This document is to help you go from 0 to running the ComiXed application on your system.
As of v2.0, ComiXed requires Java 17 or later, and will not run with any version prior to that. Since Oracle no longer ships a JRE (Java Runtime Environment) for Java after 9, you'll instead need to download a Java Development Kit (JDK) from here.
ComiXed makes heavy use of databases to manage the information for a comic book library. As such, it requires one that provides a stable, durable environment.
ComiXed ships with support for two database environments:
It also ships with support for the embedded H2 database. However, it is strongly recommended that you do not use this embedded database for long term data management. It is included to make it easier to evaluate the ComiXed project and is not a supported feature.
See the section below on configuration for how to enable support for one of the external database systems.
To install ComiXed, simply extract the release bundle in the directory from which you wish to run it. Several directories are created:
- $ROOT/bin which contains the scripts to launch the server, along with the main code,
- $ROOT/config which contains the example external configuration file,
- $ROOT/docs which contains any documentation, as well as the project's license, and
- $ROOT/lib which will hold any plugins, external libraries, and extensions.
The JAR file contains the default application.properties file, which controls the runtime of the application. However, an external configuration can be used, allow you to override default values. This file is:
$ROOT/config/application.properties-example
where $ROOT is the directory where the release was copied. Simply copy this file to:
$HOME/.comixed/application.properties
| OS | $HOME LOCATION |
|---|---|
| Windows | C:\users\YOURUSERNAME\\.comixed |
| Linux | /home/YOURUSERNAME/.comixed |
| MacOS | /Users/YOURUSERNAME/.comixed |
Copy the file and edit the contents. When you restart the server, this configuration will be used instead. And, when a new release comes out, you'll want to make sure to copy your changes into it and replace this file.
To enable using an external database, edit the external configuration file and comment out the section that defines the H2 environment
Then, depending on which environment you plan to use, either uncomment the MySQL or the Postgres options. Then you will need to provide the name of server, the username, and the password for that user that will be used to manage the database.
It's beyond the scope of this document to show how to do these steps. But you can always check the comixed mailing list archives for where others have described how to do these steps.
ComiXed supports adding features and functionality through the use of extensions and plugins.
For example, to scrape comic book metadata, such as the cover date, writer and artist, or other details for a comic, you can use the ComiXed ComicVine Metadata Adaptor extension.
Referring to the $HOME location described earlier in Configurating The Application, the following lists the directories used:
| Type | Directory |
|---|---|
| Extensions | $HOME/.comixed/extensions |
| Plugins | $HOME/.comixed/plugins |
To run the application, use one of the following options from the bin directory where you installed the product:
$ sh ./run.sh
C:\users\comixed> run.bat
This will launch the application in the current window as a text-only application. You'll see output as the application starts, creates your library database (when run the first time). When you see the following text, the application is ready for the next step:
2018-07-24 08:38:44.509 INFO 75198 --- [ main] o.s.j.e.a.AnnotationMBeanExporter : Registering beans for JMX exposure on startup
2018-07-24 08:38:44.520 INFO 75198 --- [ main] o.s.c.support.DefaultLifecycleProcessor : Starting beans in phase 0
2018-07-24 08:38:44.640 INFO 75198 --- [ main] s.b.c.e.t.TomcatEmbeddedServletContainer : Tomcat started on port(s): 7171 (https) with context path ''
2018-07-24 08:38:44.644 INFO 75198 --- [ main] org.comixedproject.ComiXedApp : Started ComiXedApp in 8.979 seconds (JVM running for 9.62)
The first person to log into the server is granted administrator rights.
To create this administrator account, simply start the login process by pointing your browser to the following URL (assuming you're running ComiXed locally):
http://localhost:7171/
You will see a page like this:
Enter the email address and the password for the account you wish to create, and then submit the form. This will create a new account with administrator privileges.
Once you've created your administrator account, you can change the following configuration options and feature flags.
Navigate to the Configuration page and select the Library tab. There you can set the following options:
| Option | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Delete empty directories after library organization | No | Removes any directories that are left empty after organizing your comic books |
| Create external metadata files for each comic | No | Stores the comic's portable metadata as an external file next to the comic |
| Do not create or update internal metadata files | No | Turns off storing metadata in the internal ComicInfo.xml file in each comic |
| Do not recreate comic files | No | Disables changing the physical files for all comic books |
| Manage blocked pages | No | When enabled, the server will automatically mark any blocked page for deletion |
| Comic Renaming Rule | Yes | Defines the file naming rule when organizing your comic library |
| Page Renaming Rule | Yes | Defines the file naming rule for individual pages within a comic file |
To import your existing comic library, login as an admin and navigate to the Import Comics page.
Click on the search button to enter the root directory and maximum number of comics to find. The server will only return comics that are not already in the library.
Please be patient. Depending on the size of your existing library and the number of files to process, this can take some time. However, once it finishe, it will then present a list of comics found.
From this list, select those comic books to be added to the database. Then simply click on the Start Import button.
NOTE: You will not be able to look for more comics to import while an existing import is running. And while an import is running, some access to the comics being processed won't be available. So it's a good idea to strike a balance between how many comics you import in a single batch. A good rule of thumb would be to import no more than 1,000 comics at a time.
When importing comics, and if you select to do so, then all files that contain the comicinfo.xml file will have the information contained in it imported into your database. This way you won't have to rescrape sources like the ComicVine database for those comics.
Before you can scrape comics, you will need to:
- install a comic metadascrape, and
- configure the scraper.
The following is a short list of available comic metadata scrapers:
| Name | Supported Sources | Download Link |
|---|---|---|
| ComiXed Metadata ComicVine | ComicVine | https://github.com/comixed/comixed-metadata-comicvine |
Simply download the release and then place the JAR file in the extension directory described here.
To scrape comics, you can either scrape them individually or scrape across multiple comics.
The easiest way to scrape a single comic is to:
- go to the comic book's details page,
- click on the Scraping tab,
- select a Metadata Source,
- enter any missing required data for the comic, then
- click the Scrape this comic button in the toolbar.
Once all of the data required is entered, click on the Fetch button below.
To scrape more than one comic, go to any view listing comic books and select the ones to be scraped. Then, from the action menu on the list, select the option for multi-comic scraping:
You will then be taken to a page that shows the list of comics waiting to be scraped, and the current comic to be scraped.
You can select any pending comic by simply clicking on its row in the queue.
You can remove a comic from the scraping queue by clicking on the trashcan icon for that entry.
ComiXed provides support for accessing a comic's library via an OPDS browser.
You can read comics from your library using any comic reader that supports the OPDS, such as Chunky Reader.
To allow your reader to access the library, you will need either the hostname or IP address for the computer running ComiXed. So, for example, if that computers IP address is 192.168.1.29 then you would tell the reader:
Hostname: https://192.168.1.29:7171/opds
Username: [your login email address]
Password: [your login password]
Please note that some readers (such as Chunky) assume the /opds portion of the URL. SO if your reader does not see a reading list, try removing /opds from the URL.
Then your reader should see, at least, a reading list named All Comics. This list will allow you to read all comics in your library.
Future work will allow for different reading lists to be presented via OPDS. Please stay tuned for those changes to arrive.