How to edit the entries in the details view?

[excaliber]

Hi all,

I have created some custom columns in Calibre. Now I want to see the header and its value for each book in the details view in the form header: value. I can see the values but they appear in a 2nd column and they have no header (screenshot attached).

How can I fix this?

[BetterRed]

Were the columns without 'labels' created via the ZMI plugin?

Can you post a screen shot of the Preferences->Look and Feel->Book Details screen?

BR

[excaliber]

@BetterRed: thanks for the quick response!
Were the columns without 'labels' created via the ZMI plugin?
Yes, I see now when I click at a column with ZMI metadata it opens an editor, which is good. Is it related to that? I think the other columns without this editor option are appearing normally.

Can you post a screen shot of the Preferences->Look and Feel->Book Details screen?
Screenshot attached...

[DaltonST]

@BR:

Calibre throws datatype=comments to the bottom of the detail view with no labels.

The root cause of @excaliber's problem is that Calibre does not support a Custom Column datatype of "non-normalized, simple text".

Because of the missing datatype, ZMI has to use datatype=comments to ensure that Calibre does not crash when the Zotero data is imported because of dubious or unreliable data quality.

Because ZMI uses datatype=comments, they get thrown to the bottom of the detail view with no labels.

Perhaps someone could create an enhancement request for Calibre to at least add labels. I understand exactly why it throws them to the bottom because the standard Calibre Comments column can be huge. However, they should still have labels.


DaltonST

[excaliber]

Where can I create an enhancement request? Is it hier:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre
the right place?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DaltonST

@BR:

Calibre throws datatype=comments to the bottom of the detail view with no labels.

The root cause of @excaliber's problem is that Calibre does not support a Custom Column datatype of "non-normalized, simple text".

Because of the missing datatype, ZMI has to use datatype=comments to ensure that Calibre does not crash when the Zotero data is imported because of dubious or unreliable data quality.

Because ZMI uses datatype=comments, they get thrown to the bottom of the detail view with no labels.

Perhaps someone could create an enhancement request for Calibre to at least add labels. I understand exactly why it throws them to the bottom because the standard Calibre Comments column can be huge. However, they should still have labels.DaltonST

Gotcha - why don't you create the enhancement request at launchpad - or raise it in the Development subforum here.

If you could use "Text Shown in tag browser" rather than "Long Text" then the user could hide what they don't want in the Tag Browser.

Originally Posted by excaliber

Where can I create an enhancement request? Is it hier:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre
the right place?

Yep - but see above, IMO better if PI developer raised the request.

BR

[kovidgoyal]

Since comments are html there is nothing stopping you from adding the labels in the comments itself.

I am not going to add labels for comments column in detail view. That would be sub-optimal for the vast majority of use cases of comments.

[DaltonST]

Kovid,

The root cause of this brouhaha is that the Calibre Custom Columns functionality does not support a datatype of "non-normalized simple text".

Putting textual data into a normalized textual field makes sense for data such as Author or Tags or Series that are shared among many books simultaneously. That is what normalization is meant to do.

Putting textual data into a normalized textual field does not make sense for textual data that is unique to every book. That would be akin to making a datetime field normalized. Or a float field. Or making ISBN a standard tag-like column instead of an Identifier.

Datatype=comments is the closest thing to a datatype of "non-normalized simple text", since datatype=comments is non-normalized and textual.

Comments may be html, but certainly do not have to be html. Comments may be simple text. Indeed, 'Edit Metadata' for a single book offers a "clear formatting" option to convert the html to simple text.

Since @excaliber and the rest of the Zotero-Calibre user community will not be getting labels for comments in the detail view for their 27+ datatype=comments custom columns that are not html (and would be corrupt if they were), and since Calibre apparently will not be getting a datatype of "non-normalized simple text", then they will have to live with 27+ datatype=composite custom columns, each with a template that points to the appropriate member of the 27+ datatype=comments custom columns. They can hide the datatype=comments custom columns from the details view in Preferences, and show the datatype=composite custom columns instead (with labels). Ugly, and Calibre will load more slowly, but better than nothing.

Thanks for at least considering @excaliber's request.


DaltonST



Special Note to @excaliber and the rest of the Zotero-Calibre user community:

Don't worry, I will automate the creation of the 27+ datatype=composite custom columns via calibredb. I will also look at automating the updating of Preferences > Look & Feel > Book Details to hide or show the appropriate custom columns. However, you should install the View Manager plug-in to control which custom columns you see in the Library View of the GUI. You do not want to see the datatype=composite custom columns in the Library View, only in the book details.

[BetterRed]

FWIW: I use a boilerplate for all my Long Text columns, including Comments. Looks like this :

<insert label here>


<insert text here>


================================================== ==========

There's a blank line before the label line

BR

[BetterRed]

I would regard a "Text, column shown in Tag Browser" column that is explicitly hidden in the Tag Browser as being much closer to "non-normalized simple text" than a "Long Text, like comments, not shown in tag browser" column, I have a number of them, sample attached.

But suum cuique, YMMV, and all that

BR

[kovidgoyal]

I have no objections to having a non-normalized pure text column, however, I dont care enough about it to implement it myself. As BR points out, you can use the Text, column shown in tag browser column -- as long as the variance in the values is not too high, performance should be acceptable.

[DaltonST]

Variance will be 99%! That is why I did not use it in the first place. I have been designing normalized relational databases for decades.

I will not do the wrong thing for the wrong reason.



DaltonST

[DaltonST]

@excaliber et al:

I came up with an easy way to automatically show the labels in the Detail View, but is also easily reversible since to use html in the Zotero custom columns corrupts them. They are not really "comments" at all. They are simple text that have to be stored in Calibre in a comments custom column because there is not datatype of "non-normalized, simple text".

I have also changed ZMI to strip out the html that Calibre often automatically creates for a datatype=comments when ZMI does not want it to be there for the purposes of the Detail View.

Since your Library View has all of the datatype=comments in the Library View since they are not really comments, but are really simple text, you will have to endure having the Column Name at the beginning of every value in every row of every column once you have decided it is time to show the labels in the Detail View. Obviously that will not be until the very end of the metadata update process. If you cannot stand it for some reason, you can strip the labels (stripping all html) from the columns temporarily until you want the Detail View labels back again.


DaltonST

[excaliber]

@DaltonST:
Thanks for trying to find a solution!
To me you have already done much. I can live without these labels.

[DaltonST]

@excalibre:

Download the latest version...it has labels that you can make disappear if they are too annoying in the Library View. Look at the ZMI thread.

DaltonST