Remove all BUT certain tags?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Starson17

I haven't actually seen it overwrite the series. Perhaps I haven't been observant. I don't see series in the fields that appear during the search, and it hasn't seemed to overwrite my defined series in quick testing.

Can you flesh out when it happens? (What online data sources have the series? Does it zero out an existing series or just change when the value is not None? etc.)

There were too many times when downloading metadata where it would change the name of a series for some of the books in the series. If it finds series info it fills it in whether or not there was any existing info in the series field. The series info comes from the librarything plugin which was a feature added in 0.7.3.

Originally Posted by Starson17

It shouldn't be hard to do - do you see any problem with just adding that to the current option that controls overwriting of Author/Title?

This sounds like an ideal place for this option.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

There were too many times when downloading metadata where it would change the name of a series for some of the books in the series. If it finds series info it fills it in whether or not there was any existing info in the series field. The series info comes from the librarything plugin which was a feature added in 0.7.3.

I just checked the code. The change you want would be easy. In fact, I made the change before looking closely at the code. When I did, I realized it never overwrites a series name. It only fills it in if there's nothing in that field.

Are you sure you (and others) would want that functionality deleted? If you're fetching metadata, I'd think you'd want the series name entered when it's blank. I checked it by testing, and sure enough, it won't overwrite a series name - it just adds it when the series field is empty.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Starson17

I just checked the code. The change you want would be easy. In fact, I made the change before looking closely at the code. When I did, I realized it never overwrites a series name. It only fills it in if there's nothing in that field.

Are you sure you (and others) would want that functionality deleted? If you're fetching metadata, I'd think you'd want the series name entered when it's blank. I checked it by testing, and sure enough, it won't overwrite a series name - it just adds it when the series field is empty.

Please make it a user option.
Reasoning: Having no series name is more obvious that having a "alternate" series name for a already existing series.
( I had to drop the noise words in the standard series names because I created folders using {series[0]} and it does not allow the use of the "series sort" field in the "series" table.)
We also know that these meta-data sources lack consistency :/

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Starson17

I just checked the code. The change you want would be easy. In fact, I made the change before looking closely at the code. When I did, I realized it never overwrites a series name. It only fills it in if there's nothing in that field.

I could be mistaken or series being overwritten was changed.

The reason I sought out a way to stop the series being written was because it had interfered multiple times in series I already had set. These instances were sufficiently annoying that I sought out a fix and ended up turning off the plugin. But it is 9 versions post when the feature first appeared so things might have changed.

Thanks for looking into this. If given the option and it doesn't overwrite existing series I might leave it on.

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by dwanthny;

If given the option and it doesn't overwrite existing series I might leave it on.

I had noticed that any existing entry did not get overwritten, so would probably not ever use can option to make the overwrite behaviour optional.

It does mean that the auto-fetched metadata can assign a slightly different representation of the series name than I would apply manually, but I would prefer this to having nothing (and it is easy to correct).

The series index is virtually always correct when auto-filled which means that does not need correcting.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I had noticed that any existing entry did not get overwritten.

Since the consensus is that existing series information is currently not over written, I'll turn the plugin back on and see how it goes.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I ...would probably not ever use can option to make the overwrite behaviour optional.

I would also not ever use an option to make the overwrite behaviour optional. More specifically, I do use the option to prevent author/title overwrites, so I would not want the two options combined. Thus, the only way to do this would be to have a separate option only for series.

When I wrote the original option, I considered a separate click box option setting for each bit of metadata, but that was just too many options. We would have needed a whole page for them, plus another page on the single metadata fetch screen, as this option is controllable in both the single fetch screen (as you work) and on the Preferences|General screen (as a default for bulk metadata fetching).

I'm not sure if Kovid would want to add an option (in both locations?) for just series.

The series index is virtually always correct when auto-filled which means that does not need correcting.

FYI - series index is part of the code that checks for the series name - they're handled as a pair. Calibre only tries to put in the index if it finds a series name during the search and there's no series name already in the database.

[kovidgoyal]

At some point I will create a wizard for metadata download, at which time I can add fine tuned controls for each bt of metadata, but until then, it stays as is.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

... until then, it stays as is.

@theducks: If you want the series metadata fetching turned off, just set up the development environment to run from code (I always run from code - it won't slow you down) and comment out lines 642-647 of src\calibre\gui2\dialogs\metadata_single.py

[travger]

Originally Posted by Starson17

You might consider doing it the way I do - set up a separate user defined tag field, and put the tags you want in there, while leaving the fetched tags alone.

Would, if they show in book details. All that lovingly collected data can stay unvisibly happy in tag browser, but what irritates me is having to scroll through usless tags in book details panel. I'd much prefer seeing my own, max three entries.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Starson17

@theducks: If you want the series metadata fetching turned off, just set up the development environment to run from code (I always run from code - it won't slow you down) and comment out lines 642-647 of src\calibre\gui2\dialogs\metadata_single.py

I failed to get the DE to run on my system (no * appeared). I had the "develop_From..." environment var set in Windows. typing SET in a command propmpt showed the var set correctly. No matter what I did, No joy.
I can live with the way it works, Kovid fixed up a tweak for "Series" file names.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Since the consensus is that existing series information is currently not over written, I'll turn the plugin back on and see how it goes.

Well I turned the librarything plugin back on and it overwrote series data previously entered again.

I loaded 4 books from a series (see attached) I edited the Titles and the Series in the main library window. I entered the Series, hit enter, then after calibre incremented the series number, I corrected the series number . I edited the Author and Author sort in the metadata window. I went and fetched metadata and covers and the Series I entered (Falco) was overwritten by Marcus Didius Falco.

There is no confusion possible this time. I'll just go back and disable the Librarything plugin until a wizard for metadata download is created to handle this.

Thanks to everyone for looking into this situation.

Windows XP sp3, calibre 0.7.13

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Well I turned the librarything plugin back on and it overwrote series data previously entered again.

Was this a bulk or single fetch of metadata when it overwrote? Did you try it both ways?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Starson17

Was this a bulk or single fetch of metadata when it overwrote? Did you try it both ways?

It was a bulk metadata and cover download and it has since continued the trend. It doesn't seem to happen with a single book metadata update.

I just changed my work flow and don't fill in series until after I do the metadata download. I'm fine with the way it currently works it just took me time to adjust to it.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

It was a bulk metadata and cover download and it has since continued the trend. It doesn't seem to happen with a single book metadata update.

That's what I suspected. I looked at the code for the single metadata fetch, forgetting that the bulk may do it differently. The single can't do what you said it did It's been a while since I looked at the fetch code. Even though you're happy with how it works now, I'd prefer it not overwrite my series once it's filled in.

I can't think of any reason for the bulk fetch to differ in the way it handles the series field from the way it's handle in the single metadata fetch.

Can you?