Help creating a very simple statistics plugin?

kylecarroll · 10-31-2019, 06:57 PM

Hey all! I have a python program that I wrote which takes a CSV export from Calibre and gives you your stats such as Number of books owned, number read, average rating, titles of current reads, etc. Ever since I found out that development in Calibre is done in python, I've been wanting to move this functionality into Calibre itself so that all I have to do is press a button on the interface and have a pop up tell me all those fun stats.

However...I'm relatively new to Python. I can handle python on its own but I'm having trouble integrating it into Calibre. Can someone give me some pointers on how I would do this? I'm currently using the interface plugin demo as a starting point while I learn.

I was able to get all the text I need into a popup, but I can't figure out how to iterate over all of the book IDs and parse their metadata to create the variables (which would then be passed into the string of text).

jhowell · 10-31-2019, 07:28 PM

I suggest that you look at the existing plugins and find one or two that do something similar to what you need. You can then download, unzip, and examine the python code to see how they work.

Also check out documentation like the Plugin API and Database API.

kylecarroll · 11-01-2019, 01:52 AM

Thanks! The Database API is exactly what I needed. Got it working now!

10-31-2019, 06:57 PM	#1
kylecarroll Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle	Help creating a very simple statistics plugin? Hey all! I have a python program that I wrote which takes a CSV export from Calibre and gives you your stats such as Number of books owned, number read, average rating, titles of current reads, etc. Ever since I found out that development in Calibre is done in python, I've been wanting to move this functionality into Calibre itself so that all I have to do is press a button on the interface and have a pop up tell me all those fun stats. However...I'm relatively new to Python. I can handle python on its own but I'm having trouble integrating it into Calibre. Can someone give me some pointers on how I would do this? I'm currently using the interface plugin demo as a starting point while I learn. I was able to get all the text I need into a popup, but I can't figure out how to iterate over all of the book IDs and parse their metadata to create the variables (which would then be passed into the string of text).

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10-31-2019, 07:28 PM	#2
jhowell Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,498 Karma: 84420419 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Tampa Bay, Florida Device: Kindles	I suggest that you look at the existing plugins and find one or two that do something similar to what you need. You can then download, unzip, and examine the python code to see how they work. Also check out documentation like the Plugin API and Database API.

11-01-2019, 01:52 AM	#3
kylecarroll Junior Member Posts: 9 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2019 Device: Kindle	Thanks! The Database API is exactly what I needed. Got it working now!