Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Software > Calibre

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 02-06-2010, 07:26 AM   #1
Magic Man
Member
Magic Man began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: Android (Aldiko)
Quick question...

Hi, new here!

Quick question, when I import books, the book directories are created with an increasing numerical value in brackets after the name of the book.

Why is this needed and, more importantly, how can I turn this off. I want my book directories named simply according to the book rather than with an index value on the end. If I edit the directory name to remove this then Calibre simply creates another directory as named previously with the next number in the series.

Thanks!
Magic Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2010, 09:17 AM   #2
GRiker
Comparer of the Ephemeris
GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.GRiker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 1,496
Karma: 424697
Join Date: Mar 2009
Device: iPad
The numbers are the database IDs. The directories that calibre creates are for its own purposes, and you shouldn't directly try to manipulate their contents. You can keep a parallel copy of your books in a separate directory structure if you wish, with whatever naming scheme you prefer, but don't tempt fate by trying to change calibre's directory structure. You can also export books from calibre's database with whatever naming scheme you like. Just don't mess with calibre's copy.

G
GRiker is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 02-06-2010, 06:21 PM   #3
Magic Man
Member
Magic Man began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: Android (Aldiko)
Okay, thanks for that.
Magic Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 04:54 PM   #4
Magic Man
Member
Magic Man began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: Android (Aldiko)
Back to this...

I understand the reason for this but isn't there a better way for Calibre to achieve the same thing? e.g. by storing an .ini file at a root level or some other log file that identifies the book directories in the root of the author directory so that the book directories don't have to have the database id appended to them?
Magic Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 05:08 PM   #5
Starson17
Wizard
Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.Starson17 can program the VCR without an owner's manual.
 
Posts: 4,004
Karma: 177841
Join Date: Dec 2009
Device: WinMo: IPAQ; Android: HTC HD2, Archos 7o; Java:Gravity T
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic Man View Post
Back to this...

I understand the reason for this but isn't there a better way for Calibre to achieve the same thing? e.g. by storing an .ini file at a root level or some other log file that identifies the book directories in the root of the author directory so that the book directories don't have to have the database id appended to them?
The purpose of appending the id isn't to keep track of them. It's to allow multiple books with the same author and title to be stored without duplicating the directory name (which the OS will not allow).
Starson17 is offline   Reply With Quote
Advert
Old 09-04-2010, 05:19 PM   #6
Magic Man
Member
Magic Man began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: Android (Aldiko)
In what situation would you have multiple books with the same author and title - aren't they the same book? If not then wouldn't they be identified uniquely by the book title anyway and therefore create a unique book directory?
Magic Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 06:31 PM   #7
capidamonte
Not who you think I am...
capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.
 
capidamonte's Avatar
 
Posts: 374
Karma: 30283
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Honolulu
Device: PocketBook 360 -- Ivory
Five off the top of my head:

Different versions -- a la Heinlein's short stories, or King Lear.

Same version, different owner (different metadata, cover, etc. possible.)

Same version, different layout for different reader, same formats.

Unexamined versions, after multi-directory import.

Same author name, same title, different author (person), coincidental naming.
capidamonte is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 07:04 PM   #8
Magic Man
Member
Magic Man began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: Android (Aldiko)
And you'd give them all the exact same author name and same book name even though you knew they were different as opposed to appending or prefixing some form of unique identification yourself? How would you easily identify them within the library?
Magic Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 07:26 PM   #9
capidamonte
Not who you think I am...
capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.capidamonte can even cheer up an android equipped with a defective Genuine Personality Prototype.
 
capidamonte's Avatar
 
Posts: 374
Karma: 30283
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: Honolulu
Device: PocketBook 360 -- Ivory
Forget I wrote anything.

You just keep pushing. Someday everyone will do it your way.
capidamonte is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 09:03 PM   #10
Magic Man
Member
Magic Man began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: Android (Aldiko)
Who's pushing? was merely asking a question as to the real need for numerical values in book directory names. Your answer didn't seem a logical reason since the book directories take their names from the book title. You'd have to have 'different' books with the exact same title and same author name to qualify your reasons but then surely you'd want to differentiate them in some way in the library to tell them apart by appending or pre-fixing some identifier which, in turn, would then make the book directory names not the same anymore.

But, you want to take that attitude, fine.
Magic Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 09:40 PM   #11
theducks
Well trained by Cats
theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.theducks ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
theducks's Avatar
 
Posts: 29,689
Karma: 54369090
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: The Central Coast of California
Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic Man View Post
Who's pushing? was merely asking a question as to the real need for numerical values in book directory names. Your answer didn't seem a logical reason since the book directories take their names from the book title. You'd have to have 'different' books with the exact same title and same author name to qualify your reasons but then surely you'd want to differentiate them in some way in the library to tell them apart by appending or pre-fixing some identifier which, in turn, would then make the book directory names not the same anymore.

But, you want to take that attitude, fine.
IMHO You were pushing. You asked for example, then shoved back.

Author data comes from public Meta-data loads.
You can NOT retrieve covers, meta-data with a (made)WRONG author name (it is bad enough, with all the DB errors already)
You can not link to other books by the same Author, if you mess with the name in one book (and it probably DOES have a problem with this condition already without a "tie-breaker" fie;d attached to the Author table. Thank goodness, my collection does not have this problem )
theducks is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-04-2010, 10:51 PM   #12
Worldwalker
Curmudgeon
Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Worldwalker ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 3,085
Karma: 722357
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: PRS-505
Read my .sig.
Worldwalker is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-05-2010, 12:01 AM   #13
DoctorOhh
US Navy, Retired
DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.DoctorOhh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
DoctorOhh's Avatar
 
Posts: 9,864
Karma: 13806776
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: North Carolina
Device: Icarus Illumina XL HD, Nexus 7
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic Man View Post
Back to this...

I understand the reason for this but isn't there a better way for Calibre to achieve the same thing? e.g. by storing an .ini file at a root level or some other log file that identifies the book directories in the root of the author directory so that the book directories don't have to have the database id appended to them?
There are always better ways to do things.

If it bothers you, rewrite the core of how calibre handles its books, make the new way more efficient and submit it to Kovid as an enhancement.

Last edited by DoctorOhh; 09-05-2010 at 06:53 AM.
DoctorOhh is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-05-2010, 06:16 AM   #14
Magic Man
Member
Magic Man began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 12
Karma: 10
Join Date: Feb 2010
Device: Android (Aldiko)
I was not pushing, I was merely replying to an answer in the same tone that it answered my previous post.

I understand perfectly well that "Filesystems manage files. Calibre manages books." but then Calibre manages its books using a filesystem, it doesn't store them in a db or other container so the point is moot.

I can understand perfectly that if there was a requirement two have more than one book directory with exactly the same name under the same author directory then there would need to be some form of unique identifyer in the book directory name to identify it, hence the id value, my point was that wouldn't you want to identify the difference yourself so that such a difference was human intelligible in the library? I.e. name them differently to identify them to your eyes in the library as well as enabling to program to tell them apart?.

My point was that since the directory structure has to be itterated over to retrieve these identifiers anyway, why not simply identify the records by name alone with a corresponding lookup value in a root level .ini or .db file?

No worries.

Last edited by Magic Man; 09-05-2010 at 06:21 AM.
Magic Man is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-05-2010, 07:01 AM   #15
Lady Fitzgerald
Wizard
Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.Lady Fitzgerald ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Lady Fitzgerald's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,013
Karma: 251649
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth
Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)
Several of us here on this forum have been repeatedly trying to get across to people that the calibre libraries are not intended to have their files directly accessed by the users. Instead, books are supposed to be accessed through calibre. Personally, I feel Kovid could have written calibre in such a way that it could just point to an existing file in a user's own folder/filename tree instead of copying it over to a new library, especially since the added metadata is stored in it's own file. But, that was not the route Kovid chose. Apparently, it would take a major rewrite to accomplish that and Kovid would prefer to concentrate on adding new features than spending time he doesn't have on a major rewrite (either that or he doesn't feel it's important enough). Frankly, most of the rest of us prefer the new features we have been getting over something that really isn't that big a deal. Calibre does what it does so well, I'm not going to loose any sleep over it using its own file sytem to store books.

It's hard to let go of the old ways, in this case, if I understand the OP correctly, not trusting calibre to manage one's books in its own way instead of more the more tradition folder/filename hierarchy. I can understand one wanting to still have the old system in place should one decide to abandon calibre for something that better suits one's needs. I keep my original files in a folder just for that reason even though I trust calibre. Kovid's young enough he isn't likely to retire before I die and abandon calibre, and, if for some odd reason Kovid does have to abandon calibre, there have been enough other people involved in calibre's development that it's likely someone will pick up the ball and run with it so calibre is not likely to go away in my lifetime (what's left of it). But if it does manage to become abandonware, I'll still have my original files. I don't really need them, though, since before calibre could become inoperable due to an OS change, all I would need to do is just save everything to a folder of my own with whatever filename structure I wanted but then, I'm an old lady who is set in her ways.

Calibre has ways in place to put copies of your files wherever you may want them named however you want them. You just need to let calibre do it and not try to do it yourself. Worldwalker (has anyone heard anything from him lately?) likens calibre's library folders to a black box that you don't ever need to open (nor should). I personally hide the calibre library folders so I (or someone else) won't accidentally (or otherwise) mess with them.
Lady Fitzgerald is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
PRS-900 Quick question regarding feature kdittyr Sony Reader 8 06-15-2010 05:53 PM
Quick Question about a Kindle artemisblossom Amazon Kindle 4 03-13-2010 01:07 PM
A quick question about USPS BeTePoK Lounge 6 01-09-2010 05:02 PM
PRS-600 Okay, quick question.... emonti8384 Sony Reader 13 11-12-2009 06:18 PM
Quick Question. Baz047 Sony Reader 10 12-09-2008 12:25 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 06:32 PM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.