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BetterRed · 09-30-2014, 04:32 AM

@chaley - Imagine I do this search

Code:

pubdate:<=1922-1-1 and formats:"=PDF" and tags:"=Historical"

What I'd like to do is to give the books that meet that criteria a persistent mark using an icon. I want an icon rather than a VL or Saved Search because I want to see it in the context of all books. Also I can hide/show the icon column as and when it suits me.

I could 'invent' a tag such as 'pre1922-PDF-Historical' and apply it to all books satisfying the search, and make the icon conditional on that tag. But if I subsequently find a better format for one of the books, then I will probably delete PDF. But that wont get rid of the 'pre1922-PDF-Historical' tag so I'd still see the associated icon.

So the solution is to write a template that effectively does the search dynamically when building the book list. Then when I remove the PDF the icon will be gone immediately.

I struggle with writing templates. These days I find it really hard to wrap my head around the syntax and semantics of unfamiliar programming languages*, I lost the motivation to 'program' some years ago. Today I prefer to parse political speech, derive cliché indices, and ensure they're all singing from the same hymn sheet etc

The User Category is not dissimilar. I play around to get something I want then I say to myself but what I really want is indication in the book list that tells me a book falls within this user category. It could be an icon, or a column colour or a list of user category values. And it too would be dynamic, so if I changed the underlying data that qualified a book to appear in a given category then the book list would change accordingly. A VL or Saved Search won't suit because I want to see that a book is in a given user category within the context of seeing books that are not.

BR

*Actually I now find it hard to wrap my head around all 'programming languages', familiar or otherwise. English, Mandarin and French are far more interesting

09-30-2014, 04:32 AM	#3
BetterRed null operator (he/him) Posts: 21,792 Karma: 30237628 Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Sydney Australia Device: none	@chaley - Imagine I do this search Code: pubdate:<=1922-1-1 and formats:"=PDF" and tags:"=Historical" What I'd like to do is to give the books that meet that criteria a persistent mark using an icon. I want an icon rather than a VL or Saved Search because I want to see it in the context of all books. Also I can hide/show the icon column as and when it suits me. I could 'invent' a tag such as 'pre1922-PDF-Historical' and apply it to all books satisfying the search, and make the icon conditional on that tag. But if I subsequently find a better format for one of the books, then I will probably delete PDF. But that wont get rid of the 'pre1922-PDF-Historical' tag so I'd still see the associated icon. So the solution is to write a template that effectively does the search dynamically when building the book list. Then when I remove the PDF the icon will be gone immediately. I struggle with writing templates. These days I find it really hard to wrap my head around the syntax and semantics of unfamiliar programming languages, I lost the motivation to 'program' some years ago. Today I prefer to parse political speech, derive cliché indices, and ensure they're all singing from the same hymn sheet etc The User Category is not dissimilar. I play around to get something I want then I say to myself but what I really want is indication in the book list that tells me a book falls within this user category. It could be an icon, or a column colour or a list of user category values. And it too would be dynamic, so if I changed the underlying data that qualified a book to appear in a given category then the book list would change accordingly. A VL or Saved Search won't suit because I want to see that a book is in a given user category within the context of seeing books that are not. BR Actually I now find it hard to wrap my head around all 'programming languages', familiar or otherwise. English, Mandarin and French are far more interesting Last edited by BetterRed; 09-30-2014 at 05:05 AM.