Making a Virtual Library hierarchy?

[RalphWiggum]

As a new Calibre user, I did try to find an answer to my question elsewhere before posting (perhaps I'm just clueless and missed it, so forgive me).

I have 4,000+ ebooks which have never been catalogued in a manager before. I have an enormous task ahead of me and want to choose the best manager. I was tempted to try the Alpha manager but was impressed by Calibre and have added about 250 books so far. Very impressed to this point. Like many, however, I am reluctant to be weaned away from a hierarchical cataloguing environment but Calibre's Virtual Libraries [hereafter, VL] seem to be an answer. The problem is the vast number of tabs (VLs) that I am creating. I can now see that it will be unworkable in the end: way too many tabs.

I do understand that a lot of work has been done to accommodate users' desires for a hierarchical library structure and have looked over the built-in genre/subgenre feature using the Tab Browser and column customization. I think the VL development - a visual, easy-to-create system - is far superior to this other method (which I'm sure puts off a lot of users seeking a simple visual system). Of course, the VL system is limited, as the problem with too many tabs exemplifies. However, I think a (seemingly) simple modification of the VL system can make Calibre an outstanding visually-orientated library manager. The problem is that each VL has its own tab and anything in excess of 15 or so VL tabs requires scrolling to the right. Fifty VLs is unmanageable really. Libraries of great size really must have a collapsible hierarchy of some sort and this linear tab structure, as configured, doesn't allow for it.

The modification I'm suggesting (and probably others may have suggested as well) is to add an optional sub-tab bar below the VL tab bar. For example, click the 'Psychology' tab and there's a row of subcategory tabs below; instead of 700 psych books in one big VL - or having to create several VLs to separate by subject - there's this nice and neat sub-tab row of sub-VLs. When creating a VL, there could be an option "Make this VL a subset of the following VL [scroll box]". This exponentially increases the easily-viewable tabs to the 15th power, an enormous expansion (15 tabs seem to fit nicely across the window). I think users with even monstrous collections would be satisfied with that (and would end the requests for a hierarchical folder set-up) as it affords instant access to about 225 tabs/sub-tabs (genre/sub-genres) without navigating (one click).

I noticed there is already a function to add a second row of tools. Adding a second row of tabs with this parent-child (tab-subtab) relationship seems feasible and, in my opinion, is light years ahead of the current system of creating a hierarchical structure. I say this only because Calibre seems great for my needs (including the 'empty book' function to add paper books, of which I'd like to add thousands eventually) and it's frustrating that the program comes so close to being workable for me but, with this issue, falls a bit short. I still may go forward with it as a search made within a VL tab quickly gives one a de facto sub-tab/sub-genre view but a strict, viewable hierarchy is far preferable.

Basically, I'm asking if this subject has been addressed before (my searches didn't yield previous questions) and if this is something the developers have been pursuing (I understand that Virtual Libraries themselves are a fairly recent addition and that perhaps they intend to evolve VLs into the sort of system I'm advocating). Any information would be appreciated.

[theducks]

Ralph
Tags are still honored, even inside a VL

So you could have a Psych VL (or any other VL)
and use the still use tag browser against the reduced (overall) set.

[RalphWiggum]

Thanks for the response. Even with only 100 or so computer books listed (of the 250 total books listed), I have 278 tags to scroll through in the 'Computer' VL. And the 100 books are a fraction of the total books on computers that I have. In huge VLs like 'History' or 'Psychology', there would be thousands of tags eventually. So, you either scroll forever or you set the tags to collapse, requiring navigation (clicking and probably scrolling as well) simply to get to a tag or browse similar tags.

It's like a physical book: you have the index (tags) you also need a table of contents with a simple hierarchical outline of subjects. The VL tabs can function as chapter headings (as long as you have only 15 - 20 chapters) but there's no way to view a simple list of the chapter contents (sub-chapters, etc.). The developers do acknowledge a need for this and created the Genre/custom-column method under tags. All I'm saying is that Virtual Libraries are a great function and a much better way of subcategorizing subjects by adding an optional second bar of tabs. I've been working with relational database programs for 30 years. The goal is always to get the GUI to the point where a ten-year-old can use it: the simpler the better. It's just my opinion but I think the VL function is brilliant and can be expanded in the way I've described. I was just curious if the subject had been addressed by the developers before or if other, similar suggestions had been made.

[fidvo]

You could set up a custom column with hierarchical items and use this as your "table of contents" while leaving the tags column for your "index."

So for instance, a book might be tagged with "History," "WWII," and "Military" but it would have only "History.WWII" in the custom column.