Plugboard, template, and custom composite column recipes

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by remus.grrrl

A HA HA HA......finally got the dang thing to work.......at least with the newer calibre (0.8.70) You do NOT put the plugboard expression in the Metadata Plugboard like I thought.....You put it in the save to disk, template area. As below....now it works perfectly.....

Congrats. Thanks for sharing. Metadata plugboards are designed to change the metadata on the fly when you Send to device. As you found out it has no effect on Save to disk.

Congrats again for twisting the info in the metadata plugboard to your needs as a Save to disk template. Well done!

[tlrowley]

I have some plugboards set up for a long time, now, and I've been really pleased with how they're working. I've run into a small issue, though, that I hope someone might have some ideas.

I have a plugboard set up for the content server, any format. Basically, I just want to put the series number at the start of the title. (I only added the "Tracey" to make the changes obvious while I worked on the plugboard )

I have a lot of books that I have in epub and mobi. The plugboard works perfectly for the pubs, but the mobi files that are downloaded do not appear to have had the plugboard applied.


So, what am I missing? User error, or a problem in the plugboard? Thanks for any pointers you can provide. I'm on a mac, running calibre 0.9.

[chaley]

The content server supports plugboards only for epub.

Starting with 0.9.0, calibre displays a warning message when you set up an "any format" plugboard for the content server.

[tlrowley]

Well, that wold explain it, then, wouldn't it?

Thanks for the help.

[TicklishOwl]

I'm trying to set up a composite custom column (built from Calibre's tags column), but I'm having trouble with the template code.

I have a custom column #koboshelves that is used to populate shelves on my Kobo Touch (via the Kobo device driver). I have dozens of tags, but I only want to use a few to populate #koboshelves.

I have the following #koboshelves:
Fantasy & SciFi
Historical Fiction
Middle-Grade

I'd like books containing these tags to autofill #koboshelves:
fantasy (add to Fantasy & SciFi shelf)
historical (add to Historical Fiction shelf)
middle-grade (add to Middle-Grade shelf)
scifi (add to Fantasy & SciFi shelf)

Example: A book tagged 'classics, france, historical, middle-grade' would add 'Historical Fiction, Middle-Grade' to #koboshelf.

It's easy to get a single tag to work:

{tags:contains(historical, Historical Fiction,)}

Unfortunately, I can't get multiple tags to work. Clearly I do not have a gift for this language. I'd be most grateful for some guidance.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by TicklishOwl

I'm trying to set up a composite custom column (built from Calibre's tags column), but I'm having trouble with the template code.

...
Example: A book tagged 'classics, france, historical, middle-grade' would add 'Historical Fiction, Middle-Grade' to #koboshelf.

It's easy to get a single tag to work:

{tags:contains(historical, Historical Fiction,)}

Unfortunately, I can't get multiple tags to work. Clearly I do not have a gift for this language. I'd be most grateful for some guidance.

Use a general program mode template like the following

program:
	t = field('tags');
	l = '';
	l = list_union(l, in_list(t, ',', 'space', 'Space Opera', ''), ',');
	l = list_union(l, in_list(t, ',', 'science', 'Science Fiction', ''), ',');
	l = list_union(l, in_list(t, ',', 'alternate', 'Alternate History', ''), ',');
	l = list_union(l, in_list(t, ',', 'a', 'b', ''), ',');

This template constructs a list of tags returned by the in_list functions.

Note 1: in_list takes a regular expression for the match pattern. If there are multiple tags that result in the same shelf, you can write it like this

list_union(l, in_list(t, ',', 'tag1|tag2', 'Space Opera', ''), ',');

Note 2: if you want exact matching on the tags, use something like

list_union(l, in_list(t, ',', '^space$', 'Space Opera', ''), ',');

or in the case of a multiple match

list_union(l, in_list(t, ',', '^(tag1|tag2)$', 'Space Opera', ''), ',');

Note 3: this template is at the limit of what the template system is intended to do. If you have a large library, it will probably be slow. What "large" means depends on the computer running calibre. If you have python skills, or if you know someone with those skills, a custom calibre template function will have much better performance.

[TicklishOwl]

Thank you so much, Charles! It works perfectly.

I was using list_re instead of list_union. My knowledge of python in limited, hence the ham-handed attempts. I haven't noticed a decrease in Calibre's performance, so a custom template function can wait until I learn more python.

[Lazarus416]

I am wanting to make a template for the books I send to my Nexus 7, using Moonreader to read them. Which "device" do I choose to make it work? When I choose Android device it says "Android devices do not support MOBI format", and when I use the "MTP device" it does not apply the template. (I want to put the series & Series# in the title.)

Alternatively does anyone know a tablet/e-reader app that works well other than Moonreader? Of the ones I have looked at, it works easiest so far. But I want to be able to see the series metadata somehow so I can read the books in order.

Thanks in advance for any info.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Lazarus416

(I want to put the series & Series# in the title.)

Alternatively does anyone know a tablet/e-reader app that works well other than Moonreader? Of the ones I have looked at, it works easiest so far. But I want to be able to see the series metadata somehow so I can read the books in order.

To start Moonreader + shows all calibre series info if you sort by tags. It places the series at the top of the tags list. When you open a series from this list all of the books will be in order.

That said, I would suggest using the Calibre Companion (CC) App to transfer books to your device (wifi required). I use it to manage the books on my Nexus 7 and open books via CC in Moonreader +. When you transfer books CC uses the metadata from calibre's library and you see the author, title, series and series index by default so no plugboard required, see attached. I no longer import any books into Moonreader+ I simply use CC to launch whatever book I desire to read.

Good Reading.

[Lazarus416]

Thanks for reminding me of CC. I had forgotten about it. I have it on my phone, but I don't read much on my phone so I didn't think about it. It is a bit cumbersome to use vs plugging via USB, but not enough to make it an issue. I tried sorting by tags in Moonreader+ (just to see if I had missed something) but all it shows are the tags I put on the books, not the series info. I have not found any way to do that yet in MR+, but since I have CC now, it's not a major issue. Thanks.