ManhwaViewer 1.6-dev

If you want to use ManhwaViewer v1.6.x, just download the latest release here.

MV 1.6.5 Preview (Both windows are the same size)

(Everything below this point is accurate for NMV 1.6.5b)

For Users

Basics:

• Search Bar: At the top, which can be lowered. It will be grayed out if the current "Provider" does not support search.
• Side Menu: Contains all important features. It's less frequently used if you don't change stories often.
• Optimal Settings:
  • Chapter rate set to 0.5 (set to 1.0 if you don't want extra chapters without a story).
  • Provider type: Choose between indirect and direct. Direct is generally better or necessary.
  • Scale buttons and default width setting should be self-explanatory.
  • Window modification options: Borderless, Hide Scrollbar, Stay On Top, ...
  • Change your current provider using the "Provider" dropdown menu in the side menu. Included providers are AsuraToon, CoffeManga, HariManga, MangaQueen (can be slow), ManhwaClan, ... . Additional providers can be added through modding.

To read, type relevant keywords into the search bar and double-click the desired result. Restart the program if the chapter and title don't update automatically. Manual entry of the title in the side menu is possible but can cause errors.

The program takes 1-2 seconds to load initially. Images are loaded while scrolling through a chapter, avoiding additional loading times.

Modding Guide for ManhwaViewer

Introduction

To mod ManhwaViewer, you need a basic understanding of Python, as the program is written in this language. The windows 7 version runs on CPython 3.10 by NulAsh with PySide2 and the windows 10-11 version runs on Python 3.12 with PySide6. All standard libraries are included.

Getting Started

1. Accessing the App Folder:

   • Right-click on the ManhwaViewer shortcut or search result.
   • Select "Open File Location".
   • Navigate to the _internal directory and then open the extensions folder.
   • Here, you can either create a new file or modify an existing one.
   • For detailed information, explore the _interal/modules/AutoProviderPlugin.py file.

2. Working with Packages:

   • Packages can be added to the _interal/libs folder, this location is the first python will check so you can overwrite packages.
   • All standard libs have been included as a pyinstaller option.
   • Two key steps:
     • Add from modules.AutoProviderPlugin import AutoProviderPlugin, AutoProviderBaseLike at the beginning of your code.
     • Your extensions must be a subclass of either AutoProviderPlugin or AutoProviderBaseLike.

Creating Extensions

1. Using AutoProviderPlugin and AutoProviderBaseLike Classes:

   • AutoProviderPlugin is the base class for all extensions.
   • AutoProviderBaseLike inherits from AutoProviderPlugin and is tailored for websites that use the same website-base as the ManhwaClan website.

2. Implementing a Simple Base-like Extension:

   • Subclass AutoProviderBaseLike.
   • Your __init__ method should accept the parameters (title, chapter, chapter_rate, data_folder, cache_folder, provider and num_workers).
   • Pass these parameters along with the website you've chosen as specific_provider_website (only the core url, so from https://www.manhwaclan.com/manga -> manhwaclan.com).
   • Restart the app to see your provider and test it out. Check the logs at ./_internal/data/logs.txt for errors even if everything seems to work fine.

3. Creating Custom Site Extensions (Advanced):

   • Subclass AutoProviderPlugin.
   • Follow similar steps as Base-like extensions, but include additional error handling for e.g. logo downloads as any uncaught exception will crash the program.

Important Methods and Variables

• Internal Variables:
  • title -- The current Manhwa Title
  • url_title -- The current Manhwa Title, made url safe
  • chapter -- The current chapter, integer if it's whole and float if it's decimal.
  • chapter_str -- A string of the current chapter
  • chapter_rate -- Float
  • data_folder & chache_folder -- Not really used for modding
  • provider -- The current provider as a string, can either be "indirect" or "direct"
  • specific_provider_website -- Whatever you passed to the parents init call
  • blacklisted_websites -- Was used for search engine provider
  • current_url -- Holds the current chapter url
  • clipping_space -- Tells the program which piece of the logo image can be used as an icon (by default it is height x height)

Key Methods Overview

Understanding these methods is crucial for successful modding. They play a vital role in how the application processes images and retrieves chapter URLs.

1. validate_image

• Purpose: Determines which downloaded images qualify as "Chapter Images".
• Input: Receives a string representing an image file (e.g., "image003.png").
• Output:
  • Returns file_name (original name), file_extension (original extension), new_name (simplified name for internal use), and a boolean flag indicating the validity of the image.

2. _indirect_provider

• Purpose: Finds the URL for the currently selected chapter based on the current chapter and title. It's an estimation method.
• Output: Returns the chapter URL as a string.
• Behavior: Utilizes class attributes for its operation.

3. _direct_provider

• Purpose: Similar to _indirect_provider, but designed to actively search for the chapter URL.
• Output: Returns the chapter URL as a string.
• Behavior: Leverages class attributes and a search mechanism.

4. get_search_results

• Purpose: Provides search results, primarily used by the search feature of the application.
• Input: Takes in a search query as text.
• Output: Returns a list in the format [title, empty_string]. Should return False if the method is not implemented.

Implementation Recommendations

• Implement a general _search method to streamline support for both get_search_results and _direct_provider.
• Avoid altering other methods to prevent application crashes.
• Custom helper methods can be created, but refrain from using specific reserved method names (listed below).

Guidelines and Libraries

• Avoid modifying certain methods to prevent crashes.
• Helper methods can be implemented, but avoid any already used names (__init__, urlify, get_logo_path, set_title, get_title, set_chapter, get_chapter, set_chapter_rate, get_chapter_rate, set_provider, get_provider, set_current_url, get_current_url, set_blacklisted_websites, get_blacklisted_websites, chap, next_chapter, previous_chapter, reload_chapter, _handle_cache_result, _download_logo_image, redo_prep, update_current_url, _get_current_chapter_url, check_url, is_crawlable, _get_url, _google_provider, _duckduckgo_provider, _bing_provider, _indirect_provider, _direct_provider, get_search_results, _empty_cache, _download_image_async, download_images_async, download_images, validate_image, cache_current_chapter).
• Included non-standard libraries:
  • aplustools==1.4.8.4
  • beautifulsoup4==4.12.2
  • Pillow==10.3.0
  • PySide6==6.6.0
  • Requests==2.31.0
  • urllib3==2.1.0
  • packaging==24.0
  • stdlib-list==0.10.0
  • aiohttp==3.9.5
  • aiofiles==23.2.1

To compatabilty:

• Windows Vista and lower are untested
• Windows 10-1703 has a different dark mode reg key (you need to set the environment variable to change themes).
• All other Windows versions should work without problems.
• Linux and Mac would need more modification but are also okay, just that I wouldn't be able to easily test them.

For Programmers

Bugs

The title doesn't update internally and you need to restart the program.

Affected versions: 1.6.2 & 1.6.3

Fix:

• Open the file {install_location}/_internal/modules/AutoProviderPlugin.py
• Go to line 68 or to the function set_title
• Add the line self.url_title = self.urlify(new_title)
• The Classes dir was included with the executable, so it can't be fixed in compiled programs.

The task window keeps popping up if the task failed and you close it before reaching 10%.

Affected versions: 1.6.2 & 1.6.3

Fix (1.6.3):

• Open the file {install_location}/_internal/modules/Classes.py
• Go to to the function updateProgress
• Change the line while self.current_value == 0 and self.value() < 10: to if self.current_value == 0 and self.value() < 10:
• The Classes dir was included with the executable, so it can't be fixed in compiled programs.