yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
Are you referring to the soft button at the bottom middle of the nook? If so, I know that. That is apparent right from opening the device for the first time, unrooted. It does't change at all.

I'm talking about within the Linda File Manager Application. I can easily see the SD card and all its contents and the "My Phone" tab takes you to the onboard storage, but within that area, I'm having trouble finding BN content. I'm trying to find out if it is possible to create shortcuts of those items as well on top of the sideloaded content. If so, perfect. If not, no biggie as I know I can find it easily enough in the normal BN library. The key to this is quick shortcuts to content from the home screen, something BN locked out of the stock software. They made it so only their purchases content can be placed on homescreen. This Linda File Manager has allowed me to put other content on the other launchers home screen.

Edit: I found the B&N content within Linda File Manager. You have to go to the settings and check the "Show Hidden Files" option. Now, under /media/B&N Downloads/ you find the files within the folders there. They have strange names and numbers. The books work fine, but B&N purchased Magazines do not. They default to the B&N book reader and not the fancy magazine reader that you'd get if you open the magazine through the normal library. So, that's out for now. I'm just glad I found it. You can rename the shortcuts of those on your home screen so you don't just see the random number name.
[Nook Color Android Development] isolated_epidemic:
Downloaded content is located in /media/B&N Downloads/

Files aren't named just long strings of numbers. I wasn't able to get my issue of PopSci to open correctly but that may be because I checked the box to set the nook reader as my default.

As far as the shortcuts go does anyone know how I can use Desktop Visualizer and have it open the book in the nook reader? Linda doesn't show up in the other activities category.
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
Thanks. I was typing my edit when you posted. You are right, the magazines don't open properly. They open up in the regular book reader format and not the magazine format.

I couldn't get Desktop Visualizer to recognize the nook reader. It recognizes other readers in the other activities category, but I'm pretty happy with the nook reader. I like the way my library is organized. I'll still be using the "My Shelves" area quite a bit as it's pretty nice. I just wanted to put the one or two books that I am currently reading right on home screen for easy access. That Linda File app allowed me to do that. I don't get any fancy icons, but that's ok. It functions.
[Nook Color Android Development] webvan:
Sounds interesting, would that work with epubs and aldiko ? Haven't found another epub reader so far.
[Nook Color Android Development] isolated_epidemic:
Aldiko is what I'm using and combimed with adw and desktop visualizer its just as good as the nook launcher.
[Nook Color Android Development] zdrifter:
Linda File Manager may not show up in other activities until you reboot ....
[Nook Color Android Development] Withfeeling:
I would suggest reading ePubs with FBReaderJ, which is FBReader for Android. It reads many formats (but not proprietary ones or pdf) and is open source, I have used it for years on various platforms. You can download it from the FBReader site. I don't have a Nook Color (yet), but I currently use it on my Archos 101.
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
Every ebook I have is ePub. The stock ereader on the nook has been the nicest I've used with them all. I like the bookmark, the dictionary function, the fonts and sizes. It's well organized and pages advance smoothly.

I can use the stock BN buttons to get to all books quickly. I've created shelves for quick access to favorite books or future read lists, etc. Using the Linda File Manager, I can now link to specific books I'm reading on the home screen. I also have the library icon on my homescreen to get their with one touch. It all works perfectly. Again, with this setup, I see now need to use an ereader app. I'd use kindle if I had any kindle specific files, but most likely I'd use Calibre to convert to something to read directly from BN's reader. That's just me though.
[Nook Color Android Development] bennyhiII:
Thanks for the Tip.

I however can't seem to find the actual shortcut. I am using Zeam and nothing appeared on my homescreen. Any tips?
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
It should place the shortcut right onto whatever home screen you were currently at. If there is no room on that page it will place it on the furthest left page.

Just to recap the steps I've been doing:

Running Zeam

Open Linda File Manager

Browse to folder with book or file I want placed on homescreen

Long press over file

Select "Creat Shortcut"

At the top, it then gives me the message "1 Shortcut Created"

I hit my home button and go back to the home screen I was on and it is right there ready to go.

Another note. Shortcuts created in Zeam are defaulted to whatever the name of the file is and you can only see the first word or two. Enough to know what it is for me at least. In ADW, you long press over the icon and let go and a dialog box to rename the file appears. I can't seem to figure out if this is possible in Zeam.

Also, it seems to place a shortcut in both Zeam and ADW regardless of which launcher I'm running. So, if you place a bunch while in Zeam, maybe delete some, if you switch to ADW you will see all of them.
[Nook Color Android Development] wpnyc2009:
Screen shot please

@Mad

Can you post a screenshot or two? thanks!
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
I apologize first for the volume button showing. I'm still trying to figure this screen capture. This is my first attempt.

The first image is what the shortcuts look like on my Zeam homescreen.

The second image is the UI for Linda File Manager. Just navigate until you find your file. Long press over the file and the third image shows what appears. Choose "Create Shortcut" and it places the icon shortcut seen in the first image.

My homescreen is clean (the way I like it). Apps in the bottom bar and the main screen will be used for content links.
[Nook Color Android Development] bennyhiII:
Man that is exactly what I did. Doesn't seem to work for me though...

I'll keep poking around see what I come up with.
[Nook Color Android Development] webvan:
I was concerned it wouldn't work because Zeam won't let me add shortcuts from its main screen, but this Linda tip works fine. Not sure how to handle my .mobi/kindle books though as I don't get the option to use Kindle to open them when I click on the shortcut.

Thanks for the tip to use the stock reader for ePub, seems to be the best indeed. I even found by accident by going into "my shelves" that it scans for .pdf files and does a capable job with them.

A couple of OT questions :

- what's that great clock/weather widget you have?

- how are you making screenshots?
[Nook Color Android Development] Kelvala:
Me neither. I have ZEAM and have been trying it over and over...ah well, I'll stick to my Library shortcut..
[Nook Color Android Development] xyexz:
Have you guys tried launcher pro? It has the activities exposer that might be of some use.
[Nook Color Android Development] techjunkie860:
I have Zeam but how did you get that home screen to look like that? The notification bar on the bottom and the icons so small?
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
In preferences in Zeam, under Dock, I have the spacing set to medium and the background transparent. The size of them seems to be standard. I don't know how to change that. Under Workspace, I changed the rows and columns to both be 6. That will be enough for me as I won't have much on the homescreen.

The BN notification bar never went away and stayed the same.

My previous homescreen had the waterize live wallpaper, which was showing the clouds. The widget is a beautiful widget.

I just changed my background to a black and white wallpaper. I found an app in the market that had a whole bunch of them and they all look pretty cool. I changed my widget to a fancy widget. Just looked cleaner and a bit nicer.

I'm pretty happy with the homescreen now. I'm liking Zeam better than ADW. I don't like Launcher Pro at all because of the phone button on the bottom.

Here's my new homescreen:

This thing is hacked to exactly where I want it. Unless something miraculous like bluetooth is found and able to be opened up, I've got everything I need. Books and Comics from my homescreen for quick access, quick button to get to BN library where I can get to my shelves and magazines. Major apps that I will use easily accessible.
[Nook Color Android Development] webvan:
Yes and you can't change the shortcuts in LauncherPro, with the bottom bar in Zeam you don't need them anyway.

What do you use for comics ? I got jjComics Viewer and it's pretty good but comics are harder to read than on an iPad I find.

That widget is nice, will try to track it down, "beautiful widget" ?

CONTINUED : got it, but oddly the time is on top on mine, can't find a way to reverse it, or an alternate skin that does that ?
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
My original clock on the homescreen with the clouds was a Beautiful Widget. The latest one, with the very dark background is a Fancy Widget. Easy to find on the market.

As for comics, I'm just using the default pdf reader. I converted all my cbz files to pdf using Jomic. It's working just fine. I'm not a fan of the droid comic viewer. I haven't tried JJ yet. Not sure if I even need to since I"m pretty happy with how the pdf comics look.
[Nook Color Android Development] techjunkie860:
I have the sprint htc evo and i have the stock notification bar, how did you get the one at the bottom?
[Nook Color Android Development] analog999:
I too am following the steps exactly and there's no shortcuts going to the homepage. But, I don't have ADW installed either. Only Zeam right now (way better than ADW, btw)

Update: Installed ADW and still no shortcuts to homepage using the linda shortcut method described above. No shortcuts on ADW or Zeam.

OK, found an app to do it. Actually it's really nice. Free on Market. "Desktop Visualizer"

You can associate a picture with the launching of Astro on a file (select action->other->astro->pdf file) select icon->image file->astro->pick image

It's not perfect, since the icons are kind of small, but it is better than having just a blank file icon and a name. Maybe a different launcher would have bigger icons. Whatever, anyway, it works great. You can open the books with whatever PDF reader you have installed, your choice at the time you look at the book. The only thing better than this (other than bigger icons) is having the shortcut also choose the reader for that specific PDF (some I like with the B&N Reader, some I like with easypdf, some with quickoffice)
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
I just unrooted and installed the 1.0.1 update. I then rerooted using the auto-nooter method.

I installed all the software I had before. Everything was going well until I tried to put shortcuts from Linda to the homescreen. I doesn't work anymore. I have no idea what is different now that would make this no longer work.

The desktop visualizer works to put a shortcut on the homescreen, but I can't open them. Astro files don't seem to be recognizing epub format files.

This is really frustrating as the one damn hack that I really wanted and I finally got to work is gone. I should have never upgraded and should have left well enough alone. I had everything I wanted working perfectly.

So, if you are on 1.0.1 and using the auto nooter, the Linda File Manager approach, at least for me, is no longer working. ePub's don't work through Astro, so using Desktop Visualizer is out in getting those files to work from the homescreen.

I'm back to square one.

Anybody more knowledgeable than myself ,which is a lot of you, know why it was working before with the original rooting method and original software and no longer works now with 1.0.1 and auto-nooter?

There has to be some line of code somewhere that is different. I wouldn't even know where to begin to look.
[Nook Color Android Development] webvan:
Same setup here and it's still working for me actually, at least with the shortcut that got restored with titanium, let me check to see if I can add one...nope it says "shortcut created" but it doesn't show on the home screen, odd !

I guess LFM is not putting them in the proper directory, maybe that can be done manually, not sure where to look though...let me try something...no I thought it maybe had something do with SoftKeys, it's not the case as the problem remains even after setting Zeam as my Home.

Did a search for the shortcut with RootExplorer but it couldn't find it!
[Nook Color Android Development] gtriever:
The number string is the ISBN of the book.
[Nook Color Android Development] RoboRay:
Instead of using Desktop Visualizer to create a Shortcut, use it to create a Widget. This lets you make a 1x2, 2x2, 4x4 or whatever size tile you want to act as a shortcut to your book. This allows you to have large cover art for your link to the book. (Or, at least it works like that on my Android phone, my NC hasn't come in yet.)
[Nook Color Android Development] erockvr6:
creating a widget will put a shortcut to your book on the home screen w/ a pic and it is sizable, however clicking on that short cut does nothing due to the fact that astro doesn't recognize the epub extension. really sux
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
That's the problem. Astro won't recognize epub and the reader program and it's the only one that works with desktop visualizer. Useless widgets in this regard.

I've been downloading any and every app manager, organizer, anything that I think might work.

I am not a programmer, but I am going to try to delve into the system a bit to see where the reader is located, what could maybe be done to get apps to recognize it. The BN reader app is not coming up as a regular app. It seems to be much deeper in the system. There has to be a way to get a shortcut program or manager program that creates shortcuts to work on the homescreens.

It was definitely working with 1.0.0 and the original rooting and Linda File Manager. Now it's not. Says to me that something little changed and if that change can be found, it should hopefully be fixable. Right now I'm just not sure where to start.
[Nook Color Android Development] RoboRay:
Ah, I see. The book I tested it on is .mobi and opened in FBReader as expected.

/shrug

I wouldn't call them useless, as they work for my files, but I convert everything to .mobi for compatibility with my wife's Kindle.

There's bound to be a way to get .epub files associated with a reader if it works for other formats.
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
I only meant useless in regards to ePub files. Everything else seems to be fine.
[Nook Color Android Development] erockvr6:
Shoot! i wish i woulda saw this last nite, cuz i found the reader, however it couldnt be opened from astro, it had its own icon too in the list of apps, skinned just like the stock B&N apps, but i cant remember where I found it. wasnt deep at all. pretty much just stored on internal mem and wherever the rest of the apps are, although it would be nice if it opened.

edit: i think its in /system/app/
[Nook Color Android Development] RoboRay:
I was digging around in Astro settings on my phone today doing something else and came across the "Edit File Extensions" menu under Preferences. I presume you've already tried creating a new Mime Type association for epub, right?

(Yeah, I know, it couldn't be that simple, right? :o )
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
You ARE A GENIUS!!!!!!

That worked so perfecty it's disturbing and so simple.

Under Astro preferences, here's what needs to be done:

Long Press your Home Screen

In Settings there is a section called Data. Under that is "Edit File Extenstions"

Click that, click "New Extension"

Extension Name: epub (no . in there, just epub)

Mime Type: application (not Application as I originally wrote, must be lowercase)

SubType: epub

Hit save

Have Desktop Visualizer installed.

Hard press Home Screen. Add a widget. Choose whatever size Desktop Visualizer icon you want.

Select whatever icon.

Select Other for action

Select Astro

Find your file

Type in whatever name you want

Hit Ok

IT IS NOW A LINK ON YOUR HOME SCREEN!!!!

I'll edit the OP so others can see this. My machine is back to perfect. Thank you thank you thank you, Robo Ray.
[Nook Color Android Development] docfreed:
Pure Genius...

Thank you very much for this - it should be stickied!
[Nook Color Android Development] RoboRay:
LOL, I'm so glad that worked. :)

I'm getting pretty antsy, waiting for my NC to get here. I've actually set up Zeam as a secondary launcher on my phone so I can play around with how I plan to configure the NC, so I can set it up faster!
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
I'm pretty new to Android as this is my first device. I'm still stuck with a Blackberry Storm 1 from almost two years ago, whenever it first came out. Gonna upgrade early next year. That thing was never good, regardless of software upgrades.

I've been playing around with Zeam, ADW and Launcher Pro as far as home launcher apps. I'm most happy and comfortable with Zeam. I love the app bar at the bottom and simplicity of it.

Since I'm now able to get widget shortcuts to my epub books, I've loaded a few icons for books and comics that I'll use. Just modified some clip art I found to be transparent background png files.

Here's a screenshot of my samples. This may seem silly to a lot of people, but putting these two types of items on my home screen is huge for me and the only thing I was truly upset about when I opened my NC the day I got it. From the day this thing was rooted, I've been focused on getting this to work. The Linda File Manager method worked for a bit, but the shortcuts had no changable icon. This is so much nicer.
[Nook Color Android Development] norkoastal:
Just a note.... Application/epub didn't work for me, but application/epub did :D

Many Thanks!
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
You're right. I had it as lower case application in the modified OP, but I had it as upper case in the recent post. My bad. I'll edit that post to make sure nobody has that problem.

I searched everywhere and typed in so much to finally get Astro to read the epub format. It's actually a much simpler solution than I ever thought it would be.
[Nook Color Android Development] norkoastal:
Agreed.. No need for Aldiko anymore! Off to sideload gigs of words! Next stop... make a background with shelves!!
[Nook Color Android Development] webvan:
Tried the same trick with Kindle books but no go, it tries to open them in Overdrive.

On a related topic, I noticed that my selections were not saved in the Nook Libray under \My Shelves, anyone else noticed that ?
[Nook Color Android Development] tabletfever:
I was able to add them to My Shelves manually and can access them from there. Only thing I noticed is that the little continue reading feature doesn't work. If I tap the epub file, it opens and returns to where I left off, but the open book icon at the bottom of the screen won't take me straight into my epub book like it will with anything downloaded from B&N.
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
I'm pretty sure that rooting disables that little open book icon on the bottom of the NC. I hasn't worked for me since I originally rooted with the very first rooting process.

Hasn't bothered me at all since I work from the homescreen mostly and direct links to the few books are right there. I bookmark the pages I'm on so I just need to hit homescreen, hit the book and I'm back to where I was.
[Nook Color Android Development] Rayven01:
The book icon in the notification bar only gets updated if you open the default home app. If you use another launcher and never open the B&N home, it won't work.
[Nook Color Android Development] jasoraso:
Thanks for this! This explains why sometimes this"key" has worked for me, and sometimes not.
[Nook Color Android Development] BarryR1:
How do I get B&N book cover icons?

I'm using Desktop Visualizer and Astro to create shortcuts (widgets) on my Zeam home page as described above. It works fine except my gallery doesn't have the book cover for my B&N content so I can't select the correct book cover as the icon.

For sideloaded book content the cover seems to appear in my gallery.

What gives?

Is there any easy way (other than downloading the jpg) to accomplish this?

Thanks.
[Nook Color Android Development] mad5427:
One way to do this is to use a free program on your computer called Calibre. You can load the book there and use it to download the cover. If your epub already has the cover embedded, use Calibre to re-convert the epub to an epub. Sounds crazy, but it will put a separate image file into your book library on your computer. You can then take those and load them on your nook and find it in the gallery. Can be a lengthy process, but it works and is much quicker than trying to find all the covers individually online.

Hopefully this helps.
[Nook Color Android Development] Kelvala:
Calibre rocks! Just enter the ISBN or book name and it finds it automatically.
[Nook Color Android Development] rckymtnrfc:
Nevermind...lol
[Nook Color Android Development] tunwear:
Didn't know Calibre did that. Thanks!

For anyone else that might be having issues, make sure you put the extension as "epub" not "Epub". I was having trouble putting the books on my home screen. I would click on the icon and nothing would happen. Turns out my the keyboard I was using automatically capitalized the "e" in epub and it wouldn't work. Putting it as not capitalized epub fixed it.
[Nook Color Android Development] UnstoppableDrew:
I did these steps on my wife's rooted NC. All the books she has on it are ones she bought (or got via free Friday) through B&N & downloaded to the device. They work fine if launched from the Library, but when I try to make shortcuts to them on the desktop they open up & ask for the name & credit card number to unlock them. How do I get reader to recognize they're already unlocked ?
[Nook Color Android Development] vap0rxt:
So anyway we can do this and open with Aldiko?
[Nook Color Android Development] SCIONTX:
When making the shortcut to your book, select Aldiko instead of Astro. Aldiko has its own shortcuts. You'll be able to select your book within the Aldiko app.
[Nook Color Android Development] watzone69:
I use Laputa Pro on NookieFroyo. Anybody have any success with this setup?
[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] diablo009:
Anyone here can port TRUE CRYPT to Android? I am ready to donate if anyone can do this.

Even a basic program that can encrypt and decrypt SD card, at least the external SD card would be acceptable. This way we can be assured that data on the external SD card is secure, and store documents on that.
[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Lee1733:
I looked for something along the same lines for a while, tried every app I could find on the market that was related, but none of them came anywhere near truecrypt's functionality.

Sent from my Samsung Captivate.

Current rom: Perception b8
[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] diablo009:
Agreed. If anyone could get an app that could atleast encrypt the whole external card, I'm good. Don't even want the functionality of mounting n dismounting as a drive.
[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Dave the Knave:
I would LOVE, I repeat LOVE, if TrueCrypt came out for Android.
[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] diablo009:
I am ready to donate if anyone comes up with this.
[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] andreYes:
Me too!

It's the only application I can't find alternative on Android. I need a port of TrueCrypt or FreeOTFE very much!
[Captivate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] diablo009:
I think we could start a bounty for anyone who can do this.