In this hint, I describe the process I use to sync my Sony PRS-350 eReader with iTunes and the iBookstore. NOTE: this does not circumvent any DRM for iBookstore purchases. For simplicity, this hint assumes that books/PDFs import to the device are DRM-free, or otherwise viewable on your device.
First, some facts:
Sony eReaders, the Kindle, and many other eReaders are mounted to OSX as a regular external volume. The user can drag and drop compatible files and they will appear in the reader's library when ejected.
If the user has not opted to manually mange their files, iTunes stores imported eBooks in the ~/Music/iTunes/Books/ Directory.
The Unix tool rsync can synchronize two directories.
The Unix tool diskutil can mount and eject external volumes.
Many third party tools, such as Hazel can perform script actions when an external volume is mounted/ejected.
I make use of these four facts in this way:
I plug in my eReader.
Hazel recognizes the volume, begins rsync between iTunes and the eReader's book directory.
When rsync completes, diskutil ejects the reader (so I can remove it safely).
Lastly, a Growl alert is sent indicating sync completion.
Here are the scripts. Each of these will require some customization for your particular reader:
To Sync:
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rsync -va --delete /Users/YOUR USERNAME/Music/iTunes/Books/ /Volumes/READER/database/media/books/
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diskutil unmount `disktool -l | grep 'READER' | sed 's/.*\(disk[0-9s]*\).*/\1/'`
diskutil unmount `disktool -l | grep 'SETTING' | sed 's/.*\(disk[0-9s]*\).*/\1/'`
For Hazel:
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Add a the /Volumes directory for a 'Folder with name YOUR EREADER VOLUME NAME.'
For the action, add a shell script containing the scripts above.
The full rule looks something like this:
I also have a Hazel rule that imports to iTunes all *.epub files (and other reader files) that appear in the downloads directory. This action also includes a script to re-mount the eReader upon a new import. Simply change the diskutil script above to read 'mount' instead of 'unmount.'
Now, this works great if you do all your book management in iTunes, but I don't. I will do book additions through iTunes, but book deletions I do on the device. This is where a second script comes in.
First, I found a file on the Sony reader that holds the information for deleted files. I wrote a shell script to translate these paths into paths of files to delete on my Mac.
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#!/bin/bash
clear
DELETE_LIST=$(awk -F"\"" '{print $2}' /Volumes/READER/database/sync/deleted.xml | grep "/books" | sed "s/database\/media\/books/\/Users\/andrewfreyer\/Music\/iTunes\/Books/g")
echo "$DELETE_LIST"
Now, I delete all those file from the iTunes Books folder. However, there's a problem because iTunes does not automatically removed "bad files" from the library. Instead, it puts an exclamation mark next to the book. The following script removes files with exclamation points:
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set lineData to paragraphs of (do shell script "sh /Applications/Utilities/AppleScript/RemoveDeviceDeletedFiles.sh")
try
do shell script ("rm \"/Volumes/READER/database/sync/deleted.xml\" > /dev/null 2>&1")
end try
repeat with thisLine from 1 to count of lineData
set currentPath to item thisLine of lineData
try
do shell script ("rm \"" & currentPath & "\"")
end try
end repeat
set removeTotal to 0
tell application "iTunes"
set mainLibrary to library playlist 1
set totalTracks to count of file tracks of mainLibrary
with timeout of 10 seconds
repeat with t from totalTracks to 1 by -1
try
set this_track to file track t of mainLibrary
if this_track's location is missing value and this_track's duration is missing value then
removeTotal = removeTotal + 1
delete this_track
end if
end try
end repeat
end timeout
end tell
if removeTotal > 0 then
#display dialog "There were " & removeTotal & "book(s) removed from the iTunes library"
end if
Run this iTunes script either before or after the rsync.
Once this is set up, it's truly awesome.