OPDS catalogs

OPDS is an open standard that comic and ebook servers use to share their libraries, a little like an RSS feed for your collection. Komga, Kavita and Calibre-Web all offer it. ComicDrive speaks OPDS 1.2 and can browse, search and download from any such server, and stream comics page by page where the server supports OPDS page streaming.

In the app, OPDS guide in the About Library Storage dialog opens this page. New in 3.06

Add a catalog

1. On the Start screen, tap the + button and choose Add OPDS catalog.

2. Enter the Catalog URL (see the addresses below).

3. Fill in Name (optional) if you like. If the catalog is protected, enter Username (optional) and Password (optional).

4. Add it. ComicDrive checks the connection while adding the catalog.

To try OPDS without a server of your own, use Add Demo catalog.

Catalog addresses

• Komga: https://your-server/opds/v1.2/catalog (with port 25600 and a base URL if you set one). See Komga’s OPDS guide.
• Kavita: each user has a personal OPDS URL. In Kavita, open your user dashboard, switch to 3rd Party Clients and copy the OPDS URL. See Kavita’s OPDS guide.
• Calibre-Web: https://your-server/opds. See the Calibre-Web project.

https and http

Use an https:// address whenever your server offers one, so the connection is encrypted. Plain http:// addresses, common on a home network, work too, but ComicDrive warns you that the connection isn’t private.

Usernames and passwords are stored on this phone. Passwords and custom headers are normally encrypted with the Android Keystore; entries saved by older versions of ComicDrive, or saved while encryption failed, can stay unencrypted until you save the catalog again.

Reading progress on the server

For comics you open through a Komga or Kavita catalog, ComicDrive sends your reading progress back to that server, so it carries across devices. If the server is out of reach, the progress waits on the phone and is sent once the server answers again. Comics from folders, cloud storage or network shares keep their progress on the phone.

Custom headers

Some servers sit behind a proxy or an access gate that only lets requests through with extra headers, such as an access token. When you add or edit the catalog, tap Add custom headers, then enter a Header name and its Value; Add header adds another one. The headers are sent only to this catalog’s own server and are stored on the phone like the password.

Cloudflare Access

Create a service token in Cloudflare Zero Trust and give the application a policy with the action Service Auth. Then add two headers: CF-Access-Client-Id with the token’s ID and CF-Access-Client-Secret with its secret.

ComicDrive’s backup file keeps each catalog’s name and address, but not its username, password or custom headers; after restoring a backup you enter those once more.