Amazon Plugin

lgladen · 05-12-2011, 04:26 AM

I've noticed something new, I think, to .8. On the B&N and Goodreads plugins there is the option to pull "additional contributors" to the book (illustrators, editors, cover artists, etc.) I had those options unchecked, because otherwise retrieval was a little too slow for me. I was still occasionally getting "additional contributor" info, however - and this time I actually looked at the logs instead of just editing it back out. It appears that the Amazon is now pulling this info as well - but there is no option to shut it off on that plugin. Is it possible to add that checkbox option, or does the Amazon page structure not allow for it?
Example : isbn:9780345321428 is the book "Limits" by "Larry Niven". B&N and Goodreads plugins both just return "Larry Niven" for that isbn, but Amazon's section in the log reads "Larry Niven & Barclay Shaw". Shaw's the cover artist for that edition of the book...so I don't really need to track him in calibre.
Alternately, would it be possible to filter _by plugin_ which fields are overwritten? Let only Goodreads, for example, change the author field.

kovidgoyal · 05-12-2011, 11:37 AM

Amazon doesn't typically identify which authors are "extra" contributors so there's no way to filter them out reliably.

kiwidude · 05-12-2011, 11:57 AM

@Kovid - I note that the configuration screen for an individual metadata source plugin specifically does not include title or authors in the possible configuration list. Is there a particular reason for this? If it was possible to uncheck them there, would that not allow the OP to do what they want - still having Authors being populated on the main checkboxes, but never set from an Amazon source?

@Igladen - Retrieving "all contributors" vs just the author will make negligible difference on performance for the B&N/Goodreads plugins. However it does make a difference to what your metadata looks like which is the only reason why I put the option in there. For myself, I don't care who the "illustrator" was for a book in terms of them now appearing as a coauthor. However I know some people "might" like that, so they can enable it if they want. There will be no performance difference, there are no extra lookups, it just filters out authors from the list it has scraped off the web page.

kovidgoyal · 05-12-2011, 12:14 PM

Because if you do not fetch title and author then listing the result/merging etc will not work. Remember that individual fields are merged.

kiwidude · 05-12-2011, 12:27 PM

I didn't know at which point that "filtering" gets applied. If it was at the "end" I think it would work. Though I presume you do it earlier so that the "preview" of the result doesn't display stuff the user has filtered out.

lgladen · 05-13-2011, 05:46 AM

Thanks much for the quick answer, Kovid and Kiwi - that was pretty much what I suspected on both counts - but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. No worries - it doesn't happen often enough to be a serious problem for me. I think I've just gotten spoiled - every time I have even a minor issue, I blink and a new release has fixed it or Kiwi's put out another plugin to do just what I want!

05-12-2011, 04:26 AM	#1
lgladen Member Posts: 19 Karma: 258 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: evo	Amazon Plugin I've noticed something new, I think, to .8. On the B&N and Goodreads plugins there is the option to pull "additional contributors" to the book (illustrators, editors, cover artists, etc.) I had those options unchecked, because otherwise retrieval was a little too slow for me. I was still occasionally getting "additional contributor" info, however - and this time I actually looked at the logs instead of just editing it back out. It appears that the Amazon is now pulling this info as well - but there is no option to shut it off on that plugin. Is it possible to add that checkbox option, or does the Amazon page structure not allow for it? Example : isbn:9780345321428 is the book "Limits" by "Larry Niven". B&N and Goodreads plugins both just return "Larry Niven" for that isbn, but Amazon's section in the log reads "Larry Niven & Barclay Shaw". Shaw's the cover artist for that edition of the book...so I don't really need to track him in calibre. Alternately, would it be possible to filter _by plugin_ which fields are overwritten? Let only Goodreads, for example, change the author field. Last edited by kiwidude; 05-12-2011 at 05:58 AM. Reason: Changed thread name so does not look like a download thread

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05-12-2011, 11:37 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Amazon doesn't typically identify which authors are "extra" contributors so there's no way to filter them out reliably.

05-12-2011, 11:57 AM	#3
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	@Kovid - I note that the configuration screen for an individual metadata source plugin specifically does not include title or authors in the possible configuration list. Is there a particular reason for this? If it was possible to uncheck them there, would that not allow the OP to do what they want - still having Authors being populated on the main checkboxes, but never set from an Amazon source? @Igladen - Retrieving "all contributors" vs just the author will make negligible difference on performance for the B&N/Goodreads plugins. However it does make a difference to what your metadata looks like which is the only reason why I put the option in there. For myself, I don't care who the "illustrator" was for a book in terms of them now appearing as a coauthor. However I know some people "might" like that, so they can enable it if they want. There will be no performance difference, there are no extra lookups, it just filters out authors from the list it has scraped off the web page.

05-12-2011, 12:14 PM	#4
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,850 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Because if you do not fetch title and author then listing the result/merging etc will not work. Remember that individual fields are merged.

05-12-2011, 12:27 PM	#5
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,636 Karma: 2162064 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	I didn't know at which point that "filtering" gets applied. If it was at the "end" I think it would work. Though I presume you do it earlier so that the "preview" of the result doesn't display stuff the user has filtered out.

05-13-2011, 05:46 AM	#6
lgladen Member Posts: 19 Karma: 258 Join Date: Feb 2011 Device: evo	Thanks much for the quick answer, Kovid and Kiwi - that was pretty much what I suspected on both counts - but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. No worries - it doesn't happen often enough to be a serious problem for me. I think I've just gotten spoiled - every time I have even a minor issue, I blink and a new release has fixed it or Kiwi's put out another plugin to do just what I want!

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