[GUI Plugin] Kindle Collections (old)

[meme]

Originally Posted by crich70

I'm having a problem. While I probably will remove a lot of books from my Kindle I want to better organize some of them and so I tried using the Kindle Collections plug in to edit which collection some of my books are in and when I click on Edit manually first the program goes non responsive and then I get an error. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

File "calibre_plugins.kindle_collections.kindle_sor t", line 117, in sort_compare_kindle_names
UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xe9 in position 3: invalid continuation byte

Looks like the troublesome unicode issues haven't been banished entirely.

Try this version. You'll need to save the zip file (don't unzip it) and use Preferences->Plugins -> Load plugin from file, then restart calibre.

It ignores an error interpreting a name that seems to be happening when trying to compare 2 names for the report. If you're interested in which book is having the issue, run in debug mode and look for "Skipping comparison"

[fcg]

when i try to move my news periodicals into a collection i created using this plug in i get an error: The Kindle will not display this Mobi book in a collection due to an invalid code: "one"

is there a way that i can correct the invalid code?

[meme]

I think the invalid code might be "None".

Look in the first post of this thread under Examples - Collections for Special Books - News Feeds or Periodicals. There are a few things you need to do, but if you follow the steps it should work.

Welcome to MobileRead

[Fink-Nottle]

Originally Posted by meme

Sounds like you might be moving into custom column territory, but the book count issue could be tricky - I'll have a look to see what can be done

EDIT: A custom column can be setup to create an entry for a Series if there is one and if not use the Author. But then if you limit to 3 books in the plugin, it may be that if you have only 2 books in a series your custom column will show the series name but the plugin will skip it because it has too few books - and the book won't be put into a collection for the author either. I don't see any obvious way in the custom column template language to count the number of books for a series (but I only just looked) which is what is needed. Otherwise the plugin would have to be updated to support some kind of template language to allow comparisons which is probably a bit much. I'll look again at template language - it may be quite simple or even require another plugin

It's a relatively simple solution. The trick is to set up two custom columns like this:

Create custom column ->

Lookup name: coll_series
Column heading : Collection (series)
Column type: "Column built from other columns"
Template box: {series:| [ | ] }

Create custom column ->

Lookup name: coll_author
Column heading : Collection (author)
Column type: "Column built from other columns"
Template box: {series:'test($,'',field('authors'))'}

The non-overlaping series and author collections can now be controlled individually.

Kindle Collections -> Customise collections

Action : create
Calibe source : Collection (author)
Minimum : 2

Action : create
Calibe source : Collection (series)
Minimum : 1

[meme]

Simple approaches are best Thanks for the post, and welcome to MobileRead!

[fcg]

thank you, i'll give it a shot

[speedrrracer]

Hi
Is it safe to say this plugin won't work unless the kindle is first registered or has categories enabled via some other hack?

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by speedrrracer

Hi
Is it safe to say this plugin won't work unless the kindle is first registered or has categories enabled via some other hack?

I am not sure about the registered part but you have to create at least one collection in order for the kindle to create the collections.json file, after that everything should be fine.

[HBH_AU]

Originally Posted by Vaesse

I created an extra column called Series Nic with a shortened version of the series for the plugboard. That way I don't have to sacrifice the whole series name.

Ah this is what I wanted to do - but I have some (dumb) questions re this:

Is there an easy way to duplicate the original 'series' column so I don't have to retype most of the info?

How did you retain the series order information - I'm not computer literate, so I couldn't see how to link the series numbers with the short series title.

Thanks for any help you might be able to give

Edit - ooooops, just did a search & found the "Tips sections" in the first post in this thread LOL. I'll give that a try! Sorry for being a bit of a muppet....

[HBH_AU]

Originally Posted by HBH_AU

Ah this is what I wanted to do - but I have some (dumb) questions re this:

Is there an easy way to duplicate the original 'series' column so I don't have to retype most of the info?

Edit - ooooops, just did a search & found the "Tips sections" in the first post in this thread LOL. I'll give that a try! Sorry for being a bit of a muppet....

OK, nearly got it - made a custom column based on series - just used {series} as the template.

But of course, this doesn't give me the series NUMBER - how do I need to modify the template in order to get that info as well?

Thanks in advance for assistance


Edit to add: argh! I want to be able to EDIT data in this column - is that not possible? I just tried to click on the data & when I try to edit it, I just get a "Edit Template" box come up. Where have I gone wrong??

Basically I would like a replica of the series column, but I NEED to be able to edit the series name (so I can create a short version of it). Is there no tricky way to do this?

[meme]

I wasn't sure how to do this either until searching some older posts on MR

1. Add a new custom column (of type Text, or Comma separated Text if your books might be in multiple series), e.g. with lookup value "series_nic" and column heading "Series Nic"
2. Restart calibre to show the new column
3. Highlight all the books you want (I suggest you test on just 5 or so the first time)
4. Click Edit Metadata (to edit all the books at once in bulk)
5. Select the Search and Replace tab
6. Change the Search Mode to "Regular Expression" (to the right of Search Field)
7. Change Search Field to "series"
8. Change the Destination Field to "#series_nic"
9. Click OK

You don't need to enter any text to search for or to replace - it will copy the field by default. If it looks ok, run it on all your books.

You also asked about series number. Since this column will be used for collection names you really don't want a series number in them as it wouldn't make any sense since you would end up with 1 collection name per book.

[Vaesse]

Originally Posted by HBH_AU

OK, nearly got it - made a custom column based on series - just used {series} as the template.

But of course, this doesn't give me the series NUMBER - how do I need to modify the template in order to get that info as well?

Thanks in advance for assistance


Edit to add: argh! I want to be able to EDIT data in this column - is that not possible? I just tried to click on the data & when I try to edit it, I just get a "Edit Template" box come up. Where have I gone wrong??

Basically I would like a replica of the series column, but I NEED to be able to edit the series name (so I can create a short version of it). Is there no tricky way to do this?

Sorry, I guess my answer was a bit vague. I actually had my little brother read through the help pages to get everything working the way I wanted it.

There is NO NEED to reproduce all the information in the series column! Hopefully I got this to you before you went through that effort!

The code I have for saving files and changing the metadata title for the Kindle is:

{author_sort} - {#nic:'ifempty($, field('series'))'}{series_index:0>6.2f|| - }{title}

Where "nic" is my custom column with series nicknames. Let me explain what this does. It uses the nickname when there is one, the series name where there is not (removing the need to reproduce the series name unless I'm trying to shorten it, and giving me something temporary (the actual series name) when I haven't shortened it). It also puts all my series info in 000.00 format so my numbers line up (something that is important to me, if it's not important to you, you may need to adjust). The series number comes from the series column, so there's no need to re-enter that information. This also removes the dash following the series if there is no series. Ends up with "author (last name first) - series info (if there is any) - title".

The custom column should NOT be pulling in the series information (that wouldn't be editable), but be a field "like" the series column (I used "text, column shown in the tag browser"). Hope that helps, feel free to ask if you're still confused. (If I can't help, I'm sure someone else can.)

Final note: I may not be the best at much, but one thing I tend to excel at: figuring out how to make software jump through hoops to do what I want it to do, assuming there's any leeway for me to do so. I now have Calibre singing and dancing just the way I want it to.

[meme]

@Vaesse - if I misread (probably ) what HBH_AU is trying to do, and they are justing trying to modify the title of books on the Kindle (which is what I think you are doing), then your way is great. No need to edit something that isn't changing

But if the need is to create collection names based on Series - but to use short series names in some cases, then I think creating a column like I described is necessary. (But who knows, someone may know an easier way).

[Vaesse]

While I'm not certain about HBH_AU, my post he quoted was in response to someone trying to get series numbers to show in the Kindle and mentioning needing to shorten Series names to fit better. If that's not what HBH_AU was trying to accomplish, then my post doesn't apply.

[raviendha]

I apologize in advance if this has been addressed but there are now 72 pages and searching is a bit tough (which I really tried... I promise). I got the plugin working (LOVE IT!) but I have a couple of problems/questions.

Here is what I am trying to do:

If series count is > 1 then create a series collection
Otherwise, place book in tags collection

I got the first part to work but the series books are being placed in the series collection AND the tags collection. Basically, I can not figure out how to change the 'and' to an 'or'. I'm sure there is a way but I'm missing it somehow.

Here comes the tricky part which I am not sure is possible:

If series count is > 1 then add the series number at the beginning of title
Otherwise, if the book is part of a series, add series name AND series number.

I know how to append the series info in the title but is there a way to set up the criteria of how and when to add it?

Thanks!