Series sort (firmware 2.3.x)

[John F]

Thank you Peter.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

That's right, no need to change the book title anymore, just tick "set series information" in Calibre's Kobo driver and the series name and index will be put into the Kobo database the next time the device is connected (i.e. unplug the device, let it process new content, then plug it back in to get the series information).

When books are listed on the device it sorts them as if the series name and index were at the beginning of the title, but it displays the series information on a seperate line in a smaller font, as with kepubs. That way all the books in the series appear together in order when listing by title (also when listing by author, as long as the books in the series are by the same author).

Ah perfect!! Thanks for the explanation

Originally Posted by Willa

WoW - this is fab . . to have all the books listed down in the series order. Don't forget to delete your Metadata Plugboard in Calibre if you set one up for series info, otherwise the series info displays twice . . ask me how I know

Off to have a fiddle

Haha. Thanks for the heads up.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Save Template:

{author_sort}/{series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

Hi PeterT, do you know if the save template affects anything other than the filename of the book, or could this step be safely left out?

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Hi PeterT, do you know if the save template affects anything other than the filename of the book, or could this step be safely left out?

Can be safely left out. All it does is to set filename and location on the Kobo.

[Willa]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Ah perfect!! Thanks for the explanation


Haha. Thanks for the heads up.

You are welcome . . mine are all sorted and look fab!

[npr]

Try as I may, I'm only getting limited success in getting my Kobo Glo to display series info.

I've now discovered the series info in the "edit metadata" tab of caibre is different to that shown in the book ie that shown by double clicking a book in library and then selecting the metadata icon along the side of that window.
If I select a book and click "convert book" this changes the series info in the book to that in the "edit metadata" tab. Is this what I should be doing?

The series info is still now showing in my Kobo, I've re connected calibre a number of time and even deleted the book and re installed it but still no series info in the Kobo.

Any help gratefully received.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by npr

Try as I may, I'm only getting limited success in getting my Kobo Glo to display series info.

I've now discovered the series info in the "edit metadata" tab of caibre is different to that shown in the book ie that shown by double clicking a book in library and then selecting the metadata icon along the side of that window.
If I select a book and click "convert book" this changes the series info in the book to that in the "edit metadata" tab. Is this what I should be doing?

The series info is still now showing in my Kobo, I've re connected calibre a number of time and even deleted the book and re installed it but still no series info in the Kobo.

Any help gratefully received.

Have you ticked the "Set series information" box in Preferences-->Plugins-->Device Interface Plugins-->KoboTouch-->Customise Plugin?

There should be no need to convert the epub or make any other changes to the book itself, provided you are using Calibre to send the books to the device. it should be enough just to enter the series name and index metadata for the book on Calibre's "Edit Metadata" page.

There should be no need to delete and resend the book to update the series information. In Preferences-->Sending Books To Devices-->Metedata management I have automatic selected, but I'm not sure if that is necessary.

Edit: Don't worry that the metadata shown when reading the book in Calibre is not the same as on the Edit Metadata menu selected from Calibre's main toolbar, as the book's metadata is updated automatically when you use calibre to send the book to the device, and the device does not read the series metadat from the book itself, Calibre inserts it directly into the device's database the next time the device is connected after the book was sent and processed by the device. Sorry that sounds really complicated, but once you have the right options selected it should all be pretty much automatic.

[Liesse]

This is a great thread as it has some brilliant info on a useful Kobo feature. I've seen it mentioned elsewhere, but its nice to have a thread to highlight it.

So if my understanding is right, I can stop editing my Calibre Metadata titles to include series information and number? Where does the Kobo read it from? I use the manage series Calibre plugin to make sure my order and series are correct.

I have the driver set up to provide series info. Do I also need to take out all the plugboard settings to avoid duplicating?

[npr]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

In Preferences-->Sending Books To Devices-->Metedata management I have automatic selected, but I'm not sure if that is necessary.

.

Thanks, that's improved things.
Since my last post I discovered I needed to upload a new book from calibre to the Kobo for it to display series data from previously loaded books.
After making the change you suggest the series data is updated after reconnecting to calibre.

After a brief test that setting also appears to solved my problem with the Kobo displaying series data from the book in place of that in calibre's "edit metadata".

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Liesse

So if my understanding is right, I can stop editing my Calibre Metadata titles to include series information and number? Where does the Kobo read it from? I use the manage series Calibre plugin to make sure my order and series are correct.

I have the driver set up to provide series info. Do I also need to take out all the plugboard settings to avoid duplicating?

Yes you should remove the plugboard that was used to put the series information in the title, and then I think you will need to delete and resend the affected books to get the new title to show up, not sure about that as I didn't use the plugboard scheme myself.

Kobo doesn't read the series metadata from the book as it does with other metadata, I think that is because epub does not have a standard way to specify series information. To get around that the KoboTouch driver in Calibre inserts the series information directly into the Kobo's database, but to do that the book has to already be in the database, which is why it is necessary to reconnect the device a second time.

The difference between this way of sending the series information and the plugboard method that puts it into the title is mainly cosmetic, but I think there is also one functional difference that you might notice when searching on a series name:

I think with the series embedded in the title, typing a few letters of the series name will bring up all the books of that series and perhaps some other books too, and so to get all and only those books in the series you might need to type the whole series name. But with the new method the search wil bring up just the series name and so then you can tap on it rather than needing to keep typing to exclude other books with similar titles.

You might have to try this to see what I mean, but although it is a minor change I think it is quite a useful one if you don't want to have a seperate shelf for each series. The attached photo shows the books listed from a search where I just typed in "jup". If I had the series name in the title I might also get other books listed that had "jup" in the title, but because the series name "Jupiter Novels" was in the database I could just tap on that to get a list that contains all the books in the series and no others.

[GeoffR]

I have set the series information for all my sideloaded epubs, but Kobo is still in the process of adding series info to its books, so some of my kepubs didn't have it.

I discovered that if I download the epub version of those books and import them to into Calibre, then the series info from the epubs gets added to the kepubs automatically when I plug in the device. I don't know if this is supposed to happen, hopefully it won't cause any problems at the Kobo server end.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I have set the series information for all my sideloaded epubs, but Kobo is still in the process of adding series info to its books, so some of my kepubs didn't have it.

I discovered that if I download the epub version of those books and import them to into Calibre, then the series info from the epubs gets added to the kepubs automatically when I plug in the device. I don't know if this is supposed to happen, hopefully it won't cause any problems at the Kobo server end.

It is intentional. I use it with my books. As far as I can tell it doesn't cause any issues with the server. That information is sent from the server. The info that goes back should only be the current reading status and bookmarks. That should use the book id and userid to match with the server, nothing else. In any case, I have been doing this for a few months with no bad effects.

Also, if you don't want to add the epub to calibre, you can create an empty book. This is a book in calibre with all the metadata, but no actual ebook. If the book has the same title and author as the kepub, will match with the kepub and sync the series info with the device. An empty book is also handy for tracking paperbooks or wishlist items where you don't have the ebook.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Also, if you don't want to add the epub to calibre, you can create an empty book. This is a book in calibre with all the metadata, but no actual ebook. If the book has the same title and author as the kepub, will match with the kepub and sync the series info with the device. An empty book is also handy for tracking paperbooks or wishlist items where you don't have the ebook.

Nice

[Liesse]

You know, I never actually realised you could search for books in your library. I've been paging through mine or using shelves to organise it. Because I thought that's what you did.
*blush*
Using the series information properly, I can see how I don't have to rely on shelves - I can search!

For anyone else silly enough to have not known this, press the icon near the battery, the three little lines. It says SEARCH there. I really wish they gave you a proper manual with these things.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Liesse

You know, I never actually realised you could search for books in your library. I've been paging through mine or using shelves to organise it. Because I thought that's what you did.
*blush*

Yes you definitely should blush

Using the series information properly, I can see how I don't have to rely on shelves - I can search!

True, but I hope they add a series list. Something similar to the shelf list but shows the series and the number of books. And an author list. And .., I'd better stop now.

For anyone else silly enough to have not known this, press the icon near the battery, the three little lines. It says SEARCH there. I really wish they gave you a proper manual with these things.

On the Glo, I've always thought that the search was in the wrong place. The Touch has it in the top left corner instead of the home button. The Glo should have the search next to the home button.