Viewing Books in the Server & Mixed Folders

[Twisted 8]

I just started adding books to my library and I cannot seem to get it to work. It creates a folder, but when I go into that folder, nothing is there. I had a few questions I am hoping somebody can help me out with.

1. Do you need the MB Bookshelf plugin to view books in the server?
2. Is there a folder type that will display everything (Books, Videos, Audio and Pics)?

I would like to add my nutrition classes to the server and they contain books, video, audio and some pics. I tried this in a book folder with no luck and do not see an option for a mixed folder. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Beardyname 194]

1. When you add the path via the server it tells you where you choose the content type that the bookshelf plugin is required

 

2. not that i can think of, what could be possible is to add them separately and then group them via collections! (tested and it works with books/clips/music pictures should be possible as well (i think) but had none to test with)

Edited January 1, 2015 by Beardyname

[Twisted 8]

@@Beardyname Thank you for the tips. I installed the bookshelf plugin and I can set the author pages up now. I was hoping to be able to read the book from the server side, but it looks like that is not possible. I have an error symbol on the authors image and there is nothing to view, when I click on the author.

 

I tested the collection option and it looks like it works. I am a little hesitant to proceed, as now I cannot delete my test I created in collections. It says error loading page and kicks me back to the login screen.

 

It would be nice if you could create a separate collections area and name it something else. I would rather have my movie collections in their own area. I think I am going to ditch books in Media Browser for now.

[Beardyname 194]

Reading from the server is not supported atm, and books is unfortunately lower priority for most. It will gets its turn though (what is possible at least last time i tested is that it downloads the pdf so you can view it in your browser etc, (if we are talking .pdf))

 

for you to not feel like collections is just bound to movies i would enable this :

 

 

At least this way i don't have to go to movies to show collections, even though it says collections since collections should and can consist of anything for any purpose!

 

while we await more book features, i would suggest you look into calibre with their content-server feature!

[rthomas 50]

Hi Twisted,

 

1. Yes, you need the MB bookshelfplugin to display the books. Atm there is no integrated ebook reader but as mentioned in the posts you can open a pdf in most browsers. Keep in mind that there is no metascraper for ebooks so you have to manually put in the metadatainfo in MB3 or use eg calibre for collecting and exporting metadata. Calibre outputs a file called metadata.opf and this file is recognized and imported by the MB bookshelfplugin.
   
   look at the Official support thread for the MB Bookshelf plugin.at forum posttopic/937-mb-bookshelf-support/  or try my personal way of handling ebooks http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/937-mb-bookshelf-support/?p=155122
    
2. I personally don't use mixed content but as mentioned by Beardyname you could try his collection method. 

[Twisted 8]

@@Beardyname & @@rthomas Thank you for your tips. I will try to dig deeper into the threads and try some tests.