Merging Book Types into single Dir?

[Bogg]

I've imported my eBook Library into Calibre (Brilliant tool BTW!) but due to the lack of previous standardisation I've ended up with loads of duplicate entries in the Library.

Is there a way to consolidate the books, e.g. with the same ISBN, into a single folder each?

I've tried moving the ebook from one folder to the other, and the Library does not automatically see the relocated book, but does show 'no formats' for the old entry.

If I blew the Library DB away, and re-imported in bulk woud it sort itself out or would the (nnn) suffix on book names always result in them being seen as seperate books?

As an enhancement req: The saving of a book with the same ISBN should automatically be seen as the same book and saved as an alternate format (or offer to overwrite/delete if that format already exists). Either way it should resolve the duplicates out.

[kovidgoyal]

Use the edit metadata dialog to add extra formats for each book, one by one. Unfortunately, there isn't an automated way to do this. If you can program a little, write a script to re-organize your collection so that all files belonging to a single "logical book" are ina single directory then if you use the recursive import in calibre, it will do what you need automatically.

[Bogg]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I did see that option but with several hundred books it may take me a while!

I'll have a go at the recursive import.

Could I humbly suggest the ability to resolve these 'dupilcates' as an enhancement request as it is the only main featuire the software lacks.

Cheers,
Dave.

[kovidgoyal]

Sure, but in order to implement this I would have to write "directory watching" code for three platforms, which makes it a pain, so it's unlikely to get implemented any time soon.

[Bogg]

Could I humbly suggest a simpler approach...

Rather than monitoring the Filestore to sync the Metadata, how about a check whenever a books metadata is saved...if the ISBN is the same as another existign entry create a pop-up asking if they should be merged. If Yes, then save the book as an alternate format of the other book (if that format already exists offer an overwrite/remove/cancel option) ?

That would allow duplicates to be resolved simply by using the E option to align an ISBN.

Hope this helps.

[kovidgoyal]

That's certainly easier, but the problem still remains that really only the EPUB and occasionally LIT files have ISBN metadata in them. So unless all your files are in those formats, this would be rather useless.