mikespub/seblucas-cops

Calibre OPDS (and HTML) PHP Server : web-based light alternative to Calibre content server / Calibre2OPDS to serve ebooks (epub, mobi, pdf, ...)

2.6.1 2024-05-07 17:08 UTC

README

Prerequisites for this fork

  • PHP 8.x with DOM, GD, Intl, Json, PDO SQLite, SQLite3, XML, XMLWriter and ZLib support (PHP 8.1 or later recommended)
  • Release 2.x.x will only work with PHP >= 8.1 - typical for most source code & docker image installs in 2023 and later. Note: updating .epub files for metadata or cover requires a 64-bit platform
  • Release 1.x.x still works with PHP 7.4 if necessary - earlier PHP 7.x (or 5.x) versions are not supported with this fork

User support issues remain available at https://github.com/seblucas/cops/issues - please use it if you need help with COPS in general

Pull requests should be against the latest source code at https://github.com/mikespub-org/seblucas-cops/pulls - thanks for any contributions :-)

See CHANGELOG for changes compared to upstream repository https://github.com/seblucas/cops from @seblucas

Installation of this fork

Same options as original:

  1. Release package
  1. Source code
$ cd seblucas-cops
$ composer install --no-dev -o
  1. Docker image
  1. Home Assistant Add-on

The rest of the installation process is very similar to the original below. But if you install from source, just use your regular composer 2.x - you don't need to download an old composer 1.x version or install global asset plugins anymore :-)

Notice: for a first-time installation, you still need to copy config_local.php.example to config_local.php and customize the calibre directory etc. as needed. Afterwards, if you get an error or blank page the first time you browse to COPS, you can check for common issues by browsing to http://.../checkconfig.php

COPS (original)

COPS stands for Calibre OPDS (and HTML) Php Server.

See : COPS's home for more details.

Don't forget to check the Wiki.

Why ?

In my opinion Calibre is a marvelous tool but is too big and has too much dependencies to be used for its content server.

That's the main reason why I coded this OPDS server. I needed a simple tool to be installed on a small server (Seagate Dockstar in my case).

I initially thought of Calibre2OPDS but as it generate static file no search was possible.

Later I added an simple HTML catalog that should be usable on my Kobo.

So COPS's main advantages are :

  • No need for many dependencies.
  • No need for a lot of CPU or RAM.
  • Not much code.
  • Search is available.
  • It was fun to code.

If you want to use the OPDS feed don't forget to specify feed.php at the end of your URL.

You just have to sync your Calibre directory to your COPS server the way you prefer (Dropbox, Bt Sync, Syncthing, use a directory shared with Nextcloud, ...).

Prerequisites

  1. PHP 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 7.X or hhvm with GD image processing, Libxml, Intl, Json & SQLite3 support (PHP 5.6 or later recommended).
  2. A web server with PHP support. I tested with various version of Nginx and Apache. Other people reported it working with Apache and Cherokee. You can also use PHP embedded server (https://github.com/seblucas/cops/wiki/Howto---PhpEmbeddedServer)
  3. The path to a calibre library (metadata.db, format, & cover files).

On any Debian based Linux you can use : apt-get install php5-gd php5-sqlite php5-json php5-intl

If you use Debian Stretch : apt-get install php7.0-gd php7.0-sqlite3 php7.0-json php7.0-intl php7.0-xml php7.0-mbstring php7.0-zip

On Centos you may have to add : yum install php-xml

Install a release (Easiest way)

  1. Extract the zip file you got from the release page to a folder in web space (visible to the web server).
  2. If you're doing a first-time install, copy config_local.php.example to config_local.php
  3. Edit config_local.php to match your config.
  4. If needed add other configuration item from config_default.php

If you like Docker, you can also try this multiarch docker container from linuxserver.io It has builds for x64 and arm64.

Install from sources

git clone https://github.com/seblucas/cops.git # or download lastest zip see below
cd cops
# use standard composer 2.x now, no need to install older 1.x version and plugin for PHP 8.x version
#wget https://getcomposer.org/composer.phar
#php composer.phar global require "fxp/composer-asset-plugin:~1.1"
#php composer.phar install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader
composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader

After that you can use the previous how-to starting at the second step.

Note that instead of cloning you can also get latest master as zip

Note that if your PHP version is lower that 5.6, then you may have to remove composer.lock before starting the last line.

Where to put my Calibre directory ?

Long story short : ALWAYS outside of COPS's directory especially if COPS is installed on a VPS / Server. If you follow my advice then your data will be safe.

If you choose to put your Calibre directory inside your web directory and use Nginx then you will have to edit /etc/nginx/mime.types to add these lines :

application/epub+zip epub;
application/x-mobipocket-ebook mobi prc azw;

Known problems

Not a lot, except for the bad quality of the code (first PHP project ever) ;)

Please see https://github.com/seblucas/cops/issues for open issues

Need help

Please read https://github.com/seblucas/cops/wiki and check the FAQ.

Contributing

As you could see here, I appreciate every contributions and there were a lot over time. So don't be shy and submit your Pull Requests.

Note to translators : please prefer using Transifex instead of doing a PR.

I only have one limit (I may have more but that one is the worse) : COPS' goal is to provide an alternative to Calibre's content server and not to replace Calibre entirely. So I will refuse any PR making changes to the database content.

Credits

External libraries used :

Copyright & License

COPS - 2012-2019 (c) Sébastien Lucas

See COPYING and file headers for license info