Send to iTunes, can we skip the get book listing?

[Coleccionista]

I am trying this feature for the first time and I wanted to send just one book to iTunes.
It is taking forever since it is retrieving a full listing of books I have in iTunes (2800+) and it's not that fast doing so.
Since I rebuild my libraries quite often I'd like to know if there's any tweak or shortcut that would make possible to send the book to iTunes without caring for what's already in the library.

[GRiker]

1) Disable cover caching in Preferences|Advanced|Plugins|Device interface plugins|Apple device interface|Customize plugin. Alternatively, you could let the covers cache the first time you connect, which will speed up subsequent connections.

2) Disable the Apple device driver, then either:

• Drop a book into the 'Automatically add to iTunes' folder in your iTunes media folder, or
• While connected to iTunes, drag a book onto the Books playlist in iTunes.

G

[Coleccionista]

Ok, I'll have a look at it. One more thing though. I remember a post about the Connect to iTunes now being able to populate the track number with the series_index field.
It is not happening in my case (0.7.43 to iTunes 10.1) and I cannot see any plugin customization or tweak to enable it.
Is that still an option?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Coleccionista

Is that still an option?

I don't use iTunes but check out the sticky to see if the info you want is there.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by Coleccionista

Ok, I'll have a look at it. One more thing though. I remember a post about the Connect to iTunes now being able to populate the track number with the series_index field.
It is not happening in my case (0.7.43 to iTunes 10.1) and I cannot see any plugin customization or tweak to enable it.
Is that still an option?

Read the Metadata Mapping and Plugboard Transformations section in Calibre + iDevices: Start here.

G

[Coleccionista]

Sorry for being so thick but I still cannot see how can I change the destination field

If a book has series information AND Preferences|Advanced|Plugins|Device Interface Plugins|Apple device interface|Customize plugin|Use Series as Category in iTunes/iBooks is checked, the Sort Title is generated from the Series/series_index, and the Category/Genre is set to the Series name. Series and series_index are passed as Episode ID and Episode Number.

In the plugboard section If i choose (format) epub, (device) apple the destinations fields available do not include any track_number or similar so how do I override the mapping of series and series_index to ep. ID and ep.number
I did uncheck the "use series as category" since I'd want the series_name to map to the Album field in iTunes and the first tag to be used as Genre.
So far I see how can you modify book metadata with the plugboard but not how can you influence where this metadata will appear in iTunes

[GRiker]

Let's start over.

Is your objective to have the series number sent to the iTunes track number? If so, are you running Windows or OSX?

G

[Coleccionista]

That is a very good idea.

My objective is:

Populate the track number field in iTunes from calibre series_index
Populate the album field in iTunes from calibre series
Bonus: Populate Episode Number from calibre ISBN

So far I run a script that modifies the plist created by iTunes with the OPF data but it would be great to have calibre do it automatically.

I read the sticky but for the life of it even if it says that series and series_index are "twekable=yes" I don't know how to instruct calibre to alter their default mappings and use my preferred destination fields.

I have the apple driver plugin disabled and the "Use series as category" unchecked. I have only epub files in my library.

I am running latest iTunes on Windows Vista

[GRiker]

Currently, the windows driver will set the track number from series_index if 'Use series as category' is checked. That could be changed to always set the track number if the book is part of a series, regardless of the check box setting.

The Album field is always set to the book title.

The driver attempts to set Episode number from series_index if 'Use series as category' is checked, but in my observations this step usually fails. That's a problem with the automation interface, nothing I can do about that.

These settings evolved over time with a lot of user input. I don't want to make any changes that will break the behavior for existing users. You can submit an enhancement request, but it won't a high priority at this time.

You can also modify the device driver to do exactly what you want.

G

[Coleccionista]

It's clear now. I was under the impression that you could actually affect the destination field through some kind of tweak/plugboard (other than the "Use series as category" setting)
I don't see myself running calibre from source all the time since every release will overwrite any personal modification of the driver. But just in case, setting the series as the albums could be accomplished by modifiying?

db_added.Album = metadata_x.series
.....
lb_added.Album = metadata_x.series

(around line 2730 of apple/driver.py in function _update_iTunes_metadata)

[GRiker]

Yes, that's where you need to make the changes.

lb_xxx changes the data in iTunes, db_xxx changes the data in iBooks.

And you don't need to run from source, you can just add your modified driver.py file to your installed calibre:

c:\Program Files\Calibre2\Lib\site-packages\calibre\devices\apple\

The driver has been stable for several months.

G