Custom column to display number of chapters?

[crackshot91]

So, I've been downloading a lot of fanfiction lately and first I had an annoying problem:

If I set fanfictiondownloader to download the fic as a mobi file, I wouldn't get the chapter marks on my kindle. So I found out I need to download the fics as epub files, and then convert them to mobi. An extra step, but it seems to work fine.

Now, I want to know how to add a custom column that tells me how many chapters a story has. I downloaded the "Count Pages" plugin that tells me the word count, so chapter count is the only thing missing.

(Well, that and auto-downloading the appropriate cover, but that's another topic)

Does anyone know how to create a column that will show how many chapters a book has?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by crackshot91

So, I've been downloading a lot of fanfiction lately and first I had an annoying problem:

If I set fanfictiondownloader to download the fic as a mobi file, I wouldn't get the chapter marks on my kindle. So I found out I need to download the fics as epub files, and then convert them to mobi. An extra step, but it seems to work fine.

Now, I want to know how to add a custom column that tells me how many chapters a story has. I downloaded the "Count Pages" plugin that tells me the word count, so chapter count is the only thing missing.

(Well, that and auto-downloading the appropriate cover, but that's another topic)

Does anyone know how to create a column that will show how many chapters a book has?

What defines a 'Chapter' in any book?
A TOC item?
A new EPUB section file? The only obvious one is when a Heading (H tag) includes the word Chapter and not all books use a Heading Tag, just some other styled text the we recognize visually as a chapter.

Do you count Prolog, Epilog as a Chapter? How do you NOT count scene change headings?

See the problems to be solved

[crackshot91]

Originally Posted by theducks

What defines a 'Chapter' in any book?
A TOC item?
A new EPUB section file? The only obvious one is when a Heading (H tag) includes the word Chapter and not all books use a Heading Tag, just some other styled text the we recognize visually as a chapter.

Do you count Prolog, Epilog as a Chapter? How do you NOT count scene change headings?

See the problems to be solved

Well, that got existential.

No, I would simply count a chapter as a TOC item. This is just fanfiction. I mainly just want a way to separate oneshots from serials.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by crackshot91

Well, that got existential.

No, I would simply count a chapter as a TOC item. This is just fanfiction. I mainly just want a way to separate oneshots from serials.

The quality check plugin has a section that counts (but does not show) TOC entries and reports when the title has less than the threshold that was configured.

A Tedious usage would be:
Set the threshold to 2 (the book should have at least 1 entry)
(Loop)
run the check
when the answer appears, filter on Not Chapter count (column), in otherwords: blank
select all: Bulk Metadata edit; Set the column value to your threshold setting value. Save
Set the Theshold + 1
(repeat loop)
I did say tedious

[crackshot91]

That might be what I'm looking for, actually.

Now, could you explain that process to me as if I'm a complete idiot?

I have the Quality Check plugin and I found the option to "Check ePub structure > Check NCX TOC with < 3 entries"

I am lost though. How do I change the threshold? What's a (loop)? And then every other step happened and I feel stupid. :O

[kiwidude]

@crackshot91 - what theducks suggested was made in jest, no-one in their right mind would follow those steps, hence all the smilies around it.

Your best bet is to just post on the FanFictionDownloader plugin thread and request an addition to populate a custom column with the chapter count. Personally I think it is a meaningless statistic given that you can't actually get the count of genuine chapters, so I won't be adding it to any of my plugins like Count Pages etc. But JimmXinu might be more willing since it might be a little more meaningful if limited to just FanFiction and he has mentioned it in the past.

[crackshot91]

Thanks, kiwidude. I did try to create a custom integer column for chapters, and when I went into the custom column tab of FanFictionDownloader's config, I saw this:



Unfortunately, the fanfictiondownloader doesn't seem to download the metadata for # of chapters.

Thanks for the help!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by crackshot91

That might be what I'm looking for, actually.

Now, could you explain that process to me as if I'm a complete idiot?

I have the Quality Check plugin and I found the option to "Check ePub structure > Check NCX TOC with < 3 entries"

I am lost though. How do I change the threshold? What's a (loop)? And then every other step happened and I feel stupid. :O

A loop is where you start at the top (again) after incrementing a setting.
Many computer programs have For (start value)-Next (until end value) (or While) loops.

in this case, that would be what was needed, But since Calibre has no Macro...You are the Macro

Pick Kiwidudes idea

[theducks]

Originally Posted by crackshot91

Thanks, kiwidude. I did try to create a custom integer column for chapters, and when I went into the custom column tab of FanFictionDownloader's config, I saw this:



Unfortunately, the fanfictiondownloader doesn't seem to download the metadata for # of chapters.

Thanks for the help!

Did you create the required columns and configure the plugin so it knows where to stuff the data?

[crackshot91]

Originally Posted by theducks

Did you create the required columns and configure the plugin so it knows where to stuff the data?

I... don't know.

I created a custom column here:



But, I don't know how to ensure the plugin knows where to put the data, or indeed, if I can get that data...

[crackshot91]

I fixed it! Thanks for the assistance, guys. All I had to do was set FFDL to "update the metadata only"

I'm silly...