hero: Manage your ebook collection. Like a BOSS.

# Calibre-Web

The [AutoPirate](/recipes/autopirate/) recipe includes [Lazy Librarian](https://github.com/itsmegb/LazyLibrarian), a tool for tracking, finding, and downloading eBooks. However, after the eBooks are downloaded, Lazy Librarian is not much use for organising, tracking, and actually **reading** them.

[Calibre-Web](https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web) could be described as "_[Plex](/recipes/plex/) (or [Emby](/recipes/emby/)) for eBooks_" - it's a web-based interface to manage your eBook library, screenshot below:

![Calibre-Web Screenshot](../images/calibre-web.png)

Of course, you probably already manage your eBooks using the excellent [Calibre](https://calibre-ebook.com/), but this is primarily a (_powerful_) desktop application. Calibre-Web is an alternative way to manage / view your existing Calibre database, meaning you can continue to use Calibre on your desktop if you wish.

As a long-time Kindle user, Calibre-Web brings (among [others](https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web)) the following features which appeal to me:

* Filter and search by titles, authors, tags, **series** and language
* Create custom book collection (shelves)
Support for editing eBook metadata and deleting eBooks from Calibre library
* Support for converting eBooks from EPUB to Kindle format (mobi/azw)
* Send eBooks to Kindle devices with the click of a button
* Support for reading eBooks directly in the browser (.txt, .epub, .pdf, .cbr, .cbt, .cbz)
* Upload new books in PDF, epub, fb2 format


## Ingredients

1. [Docker swarm cluster](/ha-docker-swarm/design/) with [persistent shared storage](/ha-docker-swarm/shared-storage-ceph.md)
2. [Traefik](/ha-docker-swarm/traefik) configured per design
3. DNS entry for the hostname you intend to use, pointed to your [keepalived](ha-docker-swarm/keepalived/) IP

## Preparation

### Setup data locations

We'll need a directory to store some config data for Calibre-Web, container, so create /var/data/calibre-web, and ensure the directory is owned by the same use which owns your Calibre data (below)

```
mkdir /var/data/calibre-web
chown calibre:calibre /var/data/calibre-web # for example
```

Ensure that your Calibre library is accessible to the swarm (_i.e., exists on shared storage_), and that the same user who owns the config directory above, also owns the actual calibre library data (_including the ebooks managed by Calibre_).

### Prepare environment

We'll use an [oauth-proxy](/reference/oauth_proxy/) to protect the UI from public access, so create calibre-web.env, and populate with the following variables:

```
OAUTH2_PROXY_CLIENT_ID=
OAUTH2_PROXY_CLIENT_SECRET=
OAUTH2_PROXY_COOKIE_SECRET=<make this a random string>
PUID=
PGID=
```

Follow the [instructions](https://github.com/bitly/oauth2_proxy) to setup your oauth provider. You need to setup a unique key/secret for each instance of the proxy you want to run, since in each case the callback URL will differ.


### Setup Docker Swarm

Create a docker swarm config file in docker-compose syntax (v3), something like this:

!!! tip
        I share (_with my [patreon patrons](https://www.patreon.com/funkypenguin)_) a private "_premix_" git repository, which includes necessary docker-compose and env files for all published recipes. This means that patrons can launch any recipe with just a ```git pull``` and a ```docker stack deploy``` 👍


```
version: '3'

services:
  app:
    image: technosoft2000/calibre-web
    env_file : /var/data/config/calibre-web/calibre-web.env
    volumes:
     - /var/data/calibre-web:/config
     - /srv/data/Archive/Ebooks/calibre:/books
    networks:
    - internal

  proxy:
    image: a5huynh/oauth2_proxy
    env_file : /var/data/config/calibre-web/calibre-web.env
    dns_search: hq.example.com
    networks:
      - internal
      - traefik_public
    deploy:
      labels:
        - traefik.frontend.rule=Host:calibre-web.example.com
        - traefik.docker.network=traefik_public
        - traefik.port=4180
    volumes:
      - /var/data/config/calibre-web/authenticated-emails.txt:/authenticated-emails.txt
    command: |
      -cookie-secure=false
      -upstream=http://app:8083
      -redirect-url=https://calibre-web.example.com
      -http-address=http://0.0.0.0:4180
      -email-domain=example.com
      -provider=github
      -authenticated-emails-file=/authenticated-emails.txt

networks:
  traefik_public:
    external: true
  internal:
    driver: overlay
    ipam:
      config:
        - subnet: 172.16.18.0/24
```

!!! note
    Setup unique static subnets for every stack you deploy. This avoids IP/gateway conflicts which can otherwise occur when you're creating/removing stacks a lot. See [my list](/reference/networks/) here.



## Serving

### Launch Calibre-Web

Launch the Calibre-Web stack by running ```docker stack deploy calibre-web -c <path -to-docker-compose.yml>```

Log into your new instance at https://**YOUR-FQDN**. You'll be directed to the initial GUI configuraition. Set the first field (_Location of Calibre database_) to "_/books/_", and when complete, login using defaults username of "**admin**" with password "**admin123**".

## Chef's Notes 📓

1. Yes, Calibre does provide a server component. But it's not as fully-featured as Calibre-Web (_i.e., you can't use it to send ebooks directly to your Kindle_)
2. A future enhancement might be integrating this recipe with the filestore for [NextCloud](/recipes/nextcloud/), so that the desktop database (Calibre) can be kept synced with Calibre-Web.