The noosfere_util plugin

This plugin should complement cal-noosfere.

Problems in noosfere:

  1. Cal-noosfere cannot clear some metadata field.
    Example: if a metadata source download from anywhere has set the series to "something", and the noosfere metadata source finds an empty series, then cal-noosfere will NOT clear the series field.
  2. A book can exist in multiple volumes.
    Each of them may differ because of a reissue by the same or a different publisher. It may even be part of one or more anthologies with possibly a different author and/or title and/or ISBN. I made a choice but it may NOT be the best one. The solution is to manually go to the book page and choose the best volume by setting the nsfr_id, then restarting the cal-noosfere metadata source plugin.
  3. Cal-noosfere does not allow you to modify the custom column.
    However, it does allow the editor field to be overridden with the collection and the collection index. It then becomes necessary to split this information into custom columns.

Thus, select a few relevant books in calibre whose volume (edition) is displayed incorrectly.

How to use

Clear excess metadata

The selected lines have lost all information related to the fields Publisher, Series, Languages, date of modification, nsfr_id and the custom fields containing the collection defined by the publisher and its serial number. (#collection and #coll_srl as defined by me)

Web browser for volume selection

The selected lines are marked and selected. You just have to launch the data download to get the metadata corresponding to the choice. In fact, the selected lines have lost all the information related to the Publisher, Series, Languages, Date Modified, ISBN fields and the custom fields containing the collection defined by the publisher and its serial number. (#collection and #coll_srl as defined by me). The nsfr_id is defined, it is used as a guide to the choice.

I use this browser as follows:
I activate one of the ISBN, Authors or title.
I activate "Send", I observe the title zone...
When the corresponding page is displayed, I search, if necessary, for the title or the author...
I navigate to the edition I want...
I validate with the exit arrow if I am happy...
 or I exit by esc to cancel the change on this line...
 or I close the window with the X sign to drop this line and all the other selected lines.
In calibre, I start the metadata upload, select noosfere DB as the only metadata source and start the process...

Note:

Web browser, a snapshot...

noosfere util web 075

Distributes the information (which overloads the editor field)

As long as the noosfere DB plugin has been used to download the metadata with the option to override the editor field, the selected lines will be processed. As a result, the editor field will contain the editor, the editor's collection field (default collection) will be populated and the serial code field in the editor's collection (default coll_srl) will contain its value.

Note that if the collection and/or coll_srl does not exist in the editor field, the procedure should work. This is the procedure that in noosfere DB is manual.

Customize extension

The only function of "Customize extension" is to create and/or choose a suitable column...

The first time you use this noosfere_util, you will probably have to create 2 columns and choose the columns. This operation implies a restart of calibre.

In case of bug

noosfere_util creates logs in debug mode... and leaves two files in the temporary directory. It is important to attach this information to any error report.

Run calibre with calibre-debug -g in a terminal. Reproduce the problem, copy and paste the contents of the terminal into a text file... before restarting calibre, copy all the files in the temporary directory (linux: /tmp; windows: %temp%) that start with nsfr_utl. Submit these 3 files with a description of the problem.

Tips

Do not use noosfere DB together with other metadata sources for a final result. In practice, the result may be different from noosfere. Indeed, calibre can use several metadata sources for "a better result". ). In fact, noosfere is correct.

Personally, I start by searching a title with as many metadata sources as possible. This gives me several IDs, ratings, various tags... but also invented series, or book titles that are in fact a series (example: Celle qui sait by Laurence Suhner -isbn:9791036000911, amazon_fr:B096HPZLTQ, google:hIzSzgEACAAJ, nsfr_id:vl$2146624523- see Celle qui sait | Éditions L'Atalante (l-atalante.com)). In fact, noosfere is correct.

Then, with noosfere_util, I delete the excess metadata, I select the edition by the web browser for the choice of the volume which sets me the corresponding nsfr_id, I upload the metadata with noosfere DB alone, then I distribute the overloaded information in the editor field...

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