0.4.0

Your library on a home server

calibre-zen now comes as a Docker image. It serves your library to any web browser, on a phone, tablet or computer, with no desktop and no window to keep open.

• One command starts it. The image is ghcr.io/purplecandy/calibre-zen, for Intel and ARM servers alike. Run it on a home server has the command and a ready Compose file.
• A login keeps it yours. With a username and password set, only people who sign in can see and change your books.
• Books you drop in a folder are added. With a folder for new books, each book that lands in it moves into your library within a few seconds.
• Your library stays as it is. A library you already have is served as it stands, and an empty folder becomes a new library.

Good to know

• The library needs to be writable by the user the image runs as, the same as calibre needs on a desktop.
• Only one program can open a library at a time. calibre on another computer and the image should not share one library at once.
• The image is large, about 420 MB to download, because it carries all of calibre.

Sharing that holds up

Sharing your library over the network, from the app or from the image, is now steadier when more than one person uses it.

• Every page loads. With a few people reading at once, some pages of books used to fail to load. They no longer do.
• No more frozen server. Changing a book while others were browsing could stop sharing for good, until the app was closed. That can no longer happen.

Coming next

• Sharing from the menubar. A small app that lives in the menubar and shares your library with no window open is built. It comes to the installers in a later version.