Add support for PDF highlights/annotations made by newer Kobo devices

[robyndoney]

October doesn't seem to be finding highlights made on sideloaded PDFs on Kobo Sage. Finds the highlights made on Kobo store books OK (but I use Readwise so that's not important for me). I get the error message: There was a problem sending your highlights: received a non-200 status code from Readwise: code 400

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System Details

• Version: v1.4.0
• Platform: windows
• Architecture: amd64

[marcus-crane]

Hi there,

I don't have a Kobo Sage myself nor do I know how highlights for PDFs are stored so I can't really speak to how October might work with them, if at all.

If this is something you'd like me to look at, it'd be useful if I could get a copy of your Kobo database in order to see how highlights are stored (and fix support if that's required) since I can't replicate any of this without having a Kobo Sage myself (or access to someone who has a Kobo Sage)

If you're up for it, there's a bit of a disclaimer you should be aware of which can be read here: #86 (comment) (I need to backfill it into the docs for easier reference but haven't done that)

Anyway, thanks for letting me know about this issue

[robyndoney]

Hi Thank you so much for getting back to me. If we can resolve this issue it will totally transform 50% of my workweek so thank you!! Have read the disclaimer, totally ok for you to access a copy of my Kobo database. Can you please let me know exactly what I need to do to give you access - I'm not very tech literate! Thanks again, Robyn

…

On Sun, 23 Jul 2023 at 08:16, Marcus Crane ***@***.***> wrote: Hi there, I don't have a Kobo Sage myself nor do I know how highlights for PDFs are stored so I can't really speak to how October might work with them, if at all. If this is something you'd like me to look at, it'd be useful if I could get a copy of your Kobo database in order to see how highlights are stored (and fix support if that's required) since I can't replicate any of this without having a Kobo Sage myself (or access to someone who has a Kobo Sage) If you're up for it, there's a bit of a disclaimer you should be aware of which can be read here: #86 (comment) <#86 (comment)> (I need to backfill it into the docs for easier reference but haven't done that) Anyway, thanks for letting me know about this issue — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#92 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BAXJ3OUI3HMYB2GQX4DCEB3XRRUM7ANCNFSM6AAAAAA2SLYKQM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

-- *Kind Regards* *Dr Robyn Doney* Occupational Therapist *DrPH; BSc(Hons); BBA; GradCertOccHlthSfty(Curtin)* E: ***@***.*** M: + 61 0402 479 395

[marcus-crane]

Hi Robyn,

Thanks, the help is much appreciated!

I should really add a button in October that copies your database to the desktop to make this process easier but in the meantime, you can get a copy by doing the following steps for Windows.

1. Open File Explorer by either opening the Start Menu and searching "File Explorer" or by hitting Windows + E
2. Next, you'll want to plug in your Kobo and hit "Connect" and you should see it pop up in the sidebar. In my case, my Kobo appears as KOBOeReader (E:)
3. Clicking on the sidebar should show a bunch of folders with a folder at the top called .kobo which should be visible by default.
4. Double click on .kobo and near the bottom of the list should be a file called KoboReader.sqlite. For quick access, you can drag it to your desktop which will make a copy.

From there, you'll just need to open a new email addressed to [email protected] and attach KoboReader.sqlite to it.

Hopefully your database shouldn't be too large for an email but if it is, let me know and I can look into some alternative way of sending it. It hasn't been an issue for anyone yet (that I'm aware of)

[marcus-crane]

Here's a video recording of the steps above performed on Windows 11 for reference as well

kobodb.mp4

[marcus-crane]

This is an update to remind myself and for anyone interested. If you see this update Robyn, feel free to ignore it as it's just capturing the same information I've already responded with.

For newer Kobo devices, it's possible to highlight PDFs. Presumably, these highlights are stored on the PDFs themselves.

While I can't say I have a PDF supporting Kobo myself, it seems like a reasonable expectation that for non-technical users, October might somehow discover PDF highlights and forward them as well.

Given October is mostly intended as a more beginner friendly¹ entrypoint into syncing highlights, it'd be nice to try and make this possible.

Footnotes

1. I can't really claim this given all the sharp edges in October ↩

[marcus-crane]

Upon looking into the PDF issue further, highlights from newer Kobos are not true highlights. They're basically a layer on top of a PDF that is stored on device so going to mark this as something that can't/won't be supported

[marcus-crane]

Hmm, pdfcpu (the only real viable option for Go I believe) seems to have done a big API update so annotations among other things can be programatically exported. While this isn't useful for Kobos, if October ever expands to support different inputs, it might be worth another look.