[GUI Plugin] User Category

[kiwidude]

This plugin offers a quick way to add/remove from the selected books to a specified "user category" via the context menu. A user category (defined using the tag browser panel on the left of the Calibre display) can contain lists of any combination of authors, tags, series or publishers. They allows you to categorize your collection at a "higher level" than per book which can sometimes be a limitation of tags/custom columns.

For instance you could create a "Favourite Authors" or "Must Read" user category containing not only selected authors but also specified tags or series names etc. Calibre 0.7.43 now offers a convenient right-click in the tag browser to perform a search displaying all the matches for your user category, making them even more useful.

Calibre itself has a "maintain" dialog accessible from the tag browser panel allowing you to create, rename and delete user categories, as well as add/remove items. However it can be inconvenient to use that dialog to add items with large databases, as it has no search capability. This plugin offers a more convenient right-click alternative allowing you to add/remove from the books you select in the library view.

Main Features of v1.5.2

• Add or remove selected authors, series, publishers or tags to user categories
• Move selected value(s) off all other user categories into a different one
• If multiple items are selected, displays a dialog allowing you to make a sub-selection. Particularly useful when books have multiple tags and you do not want all of them added/removed.
• Customise the dropdown menu to as minimal or fully featured as you prefer it.
• Menus enabled/disabled to show whether the selected items are already in the specific user category.
• Show in tag viewer feature to quickly open and select user category.
• Maintain your user categories without tag viewer pane visible.
• No longer requires a restart of Calibre to detect new/removed user categories in the menus.

Special Notes:

• Requires Calibre 0.8.18 or later

Paypal Donations:

• If you find this or any of my other plugins useful please feel free to show your appreciation. I have spent many hundreds of unpaid hours in their development and support so any encouragement for me to continue is appreciated!
  

Installation Steps:

1. Download the attached zip file and install the plugin/restart Calibre/add to context menu as described in the Introduction to plugins thread.

Version History:

Spoiler:

Version 1.5.2 - 06 Jan 2013
Add a Move menu option to support moving books between user categories
Prevent plugin being used in Device View or on Device View context menu

Version 1.5.1 - 29 Aug 2012
Add fixes to handle cases of blank authors and tags

Version 1.5.0 - 11 Sep 2011
Upgrade to support the centralised keyboard shortcut management in Calibre

Version 1.4.2 - 03 Jul 2011
Fix for Calibre code changes made with release 0.8.8 to tag view

Version 1.4.1 - 09 Apr 2011
Support skinning of icons by putting them in a plugin name subfolder of local resources/images

Version 1.4 - 03 Apr 2011
Rewritten for new plugin infrastructure in Calibre 0.7.53

Version 1.3 - 19 Feb 2011
Bug-fix for icon missing and for when user has no user categories created
Bug-fix for ensuring do not cache db reference when switching libraries

Version 1.2 - 29 Jan 2011
Rewritten as 'User Category' plugin
Add configuration dialog
Make menus dynamically populated without requiring Calibre restarts
Popup dialog for choosing from multiple authors/tags
Add menu options to show in tag browser and maintain user categories

Version 1.1 - 10 Dec 2011
Added icons for the submenus

Version 1.0 - 28 Nov 2010
Initial release as separate 'Add To User Category' and 'Remove From User Category' plugins

[kiwidude]

I've just uploaded a bugfix version of this plugin. It is particularly important that users with multiple libraries upgrade to this version.

There are no changes to the functionality. Enjoy

[kiwidude]

Changes in v1.4:

• Rewritten for new plugin infrastructure in Calibre 0.7.53

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Support skinning of icons by putting them in a plugin name subfolder of local resources/images

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Fix for Calibre code changes made with release 0.8.8 to tag view

Refactoring changes made to Calibre in 0.8.8 broke the "View user category" menu option. This new version fixes that (and hence requires Calibre 0.8.8 to run).

[Gunnerp245]

@kiwidude

If I had author 'Tom Clancy' with 20 or so separate books, this plugin would roll up and display 'Tom Clancy' as a single entry?

[ntome]

will this rename the directory name where the book is stored?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ntome

will this rename the directory name where the book is stored?

If you change a Author in Calibre, direct or using a PI.
CALIBRE maintains the folder names as needed. (and you should not care, as you use the GUI to Export files to your reader )

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by Gunnerp245

@kiwidude

If I had author 'Tom Clancy' with 20 or so separate books, this plugin would roll up and display 'Tom Clancy' as a single entry?

If you chose "Add selected authors" to your user category, then yes it will add one "Tom Clancy" entry to your user category (not 20). If your seletion covers multiple authors, it will popup with a dialog asking which you would like to add in case you wanted only a subset of them.

@ntome - this plugin has nothing to do with renaming directories. It is simply about adding/removing/viewing items in your own user category lists in the tag browser on the left of Calibre. It does not change the books themselves in any way.

[Maggie-Me]

Hi, great plug in, just started using it... suggestion / question, is it possible to have an "exclude" for example I added an author that crosses genre,

I would like to pick the author but exclude any tags that say "Sci Fi".

Thanks

[kiwidude]

Hi Maggie-Me,

No there is no way to do that from the plugin itself. Whether an item in a user category is applied as an inclusive or exclusive filter is down to how you actually click on it in the tag browser or type your search. You would likely do that as a saved search instead.

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Upgrade to support the centralised keyboard shortcut management in Calibre

Requires Calibre 0.8.18. It is now possible to assign keyboard shortcuts to any of the menu items, using either Preferences->Keyboard or the Customise Plugin screen for this plugin.

[CrazyDutchwoman]

Hi. I see that I did install this plug in but I do not see what you show us on the first screenshot that when I click on a book I get the option to put it in a category.

I am probably doing something wrong. I am trying to figure calibre out. ove it but now trying to understand the plug ins and I just got the count pages one working and I love it.

[kiwidude]

@CrazyDutchwoman - I think you missed a step when installing the plugin of adding the plugin to your context menu. You can correct this by going to Preferences -> Toolbar. Choose "The context menu for books in the calibre library".

[CrazyDutchwoman]

Thank you so much! You are right. I always only use the first 2 options. main toolbar or when a device is connected.

Must go and explore.