Plugin ideas... add yours here

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Would it be possible to develop a plugin to merge and split PDF files? I read a great many academic PDFs. Sometimes these are small articles and could benefit from being merged into a larger single PDFs. Sometimes the opposite is true and I'd like to extract a section of a larger PDF.

@HarryT - I use this to merge and extract PDFs ==>> PDF Split and Merge | SourceForge.net.

It's free, needs Java. Does all I've ever needed, and simple to use.

BR

[HarryT]

Thanks, BR. I appreciate the recommendation!

[TheCthulhuKid]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Would it be possible to develop a plugin to merge and split PDF files? I read a great many academic PDFs. Sometimes these are small articles and could benefit from being merged into a larger single PDFs. Sometimes the opposite is true and I'd like to extract a section of a larger PDF.

I am actually working on something to do similar for a work project. I will try and write a plugin. It'll be good practice

[glennWilliams]

Originally Posted by drMerry

I'm thinking about creating a 'meta author' plugin.

hi

did anything come of this?

its something id really like.

ive only started using calibre the last few months but its become such an important tool for me. Ive started looking into developing for it. this is the first thing I thought was needed when thinking about new features / plugs

could you let me know if this or similar is being worked on

cheers

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by glennWilliams

hi

did anything come of this?

its something id really like.

ive only started using calibre the last few months but its become such an important tool for me. Ive started looking into developing for it. this is the first thing I thought was needed when thinking about new features / plugs

could you let me know if this or similar is being worked on

cheers

In Windows I achieve it by pasting a link to an Evernote note into the Author Link field in Manage Authors.

Details can be found here ==>> Calibre and Evernote . No plugins are needed for calibre or Evernote, nor any calibre custom columns - i.e. all it needs is vanilla Calibre + vanilla Evernote. For me the advantages are:

• You can put just about anything into an Evernote note. For instance, I insert links to calibre-server author pages (via Chrome browser shortcuts) into my Evernote author notes.
• If one has the same Author in two (or more) physical libraries, the same Evernote link can be pasted into that authors Link field in both libraries. And the author note can have links to the author's books in both physical libraries.
• To encourage me to be consistent, I've created pro-forma templates for Authors and Books in Evernote, which is very easy to do and use.
• You can probably use anything that publishes URI links to individual notes/records/whatever, One Note is another possibility.
• And thanks to chaley, the Evernote links are accessible from the Android version of Calibre Companion.

It should work with the OS/X versions of calibre and Evernote, but I am not aware of anyone doing it.

BR

[Divingduck]

Hi Dalton,
I like to give you some answers to your questions.

Do most Calibre users with embroidery libraries have "real" proprietary embroidery software to extract the metadata, especially for complex file formats like .pes that contain a .pec embedded within it?

I do not know if there are calibre users that do as well embroidery.
It depends on what they are doing. If a user only stitch commercial designs, they buy an embroidery file and stitch it with the machine. They are able to change the size by some % within the machine but are not able to make general changes on a design. They sometimes use free of charge tools like Wilcom Truesizer, Bernina Artlink and some other to convert a file format from one to an other format. In my case a Bernina and I use ART, EXP and EXP+ (a variation of the commercial melco exp format with two additional files for thread colors and a low res picture)
If they want to do more, they need most time proprietary embroidery software. There is only one free software called embroidermodder what is more or less a basic develpoment. Since one of the two major contributor died in a tragic accident there is only a bit maintenance since long time (https://github.com/Embroidermodder/Embroidermodder). It is as well a good starting point for programmers as you can find there some information for supported formats.

So most people need to buy proprietary embroidery software if they want to do more than stitching out a design. Not a few buy software from the same company the machine came from because of the capabilities for a fully supported native format and, well because it was a small market with only a handful player around the arena and the seller like to sell more expensive software...
Beside the main actors in the business there are some small companies with own development. Sandscomputering, Balard and some more. The entry costs are for not main actors a little below the level of main actors 150+. If you like to do create embroidery yourself, the cost will increase very fast to huge numbers depending on the functionality .5k to 2k in home embroidery software and in commercial area starting by 1.5k to 20k+ per workstation. The other problem are the file formats. Most of them are not public and the companies who own the formats do not publish any information. Known information about some of the formats are reverse engineering data based from somewhen in the beginning 2000. They differ between versions within a format, the manufacturer and the kind of information a embroidery file contains. I used the wording "native format" some when before. Embroidery files in general you can sort in formats that only represent stitch information and formats that represent outline information. The last one are complex files with object outlines, object properties and stitch data. Newer formats supports additional information like different colorways for a design, project information like metadata and so on.

If they do, does their software create a text file with the metadata for each embroidery file format that can be imported by MFI to update Calibre custom columns? Or a .CSV file that could be imported to do the same thing, but en masse for an entire embroidery design library?

Not really. With commercial design files you become this data as separate information in different formats per design. These are called project information/files and/or thread charts as picture, paper, text file or pdf. No standards.
Data en masse. Well, I know only one software but that is a professional solution. For a low budget or free solution I don't know if there is other software available what can create these kind of data. I haven't seen that up to now somewhere around. Maybe other user can give you an answer.

I am just thinking a bit around. Maybe you or someone else have an elegant idea to extract the data from a pdf project file. Then there is a solution thinkable that match a lot of formats without the need of decode file formats. The user only needs to create a project sheet with a free tool.

[DaltonST]

@DivingDuck:

Thank you for your detailed answers.

I found the "embroidermodder" software you mentioned to be very informative. Feed it a machine embroidery file format, and it spits out a .csv of its contents, plus creates statistics and an image. Example is attached.

Given the availability of these fine statistics and .csv data, I am not sure exactly what, if anything, I need to add to the MFI plug-in to enhance the Dynamic Variable {embroidery_file_info}.



DaltonST

[Divingduck]

@DaltonST,
You're welcome. I thought you like that

Give me a little bit time to take a closer look on your latest version and come back to you.

Edit:
I took a look

Well, where to start? In general I think for someone who had nothing in the past, this is much better then nothing, because with a little bit thinking around this is a good starting point (automated import of all files for an embroidering design). I guess, users of the pcs format will like the import of some basic metadata too. To import this in the comment field is no bad idea, because from there users can move the data then to custom fields if they wish to do this. This will preserve you to blow up your interface and give a user some freedom to be flexible.

With the color information I have a little problem. First your statement for hus isn't correct. Most of the actual home embroidery formats have color information in the design file. The problem is to identify the information. You are showing a representative RGB code for a thread color. I guess for most embroiderer this information is useless. They need a thread color number of a thread manufacturer. The other point with that is, mostly you will find no real thread color info. Instead you will see only a default value for a thread 1,2,3... Then you need a separate design information from the design company. (e.g. Color 1 is a Mettler Poly Sheen thread No 2170 with name Chiffon a.s.o.)
What are useful information?
Number of Stitches, number of used colors, thread manufacturer (if available), size of an embroidery (mm and inch). My own set have 13 entries, so a lot more.

Best regards, DD

Edit: just recognize, that's already implemented:
A other point are the formats. PCS and HUS is fare to less. The major formats are ART, DST, EMB, EXP, JEF, PES, SEW, VIP, VP3 and XXX as binary import formats or give a user the possibility to define/extend a free set of formats. I think the last one is the better solution.

[dpayment]

I have approximately 16,000 books in my Calibre library, with many more to come. That volume of books also has an accompanying author list of over 6,500 names. The problem lies in that many of these authors are listed by either more than one variation on their name, or they use pseudonyms for some of their other works. For example, in the first case there is E. E. Smith. His books appear with the author credits listing E. E. "Doc" Smith, or Edward E. Smith, or Edward Everett Smith, or any of several other possibilities. That means that I need to support all these variants if I want the metadata to reflect the correct information when I download the metadata. Another example, and there are many authors with similar habits, is Stephen King, who also wrote under the name "Richard Bachman". Again it means two listings for one author. A third example would be Michele Bardsley, who is also listed as Michele R. Bardsley. Again, two listings for one person. Personally, I feel the duplication makes my library unnecessarily complicated.

What I would like to see is some way of adding a custom column to the Calibre library display that would let me list an author by one name, but that would be able to link to a table that would contain the various aliases. This table would allow Calibre to see all variations of an author's name when doing a metadata pull from the various book databases. I probably haven't explained this very clearly, so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'd appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Dan

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dpayment

I have approximately 16,000 books in my Calibre library, with many more to come. That volume of books also has an accompanying author list of over 6,500 names. The problem lies in that many of these authors are listed by either more than one variation on their name, or they use pseudonyms for some of their other works. For example, in the first case there is E. E. Smith. His books appear with the author credits listing E. E. "Doc" Smith, or Edward E. Smith, or Edward Everett Smith, or any of several other possibilities. That means that I need to support all these variants if I want the metadata to reflect the correct information when I download the metadata. Another example, and there are many authors with similar habits, is Stephen King, who also wrote under the name "Richard Bachman". Again it means two listings for one author. A third example would be Michele Bardsley, who is also listed as Michele R. Bardsley. Again, two listings for one person. Personally, I feel the duplication makes my library unnecessarily complicated.

What I would like to see is some way of adding a custom column to the Calibre library display that would let me list an author by one name, but that would be able to link to a table that would contain the various aliases. This table would allow Calibre to see all variations of an author's name when doing a metadata pull from the various book databases. I probably haven't explained this very clearly, so if anyone has any ideas or suggestions, I'd appreciate the help.

Thanks,
Dan

This is already a Native ability to Calibre
You create a Custom Authors like column (and fill in the Author alternate)
Then you set up a Search linkage: Preferences: Searching: <near the botton>

I do wish there was a way to use the same Lookup list as was in Authors (share the Index)

[DaltonST]

Pseudonym SQLite Table with data:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...mentid=138519&
d=1432222868

See the Multi Column Search plugin OP at https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=261712 regarding Book Awards. Do for Pseudonyms what MCS explains how to do for Book Awards.

DaltonST

[Rellwood]

Is there a plugin or an already function that would let me know if a book doesn't have a TOC? I hate opening up a book to find that the TOC is missing.

[JimmXinu]

The Quality Check plugin has some options for checking EPUBs' NCX (built-in metadata) TOC, if that helps.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

Is there a plugin or an already function that would let me know if a book doesn't have a TOC? I hate opening up a book to find that the TOC is missing.

I've considered writing one for PDFs, but been too busy really, and I'd want to rely on external tools, so not sure how to make it cross platform.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by compurandom

I'd want to rely on external tools, so not sure how to make it cross platform.

There's no need, calibre bundles PoDoFo, which has functions to get the outline from an existing PDF. I dont think those functions are wrapped to expose them to python, but it should be a simple patch to podofo/doc.cpp to expose them.