[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by AbyssalAriel

1. Downloading from AO3 or other places, can I have each of the tags keep their link/HTML in the titlepage? When downloading from AO3 directly, their epub has links on each of the tags (as well as the series, and any collections), but FFF doesn't (except for series apparently).

You are correct, FFF doesn't currently do that. It could (probably) be done, but at the expense of not being able to order the entries in the list.

Given the absolute mess that AO3 tagging is, I'm not very inclined to pursue this. Especially since it would only save one click--click the story link, then you have all the tags links right there.

Originally Posted by AbyssalAriel

If that's not possible, is there at least a way to make the titlepage underline each of the tags/entries? They're separated by comma, but it would be a lot more readable if each individual entry was underlined (so the lack of underlining between them breaks them up more).

You can customize the titlepage in a number of ways, there's a wiki page.

However, to apply an underline to each entry in a list, but not the whole list, I think you'd have to wrap tags around each entry using replace_metadata. There's a wiki page for that, too.

I'd copy the list, change that copy, then include it in the titlepage rather than change the original list if you don't also want that HTML showing up in Calibre tags, etc. More about add_to_extra_valid_entries below.

Originally Posted by AbyssalAriel

2. How can I make a single metadata entry that's composed of others, plus some hardcoded text? I want to have the publish, update, wordcount and chapter count all on one line in the titlepage, and the only way I can think of to do this make an extra field and import the data inside, something like:

customfieldname: Published: {datePublished} | Updated {dateUpdated} | Chapters: {chapterslashtotal}

Unsurprisingly, that syntax doesn't work. But is there a way to achieve the same end goal, and what is it?

The only solution that comes to mind is to:

1. Use add_to_extra_valid_entries and include_in_* to create copies of datePublished, dateUpdated and chapterslashtotal so you aren't affecting default processing that use them, plus your new entry, let's call it mergedentry.
2. Use replace_metadata to add the label to each of those copied entries.
3. Use include_in_mergedentry to put them in one list and keep_in_order_mergedentry:true to suppress list sorting.
4. Use join_string_mergedentry:\s|\s to change the separator.

Originally Posted by AbyssalAriel

3. If accomplishing what I want in question 2, can I conditionally modify it? For example, I'd want to exclude/remove the "Updated" section if it's the same as the publish date.

Should be possible using appropriate regexps in replace_metadata on mergedentry_LIST. There was a discussion earlier this month on something similar.

Originally Posted by AbyssalAriel

4. How can I replicate `Status:Completed` for a custom column, inside personal.ini? I want to have a "Completed" custom column that tracks if a work is complete, but it doesn't seem to behave with sites other than AO3 (I assume because they don't have a `status` entry at all), so I want only AO3 to update that column (for the other sites I'll just enter it manually, but I don't want the value to be overwritten if I update from metadata again).

Using add_to_custom_columns_settings under [archiveofourown.org] for that column will only set it for AO3 stories.

FFF has no way of knowing when you have edited a Calibre custom column vs FFF previously setting it. If you don't want FFF to ever overwrite your changes, the only way with custom_columns_settings is to use the 'n' mode option so it is only used with new books. See the comments in defaults.ini for custom_columns_settings.

Originally Posted by AbyssalAriel

5. Can I somehow update/rebuild the epub titlepage, using the Saved Metadata instead of redownloading the whole work?

No. It's been requested and considered more than once and it just doesn't fit into the plugin.

For repetitive testing, I use FFF's CLI with the --save-cache option to cache the pages once and use them over and over. However, officially, that option is undocumented & unsupported.