Genre subfolder when sending to nexus7

[crazybrit]

Hi

[Caliber 2.6.0]

I'd like to create a genre subfolder when saving titles to my nexus7.

I'm confused as it seems to be specifiable in two places:

1) Preferences -> Import/Export -> Sending books to devices -> save template
2) Preferences -> Plugins -> Device Interface Plugins -> Android Driver -> save template

I've tried the format "{#genre:subitems(0,1)}/{title}" in both places but the title is always saved as {title}-{author} at the top level. I have "use sub folders" enabled in the Android Driver plugin config.

Also, what would the syntax be to integrate 'ifempty("unknown")' into the above so if subitems(0,1) is empty the top level would be "unknown"?

Thanks!

[crazybrit]

Also (#2) is there any android reader that can group by genre, either from the original calibre genre metadata or from a directory structure resulting from it.

[eschwartz]

The two locations are because you can set a default universal save template as well as a per-device-type template.

I am not sure what the Android driver does, but you want the MTP Device Interface plugin. It must be configured while the device is connected, and you can get to it from the dropdown by "device" in the toolbar.

[eschwartz]

Regarding the save template you want, general program mode allows you a lot more flexibility. You can make arbitrarily complex nested functions.

program:

strcat(
	ifempty(
		subitems(
			field('#genre'),
			0,
			1
		),
		'Unknown'
	),
	'/',
	field('title')
)

[crazybrit]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The two locations are because you can set a default universal save template as well as a per-device-type template.

I am not sure what the Android driver does, but you want the MTP Device Interface plugin. It must be configured while the device is connected, and you can get to it from the dropdown by "device" in the toolbar.

Attachment 129931

Thanks. I didn't know about that.

So this created the top level directory (sdcard/books/directory/title - author.epub)" however Moon wouldn't see the book, so I'm guessing it's limited to having everything in the top level directory.

I see that Moon supports tags, of course I'm using genres.

Maybe time to take a step back; do any of the Android readers offer the ability to organize titles the way I want?

[eschwartz]

Calibre Companion is a fully-featured mobile interface to calibre. Developed by a calibre contributor (MR's very own @chaley, who created templates and plugboards and custom columns among other things ), it costs $3 and allows you to connect wirelessly as a device. It allows you to sort by any metadata calibre has on tap.

It does not come with a builtin reader, rather it organizes/filters/searches your books and when you tap on a title to read it, CC will offer to open the book in whichever other ereader app(s) you have installed.

If you want to do fancy metadata sorting on your device, Calibre Companion is king.

[crazybrit]

I'm not seeing this. It allows you to sort by genre while you are connected to the content server but once you've disconnected all you have is the "grouping drawer" which is tags based. Moon supports tags also.

I'm not sure if this is a limitation of the demo version; I don't think so. It also managed to somehow hang in the middle of "download all". Then clicking on "download all" again doubled the #titles it thought it was trying to download.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Calibre Companion is a fully-featured mobile interface to calibre. Developed by a calibre contributor (MR's very own @chaley, who created templates and plugboards and custom columns among other things ), it costs $3 and allows you to connect wirelessly as a device. It allows you to sort by any metadata calibre has on tap.

It does not come with a builtin reader, rather it organizes/filters/searches your books and when you tap on a title to read it, CC will offer to open the book in whichever other ereader app(s) you have installed.

If you want to do fancy metadata sorting on your device, Calibre Companion is king.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by crazybrit

I'm not seeing this. It allows you to sort by genre while you are connected to the content server but once you've disconnected all you have is the "grouping drawer" which is tags based. Moon supports tags also.

I'm not sure if this is a limitation of the demo version; I don't think so. It also managed to somehow hang in the middle of "download all". Then clicking on "download all" again doubled the #titles it thought it was trying to download.

CC allows you to use as many metadata types as you like, including custom ones. I don't believe Moon supports a "#genre" field even though it does support "tags", so you cannot use both (although you can use tags for the genre).
The same way the Tag Browser in calibre is tag-based, and supports both the "tags" field and many others, like... all of them.

Additionally, I believe a recent CC update enabled three-level hierarchical fields, in order to support #genre better.

Regarding the hang, I have no idea. I imagine anything can hang occasionally, but CC is not to my knowledge in the habit of making it a habit.
Since you can connect as a device (instead of accessing the content server) I would recommend that instead. You can send books from the calibre interface directly.

[crazybrit]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

CC allows you to use as many metadata types as you like, including custom ones. I don't believe Moon supports a "#genre" field even though it does support "tags", so you cannot use both (although you can use tags for the genre).

Ok, so I downloaded all my titles (content server; this time it didn't hang though there are what look like bugs in that view as if you download all by title and then switch to view by genre while still in the content server page it doesn't think they are on the device). Then I figured out I needed to make a wireless connection (port 9090) to get the metadata. Did that and it then allowed me to add a "#genre" column. This started a database update but unfortunately the code appears to have a bug as it's stuck in a loop constantly displaying "Database upgrade book x of 10", when x gets to 10, it starts over at 1. it's been looping like this for the last 20 minutes and while it's looping it shows "grouping disabled" so I can't see what the grouping is.

I'm guessing this is a bug related to the demo being limited to 10 titles but I'm not really inclined to buy the full version unless I can see whether the demo will work for me.

[eschwartz]

I have no idea but I am sure chaley will fix it.

I have PMed him to make sure he sees this.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crazybrit

Ok, so I downloaded all my titles (content server; this time it didn't hang though there are what look like bugs in that view as if you download all by title and then switch to view by genre while still in the content server page it doesn't think they are on the device). Then I figured out I needed to make a wireless connection (port 9090) to get the metadata. Did that and it then allowed me to add a "#genre" column. This started a database update but unfortunately the code appears to have a bug as it's stuck in a loop constantly displaying "Database upgrade book x of 10", when x gets to 10, it starts over at 1. it's been looping like this for the last 20 minutes and while it's looping it shows "grouping disabled" so I can't see what the grouping is.

I'm guessing this is a bug related to the demo being limited to 10 titles but I'm not really inclined to buy the full version unless I can see whether the demo will work for me.

There are ways to get more than 10 books into the demo version. It appears that you found at least one of them. However, CC tries hard to show only 10, leaving the rest of the books in limbo. That is what is happening to you. Most of CC is refusing to deal with the extra books, but the database upgrade checker is not.

To test grouping you need to clear out the extra books. I recommend you do one of the following:

Option 1:
1) (Optional) In CC, go to Settings, scroll to the bottom, and backup your settings.
2) In Android settings, go to Apps, find CC Demo, and clear data. This will empty your database.
3) Using a file manager, delete the Calibre_Companion folder so that the books you have already downloaded are truly gone.
4) Start CC. Restore the settings
5) Connect as a wireless device and send less than 10 books.

You will be able to play with the grouping drawer.

Option 2:
1) In CC, tap on books to look at book details and delete them until the "You have exceeded" message goes away. I have no idea how many books must be deleted.

At this point the upgrade will finish.

[crazybrit]

Originally Posted by chaley

There are ways to get more than 10 books into the demo version. It appears that you found at least one of them. However, CC tries hard to show only 10, leaving the rest of the books in limbo.

I'll point out that I wasn't trying to defeat the 10 book limit, it was just convenient to select "by title" and "download all". If this button said "download 10" I'd have clicked on that ;-) Also as soon as this operation had finished and I quit the content server page, it capped the number viewable at 10. This was before I connected to 9090 and before I enabled #genre and before the database update went into an infinite loop (and it was infinite).

If the rest of the code can't actually handle the limit of 10, maybe you should change the import/download code to never allow more than 10 in the database, it seems right now that it's just a presentation function that's limiting what is shown to 10 .... as a buggy demo doesn't encourage people to buy the real thing.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crazybrit

I'll point out that I wasn't trying to defeat the 10 book limit, it was just convenient to select "by title" and "download all". If this button said "download 10" I'd have clicked on that ;-) Also as soon as this operation had finished and I quit the content server page, it capped the number viewable at 10. This was before I connected to 9090 and before I enabled #genre and before the database update went into an infinite loop (and it was infinite).

I wasn't accusing you of anything. The demo version of CC has book count leaks and you inadvertently stumbled over one. And I agree, the DB upgrade should not have attempted to process the extra books, setting itself up for infinite failure.

[crazybrit]

Originally Posted by chaley

I wasn't accusing you of anything. The demo version of CC has book count leaks and you inadvertently stumbled over one. And I agree, the DB upgrade should not have attempted to process the extra books, setting itself up for infinite failure.

So I got it working. I must admit, I find the distinction between connecting to the content server and connecting as a wireless client to be confusing. It seems the later gets the metadata and the former gets the actual titles. Unfortunate that it needs to be a two step process. I assume it's necessary to do both each time you want to sync newly added titles to the android device? Is there an ordering?

So under "grouping drawer" settings I added "#genre" to "make groups for custom columns" which triggered a database update.

Now I see the following:

< genre
   computers.algorithms
   computers.architecture
   fiction.classic

I guess I was expecting a tree like:

< genre
   computers
      algorithms
      architecture
   fiction
      classic

I understand that the '.' separated notation is calibre's.

So then I selected "Hierarchical Groups" in "grouping drawer" and checked #genre, which triggered another database update but nothing changed in how it's being presented.

It's not a big deal, as clearly it's letting me see the sub genres in dotted notation. I was just curious.

[chaley]

Moderator Notice
Moving this to the CC forum, as it clearly has become a CC topic