batch updating metadata

[webwizard]

Hello everyone.

I'm trying to add a thousand books to a library. My problem i as follows:

1: I have about 500 jpeg covers files and I need to associate each one to the related book
2: I created two custom columns, year of publication and original title. Both information are stored in a text delimited file.

Now, everything can be made at hand, but since I'm talking of hundreds of books, I'd like to do it with a batch program, so my question is: is there any command line utility that allows to:

a) Specify a jpeg file as a cover for each book and
b) set the values of both principal and custom metadata ?

I checked for the CLU actually available with calibre, but they doesn't seem to do the job.

I was trying to automate XML parsing and editing with VB, but it looks to be quite complicated.

Any suggestion ?

Thanks

Paul

[kovidgoyal]

calibredb set_metadata

will do it for you, provided you can create the OPF files correctly.

[webwizard]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

calibredb set_metadata

will do it for you, provided you can create the OPF files correctly.

Probably I'm missing something, but as soon as I can make an OPF file structured as needed by calibredb, the only thing I have to do next is a simple file replacement.

it would be much easier for me if I can create an XML file including ONLY the items I have to add, such as:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" unique-identifier="uuid_id">
    <metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
        <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;here goes the test description&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
		<meta name="calibre:user_metadata:#originale" content="{&quot;#value#&quot;: &quot;here goes the original title&quot;}"/>
        <meta name="calibre:user_metadata:#anno" content="{&quot;#value#&quot;: &quot;1984&quot;}"/>       
    </metadata>
    <guide>
        <reference href="1197.jpg" type="cover" title="Copertina"/>
    </guide>
</package>

but if I use something like it, the answer is:

U:\BdB>calibredb set_metadata 7 x.xml
Python function terminated unexpectedly
  'datatype' (Error Code: 1)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "site.py", line 103, in main
  File "site.py", line 85, in run_entry_point
  File "site-packages\calibre\library\cli.py", line 1183, in main
  File "site-packages\calibre\library\cli.py", line 483, in command_set_metadata

  File "site-packages\calibre\library\cli.py", line 457, in do_set_metadata
  File "site-packages\calibre\library\database2.py", line 1842, in set_metadata
KeyError: 'datatype'

then the folders are renamed to "unknown" and the metadata.opf file disappears.

Do I have to pass the complete OPF structure to calibredb ? In that case, it's not much help since I need to parse every file anyway...

[kovidgoyal]

You can use calibredb to get the OPF and then modify it as needed.

calibredb show_metadata -h

[webwizard]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You can use calibredb to get the OPF and then modify it as needed.

calibredb show_metadata -h

Well, it seems that modifying the original OPF works. I'll have to make up some sort of XML parser to scan and modify all the metadata.opf files. I hoped there was an easier way, but it seems there isn't

Thanks anyway for your help.

Bye

Paul

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by webwizard

Probably I'm missing something, but as soon as I can make an OPF file structured as needed by calibredb, the only thing I have to do next is a simple file replacement.

If you're talking about the metadata.opf inside the books' folder, that is for backup purposes only and will be overwritten the next time the metadata changes. As far as I know, it's never read, and you'll need to update the database, so there's no way around calling calibredb to update the metadata, I think.