Help with plugboard syntax, please

[Ptarmigan]

I'm trying to add series metadata (series and series_index) to the title when sending to my Kindle. Perversely, however, I want to add it at the end of the title than at the beginning, thus:

A Princess of Mars (John Carter of Mars 01)
Gods of Mars (John Carter of Mars 02)

etc.

I've looked at the plugboard techniques sticky and the examples therein, plus the templates language section of the manual and after much furrowing of the brow and scratching of the head, I've come up with the following:

{title}{series:| (|}{series_index:0>2s| |)}

Unfortunately, when I close the plugboard editing dialog box, it changes what I've written to this:

{title}{series:|(|}{series_index:0>2s| |)}

with no space before the opening bracket, which leads to this:

A Princess of Mars(John Carter of Mars 01)
Gods of Mars(John Carter of Mars 02)

etc.

Again, no space between the end of the title and the opening bracket enclosing the series info. Not the end of the world, but aesthetically displeasing.

Earlier, when I included an extraneous pipe, I got an error message about incorrect syntax when trying to save the plugboard, but didn't with the above. Nevertheless, I'm guessing that there is still something wrong with the syntax and Calibre is trying to correct it on saving. However, I've now reached the limits of my understanding.

So, can some kind soul point out what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks.

[chaley]

Hard to say what you are doing wrong, because it works fine for me.

After adding the space, are you pressing both the save plugboard button and the apply button at the top left?

Is the space gone from the template in the "existing plugboards" box after you press the save plugboard button? What I see after pressing the button is

any format:any device = ([{title}{series:| (|}{series_index:0>2s| |)}] -> title)

The space is there.

Is more than one plugboard defined? It could be that a more specific plugboard without the space is being used in lieu of a more general one that you are changing.

If for some reason you can't make it work correctly (gremlins), put the space between {title} and {series}. It will be removed if there is no series, because leading and trailing spaces are always stripped after the template is executed.

[Ptarmigan]

Pretty sure I clicked both, but it's the sort of thing I could have easily forgotten to do after concentrating on getting the syntax right. I think the space was there after I clicked Save; it was after I'd closed the dialog box--or rather after I'd reopened it--that it had disappeared.

I'll try again this evening, making sure I click Save *and* Apply. Thanks for your help. Thanks also for the tip about trailing spaces being trimmed. That should provide a workaround if I can't get it to work properly.

Oh, and no, only that one plugboard defined.

[Ptarmigan]

Tried it again last night and it worked fine. You were right: I must have not clicked one or other of Save and Apply. Thanks again for your help.