[GUI Plugin] Kindle Collections (old)

[adriantc]

I am happy to report it works just great. I remember I tried v1.6.1 (the one on the first page) and I did that last Monday I think. I guess there was a bug and you fixed it.

If I have anymore problems I'll let you know.

[meme]

Good to hear

[ElizabethN]

Originally Posted by meme

@ElizabethN - try this version. It adds more debug output. Run in debug mode (click down arrow on Preferences to Restart in Debug mode, run your Preview, then exist Calibre to have the output show). In the file you'll see 'Splitting on' showing how the names are split, and also if there is any automatic replacing of semicolons causing issues. You can PM me the details.

Downloaded this version, will test when I get home from work, so approx 10 hrs. Will run in debug.

"Can you post your exact author sort plugboard command."

Metadata plugboard: (mobi any device, destination field authors):
{author_sort:re(\s\&\s,;)}

Metadata plugboard: (mobi kindle3 destination field title):
{series}{series_index:0>5.1f|-|-}{title}

Send to device: (left over from using previous Collection manager & not really used, just haven't reset to default) -
{#kindle_author}/{series:|_|/}{series_index:0>5.1f|-|-}{title}
where #kindle_author = {author_sort:re(\s\&\s,;)} [custom column in calibre as well]

"Do you get any warning or dialog windows that states that one name will overwrite another?"

No warning that I noticed. I had cleaned up one author and re-sent new metadata, cleaner mobi etc to kindle and noticed that one of the author's entries in a collection were vastly reduced, so started trying variations of author vs author sort.


Thanks - wish I could do this now but my co-workers might not understand the importance of calibre & plugin mysteries vs patient care :)

[adriantc]

Now that your plugin works I have come back with some questions. If I create a collection with Calibre can I add a book to that collection directly from the Kindle?

I know I might be requesting too much since you helped me a lot already, but maybe in a future version you would consider keeping the timestamps on the collections unchanged, so there wouldn't get rearranged every time you sync collections.

Anyway this plugin is a life saver... Twice my Kindle got stuck and I had to reset it to defaults and arranging all my books (although I don't even have as many as other users have) is a real pain. Since it's that good I'll have to express my gratitude with a small donation the following... As a fellow programmer I know how important those are; even small ones.

[meme]

Originally Posted by adriantc

If I create a collection with Calibre can I add a book to that collection directly from the Kindle?

No. You can have collections that are managed by Calibre (defined in Customize and overwritten each time your run the Create collections plugin) or collections managed by the Kindle (you manually edit them on the Kindle or using Edit Collections in the plugin). If you manually added a book to a Calibre managed collection then the plugin can't tell its one you put there manually instead of one deleted from Calibre (and when you next run Preview/Create it will pop up a warning message just to let you know). (edit - well if its telling you there is a difference I guess it knows something changed, but dealing with merging manual/automatic is something I've avoided so far to keep things simpler). The most common Kindle only collection is something like Currently Reading.

I know I might be requesting too much since you helped me a lot already, but maybe in a future version you would consider keeping the timestamps on the collections unchanged, so there wouldn't get rearranged every time you sync collections.

Nah, questions/comments are what make this fun

Timestamps on Kindle-only collections are left alone. But the timestamps on the calibre collections are re-written with the current time because that's when they are being recreated. Even if they are the same. To leave the timestamp alone would require comparing the old collections with the new collections generated by Create and tracking that information. Oh wait, I already added the track and compare in order to give you a warning message if you manually edited an automatic collection so I guess I have this information. Ah, the main issue is that the timestamps are used to sort collection names when using Sort by Collections - so the plugin sorts the collection names and then sets the timestamp in order to ensure they show up in order when Sort by Collections and Sort by Most Recent (after the books). I could change this (sort only the changed collections) but I'm not sure how this would work. What issue are you trying to solve?
[/quote]

Thanks for the appreciation.

[adriantc]

Originally Posted by meme

No. You can have collections that are managed by Calibre (defined in Customize and overwritten each time your run the Create collections plugin) or collections managed by the Kindle (you manually edit them on the Kindle or using Edit Collections in the plugin). If you manually added a book to a Calibre managed collection then the plugin can't tell its one you put there manually instead of one deleted from Calibre (and when you next run Preview/Create it will pop up a warning message just to let you know). (edit - well if its telling you there is a difference I guess it knows something changed, but dealing with merging manual/automatic is something I've avoided so far to keep things simpler). The most common Kindle only collection is something like Currently Reading.


Nah, questions/comments are what make this fun

Timestamps on Kindle-only collections are left alone. But the timestamps on the calibre collections are re-written with the current time because that's when they are being recreated. Even if they are the same. To leave the timestamp alone would require comparing the old collections with the new collections generated by Create and tracking that information. Oh wait, I already added the track and compare in order to give you a warning message if you manually edited an automatic collection so I guess I have this information. Ah, the main issue is that the timestamps are used to sort collection names when using Sort by Collections - so the plugin sorts the collection names and then sets the timestamp in order to ensure they show up in order when Sort by Collections and Sort by Most Recent (after the books). I could change this (sort only the changed collections) but I'm not sure how this would work. What issue are you trying to solve?

Thanks for the appreciation.

I have anticipated your second answer so my first question was related to the second. My problem (although it's not a problem its a small annoyance considering what I had to go through to put all my books into collections over and over again) is that I have 2 Kindle managed collections (Dictionary and Other - contains Kindle manual and My Clippings). Every time I sync those 2 keep going on top as the whole sorting of collections (based on the most recent) is lost. I don't have a Now Reading collection so in fact the first collection in that list is the collection that contains the book I currently read. So I have to check the list and find the collection with the book I am reading. Hope I haven't fried your brains with my explanation and my rather stupid problem

Since I realized changing the timestamps is a lot of work for no good reason (I realize my situation is no big deal at all) I came up with the solution of adding books to collections manually on my Kindle since I usually don't add more then 10 at a time. And use the plugin only then my Kindle requires a reset to factory defaults or I have to add a very list of books to add.
Basicly the plugin doesn't care what modifications you do on your Kindle to your Calible managed collection. Next time you sync them the plugin will have his way. Have I understood correctly?


PS: Amazon should be shot... They are trying to make us use they damn DRM-ed books. I for one buy books from Amazon (used to get the printed ones, now the ebooks), but the first thing I do is strip the DRM. That's the way they control whatever is on your Kindle. They loan you the book, you don't actually own it. If it's DRMed you can sync Collections and the books they contain and the notes you have with Amazon. If the files don't have DRM your on your own. Damn Amazon.

[meme]

Originally Posted by adriantc

I have 2 Kindle managed collections (Dictionary and Other - contains Kindle manual and My Clippings). Every time I sync those 2 keep going on top as the whole sorting of collections (based on the most recent) is lost. I don't have a Now Reading collection so in fact the first collection in that list is the collection that contains the book I currently read. So I have to check the list and find the collection with the book I am reading.

Why don't you just use the Sort by Most recent listing of books to find the books you were most recently reading? If you click around your books and mess up the order, then that's when people use a "__Currently Reading" collection to list various books (the __ prefix means it sorts to the top when sorting by Title).

Maybe I'll play around with the timestamps to see how leaving them alone if there were no book changes, and to sort them in order (at the bottom) if they're new or have changes to the book list. It might make the sort by Collection list look a bit odd over time. Perhaps as an option.

I came up with the solution of adding books to collections manually on my Kindle since I usually don't add more then 10 at a time. And use the plugin only then my Kindle requires a reset to factory defaults or I have to add a very list of books to add.

Certainly an option, though not making the most of the plugin

Basicly the plugin doesn't care what modifications you do on your Kindle to your Calible managed collection. Next time you sync them the plugin will have his way. Have I understood correctly?

Correct, the plugin will overwrite calibre managed collections. If it notices that the collection file has been updated since the last time you ran create (by manual editing) it will warn you and list what changed.

[meme]

Originally Posted by xcfordan

One quick question/issue: in the "edit collecitons manually" window, is it possible to have the author column sort by last name instead of by first name? Same as it is done in Calibre?

Just to follow this up. Calibre can do this sorting by last name because you've manually told it how you want to sort (the Author Sort field). There isn't any way to easily do this for the books on the Kindle.

As mentioned I can use the Author Sort field - but that would only be for books in Calibre and the others would be firstname lastname, and a mix sounds more confusing. You can simulate this by modifying Calibre use Author Sort for the Author's name and resend your books - then both the Kindle and the Edit Collections window would show authors listed as Lastname, Firstname. But only for Calibre managed books on the device.

For the other books, an algorithm to determine last name, firstname from firstname lastname is not straightforward. And I believe even in Calibre there are a few options to choose from when guessing what name to put in Author Sort. Handling cases of middle names, prefixed last names, suffixes like Jr, Sr. etc. make determining the last name non-trivial.

So at the moment I think I'll leave it just showing the names as found in the books. If the books are updated with last first, then the Edit list will be updated as well.

[meme]

@ElizabethN - try this version. It should fix your issue with the number of books in a collection not being correct when using split. Thanks for the debug output

It was a simple error in the code. When I added the split collection feature I neglected to append the books to the collection name if it already existed and instead overwrote was was already saved. Previously before splitting the name could only appear once in the list I used so I just defined the collection to contain the books found for it in Calibre. With splitting added, the name could appear several times for each entry from Calibre and the code was just replacing the current list of books with the new books it found. So if it found A Smith had 5 books it stored them. Then when it found J Ton & A Smith had 3 books, it would do the split and then change A Smith to be just 3 books.

[ElizabethN]

Originally Posted by meme

@ElizabethN - try this version. It should fix your issue with the number of books in a collection not being correct when using split. Thanks for the debug output

It was a simple error in the code. When I added the split collection feature I neglected to append the books to the collection name if it already existed and instead overwrote was was already saved. Previously before splitting the name could only appear once in the list I used so I just defined the collection to contain the books found for it in Calibre. With splitting added, the name could appear several times for each entry from Calibre and the code was just replacing the current list of books with the new books it found. So if it found A Smith had 5 books it stored them. Then when it found J Ton & A Smith had 3 books, it would do the split and then change A Smith to be just 3 books.

Author & author_sort are giving me the same collections now when split is used. Thanks Meme!

[jesscat]

Originally Posted by meme

This version should fix the issue of 0 books in a collection when disconnecting then reconnecting the Kindle using Windows.

@jesscat - Your confirmation and debug output was very helpful indeed. Its much easier to find something when you know for sure its a real problem
...

This test version is basically ready for release but I'd like confirmation that things are ok. It also contains some additional code for another issue where a Mac user is crashing after Customizing.

I'm glad I was able to help! Sorry for taking so long to test the new version - busy few days. I've now done it, though - installed and tried out my pattern that invariably caused the problem before, but this time everything works great. So it appears (to me at least) that you have fixed it!

[humani1]

Hello,

I have created several collections of books based on the "series" tag in calibre. However, the books in these collections appear in alphabetical order within each collection. Is there a way to have these books sorted according to their series number instead of alphabetically?

[dnolle]

Originally Posted by humani1

Hello,

I have created several collections of books based on the "series" tag in calibre. However, the books in these collections appear in alphabetical order within each collection. Is there a way to have these books sorted according to their series number instead of alphabetically?

Hi, Humani1
Take a look at this Wiki:

https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kind...bre_Plugboards

It describes how to make the output from Calibre to Kindle (or any reader) look like:

SeriesName - # - Title (this will alphabatize them correctly inside a collection). Note that this does not change any metadata in Calibre...only how it is written over to the Kindle.

[dnolle]

Maybe everyone new this but me (grin), and it is in other posts/reviews...but you can have Calibre change "Author" field (not Author_Sort) to "Last, First" automatically by right clicking under Author Category and choosing Manage Author, then clicking bottom button "Click to copy all Author_Sort values to Author".

When you subsequently write to Kindle...they will still look like "First Last", BUT...Kindle now recognizes the alphabetical listing correctly.

Last...How it converts between Author and "Author_Sort" is a setting under Preferences->Advanced->Tweeks->Author Sort Name Algorithms

[meme]

@humani1 - In addition to the wiki dnolle pointed out, you can also find a short overview about this in this thread in the First post - go to the section labelled Calibre Tips and look for Book Titles.

@dnolle - thanks for the pointer. Actually, there are a lot of features to Calibre and they aren't always easy to find I've just added a tip as a result of your post to the First post in this thread under Calibre tips. It describes how you can set the output for Mobi files to set Author to Lastname,Firstname in the book when its sent to the Kindle. This does not change the Author field in Calibre. But as you mentioned, the Kindle recognizes the comma in the name and converts it to firstname lastname when displaying.