[Enhancement] calibre:// book-details option

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

Yes. The details are being worked out. It could be in a new table, or it could be stored in the link column of the existing tables. We also want to store images referred to by the documents, avoiding any file:// references.

If Book folders had an optional "Attachments" sub folder, perhaps RTF and image files could be stored in it and referenced relatively, might need a book_attachments:// protocol. It would also solve the perennial problem of where to put supplementary material.

Added: maybe the Link field in Authors and other category columns should become a Links field - i.e. a list of <a href="xxx://whatever">label<\a> links

BR

[ownedbycats]

I would use book_attachments for alternate covers.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

If Book folders had an optional "Attachments" sub folder, perhaps RTF and image files could be stored in it and referenced relatively, might need a book_attachments:// protocol. It would also solve the perennial problem of where to put supplementary material.

BR

This isn't related to meta-metadata, which has no 1-1 relationship with books. It would require some alternate folder structure and all that entails, such as dealing with deletes and renames.

[ownedbycats]

I believe SQLite supports blob (or none?) data but that probably isn't too practical

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

This isn't related to meta-metadata, which has no 1-1 relationship with books. It would require some alternate folder structure and all that entails, such as dealing with deletes and renames.

Putting the meta-metadata issue aside, IMO all it would require of calibre is a tool to create and open a book's Attachments folder and recognise it's existence - i.e. not flag it as an error in Check library. At the moment kludges like adding playlists, or spoofing archive formats are used.

Have to dash

BR

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Putting the meta-metadata issue aside, IMO all it would require of calibre is a tool to create and open a book's Attachments folder and recognise it's existence - i.e. not flag it as an error in Check library. At the moment kludges like adding playlists, or spoofing archive formats are used.

Have to dash

BR

What about handling of the filenames? Should it keep them intact, so that you could have multiples of the same of the same extension?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Putting the meta-metadata issue aside, IMO all it would require of calibre is a tool to create and open a book's Attachments folder and recognise it's existence - i.e. not flag it as an error in Check library. At the moment kludges like adding playlists, or spoofing archive formats are used.

Have to dash

BR

Over the past decade I've seen many more threads asking how other users store supplementary files than I've seen threads asking how other users store data about authors, series, publisher's etc.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

What about handling of the filenames? Should it keep them intact, so that you could have multiples of the same of the same extension?

In my view the filenames and types would be defined by the user - e.g. 6 epubs, 5 jpgs, 15 txt files, and an mp4 video would be fine. But perhaps no subfolders (real or symbolic).

The actions I envisage calibre performing on the Attachments folder are….

• New Functions
• Create - fixed name (Attachments, Pièces jointe, etc), set a flag in book table row.
• Open - in platform file manager (File Explorer, Finder, Nautilus etc).
• Save - to "<Library>/{author}/{title}/Attachments" in user selected location.
• Delete (hard) - unset a flag in book table row.
• Existing functions (perhaps after ensuring Attachments contained no subfolders…) essentially what's done with the other book folder contents (cover.jpg, metadata.opf and format files) as a collective
• Move it when an author or title is changed.
• Remove it when a book is removed**
• Copy it, and optionally delete it, when the Copy to Library feature is used.

[chaley]

The "links everywhere" changes are in calibre source.

[chaley]

Also in source: calibre book-details link support.

Documentation:

Open a book details window on a book in some library

The URL syntax is:
calibre://book-details/Library_Name/book_id
This opens a book details window on the specified book from the specified library without changing the current library or the selected book.

You can easily make these links from show-book links by replacing "show-book" with "book-details". At some point I will add getting the book details link to the details context menu.

Links on items look like this:

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

The "links everywhere" changes are in calibre source.

Originally Posted by chaley

Also in source: calibre book-details link support.

Documentation:

You can easily make these links from show-book links by replacing "show-book" with "book-details". At some point I will add getting the book details link to the details context menu.

Links on items look like this:
Attachment 200712

Yes, I saw them late yesterday (my time)

It'll be interesting to see how much the linking feature gets used, I suspect the 'Attach a note' feature will get more usage.

BR

[ownedbycats]

I tried the book-details.

After some trouble figuring out how to get it to accept 'My Books' for library name (underscore or %20?) I put in the hex encoded version copied from a show-book. Oddly the titlebar shows it as "My_Books"

Also it's surprisingly rather barebones -- just default columns, no links. I guess this makes sense as accessing other libraries might be slow or complicated (especially for lots of composite columns like me ). Since I only use one library I would stick to show-book.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

Also in source: calibre book-details link support.

Documentation:

You can easily make these links from show-book links by replacing "show-book" with "book-details". At some point I will add getting the book details link to the details context menu.

Links on items look like this:
Attachment 200712

Is the author-name link and arrow link the same thing?

A thought: One thing that's always bothered me is that I prefer to have clicking names search for the item in the Calibre library. However, author link overrides this. The inconvenience of this means I don't use author link even when I'd like to.

If they could be made separate elements perhaps this could be fixed?

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Is the author-name link and arrow link the same thing?

A thought: One thing that's always bothered me is that I prefer to have clicking names search for the item in the Calibre library. However, author link overrides this. The inconvenience of this means I don't use author link even when I'd like to.

If they could be made separate elements perhaps this could be fixed?

No they are not the same. Clicking the author does a search based on what you have configured in Preferences->Book details. The icon is the associated link only.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Is the author-name link and arrow link the same thing?

A thought: One thing that's always bothered me is that I prefer to have clicking names search for the item in the Calibre library. However, author link overrides this. The inconvenience of this means I don't use author link even when I'd like to.

If they could be made separate elements perhaps this could be fixed?

As discussed earlier in this thread clicking on an author's name will do what is specified in the Prefs->L&F->Book details->Clicking on author names should: setting.

The clickable arrow will only be shown if a category (author, series, publisher, etc) has a value in its Link field.

My understanding is calibre:\\book-details links to books in the same library would need to be in a long text column - viz:



BR

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

I tried the book-details.

After some trouble figuring out how to get it to accept 'My Books' for library name (underscore or %20?) I put in the hex encoded version copied from a show-book. Oddly the titlebar shows it as "My_Books"

Also it's surprisingly rather barebones -- just default columns, no links. I guess this makes sense as accessing other libraries might be slow or complicated (especially for lots of composite columns like me ). Since I only use one library I would stick to show-book.

Not using the configured set of fields was a bug should be fixed. As for no links, since links cause searches in the currently visible library, they cant really do anything for books from another library.