07-20-2014, 11:57 PM
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#1 |
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Banned
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What is metadata.opf for?
The books usually comes in a folder that contain three files.
The .epub, a cover .jpg and a metadata.opf. The .epud by itself seem to work just fine in my readers without metadata.opf and I don't use cover image. WHat is the purpose of metadata.opf? Can I just delete them and store all my books in just epud, so that each book do not need to have it's own folder. |
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07-21-2014, 12:26 AM
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#2 |
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Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
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No. calibre's library structure should not be messed with, or you may break the library.
metadata.opf contains the mtetadata backup for each book in your library. calibre will backup all metadata there every time a change is made. |
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07-21-2014, 12:37 AM
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#3 |
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Banned
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But what does metadata do exactly?
Remembers your font size and where you read up to in the book etc? |
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07-21-2014, 12:44 AM
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#4 |
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Addict
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It contains a number of things:
ePub version page-progression direction (right to left flip or left to right) metadata about author, book name, description, isbn etc... font or fixed layout information a manifest with all the files includded in the ePub package the order of which the distinct html files should be read So basically it has to be a part of the ePub of you want readers to be able to read your file properly. |
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07-21-2014, 12:56 AM
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#5 |
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Banned
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Thanks.
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07-21-2014, 02:07 AM
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#6 | |
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Wizard
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Quote:
It contains metadata for the book - title, author, series, description, ... in case the main database gets corrupted, or in case you want to copy part of your library to another computer manually. Calibre can import this metadata when adding a book to the library. I think it is an excellent example of how well thought out and designed the Calibre is. |
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07-21-2014, 02:15 AM
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#7 |
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Banned
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so metadata for epub is like CSS for HTML?
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07-21-2014, 02:20 AM
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#8 |
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Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
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No. It is more like the contents of
<head></head> |
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07-21-2014, 02:37 AM
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#9 | |
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Wizard
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Join Date: May 2006
Device: PocketBook 360, before it was Sony Reader, cassiopeia A-20
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Quote:
BUT! epub file itself contains metadata, including author name, title, series, description. You might have disagreed with the metadata included in the book and corrected the metadata in your Calibre database. Calibre doesn't update the epub file when you change the metadata (like renaming S. King" to "Stephen King" or changing title from "Stand, The" to "The Stand"). It would eat up too many resources, especially for large changes (such as bulk change from "surname, name" to "name surname" naming convention). Calibre only updates the metadata included in the epub when you export the book (save to directory) or upload it to your device. So the *.opf contains the backup of the current metadata info in your library. You are not supposed to access the contents of your Library folder [directly using file managers and suchlike] anyway ;-). The best way to work with the library is to use only Calibre interface to access the books and consider the directory structure and contents as a "black box" the way you would treat an Oracle Database file with all your data. When you need to copy some books out of your Calibre library, use "Save to disk" function. It has lots of nice "side effects" - you can configure just about anything. |
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