Group Search issue with Calibre 7.2

[Wiggo]

After my Grouped Search for authors I get this



It still works, but it looks strange and it only happens with authors who have aliases.
The search is based on authors and #aliases from chaley https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...77#post4333077

Author without aliases


Edit after Post was moved: I only noticed it with Calibre 7.2

[theducks]

Normal grouped searches are working for me
7.2 on W10

[kovidgoyal]

There werent any changes to searching in 7.2

[Wiggo]

I assume not even with Calibre 7.0, but it must come from something.

Have you looked at the screenshot? It looks really strange.

[kovidgoyal]

Let's wait for chaley to see it.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

After my Grouped Search for authors I get this

Attachment 205241

It still works, but it looks strange and it only happens with authors who have aliases.
The search is based on authors and #aliases from chaley https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...77#post4333077

Author without aliases
Attachment 205242

Edit after Post was moved: I only noticed it with Calibre 7.2

Is pen-names a custom column? Then there should be # before the column name.

[Wiggo]

No it isn’t. As the title says it’s a grouped search

[chaley]

It is doing what it is designed to do. The pen names template produces a list of calibre search links designed to be shown in book details, which is what you see in the search box.

What are you expecting it to do?

[Wiggo]

As I wrote, it still works, only the new look of the search phrase irritates me.

In the past group search with aliases looked like the second screenshot too.



At least I think that's what it was like. Memories are sometimes deceptive, but I should have noticed something like that.

[chaley]

I am confused. As I said, it is doing what the post you referenced says it should do. That post makes no reference to grouped searches.

1. How did you generate the value in the search box? Neither of the templates in the post you mention can populate the search box. Instead they are designed to make clickable links in book details.
2. What grouped search? If you made one, what is its definition?

3. Originally Posted by Wiggo

   As I wrote, it still works, only the new look of the search phrase irritates me.
   
   In the past group search with aliases looked like the second screenshot too.
   
   
   
   At least I think that's what it was like. Memories are sometimes deceptive, but I should have noticed something like that.

   #pen_names contains search links. It can't have worked if shown like this image because it won't match #pen_name's contents.
   
   This image shows the contents of #pen_names.
   

Perhaps the best way forward is for you to describe exactly what you are doing, including the grouped search definitions, the templates, and what you do to make the group search you say changed.

EDIT: I tried experiments back to calibre 6.29 and it behaved the same way.

[Wiggo]

OK, I do my best.

I followed your post https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...77#post4333077 and adapted it to my situation.
Your column #pen_names is my column #alias.

I also had an old group search called pen-names consisting of #authors and #alias


and my similar author search is the grouped search pen-names.


When I searched for similar authors in the past, every search looked like this one


but now a similiar authors search with containing aliases looks like this one


I think the confusion comes from my renaming - my grouped search pen-names != your column #pen_names.
I hope I was able to bring some clarity to the issue.

Edit: The same for my Calibre Portable 7.1
not good news for my attention/memory

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

OK, I do my best.

I followed your post https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...77#post4333077 and adapted it to my situation.
Your column #pen_names is my column #alias.

I also had an old group search called pen-names consisting of #authors and #alias
Attachment 205292

and my similar author search is the grouped search pen-names.
Attachment 205293

When I searched for similar authors in the past, every search looked like this one
Attachment 205294

but now a similiar authors search with containing aliases looks like this one
Attachment 205295

I think the confusion comes from my renaming - my grouped search pen-names != your column #pen_names.
I hope I was able to bring some clarity to the issue.

Thanks for the details.

What I see is:

• You created the Pen Names and Real Names columns using the templates from the post you referenced. Your Pen Name column has the lookup name #alias.
• You created a grouped search term "pen-names" that references both #authors and #alias.
• You changed Similar Books:authors to reference the grouped search term "pen-names".

I stand by my saying that it is working as it should, and as it has always worked.

• The values of items in your #alias column are calibre search URLS so they are clickable in book details.
• Similar books works by evaluating the listed columns (in your case #authors and @pen-names) then putting each value from the column into the search string.
• Thus similar books adds the calibre search urls to the search string.

To avoid this behavior and use names instead you must create another composite column (#alias_names ?) that contains the author names instead of the calibre search strings. You then add that column to the grouped search term instead of the one that contains calibre search strings. This column shouldn't be shown in the booklist or book details.

The template will look like this, corrected for your name changes:

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
	from collections import defaultdict
	from calibre.utils.icu import sort_key

	alias_category = 'Aliases.'

	db = context.db.new_api

	# Build a set of other pen names for each author that is a pen name.
	# This loop only processes categories prefixed with alias_category
	all_pen_names = defaultdict(set)
	for pen_names in [[v[0] for v in vals]
			for cat,vals in db.pref('user_categories').items()
				if cat.startswith(alias_category)]:
		for pn in pen_names:
			all_pen_names[pn].update(pen_names)

	# Build the set of all pen names for all the authors of this book. Use a set
	# to remove duplicates.
	auts = set()
	for p in book.authors:
		if p in all_pen_names:
			auts.update(all_pen_names[p])

	# Now build the sorted list of pen names.
	auts = list(sorted(auts, key=sort_key))

	# Combine all the authors into a single string with the URLS separated by link_break.
	return ' & '.join(auts)

The column definition looks like this:

[Wiggo]

Thank you chaley for your time and effort!

Unfortunately, I'm just starting to doubt myself.
Have I really not noticed this for half a year?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Unfortunately, I'm just starting to doubt myself.
Have I really not noticed this for half a year?

I forget things in 15 seconds! I can't create a new account without writing down the username and password before I actually create it or I won't remember what I used.

In the past the odd search terms might have been at the end of the search instead of the beginning. You could easily miss them in that case. I think (but don't know) that the order of the fields in the grouped search term definition controls the order that the terms appear in the search.

And you are welcome.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

I forget things in 15 seconds! I can't create a new account without writing down the username and password before I actually create it or I won't remember what I used.

If it's any consolation, you're not alone in that

BR