The detail header's listening-order select persisted fine and the
reader chain honored it, but the page's card list never applied
chain_order (it kept the composed query's title order) — so flipping
the select changed nothing visible, and Play as Sequence launches from
the FIRST CARD ON THE PAGE, making the played start (and the perceived
order) disagree with the curated setting (2026-11-01 user report on
the smart podcast page).
- Smart episode collections: the page's match list re-orders through
OrderEpisodeMedia (the same OrderEpisodes comparator the sequence
producer uses — §10 R2's single source of order truth) before card
building. Books-scope matches keep title order.
- Static episode playlists: the sequence now honors the curated order
too — native keeps the manual position order (SQL), reverse flips
it, oldest/newest re-key on publication date with feed position as
tiebreak. Previously statics ignored chain_order entirely while the
select rendered on their pages.
Pins: native page order (feed positions) and the reverse flip
re-ordering the SSR cards, asserted in the curated-order subtest
alongside the existing reader-chain pins. Podcast/playlist/audiobook/
RLS/dashboard/contract slices green.
The pre-tree rules machinery is deleted: no row ever carried a rules
array or a non-default match mode (verified in the dev DB), the web
never read the envelope keys, and the Android app consumes none of it.
Dead code gets no documentation.
Removed:
- PUT /api/collections/:id/match-mode — endpoint, route, and the
UpdateCollectionMatchMode query. The tree's root mode owns any|all.
- auto_assign_rules / rule_match_mode from every envelope
(create/list/detail/update), from the create/update request shapes,
and from the schema: both columns DROPPED (schema.sql carries
idempotent DROP COLUMN IF EXISTS heals for existing DBs; sqlc
regenerated).
- The rules CRUD service layer (AddRule/SetRuleEnabled/RemoveRule +
validateRule + UpdateCollectionRulesJSON), ParseRules /
EnabledRules / IsSmartCollection, RulesToFilterTree (+ the SSR
preload branch), the legacy branch of EvaluateSmartMembership, and
SmartEvalOptions.MatchMode. IsCollectionSmart = tree presence;
create-path isSmart = collection_type=smart OR a filter_tree.
Kept (live consumers): POST /api/collections/preview still evaluates
rules payloads in memory (the custom-section builder's preview), and
include_auto stays on the list (the Android app sends it).
The custom-section builder's SAVE was already broken — its
stringified auto_assign_rules payload failed request binding (probed
live: 400 invalid request). Create now rejects that payload loudly
with a 400 naming the retirement, instead of silently creating a
hollow static section; custom-section-builder.md carries the flag.
The builder's tree migration remains the flagged follow-up.
Test-side (asymmetry rule — deleted behavior, deleted tests):
TestPodcastSmartCollections rewritten onto trees (mode lives in the
tree root), match-mode subtests and tree_wins_over_legacy_rules
deleted, TestRulesToFilterTree deleted, contract-pin envelope keys
retracted per the contract_pins 2026-10-31 retirement entry. Mirrors
hand-synced: openapi.yaml, bruno create/update, docs/api/*.md,
docs/schema.go, api.d.ts. Full container suite green (155s).
The debug print served its purpose: the stale-binary native-order render
was an artifact of an incomplete rebuild, not code. Fresh container
resolves view_settings.chain_order and the chain plays in the curated
order (newest-first verified on a 23-episode feed with a date tie at the
tail, handled by the position tie-break).
"Newest episodes from my selected podcasts" is now buildable in the UI,
end to end — the user could not find ANY podcast-related filter surface
because none existed: the New Collection modal could only create
book-scope smart collections, and the engine's episodes scope (item 3.1)
had no authoring door.
The scope door:
- The create modal's Smart card gains a Rules-scope segmented control
(📚 Books / 🎧 Podcast episodes); the copy no longer claims smart
means "match books by rules". Choosing Episodes seeds an EMPTY
episodes tree ({"scope":"episodes","mode":"all","children":[]}) so the
collection is born episode-scoped: the editor opens with the episode
vocabulary (feed/downloaded/played/published date) and membership
runs the episode engine from the first rule.
- ParseFilterTree now accepts an EMPTY ROOT (nested empty groups stay
invalid) — the seed's legal shape. The root arrives at depth 1 by
call convention, hence the depth>1 exemption.
- The composers define the empty-tree semantics: zero children matches
NOTHING (ComposedLiveMedia/ComposedCount guards), mirroring
EvaluateSmartCollection's zero-enabled-rules convention. Without the
guard the composed query degrades to the bare scope head and a fresh
collection would swallow every episode in scope — pinned by
TestEpisodeCollectionsEmptySeedMatchesNothing (envelope book_count 0)
and TestEmptyRootTreeSeedsEpisodesScope.
The curated chain order (plan §10 R2, user need: the briefing plays
NEWEST-first):
- view_settings.chain_order ("native"/"newest"/"oldest"/"reverse")
stored on the collection — curated content, not a player-side knob.
- PUT /api/collections/:id/view-settings merges the key into the
stored JSONB (a blind write would clobber the playlist toggles).
- buildSmartCollectionSequenceContext routes OrderEpisodes through
handlers.CollectionChainOrder; the detail header's Play-as-Sequence
gains the order select next to it (PlayCollectionButton), which
PUTs and reloads. Pinned by chain_follows_the_curated_order
(reverse flips the chain indexes and hops).
Caught by the new test, a latent clobber fixed: UpdateCollection
treated a NIL view_settings payload as "write NULL" — any edit that
carried no settings dropped every stored key (chain_order, playlist
toggles from API clients, imported provenance). Nil now means
untouched, the same convention filterTree already had.
Composer guards also cover ComposedCount, so the builder's live count
reads the same semantics. Tests: collectionChainOrder unit matrix,
empty-root parse unit pin, two integration pins (seed matches nothing;
curated order drives the chain and survives whole-map edits).
collections gains filter_tree JSONB (idempotent in-place; same qf DSL
as saved filters — the scope key included). IsCollectionSmart is the
ONE detection (tree OR legacy rules), and EvaluateSmartMembership is
the ONE evaluator: tree-bearing collections run the composed engine
via ComposedLiveMedia (full media rows, so the collection surfaces
keep their episode-card stamping, feed positions for the replay
chain, and the family lens rides the mandatory head), while legacy
rule arrays keep per-item FieldMatches until rewritten — one call
surface, two storage epochs. All smart surfaces (detail JSON, counts,
detail page, reader chain) dispatch through it; the search service is
injected into the collection subsystem (variadic — main.go builds one
shared instance; the test harness mirrors it).
Write path: CreateCollection/UpdateCollection accept the tree,
validated against the engine grammar at the HANDLER (an invalid tree
is a 400, never a stored render-time 500) and exposed in the envelope
(pin widened in TestContractPin_CollectionsJSON + changelog). Update
semantics: an edit form that doesn't send a tree keeps the stored one.
RulesToFilterTree converts legacy rules + match mode at upgrade time:
episode rules map mechanically (feed→in-list, played/downloaded→
booleans, published_within→published_date+within_days), tree root
mode absorbs rule_match_mode, episode rules force the episodes scope,
and legacy starts_with/ends_with fall back to contains (documented).
Read-compat by design: nothing is migrated at boot — legacy arrays
evaluate exactly as before until the collection is rewritten.
Pinned by TestRulesToFilterTree (unit conversion) +
TestEpisodeCollectionsFilterTree (a tree collection evaluates through
the engine, the chain follows the tree's live membership, invalid
trees 400 at write, the tree wins when legacy rules coexist, and an
edit without a tree keeps it).
ACCEPTANCE (plan §0 item 2.5): "Daily Fiction" = feed ∈ {A} ∧ unplayed
∧ <7d matches exactly today's episodes, and PLAY = today's episodes
back-to-back. Two pieces were missing after item 2.4:
- The chain builder only read static membership (collection_items) — a
smart collection has none. buildSmartCollectionSequenceContext now
evaluates the rules LIVE for the requesting user (mode from the
collection, family lens via the visible set) and chains the
downloaded episode matches in NATIVE feed order — the collection's
computed order is content (R1: never written back; OrderEpisodes is
the order chokepoint per R3). A match that aged out of the briefing
(played since, published beyond the window) falls back to the feed
queue instead of breaking the page.
- The smart-detail branch rendered match cards as books: episode
matches are now flagged (IsEpisode + download state) so they carry
the play affordance and the header's Play-as-Sequence button;
feed titles stay empty on smart cards for now (batch lookup is
polish, not acceptance).
Pinned by TestPodcastSmartCollections' acceptance subtests: the
briefing starts at index 1/2 and chains into the second with the
queue param on both hops; the order control stays hidden (computed
order); a stale match falls back to the feed queue honestly.
D11 lifts: podcast episodes (media_items rows) join collections, and
"Play collection as sequence" feeds the player from the collection's
order. No new tables — collection_items already carries ordered
membership (item 2.1 audit).
PICKER: the collection modal gains a Books/Episodes tab pair. The
episodes tab hits /api/media-items/search?scope=episodes — a dedicated
picker query (SearchEpisodesForPicker) whose visibility is entirely
RLS: the media_items subscription predicate drops unsubscribed feeds'
episodes, and the podcast_feeds join is governed the same way. The
books scope keeps its podcasts exclusion (plan §9) — this scope is the
only door in. Pending episodes are pickable (plan ahead; the detail
page shows them as not downloaded). Selection rides the existing
bookPicker store — ids never collide across scopes, and AddBooks works
unchanged on episode ids.
DETAIL: the All-Libraries membership view switches to
GetCollectionItemsDetailed — LEFT JOIN + per-row visibility. An
unsubscribed episode (or family-lens hidden book) survives as a
Hidden card rendered as an "Unavailable — remove entry" hint row
instead of silently vanishing; visible episodes render feed title,
download state, and a Play link. The library-scoped view keeps its
existing dashboard-query behavior (the switcher's contract is
untouched for books).
CHAIN: ?queue=collection:<id> on any reader URL makes
buildPodcastSequenceContext produce the COLLECTION context (§10 R2
same shape, source=collection): downloaded episodes in collection
order (positions are content — R1; no feed-order override), prev/next
URLs carrying the queue param so the chain survives hops, and
backToDetail landing on the collection page. Ownership gates the chain
— foreign/deleted ids fall back to the feed queue; the order control
stays hidden (2.2's source gate). The header's "Play as Sequence"
button starts from the first downloaded episode in list order.
Pinned by TestPodcastEpisodeCollections (7 subtests): RLS-scoped
picker + family-lens auditor case (subscribed episode in a hidden
library must not reach the picker), books-scope exclusion intact,
hint rows, chain carrying the queue param, start-from-first, foreign
fallback, and reorder driving the chain (the R4 primitive works on
episode ids unchanged).
Foundation rule R2 (§10): the queue context is the only queue, and
every producer emits the same shape. PodcastSequenceContext gains
source (feed|collection), feed_id, and order; the feed producer sets
them now — the collection producer (2.3) slots into the same shape
without the player ever special-casing beyond showing/hiding controls.
The player header gains the FEED-mode order control next to the
"Ep N/M" counter: a dropdown (native/reverse/oldest/newest) plus a
one-click reverse button. Both PUT the existing per-user feed order
override — the SAME state the feed page writes, so flipping it in the
player updates the feed page's dropdown too. The control renders only
when source=feed: a collection queue's order is curated content
(R1), never a listening preference. Behavior is hx-put +
hx-swap="none" (response discarded) with a module-level
htmx:afterRequest listener in audio.ts reloading the page — the
server re-renders prev/next/index in the new order; templ decides
what it looks like, JS only triggers the round trip (CSP-clean, no
inline handlers).
Pinned by TestPodcastPlayerOrderControl: the config JSON carries
source/feed_id/order/episode_index; the control renders feed-mode;
an order override re-renders with the dropdown reflecting it (data-
json pins must match templ's " attribute escaping).
The 'Oldest first' order sorts by PUB DATE, which breaks on Scribl's
migrated podiobooks feeds (messy/all-equal dates). New order value
'reverse' = feed position DESC with a date-DESC tiebreak — dates are
not involved, so nothing can break.
- services.OrderEpisodes: THE single order source of truth (§0 items
3+5a). The four surfaces (sequence JSON, reader chain context, SSR
page list) previously carried three near-identical handwritten
comparators — all now route through one generic helper. The SSR page
list gains a SortDate key (lexical 2006-01-02) so the pub-date
tiebreak is actually chronological; the old comparator compared
'Jan 2, 2006' display strings alphabetically (latent drift bug).
- Dropdown becomes four options: Feed order / Feed order (reversed) /
Oldest first (pub date) / Newest first (pub date).
- Serial suggestion button renamed 'Reverse feed order' (sets reverse,
not oldest) and its response out-of-band-swaps the order select
(PodcastOrderSelectOOB — same mechanism as Download All's policy
select), so the dropdown mirrors the server state immediately.
- Validation: oneof=native reverse oldest newest everywhere.
- Tests: reverse binds via the form wire; messy-dates sequence
returns 3,2,1; existing reorder-safety stays green.
D7 chain-by-default, delivered with minimal player surgery:
- ReaderMetadata gains PodcastSequence: the neighboring DOWNLOADED
episodes in the caller's effective order (D5 override applied,
feed-native fallback; computed in the reader route for
source='podcast_episode' items — RLS already scoped the reads; gaps
never enter the chain, invariant 6). ?single=1 escapes chaining (the
'play single episode' affordance).
- Audio reader renders the sequence into body[data-json]
(AudioReaderConfigJSON — books produce the identical shape minus the
sequence key, so the reader path is unchanged for them) and an
'Ep N/M' indicator + prev/next episode controls in the header.
- audio.ts: the last-track 'ended' handler chains into the next
episode's reader page (final progress push precedes navigation);
back button exits episodes to their feed page. Books are untouched —
no sequence context, zero behavior change. Day-one chaining is
page-navigation based (progress persists; position restores).
Continue aggregation (2.5): GetPodcastContinueForUser (in-progress
episodes, most-recent-first, ≥95% excluded) feeds a Continue section
on /podcasts — sorted most recently listened, cards show 'Ep N · title'
— ahead of All Feeds. Cards prefer the continue line over the
description.
New users column surfaced as an On/Off dropdown in the profile form.
The form and API carry "true"/"false" strings with the theme-style
""-guard, so JSON clients that omit the field can't clobber it;
anything else is rejected. GET/PUT /api/auth/profile expose
keep_screen_awake alongside the other profile fields, and the reader
route threads the preference into its template metadata.
Integration tests pin the schema default, both values, omission
semantics, and rejection — dedicated test user, never testuser.
handlers textToString, router textToString, router getText, and utils
normText were four copies of the same NULL-to-empty unwrap (99 call
sites). One exported utils.PgTextString replaces them all; the private
normText (comparison normalizer) stays but is now the odd one out.
Harness fix found on the way: setupTestServer built a full wiring
literal for route registration and then RETURNED a second, sparser
literal that never copied AnnotationService — setup.AnnotationService
was always nil on the struct every test receives. Nobody noticed until
cross_library_move_test became the first caller (it previously used
the now-retired plain CreateMediaHighlight query); it now exercises
the real SaveHighlight path through the wired service.
Phase 1 (foundation): 'audiobooks' library type seeded (schema + DB);
audio_metadata JSONB on media_items (the kobo_metadata precedent —
only audio paths read it); reading_progress.audio_offset_seconds for
the honest {chapter, offset} locator; extensions/mimes registered for
ALL breadth formats (m4b/m4a/mp3/flac — deliberate per the DOC/LIT
doctrine, m4b scans richly first); classifyFormatGroup 'audiobook'
case (gotcha 39 recomputes on rescan); Go mime table extended at boot
so media elements accept the streams; ffmpeg/ffprobe in the image
(8.1.2 — also the xHE-AAC identification tripwire).
Phase 2 (ingest): sidecar-first (Libation/ABS metadata.json —
narrators/ASIN/curated chapters), ffprobe fallback/filler (duration,
bitrate, codec/profile, embedded chapters). Fixed three real
parser brittlenesses the Libation sidecar exposed: series accepts
string OR array-of-objects, publishedYear accepts number OR string,
ffprobe chapter timings accept number OR string (flexFloat). Folder-
structure fallback now runs on the UPDATE path too (rescans were
clearing sidecar-absent series/author); audio facts re-derive on
every rescan (gotcha 39).
Phase 3 (playback + sync): GET /api/media-items/:id/chapters (the
format-abstraction list); streaming rides the existing cookie-authed
Range /uploads path; PUT progress carries audio_offset_seconds +
elapsed_seconds (honest wall-clock playing time) — the reading-
history capture prefers player-reported elapsed over the inter-push
delta, same 2h ceiling; reading_mode='audio' marks the row.
Phase 4 (web player): dedicated audio reader page (foliate not
involved) — cover, chapter title, whole-book scrubber, skip ± (chips
1/5/10/15/30s, default 10s), speed (0.75×–2×), chapter list with
jump-to, Media Session lockscreen/notification transport, periodic
playing-only progress pushes, position restore on open.
Verified live: ingest of the Libation sample (Gardens of the Moon —
title/author/series/cover/date from sidecar+folders, 34 chapters,
26h duration, aac/LC); chapters endpoint; the reader route serving
the player; playback with position restore (0:57 round-trip);
progress rows in audio mode; wall-clock session rows in
reading_history.
PDFs shelved in comics or manga libraries (scanned manga, official manga
PDFs with text layers) now get comic reader treatment: bookmarks only —
no text-selection highlights, no annotations, no in-book search. Items
in ebooks libraries are completely unaffected, and EPUBs keep their
existing behavior everywhere.
- handlers: new exported ShouldTreatAsComic(libraryType, formatGroup) —
true for fixed_layout/comic_archive in manga/comics libraries; the
reader JSON API also exposes it as treat_as_comic
- router: the SSR reader page fetches the library type and passes
TreatAsComic through ReaderMetadata into the init config
- reader: when treatAsComic is set, the PDF textLayer selection listener
(mouse and touch paths) never attaches so no highlight popover can
open; pointer mode is forced to pan (Smart/Text segment hidden);
search button and toggleSearch are disabled; previously-created PDF
highlights stop rendering
- bookmarks are unchanged (already page-index based for fixed layout),
and device sync / OPDS / format classification are untouched since
format_group stays fixed_layout
The reader page embedded a snapshot of reading state (position,
bookmarks) server-side at render time. Browsers may reuse that HTML
(heuristic caching, bfcache), so opening a book could restore a stale
position — and worse, the restore's relocate auto-saved it back,
overwriting a newer device push minutes later. A KOReader sync followed
by opening the web reader would silently revert the row to the old web
position; the row's source and the rendered page disagreed.
The web reader is intrinsically tied to the server, so it has no business
preserving reading state client-side:
- The rendered page now carries only immutable book metadata. The reader
fetches progress fresh (cache: no-store) from the existing progress
API at open and restores with the same priority as before (page for
fixed-layout, CFI, percentage, fresh start); a failed fetch opens at
the start and writes nothing. Initial bookmarks likewise come from
their endpoint instead of the embed; annotations already did.
- Progress saves are gated on deliberate navigation only (page turns,
keys, slider, search/TOC/bookmark/back-stack jumps, tap zones — each
marks the session as user-moved). Restores and section-load
relocations never write, so displaying a position can no longer
clobber a newer one. A bfcache-resurrected page resets the flag and
cannot write its frozen position either. This replaces the old
five-second post-init suppression, which a stale page bypassed.
- The server-rendered initial progress badges render a neutral
placeholder until the first relocate fills them (sub-second).
No API, schema, or sync-engine changes. Normal reading saves exactly as
before — the first save now simply waits for the first real page turn.
Fix two bugs in progress display across book detail, progress page, reader,
and sync modal templates:
1. Percentage was stored as 0.0-1.0 fraction but displayed as-if 0-100
(showing 0.5% instead of 50%). Multiply by 100 at the data source in
both GetAllProgress and GetAllProgressData handlers, and in the reader
route's ReadingProgress construction.
2. Progress bar width was never evaluated — { expr } inside style=".."
was rendered as literal text by templ, resulting in 0% width bars for
all items. Fixed by using templ's style={ expr } attribute syntax
which evaluates the Go expression (uses SanitizeStyleAttributeValues).
Also add format-aware progress display:
- Reader template: shows "45% · Page 89/196" for reflowable (estimated
pages), "127/342" for comics/PDFs (actual pages)
- Progress page: shows "Page X of Y (est.)" for reflowable, "X / Y"
for fixed layout
- Add FormatGroup and EstimatedPages to ProgressWithMedia struct
- Remove hardcoded totalPages=200 fallback in progress handler (now 0)
- Add fmt import to progress.templ for string formatting
The reader failed to load comics and manga (and any file with special
characters in its path) for two reasons:
1. FileURL was built with raw fmt.Sprintf instead of ResolveMediaURL,
so characters like '#' in paths (e.g. 'Annual #2') were interpreted
as URL fragments, truncating the path and causing 404s.
2. The Alpine x-init expression used raw string interpolation for config
values, so apostrophes in paths (e.g. "I'll Use My Appraisal Skill")
broke JavaScript parsing with 'Unexpected identifier'.
Fix by using utils.ResolveMediaURL for proper URL path encoding and
json.Marshal for the initReader config to safely escape all special
characters.
Replace direct error equality checks (err == pgx.ErrNoRows, err != http.ErrServerClosed)
with the idiomatic errors.Is() function throughout handlers, services, middleware, and app
startup. This correctly handles wrapped error chains.
Also replace a raw type assertion (*HTTPError) with errors.AsType[*HTTPError]() in the
error handler middleware for consistency.
Additionally, rename shadowed variables for clarity:
- sidecar.go: config -> sidecarConfig, systemConfig (shadowed package-level vars)
- media_scanner.go: uuid -> uuidString (shadowed the uuid package import)
Major rewrite of the web reader to properly interface with
@bookhoard/foliate-js, replacing the abandoned panel-detection
architecture with direct pan and zoom support built into the
foliate-js FixedLayout renderer.
Template (reader.templ):
- Fix critical bug: x-init config was using literal strings
'{ readerData.X }' inside a quoted attribute, which templ
treated as raw text and never interpolated. Values were never
actually passed to JavaScript. Now uses fmt.Sprintf() with
templ's expression attribute syntax ={ }.
- Pass fileUrl from server so foliate-js can open books directly.
- Redesign bottom bar with foliate-js parity: left/right navigation
buttons, progress slider with tick marks, and zoom controls
(zoom out, percentage display, zoom in, magnifier, pan/select
mode toggle for PDFs).
- Remove panel editor button and enablePanelDetection config.
- Add SVG icon styles for consistent reader controls.
Go types (templates/types.go):
- Expand ReaderMetadata with FormatGroup, MangaType,
ReadingDirection, FileURL, and LibraryID fields needed by
the reader frontend.
Router (internal/router/reader.go):
- Populate new ReaderMetadata fields from database values.
- Construct FileURL from library ID and file path for the
/uploads/library-{id}/* file serving route.
Reader JS (reader.ts):
- Full rewrite modeled on foliate-js Reader class, adapted for
Alpine.js. Opens books via view.open(fileUrl), accesses
view.renderer for zoom/pan/navigation, and wires up keyboard
shortcuts (+/-/0 for zoom, arrows for nav, Escape for magnifier).
- Uses view.isFixedLayout instead of importing FixedLayout class,
avoiding a TypeScript module resolution issue with the Vite alias.
Settings manager (settings-manager.ts):
- Remove dependency on deleted ReaderContext event bus.
- Export loadSettings/saveSettings/syncSettings directly as
standalone async functions.
Cleanup:
- Delete reader-context.ts and reader-events.ts (over-engineered
event system replaced by direct function calls).
- Remove panel_zoom_enabled from ReaderSettings type.
- Fix function signatures in reader.go (c echo.Context -> c *echo.Context)
- Replace non-existent UserHasLibraryAccess with GetUserVisibleLibraries pattern
- Implement SSR reader route in router/reader.go with proper access control
- Add inline library access checking following existing codebase patterns
- Fix ReadingProgress struct to use LastReadAt instead of CreatedAt/UpdatedAt
- Ensure all reader endpoints use consistent library access validation
This provides the backend foundation for the reader feature with proper
access control and SSR rendering capabilities.
John O'Keefe
john-okeefe