I’m looking for an easy way to share a Bloom file from one mobile device to another, without having to copy files manually from one device to another (via email, Google Drive, or SD card). In other words, I want a direct connection from an instance of Bloom Reader on one device to Bloom Reader on another.
Here’s what I’ve tried so far (using the latest BR alpha)
a) Connect both devices to the same wifi network. Tell BR on the receiving device to “Receive books from computer”. Tell BR on the sending device to share a book (or “Share Books”). Problem: the sending device doesn’t offer the option to share over wifi.
b) Disconnect the sending device from wifi and mobile data. Create a hotspot on it, and connect the receiving device to that network. Problem: same as in a; BR doesn’t an option to share over wifi. (If this could be made to work, it would help in a particular situation I’m in, where a Deaf church meets in a location without wifi access.)
c) Share over Bluetooth, which was an option, but says the file transfer fails. (This may be because there is something else I need to do in the OS to enable sharing files over Bluetooth.)
d) All the other options offered involve manipulating files manually.
Questions:
a) Is what I’m doing currently possible? If so, what am I doing wrong?
b) If this is not a feature that is implemented, is it planned?
@Albert_Bickford,
Sorry you’re having trouble with the sharing features of Bloom Reader.
I’ll try to clarify some things.
First, the “Receive books from computer” is only useful for receiving books from Bloom itself. It will not help you transfer files from device to device.
Second, once you have selected either a single book (by long-pressing the book title and clicking the share icon) or selected “Share Books”, the rest of the actual transfer process happens outside of Bloom Reader’s purview. Basically, Bloom Reader tells Android, “the user wants to share this file; here’s what kind of file it is.” Android will then present the user with the list of apps on that device which are able to transfer that type of file. Wifi Direct, Bluetooth, and other means of transfer are then used in the same way they would be for any file. You would need to refer to the internet or other sources to determine how they work.
Once the file has actually made it to the target device by whatever means used, ideally, the receiving app will offer the user the ability to “open” the file. Then, ideally, Bloom Reader will offer to be the app which can open that file. If one or both of those fail, once the file is on the target device, you should run “Find Bloom books on this device” which will move the file into the Bloom directory so it appears as a book which can be read.
Please let me know if I can clarify anything further.
That’s very helpful, thank you. It explains to me where to look
for solutions, i.e., that Bloom is depending on general
infrastructure that needs to be in place but which is out of its
control. I kind of suspected that, but being new to Bloom and
still not very knowledgeable about mobile devices work, it was
hard to make sense of what was going on.
What this illustrates, though, is that these features still
aren’t as simple to use as I know you hope them eventually to be.
I’m not criticizing, because I know that it’s a tough problem. If
I think of anything that might help, I’ll let you know.
Albert,
Cool, I like the way you put that 
A bit of context would probably help to understand why we haven’t prioritized some built-in mechanism that bypasses normal Android sharing. You and I get things on our phone from the internet; in fact we rarely “download” or “share” anything, we just stream things. In contrast, our Bloom Reader target audience in developing countries is very accustomed to sharing files between devices. Various countries seem to have their own favorite apps for doing this. ShareIt is a big one. So the feedback we get from workshops is not
“How do we share?”
but rather
“Here in _____, everybody uses (some sharing app), and it’s working with Bloom Reader (or it isn’t).”
So we’re putting our effort into getting all these sharing apps that people already use to work. Right now we’re struggling with WhatsApp, sigh. See this thread.