Quick Guide to Shelf Management with calibre 0.9.1 & above (Touch / Glo / Mini /Aura)

[arasyi]

Originally Posted by inthemood

Hello,

Is there a way to have the bookshelves (which become "collections" in the Kobo Aura) show up in alphabetical order on the Kobo Aura. When I do it, the order seems totally random, making it hard to search. I use the bookshelf feature in calibre to, in effect, make folders to classify the books by their author.
Thank you.

There should be a menu to sort the collection by collection name, creation date,
and item count.
If you don't have the sort menu, see this:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=15

[inthemood]

Originally Posted by arasyi

There should be a menu to sort the collection by collection name, creation date,
and item count.
If you don't have the sort menu, see this:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=15

Thank you very much.
It now works fine. Using the link you suggested solved the problem.

[Bermudagirl]

Shelf management was working great for me until recently when I had to do a factory reset of my Kobo Touch. After I had done this I was having problems moving books back onto the Touch - I kept getting this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 86, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 490, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 1679, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 2575, in get_bookshelflist
DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed

After a couple more factory resets, upgrading Calibre to the most recent, and making sure my plugins are all up to date, I am managing to put books back on the touch, but there are not appearing in their collections as before.
When I selected "Manage Series on Device" for one of my collections (that has only one book at the moment) and confirmed that the old series and new series were the same and hit "ok" I get "no changes made to series information".
Can anyone help me sort this? Everything worked perfectly in the past - all my books were nicely ordered in their respective collections, and I don't really fancy having to manually organise them into collections on my touch...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Bermudagirl

Shelf management was working great for me until recently when I had to do a factory reset of my Kobo Touch. After I had done this I was having problems moving books back onto the Touch - I kept getting this:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 86, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 490, in _books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 1679, in books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\kobo\driver.py", line 2575, in get_bookshelflist
DatabaseError: database disk image is malformed

That means that the database on the device was corrupt. The factory reset should have fixed it, but doing a log out on the device will do it without removing the books.

After a couple more factory resets, upgrading Calibre to the most recent, and making sure my plugins are all up to date, I am managing to put books back on the touch, but there are not appearing in their collections as before.

This probably means you have missed a configuration step. Other than suggesting you go through them carefully, the only thing I can suggest is to run calibre in debug mode and post the log for me to look at. You do this by right clicking on the preferences button and selecting "Restart in debug mode" and then following the prompts,

When I selected "Manage Series on Device" for one of my collections (that has only one book at the moment) and confirmed that the old series and new series were the same and hit "ok" I get "no changes made to series information".

That sounds right. You didn't make any changes, so there were no changes made on the device. If you changed the series or number, then it would have updated the database.

[Bermudagirl]

I didn't think I had missed a configuration step (but I may well be wrong!)
But I did as you said and started Calibre in debug mode. This is what I got.


Just realised what I had done wrong (and yes it was with the configuration steps). Collections now on touch (although not in alphabetical order - but I'll worry about that later!)

[Bermudagirl]

Now that I have my collections on my Kobo Touch, I'm having problems putting them in alphabetical order.
This is what is in kobo ereader.conf:

[General]
LastLibrarySorter_books_filterByBundled%28%29=sort ByNewest()
LastLibraryViewType_news=viewBy5List()
LastLibraryViewType_shelf="viewBy5Shelf()\nLastLib rarySorter_shelfList_ = sortByShelfName()\n\nWelcomeGuidesRemoved = true\npocketFteTileShown = true\nshowFirstTimeExperience = 0\n\n[ApplicationPreferences]\nAIRPLANE_MODE = true\nLastLibraryReadingStatusFilter_books_filterB yMine%28%29 = removeReadingStatusFilter()\nLastLibrarySorter_boo ks_ = sortByNewest()\nLastLibrarySorter_books_filterByMi ne%28%29 = sortByTitle()\nLastLibrarySorter_shelfList_ = sortByShelfName()[ApplicationPreferences]\nLastLibraryViewType_books = viewBy5List()\nLastLibraryViewType_news = viewBy5List()\nLastLibraryViewType_shelf = viewBy5Shelf()\npocketFteTileShown = true\nshowFirstTimeExperience = 0\n\n[GoogleAnalytics]\nvisitorCookie = 253130064.1254723385.1396860008.1396874082.1396874 082.11\n\n[OneStoreServices]\nbook = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/books/{ProductId}\nbook_btb = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/books/{ProductId}/btb-data\nbook_landing_page = http://store.kobobooks.com/ebooks\ncategories = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/categories\ncategory = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/categories/{CategoryId}\ncategory_products = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/categories/{CategoryId}/products\ndiscovery_host = https://discovery.kobobooks.com\neula_page = http://www.kobo.com/termsofuse?style...nfeatured_list = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/featured/{FeaturedListId}\nfeatured_lists = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/product...ured\nfeedback = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/{ProductId}/feedback\nfte_feedback = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/product...ck\nimage_host = //kbimages1-a.akamaihd.net/\nmagazine_detail_page = http://store.kobobooks.com/{culture}/emagazine/{slug}\nmagazine_issue = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/issues/{ProductId}\nmagazine_landing_page = http://store.kobobooks.com/emagazine...e_subscription = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/subscriptions/{ProductId}\npassword_retrieval_page = https://www.kobobooks.com/passwordre...\nprivacy_page = http://www.kobo.com/privacypolicy?st...ecommendations = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/{ProductId}/recommendations\nproduct_reviews = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/{ProductId}/reviews\nregistration_page = https://secure.kobobooks.com/auth/re...s.com/\nreview = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/reviews/{ReviewId}\nreview_sentiment = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/reviews/{ReviewId}/sentiment\nsearch = \nsign_in_page = https://secure.kobobooks.com/auth/lo...orization_host = https://social.kobobooks.com:8443\nsocial_host = https://social.kobobooks.com\nstacks = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/products/stacks/{StackId}\nstacks_host_productId = http://store.kobobooks.com/collectio...d/\nstore_host = store.kobobooks.com\ntaste_profile = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/product...\nuser_ratings = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/user/ra...ecommendations = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/user/re...\nuser_reviews = https://storeapi.kobo.com/v1/user/reviews\n\n[Reading]\nlibraryBuilderBlueprint = filterByMine()\nremoveReadingStatusFilter()\nviewB y5List()\n\n"

[ApplicationPreferences]
AIRPLANE_MODE=true
CurrentLocale=en_US
EarliestChangeLog=3.2.0
WelcomeGuidesRemoved=true
pocketFteTileShown=true
showFirstTimeExperience=0

[GoogleAnalytics]
visitorCookie=253130064.1902388596.1396874821.1396 884161.1396884161.5


I am now using Notepad++ because I found from another post that Notepad doesn't show the contents in the correct manner. But I'm not sure how to split up the lines so that the Touch will understand that the collections should be in alphabetical order.

I inserted LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByShelfName() but it now seems to have been included in a line with other instructions, and I'm not sure where to split the line(s). There are also other lines that seem to be joined up. I don't know if they should be separated as well.Can anyone help me with this?
Any help would be much appreciated.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Bermudagirl

I inserted LastLibrarySorter_shelfList_=sortByShelfName() but it now seems to have been included in a line with other instructions, and I'm not sure where to split the line(s). There are also other lines that seem to be joined up. I don't know if they should be separated as well.Can anyone help me with this?
Any help would be much appreciated.

Good to hear you have your collections added. To fix the sort option, just split the line at the start if the inserted text. Or delete the complete line and add a new one with just this option.

[Bermudagirl]

Not sure if the end of a line is denoted by (). The line that includes LastLibrarySorter_+sortByShelfName() has before it the end of a previous command but which ends ()\n. Is this where I split it? Also there's a gap in the word - Lib rary. Should I correct this?
After one or two of the () there is a \n or a \n\n. Not sure if this is the beginning or end of a line. Sorry, but this is all new to me!
Also before I had to reset my Touch, all the books were in the correct order within each collection. Now they are the opposite. Rather than have to change each collection individually, there must be a way to do them all (hopefully)!

[davidfor]

The simplest thing to do is to delete the configuration file, disconnect and let the device create a new one. Then you make you configuration changes using the UI. And hopefully, the collections sorting line will already be there.

If you want to try and clean it up, there are two types of lines:

[SectionName]

defines a section. These should be the only things on a line.

There is one

settingName=value

for each setting. The "settingName" will have no spaces. The "value" will only have spaces if the it is enclosed in double quotes.

So, the "\n" are new lines and can be removed and the line split there. Then remove all the spaces except those in a value enclosed in quotes.

I know of only two ways to set the sort for all the collections. The manual way is to open them all and set the value. The other way is for collections that are for series. My Kobo Utilities plugin for calibre has an option to order the series collections and set the sort sort for them to "Date added".

[Bermudagirl]

Many thanks. Will follow your instructions regarding the configuration file later.
The option you mentioned regarding ordering the series collections - is that the "Order Series Shelves"? I tried to use it, but couldn't seem to get it to work (but I may have misunderstood the instructions).

[davidfor]

Yes, it's the "Order series shelves" function. It uses the "Date Added" sort for a collection to show the books in the series order.

When you run the function, it displays the list of all collections on the device whose name matches the series name for books on the device. When you press OK on the dialog, the shelf entries in the database for each book is modified so that dates are in order. When you view the collection, you need to choose the "Date Added" sort to display the books in the sort order. There is an option to set the order in the config file for each shelf.

If this doesn't work, what does happen?

[Bermudagirl]

Nothing was displayed when I ran the function. Am I meant to select all the books that are on the device? All the collections on the device have the same name as those in Calibre.

[Bermudagirl]

So, thanks for suggesting deleting the configeration file. Although the collections sorting line wasn't in the configeration file, once I copied it and pasted it into the configeration file, it worked and the collections are now in the right order. All I have to do now is work out how to put all the books in each collection in the right order! Then I will be more than happy!

[speakingtohe]

The reason I use Series collections is that the plugin can automatically set the sort order. Unfortunately I end up with far more than double the amount of collections I would have if I used author collections instead. One author often has 3 or more series, where seldom does a series have more than one author. This is probably the main reason my collections take over a minute to open.

I prefer author collections but I am used to readers that have a global sort for all collections and I forget that this is not so with Kobo. Not saying which is better, but habits are hard to break and I often select the wrong book on the kobo if I use author collections. Small thing but annoying.

If I have both author and series collections than the delay is worse of course.

A big downside of having only series collections is that non series books do not show upon the collections menu. I assign a no series series with a custom column so I can access them from the collections menu but this again adds time.

I would love an option to have all collections sorted by author as this would cut down my time problems opening collections quite a bit. Doesn't need to use date added as I use a plugboard. Probably I am wishing for the moon

Helen

[Bermudagirl]

My problem is I can't get the plugin to work to put the books in all my collections in the right order. It's probably something simple that I need to do, but at the moment I don't know what I'm doing wrong...
Keep hearing about plugboards, but I don't actually know what that is...