Suggestion: Detect similar filenames with only differing extensions as a single book

[Phoenix84]

When adding books, I'd like an additional option:
Add Multiple books in a single directory, combine similar filenames into single book

What this would do is, given a flat directory with multiple books in various formats, is automatically consolidate duplicates in different formats, but still add multiple books for the non-duplicates.

Here's a use case where I hit this need:
Humble Book Bundles.
When I download my books from Humble, for simplicity, I just download all the book formats into the same directory.

This leaves me with a file structure like this:

book1.pdf
book1.mobi
book1.epub
book2.pdf
book2.mobi
book2.epub
book3.pdf
book3.mobi
book3.epub


I'd like all 9 of those books imported and consolidated into 3 books, each with 3 formats.
I've tried the import with duplicate detection, and it doesn't match all the duplicates correctly.

I'd prefer a simpler option that just said "if the base part of the filename is identical, assume all extensions match the same book" and import as such.

[DaltonST]

This already does that:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=277104

[Phoenix84]

Originally Posted by DaltonST

This already does that:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=277104

Thanks, I'll check that out.
I would never have seen that before, since I have no interesting in storing other media formats in Calibre.


EDIT: Hmm, does that let Calibre still grab the metadata? Calibre does a pretty good job, regardless of the actual filename.

[theducks]

It only 'grabs' once.
Behavior is controlled by Preferences:Adding books: Reading Metadata (tab)

[DaltonST]

Originally Posted by Phoenix84

EDIT: Hmm, does that let Calibre still grab the metadata? Calibre does a pretty good job, regardless of the actual filename.

See the attached image. If you decide the "wrong" format was used to set the metadata, or for any other reason, the displayed icon function in the upper right corner of Edit Metadata will reset/reload/grab the metadata from your desired format.

I always run the "Modify Epub" plug-in with almost all of the checkboxes "checked" to fix the epub file and then to write my "final" metadata values, plus the proper jacket and cover image, back to the epub format. Obviously, you should not do this step until you have reset the metadata from your desired format (as displayed in the image).


DaltonST