Flatten out calibre library folder?

[kalex]

I'm trying to organize my calibre library folder and need a little help.

Currently its organized as follows:

\new_storage\Author Name\Book Name\filenames

I want to change it so that everything will be in one folder and so it will look like this:

\new_storage\BookName.epub etc
If i have more than one format just name it BookName.mobi etc

How can I do this the right way on my current library?

Thanks

Alex

[itimpi]

Calibre's internal library storage is under calibre control and you have no control over the naming scheme. You only have control over the naming scheme to be used when you export ebook files from the Calibre library.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Not only is calibre's library under its own control, it is dependent on that scheme to find your books. Make any changes to the calibre library structure, including folder names and filenames, and you will not be able to access your books from within calibre. Once a book has been copied to the library (note that calibre doesn't touch your original file), there is no need to ever go into the calibre folder for any reason; anything you need to do can be done from inside calibre. If ever you do need a library with a flat structure to use outside of calibre, you can use calibre's Save to Disk function to generate one for you.

[kalex]

I was actually looking to get kindle sync working which requires me to venture into the folder structure and that's where i noticed the mess

Edit - Jeannie just re-read your post completely and found my answer. All I have to do is save format that I want to an output directory and then I can run anything I want against that folder.

Thank you

[garcle]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

... If ever you do need a library with a flat structure to use outside of calibre, you can use calibre's Save to Disk function to generate one for you.

http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual...l#save-to-disk
Just to add, Save to Disk either works on the entire library, or just those books you have currently selected. It also has the option of only exporting one format (.mobi for example)

If you are on Windows, I use a handy program called xplorer2 which has a command "Browse Flat" which will flatten the Calibre folder structure (in memory) and let you browse it that way.

[kalex]

Yep found that feature. Thank you

[Vanessa_E]

Originally Posted by garcle

http://calibre-ebook.com/user_manual...l#save-to-disk
Just to add, Save to Disk either works on the entire library, or just those books you have currently selected. It also has the option of only exporting one format (.mobi for example)

If you are on Windows, I use a handy program called xplorer2 which has a command "Browse Flat" which will flatten the Calibre folder structure (in memory) and let you browse it that way.

Hi, I have just been trying the save to disk option; trying to save many books that I already converted earlier this evening from .lrf to .epub.

However, when I saved them to 1 file location, for some reason only some of the selected files went to designated location, and only the author.extension. i.e. somehow the title and other metadata was lost?

Any suggestions, as if I can utilise the save to disk function from the separate location, it will save much cutting and pasting from the sub files that were created upon conversion in the calibre library.

Thanks in advance!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by kalex

I'm trying to organize my calibre library folder and need a little help.

Currently its organized as follows:

\new_storage\Author Name\Book Name\filenames

I want to change it so that everything will be in one folder and so it will look like this:

\new_storage\BookName.epub etc
If i have more than one format just name it BookName.mobi etc

How can I do this the right way on my current library?

Thanks

Alex

@kalex - as you've probably gathered what you're requesting is heresy in Calibreland, so at the risk of getting banned I'll tell you of one way you can get close to what you want, providing you're using Windows 7. And you wont have to save any copies of any books to some other folder.

You need to create a Windows Library, which we'll name 'Ebooks' - you do that from Windows Explorer, so do a Start->Documents or Win+E to bring up a fresh WinExp window.

• On the left you should see Libraries, right click it, select New, type 'Ebooks'.
  
• Now you should see under Libraries something like Documents, Ebooks, Music, Pictures and Videos
  
• Now open the disk where you have your 'new_storage' folder, left button drag the 'new_storage' folder over to the 'Ebook' Library and drop it.
  
• Now click on Ebook and you'll see the Calibre folder structure we all love to hate
  
• Now click View in the Menu, and select Arrange by Type and you should see something like the first image below
  
• Now click on the Virtual folders EPUB, MOBI etc and you will see all the files of that type, whats more if you add 10 more more books they will be there with no further effort on your part. If you rename or delete a book in Calibre it will be reflected in the Ebook Library.
  
• But be careful, if you rename, or delete books from these virtual folders then you will change the content of the Calibre Library folders and that as we know can cause you problems.

I have another but similar solution for XP, it involves the use of a free third party application, no its not an alternative to Calibre, its an alternative to Windows Explorer, but its not nearly as elegant as using Win 7 Libraries to virtualise Calibre Libraries.

If anyone's interested in the XP solution send me a PM or say so here and I'll tell y'all how to flatten Calibre in XP, but non Luddites should consider an upgrade to Win 7, it is much better than XP and it has a smaller footprint than Vista

BR

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by Vanessa_E

Hi, I have just been trying the save to disk option; trying to save many books that I already converted earlier this evening from .lrf to .epub.

However, when I saved them to 1 file location, for some reason only some of the selected files went to designated location, and only the author.extension. i.e. somehow the title and other metadata was lost?

Any suggestions, as if I can utilise the save to disk function from the separate location, it will save much cutting and pasting from the sub files that were created upon conversion in the calibre library.

Thanks in advance!

I am not clear from your description what you are actually trying to do?

It is certainly possible to save (export) multiple books to the same location in a single folder which is what it sounds as if you are trying to do? If you want to flatten the structure then you will need to amend the Save to Disk template to remove any folder structure from the generated path/file names.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Vanessa_E

Hi, I have just been trying the save to disk option; trying to save many books that I already converted earlier this evening from .lrf to .epub.

However, when I saved them to 1 file location, for some reason only some of the selected files went to designated location, and only the author.extension. i.e. somehow the title and other metadata was lost?

Any suggestions, as if I can utilise the save to disk function from the separate location, it will save much cutting and pasting from the sub files that were created upon conversion in the calibre library.

You select a bunch of books in Calibre interface, right-click and and select a "Save to disk" menu. There are quite a few functions available here.

You can go to Preferences -> Interface -> Behaviour config screen and select Preffered Output format. This is the format you see listed in "Save to disk" menu.

In the "Save to disk" menu you can select save or save to single directory. This either saves bunch of files to a single directory or creates some folders according to your preferences and saves the books there, renaming them according to your preferences.


You can go to Preferences -> Import/Export -> Saving books to disk config screen and set everything to your liking there.
You can choose to save the cover as a separate file, you can choose to have the metadata in book file updated according to the Calibre metadata and other interesting options.
There is also Save Template configuration option, where you can build file-name and/or directories according to the metadata.
You can use following metadata (copied directly from Calibre)

author_sort - The author sort string. To use only the first letter of the name use {author_sort[0]}
authors - The authors
id - The calibre internal id
isbn - The ISBN
last_modified - The date when the metadata for this book record was last modified
pubdate - The published date
publisher - The publisher
rating - The rating
series - The series
series_index - The series number. To get leading zeros use {series_index:0>3s} or {series_index:>3s} for leading spaces
tags - The tags
timestamp - The date
title - The title
Any custom field  - The lookup name of any custom field (these names begin with "#").

My favorite naming option is
{author_sort}/{series}/{series_index:0>3s|[|] - }{title} - {authors}
This will create directory with author name and place all books from that author in the direcotry. IF there is series info, it will also create series directory and also, IF there is series info it will prepend series info to the title.
So:
/{series}/ - will create series directory if there is series
{series_index:0>3s|[|] - } - will prepend series number in square bracket, with leading zeros (so numbering looks like 001, 002, 003 ... 010, 011 ... so series with more than 9 books are sorted correctly (otherwise it would be like 1, 10, 11, 2, ... 9)) and with the optional " - " between series number and title. When there is no series number, there is no " - " in front of the book title.

You probably want something simple, like
{author_sort} - {title} as your save template.

There is even Template Editor and very good documentation built-in and on-line if you want to go *totally* wild in your naming schemes. You can program almost ANYTHING using dozens of available functions operating on any conceivable combination of metadata you might have in Calibre database.

If you have something specific in mind and still can't make it work, just ask.

[Kalkas]

Originally Posted by kacir

In the "Save to disk" menu you can select save or save to single directory. This either saves bunch of files to a single directory or creates some folders according to your preferences and saves the books there, renaming them according to your preferences.

(...)

My favorite naming option is
{author_sort}/{series}/{series_index:0>3s|[|] - }{title} - {authors}
This will create directory with author name and place all books from that author in the direcotry.

(...)

You probably want something simple, like
{author_sort} - {title} as your save template.

(...)

If you have something specific in mind and still can't make it work, just ask.

I have tried to change folder and file naming structure via Calibre (and not directly via Mac's Finder or Windows's Explorer) in the Calibre Preferences: there are options for "Saving Books to Disk." In there I specified the following scheme:

{author_sort}/{title}/{title}

But there is no change in the folder structure and file names in my Calibre library after applying these options.

I wish that Calibre saves books when adding them to the library according to the following pattern:

AUTHOR/TITLE/TITLE

Is it possible?

Best regards,
Kalkas

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Kalkas

I have tried to change folder and file naming structure via Calibre (and not directly via Mac's Finder or Windows's Explorer) in the Calibre Preferences: there are options for "Saving Books to Disk." In there I specified the following scheme:

{author_sort}/{title}/{title}

But there is no change in the folder structure and file names in my Calibre library after applying these options.

I wish that Calibre saves books when adding them to the library according to the following pattern:

What you want can't be done. See ==>> Want to change folder structure or file names in the Calibre library?

The settings for "Saving Books to Disk" in Preferences are used by the Save to disk tool, which copies books from the library to another location using the template specified in the settings.

BR