Once again : it would be so nice to manage multiple series

[Villard]

Hello
I know there have been so many posts about the management of multiple series, about the possible workarounds, as to use custom columns to manage that.
And I remember reading some replies by Kovid saying he will not implement the possibility to manage multiple series in the series field, because it would be an huge change.

Anyway, I vote again for this functionality !
As an example, I use an excellent Android app, Book Catataloque, to manage my physical library. This app allows to add several series in the series field. It's very useful;

I dream Calibre will have that functionality in a near future

Villard

[Wiggo]

I asked myself what something like this could be useful for and then I thought of published order - chronological order.

With new Calibre 7 you could use the new notes feature

[kjdavies]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

I asked myself what something like this could be useful for and then I thought of published order - chronological order.

With new Calibre 7 you could use the new notes feature

Published Order vs Chronological Order is a good reason. For instance, CS Lewis' Narnia books were published in one order, and later republished in chronological order. Ditto for Steven Brust's Taltos books.

Another use is for books that exist in an overarching series, with subseries within them. For instance, the Midkemia books by Raymond Feist has many story arts (the original Riftwar books, Empire, Sons of Krondor, etc.).

For that matter, sometimes the subseries are not as consistent. I use calibre to manage my RPG collection, and the Pathfinder Society Scenario PDFs are ordered within each season, but also there are sometimes short chains within that. For instance, there might be 20-30 entries in the season, and #11, #14, and #19 are "The Devil's Due" parts 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

For comic book crossover events such as Civil War, that too could be a series-spanning series... but I'd probably with a custom column 'event' here to group them, unless there is strong enough chronology between the base series (you should read this Captain America before this Spider-Man, even if they were published the same day).

That last one might be overthinking, though. I've been getting by on multiple 'series-like' fields to manage it.

One thing I think I'd like even more than supporting multiple series in a single field (though I would like to see this) is something like a 'subseries_index'. The Midkemia books I mentioned above, I manage as 'Midkemia [arc number.number within arc]'. That is, the Riftwar books are 'Magician: Apprentice', 'Magician: Master', 'Silverthorn', and 'Darkness as Sethanon' as 'Midkemia [1.1]', 'Midkemia [1.2]', 'Midkemia [1.3]', and 'Midkemia [1.4]' respectively. The Empire trilogy are 2.1,2.2, and 2.3 respectively, and so on.

This fails with the Pathfinder Society Scenarios because there are more than ten in each season, so see see in PFSS Season 1 "1.01, 1.02, 1.03, 1.04, 1.05, 1.06, 1.07, 1.08, 1.09, 1.1, 1.11, 1.12", etc... assume you realize in time you need to allow multiple digits. I imagine many first cuts (when bulk editing via regex) would look like "1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11". It could be nice to have "1" and "1..23" as distinct index fields and formatted appropriately. (Or perhaps a tweak to change series_index presentation to use a set number of digits after the decimal might be sufficient?)

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Villard

Hello
I know there have been so many posts about the management of multiple series, about the possible workarounds, as to use custom columns to manage that.
And I remember reading some replies by Kovid saying he will not implement the possibility to manage multiple series in the series field, because it would be an huge change.

Anyway, I vote again for this functionality !
As an example, I use an excellent Android app, Book Catataloque, to manage my physical library. This app allows to add several series in the series field. It's very useful;

I dream Calibre will have that functionality in a near future

Villard

The solution is simple. Just put the series you are using when you read the book in the series column. Simple really. So if the book is available in two series, A & B and you are reading it under A, just put A in the series field.

[theducks]

A custom column works along with setting in Preferences: Search
If it is a branch of a series, I use hierarchical (and don't even try to index the main level. It is its own or it is not a branch)