Allow Bookworm to store books and all metadata in one single file

[amirsol81]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Users often need to read the same books across multiple machines, at home and at work. With other apps like QRead or Kurzweil 1000, we can simply move a single file (like a .qrd or .kes) and have access to the book, notes, and bookmarks seamlessly. With Bookworm, however, book content, notes, and metadata are stored separately, which makes transferring books between devices cumbersome and unreliable. This significantly impacts the usability of Bookworm in multi-device workflows and makes it difficult to switch to Bookworm as my primary reader.

Describe the solution you'd like

Bookworm should support a single-file format that bundles the book content, notes, bookmarks, and any other relevant metadata into one portable file. This would make it easy to move books between machines without having to track down separate database or metadata files. Ideally, this format could be something like a .bkw file that contains everything needed to resume reading with full context on any device.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I’ve tried manually copying the book files along with the notes database between devices, but it’s error-prone and not scalable—especially when working across multiple machines. I’ve also considered sticking with QRead or Kurzweil 1000, since they offer single-file portability, but I really want to use Bookworm due to its modern design and features.

Additional context

This request came out of a Mastodon discussion with the lead developer, who suggested opening an issue for this. I think a self-contained file format would go a long way in making Bookworm more portable and user-friendly, especially for those who regularly switch between different machines. It would also make backup and syncing workflows much simpler.

[pauliyobo]

Hello.
Good suggestion.
Currently, we already save all bookworm's content into a sqlite file. I believe that the only separate file actually would be the data related to the bookshelf feature.
Additionally, we need to fix #229
As we primarily rely on file paths.
I can look into this as I'm also investigating #229

[amirsol81]

@pauliyobo This would be hugely appreciated. If we can have a single file containing the book contents as well as notes, bookmarks and highlights, that would tremendously enhance the adoption of Bookworm.

[amirsol81]

@pauliyobo @mush42 Any progress on this highly important feature? Please make Bookworm capable of letting users read the same books across multiple machines. Bookworm is not cross-machine ready given its database storage limitations.

[pauliyobo]

Hello.
@amirsol81 returning to this, what is specifically the issue in copying the sqlite file?
You mentioned it was not scalable.
I imagine that when #229 is fixed part of the issues you may have with that could be fixed.

[amirsol81]

@pauliyobo Thanks for looking into this. Part of the problem stems from that issue number #229 which you mentioned. But another issue is that as things stand right now, we can't share our notes and bookmarks with other Bookworm users who want to read the same book. If the bug is fixed and everything works as expected, we should share our sqlite file, and if other users replace it, they will lose their own bookmarks and notes in favor of ours. So, IMO, bookmarks, notes and other important stuff shouldn't be tied to a universal database. Or at least users should be able to import and export bookmarks and notes to be incorporated into other users' databases.

[pauliyobo]

Hmm, yes, it's clear now.
Do you have any preference or recommendation over the format that should be used?

[amirsol81]

@pauliyobo Well, if the current sqlite-centric approach isn't to be altered, something like what Paperback has adopted can be done. In Paperback, where bookmarks and notes are also saved in a *.ini database, users can export their bookmarks and notes, and later import them on a different machine. So if the data in the file matches the original book name and book format, or if users specify a certain book, the exported data can be imported into the database. I guess this is more logical than coming up with a new file and format system for Bookworm.