Plugboard usage for Kobo device: Authors

[DrChiper]

I do not know whether this is the correct place as both calibre and a Kobo device is involved, so please feel free to move it accordingly.

The situation, which is driving me nuts, is this:

I'm trying to convince Kobo to display in MyBooks>Authors any author like:

Asimov, Isaac

In my calibre DB authors are entered as:

Isaac Asimov & Other Guest & ...

I tried to use the Metadata plugboards like the attachment below.
This always results on the Kobo device as:

Asimov        3 books
Isaac         3 books

on 2 rows, while I expected:

Asimov, Isaac 3 books

What is my mistake?

[uli]

With my Kobo, I've been using this plugboard by chaley:

program: re(list_re_group(field('authors'), '&', '.', '(.*)', "program: swap_around_comma($)"), '&', ', ')

Edit: This only allows Kobo to sort by LN FN, still will show FN LN, bummer.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I tried to use the Metadata plugboards like the attachment below.
This always results on the Kobo device as:

Asimov        3 books
Isaac         3 books

on 2 rows, while I expected:

Asimov, Isaac 3 books

What is my mistake?

Your Kobo uses the , to separate authors so sending Asimov, Isaac is sending two single named authors.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by uli

With my Kobo, I've been using this plugboard by chaley:

program: re(list_re_group(field('authors'), '&', '.', '(.*)', "program: swap_around_comma($)"), '&', ', ')

Edit: This only allows Kobo to sort by LN FN, still will show FN LN, bummer.

For completeness, the plugboard does two things. It first examines each author and converts any "LN, FN" names to "FN LN". It then converts the author list (A & A ...) to (A, A ...).

[DrChiper]

My brain needed some time to apsorb the above.
The short conclusion: it will not work for me.

In my case I have already in the calibre DB:

FN LN & FN LN & ...

Hence, this gives automagically in calibre for author_sort:

LN, FN & LN, FN & ...

Kobo, however, regards ',' (=comma) as an author separation and thus splits any author_sort string into 2 entries: which we (I) do not want.

Conclusion: unsolvable problem... or is it?

Can we perhaps via plugboard substitute the ',' (=comma) from author_sort into something else (a kind of comma resembling character), like for instance a cedilla (U+0088) ?
I tried this with my non-existant calibre template language knowledge and produced something like this (don't laugh):

{program:re(author_sort:list_item(0,&),',', 'U+0088')}

(This would try to replace only in the very first author_sort list entry the comma by something else.)

I got nowhere.
But, when this is still feasible, what would be the proper replacement template construct?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

My brain needed some time to apsorb the above.
The short conclusion: it will not work for me.

In my case I have already in the calibre DB:

FN LN & FN LN & ...

Hence, this gives automagically in calibre for author_sort:

LN, FN & LN, FN & ...

Kobo, however, regards ',' (=comma) as an author separation and thus splits any author_sort string into 2 entries: which we (I) do not want.

Conclusion: unsolvable problem... or is it?

Can we perhaps via plugboard substitute the ',' (=comma) from author_sort into something else (a kind of comma resembling character), like for instance a cedilla (U+0088) ?
I tried this with my non-existant calibre template language knowledge and produced something like this (don't laugh):

{program:re(author_sort:list_item(0,&),',', 'U+0088')}

(This would try to replace only in the very first author_sort list entry the comma by something else.)

I got nowhere.
But, when this is still feasible, what would be the proper replacement template construct?

I don't understand. The provided template uses authors, not author_sort. If an author has a comma in the name (LN, FN) then the template changes it to FN, LN. It then changes all the & to commas. This is shown by the screen capture.

Did you try the template?

[chaley]

If you can guarantee that all authors are FN LN then this template works.

program: re($authors, ' & ', ', ')

[DrChiper]

What I have in my basic metadata is shown in the attachment. What I want to send to Kobo is marked in red from the author_sort list part. Hence:

author_sort:list_item(0,&)

The provided templates all work, as you correctly remarked, on the authors list.
I tested this indeed (it works), but the result is not different from what I can get by using the authors list directly as my content does not contain any commas at all.
Hope this clarifies it.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

What I have in my basic metadata is shown in the attachment. What I want to send to Kobo is marked in red from the author_sort list part. Hence:

author_sort:list_item(0,&)

The provided templates all work, as you correctly remarked, on the authors list.
I tested this indeed (it works), but the result is not different from what I can get by using the authors list directly as my content does not contain any commas at all.
Hope this clarifies it.

I understand you saying that you want to send the first author, not all the authors. I also understand you saying that all the authors are already FN LN.

Why are you using author_sort? Why not use authors? As in

{authors:list_item(0,&)}

If for some reason you really want to use author_sort instead of authors then this does it.

program: swap_around_comma(list_item($author_sort, 0, '&'))

[DrChiper]

Concerning the Template function editor, I have no clue how to use that
I have tried to get a quick look in Kovid's documentation for clues but I'm afraid I need a brain extension to actually use it.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by chaley

I understand you saying that you want to send the first author, not all the authors. I also understand you saying that all the authors are already FN LN.

Correct

Originally Posted by chaley

Why are you using author_sort? Why not use authors?

Because I humbly assumed using author_sort would refrain me from additional string handling as there it contained already exactly the format I want.

Originally Posted by chaley

If for some reason you really want to use author_sort instead of authors then this does it.

program: swap_around_comma(list_item($author_sort, 0, '&'))

Appreciated. I give it a try

[DrChiper]

The good part it hat there are no errors. The bad part is that it still does not provide me what I desire.

I did use author_sort to get the LN, FN combo. I do understand that the comma does not work for Kobo, so in my previous post #5 I figured to replace that comma by some other character which would not be wrongly interpreted by Kobo.

The last code simply swaps the LN, FN --> FN LN which is not my intention.
I need something like:

program:re(author_sort:list_item(0,&),',', 'U+0088')

But as I am no template specialist, my ideas may be totally wrong.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

The good part it hat there are no errors. The bad part is that it still does not provide me what I desire.

I did use author_sort to get the LN, FN combo. I do understand that the comma does not work for Kobo, so in my previous post #5 I figured to replace that comma by some other character which would not be wrongly interpreted by Kobo.

The last code simply swaps the LN, FN --> FN LN which is not my intention.
I need something like:

program:re(author_sort:list_item(0,&),',', 'U+0088')

But as I am no template specialist, my ideas may be totally wrong.

I don't follow. Lets assume we change the comma to a semicolon. Using author_sort with that change, if you send "Asimov; Isaac" and "Deer; Carl" to the Kobo then it will display the authors sorted incorrectly like this:

• Deer; Carl
• Asimov; Isaac

Why? Because the kobo treats the part after the last space as the last name and sorts on that. Is that really what you want?

If you really want to do that then this should work. I used semicolon because the template parser doesn't support extended character definition sequences and U+0088 doesn't seem to be a proper character.

program:re(list_item($author_sort, '0', '&'),',', ';')

[chaley]

BTW: the cedilla is U+00B8. This version of the template uses it instead of a semicolon

program:re(list_item($author_sort, '0', '&'),',', '¸')

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by chaley

Why? Because the kobo treats the part after the last space as the last name and sorts on that. Is that really what you want?

Yes, its exactly what I wanted. Kobo has a funny way to sort. Take for instance a name as A C Whatever Kobo does not treat the "A" as an initial, so will not sort on it. I had to add explicitly a dot as "A." to force that. In that way I should have change my whole calibre DB to make everything work.

I decided therefore to make the Authors send to Kobo as LN, FN. My sorting is now fixed on "First Name". Effectively, Kobo sorts on the first word which now happen to be LN. So I see now listed "Whatever, A C 5 books", which is fine.

And you were right, cedilla is U+00B8. I just need new glasses

And because I have any books in multiple languages, I also added a feature to express that as well per Author. For interested ones the code is now:

program:strcat(re(list_item($author_sort, '0', '&'),',', '¸'), ' [', $languages, ']')

Many thanks for helping me in my quest to force Kobo to behave as I preferred

Addition: FWIW, I found that the single low-9 quotation mark (U+201A) '‚' is even a better choice instead of the cedille as it resembles the comma completely (see 2nd attachment).

program:strcat(re(list_item($author_sort, '0', '&'),',', '‚'), ' [', $languages, ']')