Additional materials related to a book

[judyni]

I am enjoying Calibre enormously, but I keep running across things I want to associate with a book and I don't know how. There doesn't seem to be any way besides comments in the metadata to include other items. For example, I just found a rather long review of a book that contains ideas counter to those in the book that I would like to keep.

I'm not comfortable just putting a link in the comments because one never knows when a web page may go away.

Anybody got a solution? Are there plans for anything in the future?

Thanks!
Judy

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by judyni

I'm not comfortable just putting a link in the comments because one never knows when a web page may go away.

@judyni - Save the review in a local file and put a link to that file in comments.

But where to put the local file? Here's what I do. It's quite arbitrary; whilst it 'borrows' from the calibre library structure, the only benefit I get from doing that is that I don't have to ask myself - "Now where shall I put this...?"

Assume library is at Libraries\Main, I created folder Libraries\MainInfo. In that folder I create authorinfo and bookinfo folders as required, where the folder names are the same as the library author and book folder names (sans the book number).

For authors I put a uri link to the 'authorinfo' folder into the Author Link cells in Manage Authors - e.g. file:///Libraries/MainInfo/Agatha%20Christie

For books I have a custom comments-like column called bookinfo, in there I put a link to the bookinfo folder using the link feature in the Comments editor. I display the bookinfo column in the Book Details panel. I cloak the link behind "More stuff here"

Of course, the bookinfo column can contain links to individual files in the bookinfo folder, most of the time I find a link to folder is sufficient. But sometimes I will have a link to the bookinfo folder and links to a specific files, usually if I have more than one EPUB for a book, e.g English, French and Russian; then I'll put the French and Russian editions into the bookinfo folder and individual links to them in the bookinfo column.

The above scheme supercedes anything I have written previously on this issue - for a while I was adding 7 zip archives to books. I find this much better, anything I put in the authorinfo and bookinfo folders doesn't compromise the integrity of the calibre library (folders and database).

BR

[eschwartz]

Thanks for this fascinating description, BetterRed! This does sound more robust than your 7-zip files.

[judyni]

Thanks, BetterRed, for exaplaining what you do. I guess it is important to stay out of Calibre's official directory tree. How important? Would Calibre delete files?

Is support for extra files on any request list for Calibre? It was one of the first things I thought I needed...

Judy

[eschwartz]

The library database is limited to one filetype extension per book record, whereas BetterRed's method allows associating the arbitrary contents of a folder. That way you can store multiple resources and link to them.

Again, calibre will allow any arbitrary filetypes, with the singular requirement that each file extension be unique.

The only danger in having extra files that calibre is not aware of, is that eventually it will get left behind and disassociated with the folder it belongs in. calibre moves books around when you edit the author/title, or transfer the library to a new location.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by judyni

Thanks, BetterRed, for exaplaining what you do. I guess it is important to stay out of Calibre's official directory tree. How important? Would Calibre delete files?

Is support for extra files on any request list for Calibre? It was one of the first things I thought I needed...

Judy

@judyni - Don't add anything to calibres library folders via the file system, if a book folder or author is renamed or moved then any 'extraneous' files will disappear into the bit bucket. And you'll get 'errors' reported by the Library Check feature if there are any such files - and to get rid of the errors you have to delete the offending folders/files - oops

You can put almost any file type into a book folder, but only one file of each file type - ie 1 EPUB, 1 TXT file, 1 MP3, one AVI etc - even 1 EXE.

I don't know if Kovid has an 'extra files' facility on his TODO list. My impression is that he probably doesn't.

The only thing that would make my scheme a tad easier is a Browse button for the Author Link field in Manage Authors - a'la the one in the Comments Editor.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Thanks for this fascinating description, BetterRed! This does sound more robust than your 7-zip files.

@eschwartz - I'm not sure that its any more robust, the advantage of my 7z approach was that calibre would 'look after' the 7z as things got moved, copied etc,

If I were to rename one of my authorinfo folders then when I clicked on an author name in Book Details nothing will happen - not even a 404. Same with links to bookinfo folders and files in my bookinfo column. That's another reason I opted for an 'as needed' clone of the library tree, because its adjacent to the 'real thing' it forces me think before I act.

But that said its certainly more elegant and intrinsically more flexible, and having the same solution for Authors and Books makes a lot of sense.

BR

[eschwartz]

Thats what I meant.

I don't expect you'll be renaming any of them, and this way you don't have to deal with archives every time you look something up.

I guess moving between Win/linux will pose... issues, but I have a solution: put the files on a webserver.

[judyni]

OK, got it, a new tree. I don't care for the zipped solution -- I want to be able to see and get my "stuff" easily.

Thanks!
Judy

[BetterRed]

A recent post from BookJunkieLI in another thread, led me to re-read a response to one of my posts in another thread from MeSue ==>> MP3/Audio Book file-management feature?

For some reason I completely forgot MeSue's discovery; mayhap, too many years on the planet

One can create a link to a folder or file in a comments column (standard or custom) by dragging 'n dropping the folder or file from your file manager into the comments column editor in metadata edit. The display name will be the file path as a url, but that can be easily changed in the HTML tab.

I thought it worth my while updating this thread with this hidden nugget. Thanks to BookJunkieLI for the nudge, and to MeSue for her derring-do in trying the dragon-drop in the first place.

BR

[transmitthis]

What you want Judy is "dotepub"
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/d...bbiellepfhoglm

Its a simple chrome extension (you do use chrome browser right?) anyhoo, install this, then whenever you find axillary info you want to save, just save it as an epub, then add it to your library.

Add some identifying info/metadata to find them easier if needed. Job done.