Selectively exclude custom columns from single MDE

[BetterRed]

I thought there was a way to do this, but I can't find it. I looked in the obvious places - Tweaks and Job Spy. If I've missed it can someone give me a screen shot.

I know I can have custom columns in a separate tab, and that there's a tweak for arranging them in one or two columns, but they're not sufficient.

Use case: having multiple instances of the long text editor embedded in the MDE dialogue adds clutter. And it's understandably hard to navigate in-to and out-of them. My preference would be to exclude them and edit those columns from the book list.

Psst: I know I can do it by setting the 'editable' column to 0 in the relevant rows of the 'custom_columns' table of the library database. But that's far too far under the covers for me. And I suspect it wouldn't survive the database cleaner.

BR

[chaley]

With standard calibre you can reorder them but you can't exclude them.

Job spy claims to do it. The plugin's description under "Look and Feel GUI Tools" says "Protect/Unprotect (Hide/Show) a Custom Column from the 'Edit Metadata' dialogs (excluding the 'S&R' tab within Bulk Edit)." I don't use the plugin so I can't give a screen shot.

[ownedbycats]

Note that you don't want to hide the column if it's used by any plugins; an attempt to hide my fanfiction longtext metadata column resulted in FanFicFare erroring when trying to update it.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

With standard calibre you can reorder them but you can't exclude them.

Job spy claims to do it. The plugin's description under "Look and Feel GUI Tools" says "Protect/Unprotect (Hide/Show) a Custom Column from the 'Edit Metadata' dialogs (excluding the 'S&R' tab within Bulk Edit)." I don't use the plugin so I can't give a screen shot.

found it - but I should have taken heed of Alice's whispers as I clicked Submit button. "We've been down this rabbit hole before, sunshine."

If a column is 'Protected' via JS, the setting survives a Library Check (database vacuum) but not a Library Restore.

But there's a bigger catch-22: if a custom column's 'editable' flag is set to 0 (which is what JS does) the custom column is indeed hidden in MDE… and, in the Book List it becomes Read Only, so no F2. Which makes sense to me, even though it's not what I want.

Another option would be a button for each custom long text column (that popped the long text editor, a'la F2 in the book list) rather than embedded sub-dialogues - that would get rid of the clutter and make navigation easier.

The attached screen shot shows an extreme example of the issue I'm seeking to address.

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

The attached screen shot shows an extreme example of the issue I'm seeking to address.

BR

Adding a tweak providing a list of lookup names not to show isn't beyond the pale. I will look at this later today. The tweak will affect both bulk and single metadata edit.

Question: is there any reason to also provide a list of names to include? I think this would useful only when someone has a zillion columns and wants to see a few of them.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Adding a tweak providing a list of lookup names not to show isn't beyond the pale. I will look at this later today. The tweak will affect both bulk and single metadata edit.

Question: is there any reason to also provide a list of names to include? I think this would useful only when someone has a zillion columns and wants to see a few of them.

I would find inclusion and exclusion lists confusing. What happens to a column that's in neither list, or to a column that's in both lists.

Given my druthers I'd prefer something like this:



Maybe as another column of check boxes in the Add your own columns list, or perhaps in a Look & feel->Book list tab (that doesn't exist - yet)

BR

[chaley]

I am not going to add GUI support for this.

If the inclusion list is not empty then it wins. If the inclusion list is empty and the exclusion list is not empty then the exclusion list wins. If both lists are empty then all columns are shown.

[ownedbycats]

I'd like to add support for an exclusion list; it'd be nice to be able to hide my fanfiction longtext column without breaking FanFicFare.

[BetterRed]

IMO if both lists are non-empty it probably indicates the user is confused. If the inclusion list takes precedence, then a non-empty exclusion list is 'useless'; and vice-versa of course.

Typing lists of column names in tweaks is error prone if one has many columns, and column lookup names can changed - it's easy to forget a column is used in an 'obscure' tweak. And, because Tweaks are global you can't have per-library settings which can make things awkward. EX: the exclude_fields_on_paste tweak cannot exclude 'title' for library A but not for library B. DaltonST provides a number of per library overrides in JS, but not that one - probably because no one has asked..

BTW this is not for me, as you no doubt recall I edit in the book list. It's for a fellow reading group member, she uses calibre to manage clothing patterns, fabric, and related libraries -- as well as books, magazines etc.

Added - I am sure my friend would be happy with a simple exclusion list, like one I mentioned for column paste.

BR

[chaley]

I changed my mind for a few reasons.

1) Tweaks aren't suitable for this in the face of multiple libraries. I can see someone wanting to show #bar in library1 but not in library2. I didn't want to invent a syntax for lists that select libraries.

2) As BetterRed pointed out, typing lists of lookup names isn't easy, especially as a restart is required for every attempt.

3) Maintaining the tweak in the face of column additions and changes isn't easy.

(I see on rereading BetterRed's post that he said all of the above.)

Preferences / Look & feel is the right place for this. That said, I am not totally happy with it. The dialog looks rather empty. Eventually other stuff might go there.

Samples:

[kovidgoyal]

@chaley: if you want to do that, probably move the setting for edit metadata layout to that tab from Preferences->Behavior

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@chaley: if you want to do that, probably move the setting for edit metadata layout to that tab from Preferences->Behavior

That makes sense.

I also thought about moving the two column tweak but haven't decided whether it matters. That is one that truly is set-and-forget.

[chaley]

The new stuff is now in calibre source.

Note: I didn't attempt to migrate the order-of-fields tweak. If you changed the field order with that tweak then you must do it again in the dialog.

[ownedbycats]

Look and feel looks different than I remember!

Thought: Would it make sense for there to be a button/link at the bottom of the MDE field list to open hidden fields in an additional window? This would make them still accessible.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Look and feel looks different than I remember!

Thought: Would it make sense for there to be a button/link at the bottom of the MDE field list to open hidden fields in an additional window? This would make them still accessible.

What did you do to make the tabs go down the left hand side instead of at the top?