Using Calibre Companion as a Catalogue
 

I use CC to maintain a copy of my eBook library on an Android tablet and it does the job very nicely. I would now like to use CC on a second Android device, maintaining a full catalogue of my library, (Title, Author, Cover, Tags, etc.), but without actually storing all my books. Is this possible?

Not directly, no, but some people do the equivalent by adding empty txt formats to all the books, setting up CC to accept only txt formats (CC's Formats and Folders), then sending the entire library. This creates a library populated with very small txt files.

You can easily create almost-empty txt formats in calibre by searching for books that don't already have txt formats (not formats:txt), selecting the resulting book list, then clicking the arrow next to Add Books, then Add an empty file ...

Thanks chaley, I'll give that a go.

Will I get covers or will these be lost due to plain text?

CC will get the covers you have in calibre. It uses nothing from the book file itself.

Worked a treat and, (as you said), the "empty" books are tiny. This is a really neat way of taking my book catalogue with me, and the hyperlink mechanism is an unexpected bonus for navigating the library. :)

Presumably if I update any book metadata, (covers, series, etc.), in calibre then I just need to resend the books via CC - or will it ignore the send if the actual book hasn't been changed?

Just connect as a wireless device and the metadata and covers for all changed books will be updated automatically. There is no need to resend a book.

Just updated covers for about 20 books and connected CC to calibre and bingo! all covers were updated automatically just as you said - so neat!

Now, CC works so well with my eBooks that I'd like to extend it to catalogue my paper books too. I can easily add the required records to calibre but just wondered what the best method would be to distinguish between eBooks and physical books within CC.

Ideas so far:

1) Add physical books to calibre as "empty" .lit formats, (as in 'literal' = physical book), and then view this format data in CC's book data.

2) Add a custom column to calibre to specify format: eBook|physical|both

Any suggestions on the merits of these or other solutions would be most welcome.

I think there might be a fourth case: books to buy someday. In other words, books that are neither 'e' nor 'p' but are in the catalog for some reason or another. But putting that aside ...

I think that #2 introduces a problem, not being able to simply ask if a book is 'e' or 'p'. Any question of that form would require an "or" search, as in 'e or b'.

Idea 1 has a problem because the format type would have meaning (txt == 'e' etc) and there is no way to have a book with no formats, meaning that if you ever wanted "neither e nor p" you would need a third format. In addition, idea 1 suffers from the problem that the information "meaning" is derived from the information itself because semantically unrelated information is interpreted by you to provide the information you wish.

I think I would make two Yes/No columns, one for eBook and one for pBook. That would make clear the status of the book. The "information container" precisely specifies what the information means. The "Yes" value would mean the obvious thing. I would choose "Empty" to mean "No", but you could just as easily choose "No". Of course, this scheme introduces a problem: how in CC to ask if a book is neither or both. The answer: if you want "neither" then you pick either column, long-press on whatever you chose as 'No', select "Matching", then go to the other column and tap on 'No'. You will see books that are neither. If you want "both" you do the same thing but using "Yes".

.LIT is a valid (existing) format. Old, yes. But still owned by M$

In Calibre, an empty book needs (has) no format by definition.

I would not mind seeing the option to include 'empty Books'
(I have a VL to show only 'empty books')

It does not make sense to me, to have to create a EPUB catalog of 'empty books' to carry along . I use 'Empty books' as a wish/shopping list, but it also serves to document my Paper Library.

Thanks for the replies. I see what you mean about option 1. I picked .lit as an old format which I have none of.

I hadn't thought of cataloguing books I'd like to buy in the future but that's an interesting possibility.

The two custom columns approach should work nicely, just using "YES" when I have the book in the particular format. I could introduce a third column for "Wish List", (for quick visibility), but first I've got to get my physical library catalogued in calibre and then the new columns populated.

I am interesting in doing this, but when I select the arrow under Add books, I have:

Add Empty book. (Book entry with no formats). I'm using, calibre 1.48. on Mac OS 10.6.8.

Am I missing something or is this feature only available in the latest version? Any help would be a appreciated.

That feature was added in calibre release 2.23 [03 Apr, 2015].

An alternate and much more complicated way of adding empty txt books to a calibre library was discussed in this calibre thread.

chaley: Sorry for the late reply and thank you for the link. I will be upgrading my OS soon so I will hold off creating the catalogue until I install the latest release. Many thanks again.

Upgraded to OS 10.9.5 (Mavericks) and the latest version of calibre. Everything worked out perfect. The catalogue of my library is now on my Dell Venue with the books residing on my Kindle. Many thanks Agama and chaley.