ComicRack database integration

Ubooquity already supports ComicRack XML metadata files (since 1.7.0).

What features would get from a direct database integration ?

Direct database integration would provide access to additional information not stored in the individual files. ComicRack does not store metadata in comicinfo.xml. cyo has been pretty open about not including all comicbook metadata. A couple examples are user ratings and the read/not read status of books.

Also, not all ComicRack users allow ComicRack to update file data (some are concerned with data integrity) .

An interesting reading.
I understand why file modification is a problem when identifying them with a hash (usually when using file sharing systems), but I disagree with the conclusion.
I see the "comicinfo.xml" file a metadata the same way you have metadata in EPUB files, or in JPEG, MP3, etc.
Nobody's trying to store image, ebook or music metadata outside of the data file. Why do it for comics ?

You only modify metadata to fix them, meaning that, ideally, they should be good from the start. They are not (or should not be) used for user-specific data like the last read page. So it's definitely a bad idea to store them only in an external database as they are part of the work contained in the file.

NB: For me, metadata do NOT include user rating and read/unread status. They are different information, from a different source and a different life cycle. I know Ubooquity supports Calibre user ratings in EPUB files, but if I had to do it again today, I probably wouldn't.

Anyway, I plan to add read/unread status for comics and ebooks in one of the next releases, but without CR integration. It would require too much work for a feature I consider is not part of the "core" functionalities I want to include in Ubooquity.

Now if there was some kind of ComicRAck API easily usable from Java, that's something I might consider in the (distant) future.