Looking for testers to test KOReader sync before beta 5 releases

[nicoverbruggen]

Hello everyone.

I have a test build of Kobalt with some test support of KOReader sync. If you'd like to take it for a spin, you can do so here:
https://kobalt-dev.nicoverbruggen.be/test-builds/2790d50fa4cd52348d75b29d972c8871a61eda389c4d3cb1

If you're running a Kobo with software version 4.38 or 4.45/4.46 you can try it.

Let me know if it worked as expected and if you ran into any issues.

Cheers,
Nico

[glaucon1984]

It's a bit late and I haven't tested thoroughly but this is what I've found:

• Each keyboard keystroke causes the screen to flash when entering the details.
• There should be an option to be able to reveal the password while typing it.
• If WiFi is disabled, or not connected to any network, it will fail to sign in. It would be nice to either to offer to connect to WiFi or inform the user that WiFi is disabled.
• If, after entering all the details, you exit Kobalt (for example, to enable WiFi) without signing in, the details will be lost the next time you open Kobalt again.
• I could login without issues once I enabled WiFi.

This is all in automatic sync mode:

• After my first login I got a pop-up on the open book telling me I will be offered the new position in the book when I close the dialog. It did sync and it worked as expected, taking me to the new position in the book.
• I've only tested matching by file content.
• It correctly pushes when pressing the button to suspend the device and when exiting Kobalt.
• It tries to sync when waking up the device, but it failed with a "Could not sync", maybe WiFi needs a bit more time to be ready after a wake-up?
• Pressing "sync now" just worked as expected after the previous "Could not sync".

EDIT: I have another nickel mod that messes with Bluetooth (to add support to TikTok rings), BT runs on the same chip as WiFi, and it could be my fault that it needs more time to bring the network up, when I have some time I will uninstall that mod and test again to confirm.

[nicoverbruggen]

As an aside, I just tried it out and I think it works really well, too. Pleasantly surprised by how nice it is. Tried it with the Mac app and on a Kobo, and with an XTEink device.

[glaucon1984]

I've been doing more testing with "KOSync build 2", swapping between a couple of different books I'm reading, between this build @ Clara BW and KOReader @ Pocketbook Era Lite. Sync has been flawless in both directions, Kobalt sync feels really snappy, almost effortless, I'd argue your implementation is superior to the vanilla KOSync included with KOReader.

I logged out Kobalt sync and logged in again to test the login process, the keyboard no longer flashes the screen, and I didn't notice any important ghosting, so I think the input is now solid.

The password still lacks an option to be revealed while typing it, I guess this means the feature hasn't been implemented.

The only other nitpick is that tapping "sync now" makes the middle part of the screen blink. Nothing important, and with auto mode being so reliable, probably nobody will need to sync by hand.

Maybe one suggestion (ignore me if you don't like it), would be to add some information to the "Sleeping" text box with something along the lines of "Sync'ed at 15:54", so people know when the device pushed the book position and confirms that Kobalt successfully synchronized before suspending the device.

[nicoverbruggen]

I've updated the build with a beta 5 candidate in the original post. You probably want to upgrade to that now!

[glaucon1984]

I've noticed that if I type in the server, username or password dialogs, after a few characters the screen might close and go back to the "Sync" menu. I think it happens more when typing faster. I don't think this was the case with the previous build.
Auto-sync still seems to work fine with the limited testing I've done.

[nicoverbruggen]

I think I encountered that with a previous kosync build too, though... I'll investigate tomorrow.