Plugin ideas... add yours here

[kiwidude]

Got an idea for a plugin? Feel free to add them to this thread if you haven't seen it mentioned elsewhere. Who knows, if it is a good enough idea someone might even write it for you if you need the help, it has happened before...

Plugin idea discussions

To ensure this thread becomes manageable over time and to help out new visitors to the forum, here is a summary of the plugin suggestions to date from this thread. For anything you see marked as implemented, please go to the relevant plugin thread to discuss further changes or requests.

• Goodreads shelf synchronisation starts here. Implemented as Goodreads Sync plugin
• Duplicates finder starts here. Implemented as Find Duplicates plugin
• DOI Journal numbers starts here
• Tweak/fix epub css and/or xpgt starts here
• Scrape and update a custom field starts here
• Find new releases for a list of authors starts here
• Manage series starts here. Implemented as Manage Series plugin
• Moving files marked read on reader to a read folder starts here
• Mark book to be sent to device on next connect starts here. Implemented as Book Sync plugin
• Saving Kindle APNX files to hard-drive starts here. Implemented as APNX Generator plugin
• Find poor quality covers, invalid metadata starts here. Implemented as Quality Check plugin
• Custom cover generator starts here. Implemented as Generate Cover plugin
• Tag cleaner to consolidate downloaded tags starts here
• eBookwise IMP library transfer starts here
• Plugin updater starts here. Implemented as Plugin Updater plugin
• Look for files with incorrect file extensions like CBZ/CBR starts here
• Search local drive for matching author/books starts here
• Workflow automation to script sequence of various plugin actions starts here
• Upload books to an HTTP server e.g. Cloudreader on iPad starts here.
• Review EPUB metadata and put Calibre convert version into custom column starts here
• Custom views for different tasks starts here. Implemented as View Manager plugin
• Graphical catalog for browsing book collection starts here
• Content server status starts here. Implemented as patch in Calibre 0.7.55
• Compare two books using a diff tool starts here
• Add a publish button to distribute a book on the internet starts here
• Automatically queue books for remote storage starts here
• Search across your library book contents starts here ePub Search in Quality Check plugin
• Integration with BitTorrent starts here
• Value your library like a portfolio getting prices from Amazon starts here
• When restarting Calibre open last book read at last page read starts here
• Mark read items then delete from Stanza starts here
• Store author biography information starts here
• Manipulate Kindle mbp files to reset date read starts here
• Define news recipes at a per device level and allow syncing to a specific device starts here
• Define a to-read list allowing ordering starts here. Implemented as Reading List plugin
• Identify books in your library that have won awards starts here
• Backup your library and plugin settings starts here
• Create a poster from your book covers starts here
• Copy the TOC from a book to a custom field starts here
• Identify book samples starts here
• Edit MOBI headers and metadata starts here
• Store which device for book in custom columns starts here Implemented in Reading List plugin
• Change Calibre skin starts here
• Font changer for ePubs starts here
• Translate foreign languages starts here
• Toolbar button per library starts here
• Automatically download metadata for new books without any starts here
• Metadata from Smashwords, Fictionwise, AllRomance starts here
• Update custom column after conversion starts here
• Copy book information for posting to a blog starts here
• Generate books for an author (including books you don't have) starts here
• ISSN based metadata for electronic magazines starts here
• Metadata from arbookfind and commonsensemedia.org starts here
• BISAC code tagging starts here
• Content comparison for ePub starts here
• Omnibus/Short story collection mgmt starts here
• Top 100/social based list importing/mgmt starts here
• Calibre-server enhancements for administration capability starts here
• Tag cloud generator starts here
• Turkish metadata sources idefix.com/kitap or kitapyurdu.com starts here
• CBR to CBZ conversion enhancements starts here
• Dual language ebook conversions starts here
• Statistics for books (e.g. in tag browser by year) starts here
• Cross library duplicate comparisons starts here
• Managing hierarchical tags starts here
• Update a read custom column from device view starts here
• ComicInfo integration to download metadata and export xml starts here
• Metadata from IMDB for calibre users storing videos starts here
• Switch between save to disk templates when saving starts here
• Find books through Overdrive starts here
• Conversion plugin for Wolfram Computable Document Format starts here
• Control which metadata to import when adding ebooks starts here
• Setup calibre as a shared library with controlled book checkouts starts here
• Merge highlights/notes back into PDF starts here. Implemented as Sony PRS-T1 notes plugin
• Merging multiple ePubs into an omnibus starts here. Implemented as EpubMerge plugin
• Smashwords validator for ebook submission starts here
• Delete source file after conversion starts here
• Find PDFs which have DRM starts here
• Read metadata from FictionDB starts here. Implemented as FictionDB plugin
• Check for duplicated/deleted books on device eject starts here
• Find duplicate series names starts here In progress by kiwidude
• Auto-convert to desired format from calibre content server starts here
• Spook calibre as a Kindle for sync with Amazon store starts here
• Integrate Get Books with Reading List to update a wishlist price column starts here
• Execute command/batch file after downloading to device starts here
• Adding books to a Shelfari account starts here
• Plugin toolbar container to reduce space starts here Implemented in Favourite Menus plugin
• Report unused CSS styles starts here
• Cover fetcher by ISBN from publishers home pages starts here
• Build MobiMetaEditor functionality into calibre starts here. Implemented in Quality Check plugin
• Integrate with kindle.amazon.com for tracking reading starts here
• Download Spanish metadata from www.lecturalia.com starts here
• Download Google images for covers starts here
• Nook SimpleTouch shelf manager starts here
• Dictionary lookup to LEO.org starts here

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by marvin_2

Calibre is now really powerful with the custom sort options for authors & titles. Getting the configuration right in the Tweaks-section can be a bit challenging at times, though, and re-populating the sort_by columns is not always straightforward.

A quick-preference for setting the sort options would be nice, and an option to redo the sort_by columns (currently via bulk-edit for authors and via single-book metadata for title) would be terrific.

I am not using the custom sort very often now, but would like to be able to adapt the sort order on the fly to the internet source I am using to find metadata.

Excuse me for being a bit slow here but I wanted to clarify which "sort" you meant - Calibre has several of them

Did you mean the value of the tweak "sort_columns_at_startup"? Allowing you to apply the value there (and possibly other sorts) in your library view after you have altered your sort columns manually?

You mentioned the author sort by in the metadata dialogs. This is something I never touch. Could you explain your workflow and exactly which sorts you find yourself altering?

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

A question regarding the quick preferences plugin or maybe a new one is needed, but would it be possible to create a plugin for a context menu that would keep a login of directories to add books from, maybe a list of 5 or so? Or maybe a toolbar dropdown menu?

When you say "login", did you mean list?

The "Add..." menu options remember the last directory that you add books from. If I understand you correctly, you are saying in your workflow you have a number of common directories you add books from and want to quickly switch between them? What OS are you using - Windows or ? Does adding them to your "favourites" (Windows 7/Vista) not achieve something similar?

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

When you say "login", did you mean list?

The "Add..." menu options remember the last directory that you add books from. If I understand you correctly, you are saying in your workflow you have a number of common directories you add books from and want to quickly switch between them? What OS are you using - Windows or ? Does adding them to your "favourites" (Windows 7/Vista) not achieve something similar?

Yes that is exactly what I meant, I add books from 4 different spots, I am on Win7, what do you mean add them to my favorites, where do I do that?

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

Yes that is exactly what I meant, I add books from 4 different spots, I am on Win7, what do you mean add them to my favorites, where do I do that?

In Windows Explorer in Win7/Vista, in the pane on the left at the top is a list of Favourite locations, which you can drag/drop other folders onto.

Then when you open the "Add..." dialog, scroll up the left pane to the top to see your favourites there, and just click on the folder you want to add books from.

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

In Windows Explorer in Win7/Vista, in the pane on the left at the top is a list of Favourite locations, which you can drag/drop other folders onto.

Then when you open the "Add..." dialog, scroll up the left pane to the top to see your favourites there, and just click on the folder you want to add books from.

WOW, thank you I did not know about that, and yes that will make it much easier for navigation, which spans across three different drives.

[paola]

I already posted the following question here (ok, now I have edited the typos):

I wonder whether Calibre is capable of retrieving the metadata for journal articles. For these you do not have an ISBN, but (as explaiend in the opening message) a DOI. I tried to insert the DOI in the ISBN field in the metadata window of Calibre, but alas it immediately turns red, presumably because the format is rather different. E.g. for the one paper I was trying to edit metadata for the doi is 10.1207/S15327965PLI1403&4_20

Manichean suggested that a plugin might do the trick, but as I am totally useless at programming (and at computers in general) I wonder whether this may be a fun brainteaser for somebody more competent than I am!

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by paolamanzini

I already posted the following question here (ok, now I have edited the typos):...

So I had a super quick look into this out of curiosity. My first question is - where are you expecting to be able to retrieve the book metadata from? CrossRef.org seem to have it (and can supply it in xml format) but you have to become a "Basic Affiliate" with an annual fee of $2000 from my reading of their website. Is there another source of journal metadata that is free?

[avantman42]

Recently I started adding our paper books to my copy of Calibre, so that we've got a complete record of all the books we own. I've got a couple of MP3 audio books which I'd also like to add. I've added tags for both paper and audio books, and in the case of MP3s, I've added the files to the book's folder. Ideally, I'd like to add the MP3 files to the formats list.

A quick look suggests that this can't be done with a file type plugin, would anyone care to prove me wrong? Or tell me that it can be done some other way?

[paola]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

So I had a super quick look into this out of curiosity. My first question is - where are you expecting to be able to retrieve the book metadata from? CrossRef.org seem to have it (and can supply it in xml format) but you have to become a "Basic Affiliate" with an annual fee of $2000 from my reading of their website. Is there another source of journal metadata that is free?

Hi kiwidude, thanks for the prompt answer. Well, I (perhaps naively?) thought that with the doi one could "suck up" the metadata from the article page itself, e/.g for the above doi it would be here:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/con...~frm=titlelink

Having said that, one site that is free as far as I know is "cite you like", which again for the above DOI returns:
http://www.citeulike.org/user/PreciousJ/article/7478980

But I am no tech-person, so perhaps this does not make sense...

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by avantman42

Recently I started adding our paper books to my copy of Calibre, so that we've got a complete record of all the books we own. I've got a couple of MP3 audio books which I'd also like to add. I've added tags for both paper and audio books, and in the case of MP3s, I've added the files to the book's folder. Ideally, I'd like to add the MP3 files to the formats list.

A quick look suggests that this can't be done with a file type plugin, would anyone care to prove me wrong? Or tell me that it can be done some other way?

As you have discovered Calibre has no direct support for audiobooks. If it consists of a single mp3 file, you can just drag/drop this into Calibre like any other book format, it appears in the list of formats in the book details window etc.

However, an audiobook usually consists of multiple mp3 files. And Calibre does not support storing multiple files with the same format in the same directory (e.g. multiple versions of an EPUB). So the limitation that applies to ebooks applies even more so to audiobooks for which you will have multiple files of the same extension.

The workaround suggested for ebooks is to create a separate book entry in Calibre representing the alternate version of the book and storing it there. Thus the "equivalent" for audiobooks would be to create a "book" entry for each mp3 file making up the audiobook.

If Calibre were to ever support multiple "versions" within the same book record then possibly it would help you. However afaik there is no plan to do this as it would potentially be a big task.

Storing files "manually" inside the Calibre folders in general is a *bad* idea as often gets repeated in the forums. If you were to rename the book author for instance then it is possible you would lose the audio files - that file structure is for Calibre to do with as it will and it will only keep track of the files in its database - i.e. things you have imported into Calibre.

So I can't think of a direct way for a plugin to help you. I would suggest posting in the main Calibre forum and asking others if they store audiobooks in Calibre and if so how they approach it.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by paolamanzini

Hi kiwidude, thanks for the prompt answer. Well, I (perhaps naively?) thought that with the doi one could "suck up" the metadata from the article page itself, e/.g for the above doi it would be here:
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/con...~frm=titlelink

Having said that, one site that is free as far as I know is "cite you like", which again for the above DOI returns:
http://www.citeulike.org/user/PreciousJ/article/7478980

But I am no tech-person, so perhaps this does not make sense...

The "suck up" technique is called "web scraping". In theory it is usually possible to do. The major downside is that it is extremely "fragile" - if the website you are trying to "scrape" the information from changes it's appearance with a redesign, then your code becomes useless. There can also potentially be legal issues as well I believe although how much of an issue that is in this case I am not sure.

As I don't have any journals and have a backlog of other plugins to work on I'm not volunteering to help further this myself I'm afraid. There is some information here now as a starting point if there is someone else out there keen to assist with writing it for you at some point.

[avantman42]

It appears that I've been something of an idiot

Originally Posted by kiwidude

As you have discovered Calibre has no direct support for audiobooks. If it consists of a single mp3 file, you can just drag/drop this into Calibre like any other book format, it appears in the list of formats in the book details window etc.

I hadn't realised that I could add non-ebook files to Calibre.

Originally Posted by kiwidude

However, an audiobook usually consists of multiple mp3 files. And Calibre does not support storing multiple files with the same format in the same directory (e.g. multiple versions of an EPUB). So the limitation that applies to ebooks applies even more so to audiobooks for which you will have multiple files of the same extension.

I've now realised that I can put all the files in a zip archive and add that, which is good enough for me.

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Storing files "manually" inside the Calibre folders in general is a *bad* idea as often gets repeated in the forums. If you were to rename the book author for instance then it is possible you would lose the audio files - that file structure is for Calibre to do with as it will and it will only keep track of the files in its database - i.e. things you have imported into Calibre.

I realise that you should generally leave Calibre's library directory alone, but having read this thread (specifically posts 9 & 10), I thought I should be OK. Now that I've realised I can import non-ebook files into Calibre, it's all good

Thanks for your help. I had expected a reply along the lines of "Calibre only deals with e-book formats, it can't help with any other files", so this is much better than I'd expected.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by avantman42

I realise that you should generally leave Calibre's library directory alone, but having read this thread (specifically posts 9 & 10), I thought I should be OK. Now that I've realised I can import non-ebook files into Calibre, it's all good .

Quite right you are, thanks for pointing me to that. I wasn't 100% sure if the directory would be moved or recreated - as the answer is "moved" then my caution on that was unnecessary.

However as you have a workaround of adding as a zip then that is even better. The only reason I did not suggest that is Calibre uses a zip format for storing html files in. So provided you don't intend to have an html format of a book and an audiobook format then you should be ok. Also of course it also means you have to unzip your audio files each time to play them, where I thought you may have been wanting to keep the files unzipped to use Calibre to send them to a device or something.

However if that solution does what you need then it's all good

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Quite right you are, thanks for pointing me to that. I wasn't 100% sure if the directory would be moved or recreated - as the answer is "moved" then my caution on that was unnecessary.

However as you have a workaround of adding as a zip then that is even better.

I'm happier now that I've found a way to actually tell Calibre about the files - I wasn't entirely confident trusting to it renaming rather than recreating the directory.

Originally Posted by kiwidude

The only reason I did not suggest that is Calibre uses a zip format for storing html files in. So provided you don't intend to have an html format of a book and an audiobook format then you should be ok.

That also occurred to me after I'd posted. I've only got a few audio books at the moment, and none of them are in HTML format. To prevent problems in future, though, I've decided to use .tar as a format for audio books, so that I can have both HTML and audio versions of a book if I wish.

Originally Posted by kiwidude

Also of course it also means you have to unzip your audio files each time to play them, where I thought you may have been wanting to keep the files unzipped to use Calibre to send them to a device or something.

However if that solution does what you need then it's all good

I don't mind having to uncompress them in order to play them. At the end of the day, Calibre isn't designed or intended to deal with audio or paper books, so I don't mind some limitations with those, but I like having all my books managed in one place.

Thanks again for your help.