Separated "profiles" in Calibre

[1024mb]

Hey, thanks for all the hard work.
I only have one question: Is it possible to create separate "profiles" in Calibre?
I mean, for example, there are two users who have Calibre Companion on their devices and have rated and read different books, so when they both connect to Calibre, it updates the tags of the same library with the new information (rating, read date and read status) of both of them. Is there any way to, for example, have an Profile A for person 1 to update their ratings and other tags and a B profile for person 2 to update their tags and keep them separate from each other?
I don't want to combine the modifications (ratings and other labels) that the other person has made to their books with mine, I want to keep them separate because each of us has different tastes and have read different books (this is important because we both have a Goodreads account and Calibre has a plugin to sync those tags from Calibre to Goodreads) but we use the same library.

I know I can connect with Calibre Companion using user A and B but, they don't have separated tags they share all of the information, is it not?

Sorry about my bad English, it's not my primary language.

[kovidgoyal]

If you want separate metadata, use separate libraries or create custom columns to hold the tags ratings, one per user.

[fidvo]

I don't know how the Goodreads plugin works, but assuming it works off the standard Tags column, then you won't be able to use the same library for both profiles. The Tags column is stored in the library, and it's only a single field. There's no way to put different groups of values in the same field and keep them separated.

The only way to accomplish what you want is to maintain two separate libraries.

The good news is that it's fairly straightforward to set up and switch between two libraries. The bad news is that you'll have to maintain two copies of each shared book.

[1024mb]

Yeah, the fact is, my library is 40Gb+.
Well, I'll have to keep two copies of the same library if creating custom columns doesn't work but first I will try that.
Is there any plans to implement something like this (profiles) in the future?

Thank you both for replying.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 1024mb

Yeah, the fact is, my library is 40Gb+.
Well, I'll have to keep two copies of the same library if creating custom columns doesn't work but first I will try that.

Have a look at the View Manager plugin. With this, you can create views that show different sets of columns. You can then have a view for each of the users showing only their columns. You can also use virtual libraries to limit the books seen.

As you use Calibre Companion, can it do a similar thing? I know it can update the reading status, but I don't know how configurable that is.

You also mention the Goodreads Sync plugin. Unfortunately, while it supports multiple Goodreads accounts, a lot of the options are common across all accounts. You will need to change the configuration of the columns used for things like the reading status for each user each time they use it. I maintain this plugin now, so I'll add changing this to my TODO list, but it will be a while before I do.

[1024mb]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Have a look at the View Manager plugin. With this, you can create views that show different sets of columns. You can then have a view for each of the users showing only their columns. You can also use virtual libraries to limit the books seen.

As you use Calibre Companion, can it do a similar thing? I know it can update the reading status, but I don't know how configurable that is.

You also mention the Goodreads Sync plugin. Unfortunately, while it supports multiple Goodreads accounts, a lot of the options are common across all accounts. You will need to change the configuration of the columns used for things like the reading status for each user each time they use it. I maintain this plugin now, so I'll add changing this to my TODO list, but it will be a while before I do.

Sorry for late reply.

Yes, Calibrecompanion gives the ability to choose any column to use as read and read date.
Thanks for consider adding this, I will begin to use this workaround from now on. Thanks again.

[Tarana]

Use your main library to load up books and separate libraries for different users for completed books. Create two columns in the main library, one for each user to mark the item was read by that user. This worked well for me and family members who live here.