Nook Simple Touch- cut off for data in save to disc

[trianglekitty]

Could anyone tell what the cut-off is for the amount of data stored in folder names/file names when using save to disc to side load books?

I'm finding that if my file name is too long, the sequence of folders the file is stores under will have shortened names. For example I should see this...

{#genre}/{author}/{series}/{title} - {summary})

What I actually see is this (using Stephen King's The Dark Tower as an example):

Ste/Watchto/The Dark Tower- first in the series, characters meet, stuff happens, you get the idea summary information

If the summary is too long, the folder names are shortened. I'm having trouble figuring out where the cut-off is so I don't overdo it.

[davidfor]

If you are using Windows, and unless it has changed recently, the maximum path length is 260 characters. The path is the drive letter, plus the folders plus the file name and extension and the separator characters between folder names and the extension. From a quick search, Linux has a 4096 character path length.

[trianglekitty]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you are using Windows, and unless it has changed recently, the maximum path length is 260 characters. The path is the drive letter, plus the folders plus the file name and extension and the separator characters between folder names and the extension. From a quick search, Linux has a 4096 character path length.

Ah...so it isn't even a Nook issue but a windows issue. That makes perfect sense, thank you!

I don't suppose there's a way in calibre to see the number of characters in a column field?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by trianglekitty

Ah...so it isn't even a Nook issue but a windows issue. That makes perfect sense, thank you!

As always, it is Windows fault

[/QUOTE]
I don't suppose there's a way in calibre to see the number of characters in a column field?[/QUOTE]

I'm not an expert on the template language. But looking at http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/template_lang.html, I can see a "strlen" function. But, I suspect that using the "shorten" function might do what you want. I would try:

{#genre}/{author}/{series}/{title} - {summary:shorten(50, ..., 0)}

That should give (assuming I have the call to shorten right) something like:

Ste/Watchto/The Dark Tower- first in the series, characters meet, stuff happe...

[JSWolf]

You don't need the subdirectories. In fact, they may not even be a good idea. On some readers, when you delete the eBook, you could be then left with empty subdirectories. Also, by doing away with the subdirectories, you do away with them being too long.

Also, your summary field is a rather bad idea. It it also causing the filenames to be overly long. ADE does not get it's metadata from the filename but instead gets it from inside the ePub. Using your summary field is not doing anything for you.

It's not really a Windows issue. It's a too many useless fields issue.

[trianglekitty]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You don't need the subdirectories. In fact, they may not even be a good idea. On some readers, when you delete the eBook, you could be then left with empty subdirectories. Also, by doing away with the subdirectories, you do away with them being too long.

Also, your summary field is a rather bad idea. It it also causing the filenames to be overly long. ADE does not get it's metadata from the filename but instead gets it from inside the ePub. Using your summary field is not doing anything for you.

It's not really a Windows issue. It's a too many useless fields issue.

It's actually a laziness issue. What I'm doing in purposely using the summary field in place of a title with the knowledge that it'll be too long. With 3,000 plus documents, titles don't do me any good. I'm looking for a way to quickly and easily see what a document is.

If I put the summary so that it appears in the front of the document as a metadata page, I have to do the following steps to check what the document is...

open book/page over to see metadata page/hit home key/tap library button/repeat for next document

By sticking the summary info into the file name, I do this instead...

Doubletap book (allowing me to see the full file name)/tap close button

So by putting the summary in the file name, I'm reducing the amount of tapping/button pushing I have to do.

If you have another suggestion to quickly see what a document is, I'm all ears...seriously, I know this is inelegant and it's a pain to go through and write all of these short summaries. I would love another method

Edited to add that as far as I understand, part of the issue I'm having is due to Nook not liking side loaded books. When you doubletap on a book that was purchased or downloaded through the store, you get a blurb or summary. There doesn't seem to be a way to do this for sideloaded books, hence my pain-in-the-butt summary as file name solution.

Son of edit- I actually have more folders/subfolders than I showed in the example. Not sure how you organize without subfolders...I'm kind of fanatical about organization and having everything in the smallest possible sub-category, again because I have so many documents and would never be able to find anything otherwise. My actual sequence is {category}/{genre}/{subcategory}/{universe}/{au}/{viewingauthor}/{series}/{title} - {seriesindex} - {summary}

The subcategory, universe, and AU folders are only used in certain circumstances. Viewingauthor is used instead of author because only authors with more than one document get their own folder, otherwise they go all together in a catch-all Unknown folder. This way every folder ends up with less than 50 or so documents because the sequence keeps cutting it further and further down.

I haven't had an issue with subfolders remaining after deletes, but then maybe I haven't been paying attention. I only do deletes through Calibre though, so that may be preventing the problem. I'll have to play some and see if this is an issue. Again though, I am MORE than open to suggestion.