edits to Title & Author don't show in Cybook: why?

hapax legomenon · 04-24-2008, 03:29 AM

I downloaded and converted lots of PG books and other things.

Many are named by default: THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PROJECT; THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS BY KENNETH GRAHAME

Which means of course that nothing shows in Cybook display except for these irrelevant words THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PROJECT.

i DON'T understand. I edited metadata for these files inside Mobipocket Reader (latest version) and deleted The's and other incorrect data. Why do I still have 50+ titles, all named THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PROJECT on the cybook?

HarryT · 04-24-2008, 03:42 AM

Editing the metadata in Windows Mobi Reader doesn't do anything to the book itself - it just changes the metadata that's displayed in Mobi Reader itself. That metadata DOESN'T get transferred when you copy the file elsewhere.

I'd suggest that you use MobiPocket Creator to change the text files into "real" MobiPocket books. That way you can set the title, author, etc, to be whatever you want, add a cover image, etc.

hapax legomenon · 04-24-2008, 04:12 AM

wow, that is lousy! (I wish I knew that an hour ago).

That just doesn't make sense. Why would Mobipocket Desktop give you the ability to edit this metadata if it didn't make any difference whatsoever on the device?

(Or did this work only on PDAs but not e-ink readers)?

That's saying that the metadata is baked into the binary file.

Creator, as I understand it only has the ability to import html files. It doesn't even have the ability to import ms word file. so essentially the only option would be to convert from MS word to html. that's strange.

I downloaded quite a number of manybooks prc files a year or two ago.

hapax legomenon · 04-24-2008, 04:16 AM

aha, I spoke too soon. Looks like you can do this from the home page of Mobipocket creator.

HarryT · 04-24-2008, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hapax legomenon

wow, that is lousy! (I wish I knew that an hour ago).

That just doesn't make sense. Why would Mobipocket Desktop give you the ability to edit this metadata if it didn't make any difference whatsoever on the device?

Because its main purpose is to act as a Mobipocket Reader for desktop PCs. The ability to manage external devices is a very minor aspect of its functionality.

Quote:

That's saying that the metadata is baked into the binary file.

For a Mobipocket format book, that is indeed the case, yes. Mobi Desktop Reader lets you "edit" this metadata, but it's not actually changing the metadata in the original file; it just stores your changes in a separate file with a ".mbp" extension.

tompe's excellent "mobi2mobi" tool allows you to genuinely edit the metadata in a Mobipocket book.

DaleDe · 04-24-2008, 02:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Because its main purpose is to act as a Mobipocket Reader for desktop PCs. The ability to manage external devices is a very minor aspect of its functionality.

For a Mobipocket format book, that is indeed the case, yes. Mobi Desktop Reader lets you "edit" this metadata, but it's not actually changing the metadata in the original file; it just stores your changes in a separate file with a ".mbp" extension.

tompe's excellent "mobi2mobi" tool allows you to genuinely edit the metadata in a Mobipocket book.

YOu could copy the mbp file along with the main file to get the metadata.

bwaldron · 04-24-2008, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hapax legomenon

That just doesn't make sense. Why would Mobipocket Desktop give you the ability to edit this metadata if it didn't make any difference whatsoever on the device?

(Or did this work only on PDAs but not e-ink readers)?

Yes, the metadata is used on at least some devices -- for example, the Palm version uses the info from the .mbp files. The Cybook doesn't use the metadata -- though I wish it would! When I bought the Cybook I already had a large library of mobi files -- and I was very surprised to discover, as you did, that many of my books had missing/incorrect author & title information.

The mobi2mobi program from the mobiperl package developed by forum member tompe can be used to edit the metata inside a mobi file itself.

bwaldron · 04-24-2008, 03:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

YOu could copy the mbp file along with the main file to get the metadata.

No, that does not work on the Cybook, in my experience.

DaleDe · 04-25-2008, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwaldron

No, that does not work on the Cybook, in my experience.

Hmm, where does the Cybook keep its metadata about the book? such as bookmarks.

Dale

bwaldron · 04-25-2008, 11:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Hmm, where does the Cybook keep its metadata about the book? such as bookmarks.

Dale

I believe it does use the mbp files for that purpose, it just doesn't use the other metadata (author, title, etc.).

DaleDe · 04-25-2008, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwaldron

I believe it does use the mbp files for that purpose, it just doesn't use the other metadata (author, title, etc.).

Interesting. The reason the author, title, etc. is in the mdp file is to avoid having to open the main file to display this information on the library screen. I can't believe that they open all the files every time they are on the library screen so perhaps they have a second place to store this data. Perhaps there is a cache on the machine somewhere with this data in it. The cache would also have to timestamp every entry to insure it could be updated if you upgrade the eBook itself.

Thanks for the information.

Dale

tompe · 04-25-2008, 12:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Interesting. The reason the author, title, etc. is in the mdp file is to avoid having to open the main file to display this information on the library screen. I can't believe that they open all the files every time they are on the library screen so perhaps they have a second place to store this data. Perhaps there is a cache on the machine somewhere with this data in it. The cache would also have to timestamp every entry to insure it could be updated if you upgrade the eBook itself.

Open the mdp file and getting the data or open the MobiPocket file and getting the data seems to be similar operations with respect to execution time. And you probably have to check if the MobiPocket file is updated anyway if you used the mdp file so I do not believe you gain anything using it.

DaleDe · 04-25-2008, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tompe

Open the mdp file and getting the data or open the MobiPocket file and getting the data seems to be similar operations with respect to execution time. And you probably have to check if the MobiPocket file is updated anyway if you used the mdp file so I do not believe you gain anything using it.

Only if it doesn't load the whole file into memory.

Dale

HarryT · 04-26-2008, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Only if it doesn't load the whole file into memory.

Dale

The whole file is NEVER read into memory - I'm pretty sure about that! A MobiPocket file is in sections; I would imagine that only the current section is in memory.

tompe · 04-26-2008, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

The whole file is NEVER read into memory - I'm pretty sure about that! A MobiPocket file is in sections; I would imagine that only the current section is in memory.

All the meta information is in the unencrypted first record (which I have called record 0 in MobiPerl context).

04-24-2008, 03:29 AM	#1
hapax legomenon Erotica Writer Posts: 102 Karma: 106 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Tulsa, OK Device: ipad, Sony Reader PRS 505, Cybook 3	edits to Title & Author don't show in Cybook: why? I downloaded and converted lots of PG books and other things. Many are named by default: THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PROJECT; THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS BY KENNETH GRAHAME Which means of course that nothing shows in Cybook display except for these irrelevant words THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PROJECT. i DON'T understand. I edited metadata for these files inside Mobipocket Reader (latest version) and deleted The's and other incorrect data. Why do I still have 50+ titles, all named THE PROJECT GUTENBERG PROJECT on the cybook?

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04-24-2008, 03:42 AM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Editing the metadata in Windows Mobi Reader doesn't do anything to the book itself - it just changes the metadata that's displayed in Mobi Reader itself. That metadata DOESN'T get transferred when you copy the file elsewhere. I'd suggest that you use MobiPocket Creator to change the text files into "real" MobiPocket books. That way you can set the title, author, etc, to be whatever you want, add a cover image, etc.

04-24-2008, 04:12 AM	#3
hapax legomenon Erotica Writer Posts: 102 Karma: 106 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Tulsa, OK Device: ipad, Sony Reader PRS 505, Cybook 3	wow, that is lousy! (I wish I knew that an hour ago). That just doesn't make sense. Why would Mobipocket Desktop give you the ability to edit this metadata if it didn't make any difference whatsoever on the device? (Or did this work only on PDAs but not e-ink readers)? That's saying that the metadata is baked into the binary file. Creator, as I understand it only has the ability to import html files. It doesn't even have the ability to import ms word file. so essentially the only option would be to convert from MS word to html. that's strange. I downloaded quite a number of manybooks prc files a year or two ago.

04-24-2008, 04:16 AM	#4
hapax legomenon Erotica Writer Posts: 102 Karma: 106 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Tulsa, OK Device: ipad, Sony Reader PRS 505, Cybook 3	aha, I spoke too soon. Looks like you can do this from the home page of Mobipocket creator.

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