Pull comment data only from Metadata?

[JGB]

Is there a way to pull only the comment data from the ebook files metadata?
My filenames are already much more organized, and the only thing I really want out of the books is the comment data, which often pulls a short summary of the book.

Also, is there a way to use search and replace to move data to the comment field from a regular column field, maybe using the metadata plugboard or similar?

[eschwartz]

1) No, there is no way to pick and choose which metadata you extract from the ebook file.


2) Yes, you can use the Bulk Metadata Edit, third tab (S&R) to copy metadata from one field to another (or overwrite the same field). Plugboards are only for certain fields, if you want the exported copies to have autogenerated metadata e.g. series info in title.

Do you have anything particular in mind? (Hint: details )

[theducks]

Plugboard is for sending to devices

Bulk mode (more than one book, you will see a Search and Replace tab on the Metadata editor

You can specify both source and destination (if different)

2 passes might be needed
pass 1: copies the trapped values to new location
<adjust pattern>
pass 2: used to remove from source field

good REGEX foo handy

[JGB]

I guess I just love the way it looks when you see a nice summary in the comment on the book. If I let Calibre import using metadata, I get to keep that, but it makes an awful mess out of the nicely organized names and series info I've put in the filenames. As long as I leave that unchecked everything plays nice except putting the summary in the comment from the metadata.

What's especially odd/annoying is that in some cases I know these are books where I downloaded the summary into the comment fields a long time ago, and exported them with that, but that was before I fixed all the file names, and so the series info etc wasn't actually in Calibre before(so it can't import that if I let it run from metadata, and often I manually looked up a book and pasted the summary so the download function doesn't find it).

I've had a look at search and replace, but I'm not sure it will work in this case.
Is there a way to get it to search in the metadata of the book(which I think is where Calibre saved the summary before), pull the data from that field, and input it into the comment section?

I can use search and replace to move stuff around, and used it to fix titles etc before, but this is data that exists somewhere in the book, but not in a column in Calibre(unless I let it pull all the metadata and make a mess again).


EDIT: Looking into the files, I can also see an ISDN in some cases, is there a way to bulk pull that value from metadata and feed it into a column using search and replace? Then I might have better luck with the download function to find the summary instead.

[eschwartz]

And once again, you cannot pick and choose which metadata you pull from the book file. Not even in S&R. (Which never looks inside the files, on account of it is an S&R utility not a get-metadata-from-the-book utility.)

But if you got the metadata in order by filename, rather than by editing the metadata (like in calibre) then maybe you shouldn't have tried maintaining metadata in two locations.

Perhaps you could use a script to extract the comments metadata via ebook-meta.exe and modify the book record via calibredb.exe

[JGB]

Oh I think I see what you're saying, so I import it into Calibre using file names to set the columns, then export it again via save to disk(will that over-write the bad metadata?)
Then import again using the metadata this time, and I should have everything nicely formatted?

I'll look into those programs, never heard of them before!

[eschwartz]

Well, exporting to disk will wipe the current comments metadata and replace it with the contents of the calibre column.

The programs I mentioned are part of calibre's command-line interface.
calibredb.exe allows you to non-interactively manipulate your calibre library.
ebook-meta.exe is a way to print metadata for any book format supported by calibre.

[JGB]

Darn. Here I thought there was a nice neat solution.
So even though Calibre had those fields blank and the book didn't I'm still out of luck, it'll overwrite the data with a blank? I'll see what I can do with those two, no good with the command line though!

Thanks or the helpful ideas, this is at much more exciting than banging my head on the keyboard :-)

EDIT: I'd already tried it before I saw your reply, it looks like the covers at least are in the metadata still somehow after saving to disk(although they didn't show up during import) I clicked set from ebook file after re-importing and it appeared.

[Krazykiwi]

You could fake it using the download metadata feature, and turning off all the other fields except for Comments.

(Ctrl-D, configure download, pick your sources and uncheck all the other fields on the right hand side.)

[davidfor]

If I understand it, you want to use calibre to fix the metadata (mainly the comments) but store the books in your own file structure with your own file names. And those file names are made up of the metadata for the books such as title, author and series info.

If that is right, you can import the books into calibre. In the preferences, there is an option to read the metadata from the file name. You need to build a regex for this that matches the naming you use.

Then, you download the metadata. As Krazykiwi suggested, you can limit this to just the comments. Personally, I would download them all.

LAstly, use "Save to disk" to export the book. This uses a file name template. You should be able to construct the file name you want.

[JGB]

Hi David,
Sorry what I want is for Calibre to set the metadata in the library from the file names I have set. I've got the regex working correctly to do that so everything is nice and neat. I was hoping to set the remainder of the metadata in Calibre from the info contained within the ebook file, since there's often good info in there. I can limit the metadata download but it doesn't always find the info I'm looking for. When I import the file and use the metadata within it I can see the info I want in all the other sections, but it messes up some of the basics I want it to get from the filenames instead of in the included metadata.
Basically I was looking for a way to do the same as the "load cover from ebook file" function but for selected metadata sections only.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by JGB

Basically I was looking for a way to do the same as the "load cover from ebook file" function but for selected metadata sections only.

I do not think that is possible in Calibre at the moment. When you pull metadata from within the book it is an all-or-nothing action.

You could raise it as a enhancement request!