Plugboard, template, and custom composite column recipes

[eschwartz]

You can probably use {series:ifempty(noseries)| - | } to replace the series info with "noseries". Although that might not be the height of elegance, it would presumably get the authors to be shown as LN, FN.

[PRS-T2]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

You can probably use {series:ifempty(noseries)| - | } to replace the series info with "noseries". Although that might not be the height of elegance, it would presumably get the authors to be shown as LN, FN.

Yes I also thought about something like that. Was torn between either indicating that the book is not in a series, just like you're suggesting, or putting some valuable information behind it.

Atm, my plug is:

{author_sort:||,}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>3s}

And I think I'll make it

{author_sort:||,}{series:| - | }{series_index:0>3s}{tags:uppercase()| |}

Instead of:
Sebastian Junger
it would then show
Junger, Sebastian, CONTEMPORARY, CREATIVE NONFICTION

Or, if the book was in a series:
Junger, Sebastian, - Andrea Gail 001 CONTEMPORARY, CREATIVE NONFICTION

Sorting should then be either:
author_sort, tags
or:
author_sort, series, series_index, tags
depending on the book being in a series or not. I'd love to see my genre info there or at least, if the series title is overly long, the first part of the genre(s)

For everybody who would like to try it out but would like to see something less bulky in the author line: {languages} or {pubdate} would be short and still helpful for some.

"noseries" would be nice to have if one is unsure whether the series thing is really working or not. To see if there would still be books showing neither series information nor "noseries"...

All that given that I'm thinking right here hehe, will test it when I have the time.

[eschwartz]

You can also make it conditional on whether or not the series is there.
http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/temp...l-program-mode

But it is still dependent on having tags or series.

program:

series_formatted = strcat(
		finish_formatting(
			field('series'),
			'',
			'',
			''
		),
		finish_formatting(
			field('series_index'),
			'0>3s',
			' ',
			''
		)
	);

# Main
strcat(
	field('author_sort'),
	finish_formatting(
		ifempty(
			series_formatted,
			uppercase(field('tags'))
		),
		'',
		', - ',
		''
	)
)

Junger, Sebastian, - CONTEMPORARY, CREATIVE NONFICTION

Or, if the book was in a series:
Junger, Sebastian, - Andrea Gail 001

Or if there is no tags OR series:
Sebastian Junger

[matanic]

I'm hoping someone can help me with a composite column. I have a Kobo Aura H2O and I'm using KoboUtilities to create a Reading Status column (thanks to PeterT's recipe) that marks a book as finished when it is 100% read.

I would like to create a column that looks at one column to see if a book is new (currently I've created a Yes/No custom column for this, but I could change that if necessary), then it looks to see if the book is finished. If the book is new and not finished, it assigns a value "1-New" to the column. If it isn't new or is new but finished, it assigns no value to the column. I can then use this column to define one of the "Shelves" on my Kobo and it will automatically update my to read pile to remove books I've finished.

I know very little about programming, but I can usually use someone else's "recipe" to do what I want, even if I have to change it a little. I've managed to create a column that can look at the #new column OR the #readingstatus column, but I can't seem to create one that will look at both. Can anyone help?

[eschwartz]

Well, assuming they are both yesno type columns:

program:

test(
    and(
        field('#new'),
        not(
            field('#readingstatus')
        )
    ),
    '1-New',
    ''
)

[matanic]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, assuming they are both yesno type columns:

program:

test(
    and(
        field('#new',
        not(
            field('#readingstatus')
        )
    ),
    '1-New',
    ''
)

This works (other than one missing closed parenthesis, but that was easy to fix)! My #readingstatus column is not Yes/No but I created another custom column from the #readingstatus column that was Yes/No and it works great! Thanks for the quick reply!

Just out of curiosity, how would you use the and/not or something similar with a function that is testing against a pattern instead of just looking for empy/not empty? I had actually tried using GPM instead of TPM, but I couldn't get any type of and/not or and/or to work with the contains function.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by matanic

Just out of curiosity, how would you use the and/not or something similar with a function that is testing against a pattern instead of just looking for empy/not empty? I had actually tried using GPM instead of TPM, but I couldn't get any type of and/not or and/or to work with the contains function.

Here is an example from my play library, using my column names. #mytextmult is a "text, like tags" column.

program:

test(
    and(
        field('#mybool'),
        contains(field('#mytextmult'), 'watson', '1', '')
    ), '1-New',  '')

[matanic]

Thanks chaley! I'll try it out tonight when I get home and see what I can do with it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by matanic

This works (other than one missing closed parenthesis, but that was easy to fix)!

Huh, how about that. (Fixed for posterity.)

My #readingstatus column is not Yes/No but I created another custom column from the #readingstatus column that was Yes/No and it works great! Thanks for the quick reply!

Just out of curiosity, how would you use the and/not or something similar with a function that is testing against a pattern instead of just looking for empy/not empty? I had actually tried using GPM instead of TPM, but I couldn't get any type of and/not or and/or to work with the contains function.

As chaley said.

Contains can be used to return "1" or the null value "" depending on the match, and the and() and not() functions are booleans that check for non-empty strings.

So, we can cut down on the number of custom columns by using:

program:

test(
    and(
        field('#new'),
            contains(field('#readingstatus'), '100%_I_am_done_yay', '', '1-New')
    ),
    '1-New',
    ''
)

Or whatever is in your #readingstatus column.

[matanic]

Thank you, eschwartz! That works perfectly and I think I understand enough to be able to use it for other things. My reading status just says Finished but yours is definitely more interesting! Thanks to you and chaley for all the help, you were both quick to respond and patient with my questions.

[chaley]

@eschwartz: I would forget the not() wrapping the contains(), instead inverting the order of contain()'s returned values. Better performance and (for me at least) easier to read.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by chaley

@eschwartz: I would forget the not() wrapping the contains(), instead inverting the order of contain()'s returned values. Better performance and (for me at least) easier to read.

Probably, but my mind was on the previous syntax when I fired that off. Thanks for the reminder.

[captpete]

In Send to Device, Ectaco Jetbook Lite requires the following format in the filename for anything but TXT files (It doesn't sort by metadata, only the filename by either Author (lastname fistname) or Title:

LN(space, no comma)FN_Title
i.e. Twain Mark_Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I need to do folders on the device by Genre(3 levels)/[Series if present/]LN(space)FN_Title[(space)(Series_number if present)]

I currently use {#genre:subitems(0,1)||/}{#genre:subitems(1,2)||/}{#genre:subitems(2,3)||/}{series:||/}{author_sort:sublist(0,1, &)}_{title:sublist(0,1,|| (}{series_index:>4.2f||)}

Everything works plugged into the Jetbook device template BUT the author_sort leaves a comma in the filename which screws up the Jetbook's sort.

I have no troubles with my other devices, just saving to the Jetbook. I currently use a file-renamer after the save to remove the comma but that's an extra step I'd like to skip.

[eschwartz]

{author_sort:'re(sublist($, 0, 1, '&'), ',', '')'}

Broken down:

        #enter template program mode
{author_sort:'
        #regex
re(
        #Find the first author_sort
    sublist($, 0, 1, "&"),
        #and replace the comma
    ",",
        #with nothing
    ""
)
'}

[captpete]

Thanks, I'll try it when I get back home.