calibredb set_custom GUI question

Sabkor · 03-12-2011, 03:29 PM

I've created a custom column (I call genre) to help me have a more organized directory on my ebook reader. When I download news items, I couldn't find a way to populate this custom column without re-writing the recipe, so I decided to use a script that runs daily to run calibredb set_custom to set that custom column.

Anyways, after the script runs, the GUI is never updated. I don't see the custom column being set in the GUI of calibre. Is there any way to tell calibre that the database has been updated and to reread it? The only way I've found so far was to exit calibre and reopen it.

Sabkor · 03-12-2011, 03:51 PM

heh, and just found another problem of the same type.

Imported a bunch of new PDFs using the 'calibredb add' command and calibre was "notified of the change" by the command. The new PDFs showed up, but on the left, under authors, the authors did not show up. Had to exit and reopen calibre to get this to show up.

This does tell me that some commands do update the GUI automatically (at least partially), so is it just a bug that the add_custom command doesn't update the GUI? Or is there a command-line method to force a full GUI update?

kovidgoyal · 03-12-2011, 06:24 PM

Do not add columns with calibredb while the GUI is running. Bad Things Will Happen

Sabkor · 03-12-2011, 08:00 PM

I'm not adding a column, I'm just adding data to a custom column. (I created the custom column in the GUI.)

Edit:

Maybe an example of what I'm doing would help. I have a batch file that does this:

calibredb list -f uuid -s search:"News" > genrenews.txt
for /F "tokens=1 skip=1 %%B in (genrenews.txt) DO calibredb set_custom genre %%B News

The first line does a saved search for all ebooks that have News as a tag, but not News as my custom column Genre and dumps that to a file. The second line updates my custom column, Genre, to be 'News' for each of those ebooks. However, if the GUI is running when I do this, calibre is never notified of the DB update. So the Genre column never updates to show the new information. If I open the ebook information, it does not show 'News' in the Genre column.

If I close and reopen Calibre, then it re-reads the database and everything is fine.

I'm wondering if this is a bug, or if there's some (command-line) way I can notify the Calibre GUI that the data in the database has changed and that it should re-read it.

kiwidude · 03-12-2011, 08:51 PM

As per Kovid's comment, just *don't* leave the gui running while you are making updates to the database with command line tools. If you look through the forums you will see numerous posts about how only one user can have a Calibre library opened at a time. This is no different. It's not a bug, it's just the way Calibre works, only one application can safely write to the Calibre database at a time.

03-12-2011, 03:29 PM	#1
Sabkor Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: PocketBook Pro 902	calibredb set_custom GUI question I've created a custom column (I call genre) to help me have a more organized directory on my ebook reader. When I download news items, I couldn't find a way to populate this custom column without re-writing the recipe, so I decided to use a script that runs daily to run calibredb set_custom to set that custom column. Anyways, after the script runs, the GUI is never updated. I don't see the custom column being set in the GUI of calibre. Is there any way to tell calibre that the database has been updated and to reread it? The only way I've found so far was to exit calibre and reopen it.

03-12-2011, 08:00 PM	#4
Sabkor Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: PocketBook Pro 902	I'm not adding a column, I'm just adding data to a custom column. (I created the custom column in the GUI.) Edit: Maybe an example of what I'm doing would help. I have a batch file that does this: calibredb list -f uuid -s search:"News" > genrenews.txt for /F "tokens=1 skip=1 %%B in (genrenews.txt) DO calibredb set_custom genre %%B News The first line does a saved search for all ebooks that have News as a tag, but not News as my custom column Genre and dumps that to a file. The second line updates my custom column, Genre, to be 'News' for each of those ebooks. However, if the GUI is running when I do this, calibre is never notified of the DB update. So the Genre column never updates to show the new information. If I open the ebook information, it does not show 'News' in the Genre column. If I close and reopen Calibre, then it re-reads the database and everything is fine. I'm wondering if this is a bug, or if there's some (command-line) way I can notify the Calibre GUI that the data in the database has changed and that it should re-read it. Last edited by Sabkor; 03-12-2011 at 08:10 PM.

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03-12-2011, 03:51 PM	#2
Sabkor Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: PocketBook Pro 902	heh, and just found another problem of the same type. Imported a bunch of new PDFs using the 'calibredb add' command and calibre was "notified of the change" by the command. The new PDFs showed up, but on the left, under authors, the authors did not show up. Had to exit and reopen calibre to get this to show up. This does tell me that some commands do update the GUI automatically (at least partially), so is it just a bug that the add_custom command doesn't update the GUI? Or is there a command-line method to force a full GUI update?

03-12-2011, 06:24 PM	#3
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 45,209 Karma: 27110894 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	Do not add columns with calibredb while the GUI is running. Bad Things Will Happen

03-12-2011, 08:51 PM	#5
kiwidude Calibre Plugins Developer Posts: 4,722 Karma: 2197770 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kindle Oasis	As per Kovid's comment, just don't leave the gui running while you are making updates to the database with command line tools. If you look through the forums you will see numerous posts about how only one user can have a Calibre library opened at a time. This is no different. It's not a bug, it's just the way Calibre works, only one application can safely write to the Calibre database at a time.

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