Request: Sidestreaming Tags

[Gary_M_Mugford]

Hi all,

I have a convoluted tagging system that results in my limiting a metadata download to a couple of tags, which I then, usually, highlight and replace with my own. The reason I don't eliminate the downlad completely is that there are occasional books that come my way that I don't know about before-hand, and the list of tags helps me do my own tagging. My own tagging is very, very much smaller than most, as I keep less than 20 tags in all.

It occured to me that it might be good to 'keep' the tags the cumulative web has decided for the book. But where? How about at the top of the comments section? What I would need is an optional capability to pre-pend OTHER people's tags to the comments upon import. In a LOT of ways, that might be a better description of the book than many of the comments I do see.

IS this kind of thing possible? And would it be popular enough to warrant the time spending writing it? And lastly, are you interested Kiwidude?

GM

[kiwidude]

My own process of tagging is identical to yours - use the metadata sources to get some tags and then replace with my own if needed. As I only use the Goodreads metadata plugin for tags and that is customisable to a certain extent it is less work than it used to be.

I don't have an interest in writing such a plugin myself as you describe. However I suggest there is an arguably "better" way to do what you want. Just use the Tags column for downloaded tags, and add a custom column to store your own tags in. You could put the original column off screen, and have it visible in the book details panel where your comments are if you so desired.

Requires no plugin and no mucking around with the comments field.

[Gary_M_Mugford]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

My own process of tagging is identical to yours - use the metadata sources to get some tags and then replace with my own if needed. As I only use the Goodreads metadata plugin for tags and that is customisable to a certain extent it is less work than it used to be.

I don't have an interest in writing such a plugin myself as you describe. However I suggest there is an arguably "better" way to do what you want. Just use the Tags column for downloaded tags, and add a custom column to store your own tags in. You could put the original column off screen, and have it visible in the book details panel where your comments are if you so desired.

Requires no plugin and no mucking around with the comments field.

Kiwidude,

Did briefly give the TagsGM column idea a try about two months ago. It looked like it was going to take a fairly organized effort to copy over the data. In the end, I accepted my lot. But I think you might have spurred me into doing it to the finish line this time out. Hmmm, since I started this message, I have gone ahead and implemented your suggested scheme completely. Had to change a couple of calculated columns and a plugboard, but it's done and I'm moving forward. Thanks for the kick in the can.

GM

[CWatkinsNash]

Gary, I'm glad you posted because I've been thinking about doing something similar to what you've ultimately ended up doing. So I guess Kiwidude kicked us both in the can. I think I can do this with regex and a little luck. *fingers crossed*

Edited to add: Wow, so much easier than I thought. I don't even need to *use* regex, just set search and replace to regex and tell it which fields to use. That was so easy I'm wondering if I'm dreaming this.

[transmitthis]

Thats kind of what I end up doing, I use the normal tags for general details downloaded via the metadata plugins, but end up appending a tag sometimes or removing one.

It still looks messy, so I just went for a Genre column which is always shown, that way it all looks organised to my eyes, and the most relevant information is always to hand.

Here is the list of Genres I use if anyone wants ideas.
Autobiography
Children's Books
Classics
Compliation
Computers
Contemporary
Cooking
Detective
Fantasy
Fiction
Historical
Horror
Humor
Legal
Mystrey
Non-Fiction
Paranormal
Pets
Philosophy
Poetry
Politics
Reference
Religion
Romance
Science
Science-Fiction
Self-Help
Short Stories
Sports
Suspence
Thriller
Travel
Vampires
War
Westerns
Young Adult

That way you can tag a book as Fiction, Vampires. Or Science-Fiction, Short Stories
Did try and keep the list short, but it kinda grows.
Would be nice if the Tags could be stopped from displaying in the book preview view, as I would prefer not to see them really.

[kovidgoyal]

@transmitthis: Preferences->Look & Feel->Book details allows you to control what is visible in the book details panel

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by transmitthis

Thats kind of what I end up doing, I use the normal tags for general details downloaded via the metadata plugins, but end up appending a tag sometimes or removing one.

It still looks messy, so I just went for a Genre column which is always shown, that way it all looks organised to my eyes, and the most relevant information is always to hand.

I was already using tags for genres, so I just copied the current tags to a new Genres column. I'd been wanting to make use of downloaded tags for certain books, plus I get tired of cleaning up the never ending tags attached to Smashwords books. (Some weird tagging going on over there - did you know there are apparently 30 ways to say "historical romance?)

I already had a "subtags" field that I used for non-genre info like "needs fixed" or for narrow subgenres that don't have yet enough books to warrant a full genre, like Steampunk. When there are enough books (6+), they "graduate" to a full genre.

Now I can keep my nice organized genres (I have about 50 right now) and deal with attached and downloaded tags separately and when I feel like it. I really should have done this several months and several hundred books ago, so I'm quite relieved it was so easy to make the switch.

[transmitthis]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

@transmitthis: Preferences->Look & Feel->Book details allows you to control what is visible in the book details panel

And I was actually in there yesturday, then today, I mistook it for the main window column list for some reason. Sorry Kovid, you must get real annoyed at new users. Thanks

oh, say what would be really nice is: You know how the "Book Details View" can be adjusted - But when its poped out it has a fixed size for the text section...which makes viewing it not as nice.
Are there any plans to make that adjustable too?

Thanks anyway.

I spend more time sorting out my librarys than reading books

[Gary_M_Mugford]

As mentioned earlier by CWatkinsNash, the process is fairly straightforward. I sorted by tags (remember, I had previously edited them down to MY limited selection. I then highlighted each group of tags and edited in my tag into the freshly created TagsGM column. It shows up in the category browser and the work of a couple of hours had me where I asked Kiwidude to get me. I de-listed the old Tags column from being on view. Done.

I did have to make a scripting change.
My GENRE column now has this script:
{#tagsgm:re( *(.[^\,]?)[^\,]*?(\,|$),\1\2)}
NOTE: #tagsgm replaces tags

My Plugboard for my Kindle2 (actually 3) shows:
[{#readrank:ifempty(0)}{#genre:ifempty(SF)}] {#stripped_series:lookup(.\s,#initials,.,#shortene d,series)}{series_index:|-|-}{title}

IF YOU COPY THIS and get an error in calibre, check shortened is all one word and that there is no space before the d.

The ReadRank column is a set column giving me 1 thru 9. I honestly only use 1,2,3 for books I want to read and export to the Kindle. The two ifempty checks are in case I have a blank field for ReadRank (make it 0 so it shows up right off the bat) and a blank tag is almost assuredly going to be an SF title. The Stripped Series, Initials and Shortened Series calculated column scripts are all from others in this forum, most notably CHaley.

This results in titles like [1AN] New Yorker - Bernie Madoff Profile - Jeffrey Toobin, [1Br] MLaw-12-The Two Over One Bidding Book - Mike Lawrence, [1My] MA-1-Summer of the Big Bachi - Naomi Hirahara, [2SF] Cowboy Angels - Paul Mcaulay, etc.

I can sort by title and get my books listed in the desirability rank, then genre, then series, then title. No need for collections. I just pick a mystery from the 1's, then a SF book from the same rank, then something else ... bridge, sports, non-fiction, etc. Then repeat. As I add new books that I want to read fairly soon, they migrate to the 1 section immediately, so I'm always picking the cherries. Lower rankings denote books that I suspect have a flaw as far as my interests go, but have gotten good enough reviews to be a button push away. And the rank 3's are old favourites that I like to have around when I want something quick, familiar and unchallenging. I have more than a few books in calibre that aren't rated yet and might not ever see the light of a Kindle screen. Like the ones my Mom likes

At any rate, now you can see why I wanted limited tags.

GM

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Gary_M_Mugford

I did have to make a scripting change.
My GENRE column now has this script:
{#tagsgm:re( *(.[^\,]?)[^\,]*?(\,|$),\1\2)}
NOTE: #tagsgm replaces tags

My Plugboard for my Kindle2 (actually 3) shows:
[{#readrank:ifempty(0)}{#genre:ifempty(SF)}] {#stripped_series:lookup(.\s,#initials,.,#shortene d,series)}{series_index:|-|-}{title}

I can translate the plugboard, but what does the

{#tagsgm:re( *(.[^\,]?)[^\,]*?(\,|$),\1\2)}

do in the Genre column?

(I'm a bit of a regex beginner, so I know most of individual elements of that script, I just don't know what it's doing as a whole. I'm trying to learn. )

[Gary_M_Mugford]

Takes the first two letters of each of the tags

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Gary_M_Mugford

Takes the first two letters of each of the tags

Ah, okay! Thanks!