Thread: LibraryThing Match plugin - beta testers wanted
View Single Post
Old 02-18-2021, 11:11 PM   #11
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,905
Karma: 47303824
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bradles View Post
Hi David,

Thanks for your question. The two possible answers are:

1. I was more interested in the simple existence of the book in each source, not so much in syncing the metadata. More a personal preference in how I use LT and calibre.
Which is completely sensible thing to do.
Quote:
2. Complexity. This is my first "real" plugin, my first attempt at python programming, and my first experience with web-related development. I wanted to keep it simple.

I have looked at a couple of your metadata source plugins, and I can foresee it wouldn't be TOO difficult to adapt one for LT. I do like the idea of clicking on the identifier to go to the book in LT. I will give this some thought if the current plugin gets any traction.
In general, the metadata source plugins are easy. The complexity comes from what the search on the site returns. And that they like to change.

You can get the same effect without a metadata source plugin. You can add a rule for identifiers to create the link. This is done in the preferences on the "Look & Feel" page and then the "Book details". Press the "Create rules to convert..." button. I have several of these but an example if for the MobileRead library:

Code:
Key: mobileread
Name: MobileRead
Template: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t={id}
As you have a separate column, you could also add a column using a template to give a link. I haven't done this, but, I know it's been discussed here in the past.
Quote:
To touch on your other comments, I do use a "LibraryThing ID" column in calibre to keep track of the matched books.
The existence of the identifier could be used for that. Or a tag. I have a "status" column for reading status and couple of other things. It is a tag-like column, so adding a "LibraryTag" to that might work. Or using the Reading List plugin.
Quote:

The LT API is one-way, so no facility to update books there.
That's a pity. And good to know. As I'm sure I have seen a suggestion to replace GR with LibraryThing as the GR API I use is no longer supported and might stop working at any time. I thought I'd seen LibraryThing suggested as an alternative, but, if there is no API support for updating it, it isn't very attractive.
davidfor is offline