Changing the Calibre File Structure

[Manichean]

There's a saying I read in an excellent book series: "Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind." (I'm quoting from memory here, the actual wording may differ.) I propose we expand that saying to "Inappropriate 'lol' and bad grammar are a sure sign of a troll." Or, to use a wording said poster might recognize: "Obvious troll is obvious."

[theducks]

Originally Posted by viao123

BTW, do your relatives have a "PHD" beside their avatar? lol

Avatar? What Avatar

Kovid is a Professional Business person, just like the Authors that hang here.


"Doc" Smith used his title as "Author" of Fiction

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by viao123

No. If so I would be using Cailbre, lol

BTW, do your relatives have a "PHD" beside their avatar? lol

Hello, viao123, hello? hasn't anyone told you this is the 21st century? The folder/filename system is so 20th century. You need to get over that antique or go back to books on a shelf on a wall.

Calibre does organize books. I can do for more with calibre than any book organizing software I have tried, free or otherwise. With calibre, there is no need to ever go to the file folder to organize your files. Everything you can do in the filefolder you can do in calibre plus far more. It's impossible to cram all the meta data or tags one could use in a filename. This is not a problem with calibre.

Rarely do contemporaries or friends use titles amongst themselves. However, I feel that anyone who has gone through the work and time to attain the title of PhD deserves to display it. They have earned that right.

It is highly suspicious whenever we see come onto the MobileRead forums and, in their first one and/or two posts, knock calibre's method of storing files, especially when we get a rash of similarly worded posts. That's why the troll reference. It's a free program; if you don't like it, don't use it.

[EowynCarter]

Hello, viao123, hello? hasn't anyone told you this is the 21st century? The folder/filename system is so 20th century. You need to get over that antique or go back to books on a shelf on a wall.

Fact is, even if you add collection / tags / whatever, files and folders are still there. And still need to be usable.

Calibre does organize books. I can do for more with calibre than any book organizing software I have tried, free or otherwise. With calibre, there is no need to ever go to the file folder to organize your files.

Oh, really. Can calibre open me a book with sigil ? Or with my zip program ? Or with ADE ?

And calibre do manages files, that the trouble. I would love it if it left my files alone. Let calibre do book mnagement, and ONLY book management.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Oh, really. Can calibre open me a book with sigil ? Or with my zip program ? Or with ADE ?

Yes yes and yes! A few versions back (0.7.32) calibre added the ability to create GUI plugins. See this thread, specifically this plugin to accomplish all three requests.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

And calibre do manages files, that the trouble. I would love it if it left my files alone.

You know as well as I do that calibre does leave your files alone. Calibre just alters files added to its database.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

You know as well as I do that calibre does leave your files alone. Calibre just alters files added to its database.

That forces me
a ) Have a copy of the files outside calibre library, making using a soflware useless.
b ) "delete" the files after they are imported into calibre, and having them messed forever.

There is a reason I don't like syncing software for my music. Because they tends to put music where they want, rather than where I want them.

User shall tell the software what to do, not the other way around.

Ok, so, the plug-in would solve the "open with" problem. But not the "how to deal with multiple version of the same book" problem.

Do calibre have a "exclude books from synchronize" function ?

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

That forces me

It doesn't "force" you to do anything. you choose what you want to do, including not using the software if the cons outweigh the pros.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

a ) Have a copy of the files outside calibre library

In my book having a backup is always a good thing.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

But not the "how to deal with multiple version of the same book" problem.

You are correct. Since calibre is not a document management program this aspect you're looking for is still a hodgepodge of using tags and custom columns as you see fit. Creating the workflow for this is up to the individual user.

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Do calibre have a "exclude books from synchronize" function ?

Calibre will allow for automatically sending downloaded news to your device but all other synchronization of books is manual.

Update: calibre will, on some devices upon connecting, automatically synchronize any new metadata in the library with the metadata of the books already on the device. This feature can be turned off.

[user_none]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

And calibre do manages files, that the trouble. I would love it if it left my files alone. Let calibre do book mnagement, and ONLY book management.

Sometimes discussions like these make me want to ask Kovid to go back to putting the books into the metadata.db file... That way there is no folder structure to cause people anger.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by user_none

Sometimes discussions like these make me want to ask Kovid to go back to putting the books into the metadata.db file...

You say that like there's a chance Kovid might actually do it, but we know that a snowball stands a better chance of surviving a Summer in hell then Kovid going back to that method of dealing with books.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Might as well not waste time arguing with this luddite (EowynCarter). He is just too hung up on the folder/filename tree system of document organization to open his eyes and see how limited it is compared to calibre. Either that or he is a control freak. Look at his comment on "syncing software for (his) music." There are times I wonder if he is the clown that has been logging on lately under different screen names for the sole purpose of carping about caibre's method of storing books.

Sure Kovid could have come up with a way to link to books in existing locations but it probably would have slowed calibre down somewhat. And would have generated more complaints everytime a user manipulated her/his files (either by moving or renaming) and the link was broken.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

And would have generated more complaints everytime a user manipulated her/his files (either by moving or renaming) and the link was broken.

The user support issue you raised here is one of the reasons Kovid has cited in the past for setting up the structure as it is now.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Might as well not waste time arguing with this luddite (EowynCarter). He is just too hung up on the folder/filename tree system of document organization to open his eyes and see how limited it is compared to calibre. Either that or he is a control freak. Look at his comment on "syncing software for (his) music." There are times I wonder if he is the clown that has been logging on lately under different screen names for the sole purpose of carping about caibre's method of storing books..

Oh my bad, I forgot rule number one here :
Calibre is perfect, there is noting to change there. Saying anything wrong about calibre is trolling.

Seriously, is it THAT hard to understand that some people don't have the same need as yours ? That other people can think in a different way than you ?
And don't bother answering, you are now the my ignore list.

dwanthny, you got me thinking with the plugin thingy. What can calibre do with command line ? Can you add a book in library with command line ? or delete one ?
Would calibre be able, with a plugin , to call on external command line program ?

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

dwanthny, you got me thinking with the plugin thingy. What can calibre do with command line ? Can you add a book in library with command line ? or delete one ?
Would calibre be able, with a plugin , to call on external command line program.

Yes to all of those. In plugins, I believe you can do anything that Python + the Calibre internals can do, and the Calibre command line tools can do anything the GUI can.

[EowynCarter]

Yeah, seams you can do quite a few things with calibre's command line.

Maybe let calibre have the "reference" books. Then an external program and/or calibre plugin to deal with the rest. That might get something usable.

[Manichean]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Yeah, seams you can do quite a few things with calibre's command line.

Maybe let calibre have the "reference" books. Then an external program and/or calibre plugin to deal with the rest. That might get something usable.

I don't understand what your intention is and why you insist on trying to use Calibre, although you've said in quite a few threads in addition to this one that it doesn't do what you want it to do. For everyones sanity, please just accept that this program isn't going to change because you keep whining and nagging (I'm sorry, but that's just what it is) and move on to either, as you said before, create something that does do what you want it to do or look for another ebook management program that you like and use that one.