Discussion: Make Series Index Optional

Dvorak · 09-30-2012, 09:29 AM

As series expand, you often get books, novellas or derivative works that are set in the same universe but don't fit into the chronology of the main series of books. Calibre unfortunately has no way of recognising this.

I wanted to check out how this is handled in metadata but can't find the MOBI specification as it seems that with EPUB superseding it, links to it have been orphaned. The EPUB specification doesn't inherently support series information, instead relying on the standard metadata property extension. I'm guessing that this relies on unofficial standard names, so that's not much help either.

Calibre handles series information with the following fields:

Code:

<meta content="TITLE" name="calibre:series"/>
<meta content="INDEX" name="calibre:series_index"/>

Ideally, I'd like to see the series_index field being made optional. Currently I assign in-universe books that are not part of the main chronology index 0. This works for the most part but is not a perfect solution.

I've looked into templates to remove the number when saving books to a device but that is proving to be harder than I anticipated. Similarly, adding a custom "universe" metadata field causes problems when creating a title for books that have both a series and universe field. You'd get things like "Discworld - Discworld 01 - The Colour of Magic" which won't fit on most devices.

While I'm hoping that this might be introduced in Calibre somewhere down the line, I'd also welcome any input or thoughts you might have on this, in relation to both Calibre and the MOBI and EPUB formats.

theducks · 09-30-2012, 10:09 AM

I think this discussion belongs in the EPUB forum as Calibre (mostly

) follows the standard and does not set the standard (except for excellence if flexibility

).

It does little good, if the devices don't bother to use the standards we already have

(Apple? Amazon? are you listening?).
FWIW I also use a index of 0
You could use a more complex template and drop the {Series_Index} when it is 0 when sending to your device

Dvorak · 09-30-2012, 07:01 PM

I quite agree, unfortunately, as I mentioned, there is no actual standard for this sort of thing, as it's not a basic property in the standard. It's therefore up to the file creators to decide how to implement the field.

Assuming for a moment that there even is an unofficial standard field (my bet is that Calibre simply recognises a variety of names), it would require industry consensus to change it. So yeah.

And I'll have to look closer at my templates, I recall running into a problem but perhaps I was just not thinking clearly.

09-30-2012, 09:29 AM	#1
Dvorak Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2012 Device: Kindle Touch	Discussion: Make Series Index Optional As series expand, you often get books, novellas or derivative works that are set in the same universe but don't fit into the chronology of the main series of books. Calibre unfortunately has no way of recognising this. I wanted to check out how this is handled in metadata but can't find the MOBI specification as it seems that with EPUB superseding it, links to it have been orphaned. The EPUB specification doesn't inherently support series information, instead relying on the standard metadata property extension. I'm guessing that this relies on unofficial standard names, so that's not much help either. Calibre handles series information with the following fields: Code: <meta content="TITLE" name="calibre:series"/> <meta content="INDEX" name="calibre:series_index"/> Ideally, I'd like to see the series_index field being made optional. Currently I assign in-universe books that are not part of the main chronology index 0. This works for the most part but is not a perfect solution. I've looked into templates to remove the number when saving books to a device but that is proving to be harder than I anticipated. Similarly, adding a custom "universe" metadata field causes problems when creating a title for books that have both a series and universe field. You'd get things like "Discworld - Discworld 01 - The Colour of Magic" which won't fit on most devices. While I'm hoping that this might be introduced in Calibre somewhere down the line, I'd also welcome any input or thoughts you might have on this, in relation to both Calibre and the MOBI and EPUB formats. Last edited by Dvorak; 09-30-2012 at 09:33 AM. Reason: Changed Series Number to Series Index

09-30-2012, 10:09 AM	#2
theducks Well trained by Cats Posts: 29,799 Karma: 54830978 Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: The Central Coast of California Device: Kobo Libra2,Kobo Aura2v1, K4NT(Fixed: New Bat.), Galaxy Tab A	I think this discussion belongs in the EPUB forum as Calibre (mostly ) follows the standard and does not set the standard (except for excellence if flexibility). It does little good, if the devices don't bother to use the standards we already have (Apple? Amazon? are you listening?). FWIW I also use a index of 0 You could use a more complex template and drop the {Series_Index} when it is 0 when sending to your device

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09-30-2012, 07:01 PM	#3
Dvorak Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2012 Device: Kindle Touch	I quite agree, unfortunately, as I mentioned, there is no actual standard for this sort of thing, as it's not a basic property in the standard. It's therefore up to the file creators to decide how to implement the field. Assuming for a moment that there even is an unofficial standard field (my bet is that Calibre simply recognises a variety of names), it would require industry consensus to change it. So yeah. And I'll have to look closer at my templates, I recall running into a problem but perhaps I was just not thinking clearly.