[FanFicFare] Metadata Management for Fanfiction

[culytera]

Originally Posted by elzzzz

I thought I could possibly do something where instead of doing the list, i actually just delete the other ships, but that wouldn't be ideal, and Id probably have to write out a lot of specifics (which i might have to do anyways, but still just trying to think of the best way)

I have a feeling ill have to change the regex to better get this done and I've started trying to learn, but it doesn't seem to always do what I'm expecting, especially if i do multiple expressions, so I am hoping to get clarity to better understand my limitations.

I'll be honest, this is way outside my use-case so I have no idea how to solve that. Maybe Jimm can help you

[hepalien]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh....php?p=4345450

Thank you so much!! I thought I'd read every post in this thread; I don't know how I missed that

[culytera]

Sharing my current personal.ini again since I made a bunch of changes some time ago and never bothered to make a proper post on this thread.

(I don't use the Generate Cover plugin anymore so no more updates for that. Old post with my settings.)

• Link to my personal.ini (backup link), easier to copy from a pastebin site and the emojis won't get converted by Mobileread. I left my [test] entries there in case you want to make your own test stories without bombarding other sites with requests.
• Sample results of my setup.
• Calibre config of my setup.

Template fields in your custom column settings

• #category_first: {#category_all:list_item(0,\,)}
• #ship_first: {#ship_all:list_item(0,\,)}
• #wordcount: program: getWordCountGroup()

getWordCountGroup template function (To edit, go to Preferences -> Template functions)

Spoiler:

program:
	getWordCount = field('#words');
	wordCount = re(getWordCount, '[,]', '');
	first_non_empty(
		cmp(wordCount, 5000,  'Less than 5000', '', ''),
		cmp(wordCount, 10000, 'Less than 10000', '', ''),
		cmp(wordCount, 20000, 'Less than 20000', '', ''),
		cmp(wordCount, 40000, 'Less than 40000', '', ''),
		cmp(wordCount, 80000, 'Less than 80000', '', ''),
		'Over 80000'
);

[OPTIONAL] The Date Modified custom column shown on the tag browser

Spoiler:

I wanted to be able to group works by the year and month they were modified by Calibre and thanks to this reddit post I finally got what I wanted. In case the post gets deleted for whatever reason, I'll put my own version here. Check my Calibre config to find the relevant image.

• Plugin: Last Modified, used for populating the Date Modified custom column. You don't have to use this plugin if Calibre's default last_modified column is enough for you. This plugin is for a more controlled way to have a last modified column.
• Template of Date Modified custom column: {#date_modified_plugin:format_date(yyyy.MM MMM)}
  
  • Change #date_modified_plugin to the lookup name of your custom column used by the Last Modified plugin
    
• Template of the custom column used by the Last Modified plugin: MMM dd, yyyy hh:mm AP
• Last Modified preferences:
  
  • Use #date_modified_plugin as the date column
    
  • Only check "Book Metadata Changed" and "Book Created" for "Update on these events"
    
  • Click the gear icon for "Book Metadata Changed"
    
  • Enable "update when metadata changes only for columns specified (comma separated list)" under "Column options"
    
  • Add "#date_updated,"
    

I use #date_updated so Date Modified only changes when a fic was actually updated by the author.

[ownedbycats]

Some advice copied from the FanFicFare thread on extracting specific chapters as seperate oneshots. This is helpful to know for the various -tober challenges, or just the multifandom oneshot collections.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Question: Is there a good way to apply update to a ranged fic to apply includes or replace_metadatas to title page?

Update Existing Fanfic retrieves all chapters. However, if I use Download With Fic and have multiple books with the same URL (as I prefer to separate them into oneshots) it not always get right one.

Deleting and re-downloading seems only option, or just updating metadata and editing the titlepage by hand.

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

first_chapter and last_chapter are undocumented settings equivalent to using a chapter range.

But if you have more than one story in your library with the same storyUrl in Calibre's identifier:url, you'd need to change personal.ini for each one. Personally, I remove the storyUrl identifier:url from splits to avoid accidents.

I suppose that's arguably a justification for per-story ini settings by custom column.

Honestly, a major reason I've not wanted to add that is to avoid having to help users troubleshoot issues when using both personal.ini and an ini custom column. I foresee there would a lot of cases users forgetting they'd set one or the other.

[chowdown]

I've created a custom column titled "Genre" that I'm trying to just auto-fill with "FanFiction" for everything I'm importing via FanFicFare. I've tried a number of commands but nothing seems to work for me. Anyone have any ideas? I'm greying hairs as we speak.

Sorry if my formatting is wrong. First time posting!

Attempts:

1. include_in_genre:Fanfiction
- resulted in a blank column


2.
add_to_custom_columns_settings:
status=>#genre
replace_metadata:
status=>^Completed$=>FanFiction
status=>^In-Progress$=>FanFiction

- my attempt at hijacking "status" which I'm currently not using and converting it all to just output "FanFiction"
- didn't work when I had it under [archiveofourown.org], and when I put it under [defaults], it didn't replace with "Fanfiction" but it did populate tge "Genre" column with the actual status (Completed/In-Progress)

[culytera]

Originally Posted by chowdown

I've created a custom column titled "Genre" that I'm trying to just auto-fill with "FanFiction" for everything I'm importing via FanFicFare.

Use extratags. [defaults] already has a "extratags: FanFiction" line unless you changed that. If you didn't, then you just need to add this line:

add_to_custom_columns_settings:
 extratags=>#genre

[wildfire070]

For the most part all of my fanfic downloads are of a particular ship (ex. CharA/CharB), so I have it set up for my titlepage to only list side pairings as "Additional Relationships" by including the following in my personal.ini:

titlepage_entries:ships
ships_label:Additional Relationships
exclude_metadata_pre:
  ships==CharA/CharB
  ships==CharB/CharA

But...I'm starting to venture into stories where either CharA or CharB is in a ship with varying other characters.

culytera's post of a "first_ship" list item got me thinking.....is it possible to do a "Main Pairing" from the first entry in the AO3 metadata ship list, and a "Side Pairing" list from the remaining ship entries?

[Elanor Pam]

So I've got fics in a fandom that involves a LOT of long names. I'd like to replace them with initials in some way, in shipping tags most of all (which can get ridiculous with specifying stances of a character). is there a way to do that in personal.ini, or later through calibre metadata editing?

[ownedbycats]

replace_metadata your friend!

[Elanor Pam]

yeah, but like.... how? how do I regex that? i am a n00b, and i'm scared :C is there an example code I can follow?

[Elanor Pam]

Update on my name metadata stuff for fandoms/ships: at one point I tried removing all lowercase characters, which worked in creating nothing but uppercase initials, but didn't work in that the chinese and korean novels that needed it most usually have compound names that get westernized into a single word, making them harder to recognize at a glance. So I went for a manual listing of the worst names involved.

I've got a question now that's a little more complex: I've successfully arranged my #fandom tags under major categories like "Anime", "Novels" etc, which I used for a device template that would create folders and subfolders when sending wirelessly. For example: Anime -> Dragon Ball -> Mythic Descent - Dragoness Eclectic.epub

But when sending to device I've found that crossovers end up creating their own folders? Instead of putting the fic in question into a folder for one or the other. For example, a Bleach/Naruto crossover gets put into a "Bleach, Naruto" folder instead of going into either the "Bleach" or the "Naruto" folder. Ideally there would be a copy of the fanfic in question on each folder, but I personally don't care where the fic goes so long as it doesn't make a redundant folder about it. Any suggestions on how to handle crossovers?

Here's the templates for the columns I used:

Top category (topcat):

{#fandom:re((\w)\.(.*),\1)}

Subcategory (subcat1):

{#fandom:subitems(1,0)}

Send to device template:

{#topcat}/{#subcat1}/{title} - {authors}

I didn't come up with any of those templates-- found them while digging through r/Calibre reddit threads, so the issue could be in the template itself. I don't really know much about them

[storybrookebooks]

Hello, this is my first time using FFF and I've been running into a bunch of errors.

I checked the ao3 status page and it says the outage is resolved now so I believe the issues I'm running into is unrelated to it.

Every time I try to download by URL (with only one URL) I'm given one of these 3 errors:

HTTP Error in FFF '525 Server Error: <none> for url: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44...igate'(525)

HTTP Error in FFF '403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://archiveofourown.org/users/login'(403)

HTTP Error in FFF '403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://archiveofourown.gay/users/login'(403)

[DNSB]

I tried downloading the first book in your list using the latest update to FFF from the URL: "https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056/" dumping the "navigate'(525" from the posted link and it worked without any problems. Your next two URLs point to the AO3 login page so aren't much use for testing.

This may not be much help to you since we are using different computer, ISPs, etc.

Spoiler:

Download 1 FanFiction Book(s) for archiveofourown.org
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:02,191: calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.jobs(39): FanFicFare v4.55.0
calibre 9.4*  embedded-python: True
Windows-11-10.0.26200-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '11', '10.0.26200')
Python 3.14.2
Windows: ('11', '10.0.26200', 'SP0', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
EXE path: C:\Program Files\Calibre2\calibre-parallel.exe
Successfully initialized third party plugins: ACSM Input (0, 1, 0) && LCPL Input (0, 0, 5) && Gather KFX-ZIP (from KFX Input) (2, 29, 0) && DeDRM (10, 0, 15) && AZW6 Image Merge (1, 1, 2) && Package KFX (from KFX Input) (2, 29, 0) && ACSM Input Plugin GUI Extension (0, 1, 0) && Annotations (1, 17, 15) && Apple Books covers (1, 1, 0) && Backup Configuration Folder (1, 1, 2) && Baen (1, 2, 0) && Barnes & Noble (1, 5, 8) && Count Pages (1, 14, 6) && Diaps Editing Toolbag (0, 5, 0) && EpubCheck (0, 2, 6) && EpubMerge (3, 2, 0) && EpubSplit (3, 12, 0) && FanFicFare (4, 55, 0) && Find Duplicates (1, 10, 10) && Generate Cover (2, 3, 7) && Goodreads (1, 8, 4) && Job Spy (1, 0, 239) && KFX metadata reader (from KFX Input) (2, 29, 0) && From KFX (2, 29, 0) && KFX Input (2, 29, 0) && Set KFX metadata (from KFX Output) (2, 18, 0) && KFX Output (2, 18, 0) && Kindle hi-res covers (0, 5, 1) && KindleUnpack - The Plugin (0, 83, 8) && Kobo Metadata (1, 12, 1) && Kobo Utilities (2, 27, 1) && Modify ePub (1, 8, 9) && Obok DeDRM (10, 0, 9) && Open With (1, 8, 5) && OverDrive Libby (0, 3, 0) && Quality Check (1, 14, 7) && Reading Tracker (1, 1, 1) && Resize Cover (1, 2, 2) && ScrambleEbook (0, 6, 0) && SmartEject (2, 6, 0) && Smashwords Metadata (1, 0, 2)
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,241: calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.jobs(146): 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,241: configurable.py(560): config site:archiveofourown.org
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,252: configurable.py(1036): use_browser_cache:
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,253: configurable.py(1057): use_basic_cache:true
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,253: base_otw_adapter.py(193): url: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056/navigate
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,253: base_otw_adapter.py(194): metaurl: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,253: cache_basic.py(117): 
========== HIT (GET) BasicCache
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056/navigate
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,254: requestable.py(55): Encoding:utf8
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,254: cache_basic.py(117): 
========== HIT (GET) BasicCache
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,254: requestable.py(55): Encoding:utf8
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,316: base_otw_adapter.py(323): numChapters: ()
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,329: calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.jobs(199): metadata newforanthology:
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,333: calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.jobs(247): write to C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre-w4sjxdn4\fanficfare_lis8_s_q\Wouldn't Trade This Life For Diamonds Or Jewels-ashilrak-mqmko2vf.epub
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,334: base_writer.py(197): Save directly to file: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\Temp\calibre-w4sjxdn4\fanficfare_lis8_s_q\Wouldn't Trade This Life For Diamonds Or Jewels-ashilrak-mqmko2vf.epub
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,335: base_otw_adapter.py(485): Getting chapter text for: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44...ters/113067076 index: 0
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,336: cache_basic.py(117): 
========== MISS (GET) BasicCache
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44...ters/113067076
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:03,336: fetcher_requests.py(114): 
---------- REQ (GET) RequestsFetcher
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44...ters/113067076
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:08,758: fetcher_requests.py(127): response code:200
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:08,758: decorators.py(118): fromcache:False
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:08,758: decorators.py(129): random sleep(2.00-6.00):3.20
FFF: DEBUG: 2026-03-02 12:02:11,959: requestable.py(55): Encoding:utf8
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:12,020: writer_epub.py(411): Saving EPUB Version 2.0
FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:12,131: calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.jobs(77): 
Download Results:
Add https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056 Download epub completed, 1 chapters.

FFF: INFO: 2026-03-02 12:02:12,131: calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.jobs(102): 
Add
https://archiveofourown.org/works/44936056

[storybrookebooks]

Is there anyway for me to look into why it's not downloading for me? I'm not using any VPN.

If it makes a difference, every time it shows it's downloading, my mouse turns into the spinner and the application is marked as not responding.

EDIT: got the third error again:

```

Spoiler:

calibre, version 9.4.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>HTTPErrorFFF</b>:HTTP Error in FFF '403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://archiveofourown.gay/users/login'(403)

calibre 9.4 embedded-python: True
macOS-15.3.1-arm64-arm-64bit-Mach-O Darwin ('64bit', 'Mach-O')
('Darwin', '24.3.0', 'Darwin Kernel Version 24.3.0: Thu Jan 2 20:24:16 PST 2025; root:xnu-11215.81.4~3/RELEASE_ARM64_T6000')
Python 3.14.2
OSX: ('15.3.1', ('', '', ''), 'arm64')
Interface language: None
EXE path: /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Count Pages (1, 14, 6) && EpubMerge (3, 2, 0) && EpubSplit (3, 12, 0) && FanFicFare (4, 55, 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/fetchers/fetcher_requests.py", line 128, in request
resp.raise_for_status() # raises RequestsHTTPError if error code.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/requests/models.py", line 943, in raise_for_status
raise HTTPError(http_error_msg, response=self)
requests.exceptions.HTTPError: 403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://archiveofourown.gay/users/login

During handling of the above exception, another exception occurred:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.fff_plugin" , line 712, in get_urls_from_page_menu
frompage = self.get_urls_from_page(url)
File "calibre_plugins.fanficfare_plugin.fff_plugin" , line 735, in get_urls_from_page
return get_urls_from_page(url,configuration)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/geturls.py", line 44, in get_urls_from_page
return adapter.get_urls_from_page(url,normalize)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/adapters/base_adapter.py", line 514, in get_urls_from_page
self.before_get_urls_from_page(url,normalize)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/adapters/base_otw_adapter.py", line 660, in before_get_urls_from_page
self.performLogin(url,data)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/adapters/base_otw_adapter.py", line 141, in performLogin
d = self.post_request(loginUrl, params)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/requestable.py", line 105, in post_request
data = self.configuration.get_fetcher().post_request(
self.mod_url_request(url),
parameters=parameters,
usecache=usecache)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/fetchers/base_fetcher.py", line 127, in post_request
fetchresp = self.do_request('POST',
self.condition_url(url),
parameters=parameters,
usecache=usecache)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/fetchers/cache_basic.py", line 123, in fetcher_do_request
fetchresp = chainfn(
method,
...<3 lines>...
usecache=usecache,
image=image)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/fetchers/decorators.py", line 107, in fetcher_do_request
fetchresp = chainfn(
method,
...<3 lines>...
usecache=usecache,
image=image)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/fetchers/cache_browser.py", line 134, in fetcher_do_request
return chainfn(
method,
...<3 lines>...
usecache=usecache,
image=image)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/fetchers/base_fetcher.py", line 109, in do_request
fetchresp = self.request(method,url,
headers=headers,
parameters=parameters)
File "/Users/x/Library/Preferences/calibre/plugins/FanFicFare.zip/fanficfare/fetchers/fetcher_requests.py", line 149, in request
raise exceptions.HTTPErrorFFF(
...<4 lines>...
)
fanficfare.exceptions.HTTPErrorFFF: HTTP Error in FFF '403 Client Error: Forbidden for url: https://archiveofourown.gay/users/login'(403)

```

[DNSB]

I'm using FFF with the defaults untouched on Windows. I'm wondering if you have configured FFF with a login for archiveofourown.gay? I've never used that site so have nothing set for it.