. That's essentially the reason why I keep refusing to add the support for the new collections. https://github.com/libgenapps/LibgenServer on the other hand is being designed to have a much better support for adding new collections (at the expense of some decrease in performance).

as well as consolidating the local import function into it with the ability to add new DB names per the local imports?

Could you elaborate on this? I might be misunderstanding the meaning of "DB names".

And yes, I've seen Qiqqa and looked at its source code. As I can see, it uses Google's Tesseract library for OCR and the Sorax PDF library for rendering which is available only under proprietary commercial license (i.e. it would be illegal to fork Qiqqa and turn it into another project without buying a separate Sorax PDF license). Additionally, I think this project serves a different purpose: it is more a reference manager while Libgen Desktop is a database browser and downloader. I'd say that something like Calibre would be the closest alternative, even that it doesn't have external dump importing or downloading features.

[rsunde]

I couldnt find anyone who have forked this who are working on adding goodreads support,

as such I might have to do it myself, but it would be a shame if no more PRs are accepted,

so with this comment I just wanted to say;
I will be working on it, and a special goodreads version can be downloaded from my fork.

[Elpuma]

I couldnt find anyone who have forked this who are working on adding goodreads support,

as such I might have to do it myself, but it would be a shame if no more PRs are accepted,

so with this comment I just wanted to say;
I will be working on it, and a special goodreads version can be downloaded from my fork.

Hi Rsunde, correct me if I'm wrong, but isnt't goodreads just to find books to read based on reviews? you cannot download directly from there, can you? as I said, correct me if I'm wrong, but the purpose of LGDesktop is to download from "libgen sites" not to find material to read, or what is it exactly that you want to achieve?

[Purfview]

Where is that 1.5?

[digital-carver]

Before releasing the final 1.5 version, could you add licensing information (#32), so that in case someone else wants to take up and work further on this code, they could know they were legally in the clear? GPL and MIT seem to be the most common choices these days, afaict.

[grv87]

@rsunde, there are dozens of book clubs or recommendation services.
For example, in Russia quite popular is LiveLib.
Why LibgenDesktop should ever choose one and not the other?

I agree with @Elpuma that LibgenDesktop is not an appropriate solution to "rule them all".

IMO, what LibgenDesktop should have is a feature to export the book's metadata in some format (FBD, INPX, BIB, CSV).
A separate button beside with Download and/or save it automatically along with a downloaded file.
Then a user could feed this file to another app or service of his own choice.

[UnlimitedChild]

grv87,
Could you help to add a search option only within the selected language? - on Jan 11, 2021