How-to Auto-add cover.jpg?

[buralex]

I've got one folder with (many) sub-folders each containing a:
name - author.txt file
cover.jpg

I've been using the [Add books - each subdir contains one ebook] option

How can I cause Calibre when it adds the .txt file (or other formats like HTML, PDF) to the library to also include the cover.jpg if it exists in the source folder? I thought this might be the default action but apparently not?

(I had also tried naming the covers as "name - author.jpg" but also no joy)

If I use [Edit metadata] and manually browse to the folder still containing the cover.jpg and select it, cover.jpg is copied to the Calibre folder and AFAICT (by comparing old and new metadata.opf) metadata.opf is left unchanged.

... later ... looks like *ANY* jpg selected will be saved as cover.jpg regardless of its original name (which makes sense I guess)

Thanks ... Alec

[kovidgoyal]

You need to have an OPF file that refers to the cover in its <guide> section in the folder.

[buralex]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

You need to have an OPF file that refers to the cover in its <guide> section in the folder.

From what I can see, starting from the folder containing the textfile.txt and cover.jpg and using the [Add] function Calibre does create an OPF file containing:

PHP Code:

<guide>
        <reference href="cover.jpg" type="cover" title="Cover"/>
    </guide> 


whether of not the folder contained a cover.jpg file so that if I subsequently manually copy in a cover.jpg file everything is good and from then on (converting to other ebook formats, copying to device etc.) the cover.jpg will bet moved as it should.

My problem is that the cover.jpg does not get get copied when the OPF file is first created. CORRECT?

What is non-trivial (to me) is figuring out what the name of the containing folder will be in the library and then creating some kind of .bat file that will copy cover.jpg from the original location to the Calibre-Library location.

Thanks .. Alec

[kovidgoyal]

I'm talking about an OPF in the original folder you are adding from. If there is an OPF file refering to a cover in that folder, then calibre will import the cover. Ptherwise you have to add it manually later.

[buralex]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

I'm talking about an OPF in the original folder you are adding from. If there is an OPF file refering to a cover in that folder, then calibre will import the cover. Otherwise you have to add it manually later.

OK - now I understand.
If I create a minimal .OPF file consisting of *JUST* the guide section. IE. the same .OPF file could (hopefully) be used for all the folders containing text files, would Calibre fill in the rest?
By comparing two .OPF files from different books, it looks like this might be syntactically legal:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>
<package xmlns="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf" unique-identifier="uuid_id">
    <metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
    </metadata>
    <guide>
        <reference href="cover.jpg" type="cover" title="Cover"/>
    </guide>
</package>

What it doesn't contain of course are the identifier, title and author nor the number which appears to be appended to the title in the subfolder in the Calibre Library structure.

I've only been using Calibre for a week or so (got my first e-reader three weeks ago). If above approach is a non-starter, is there a method for requesting feature requests for Calibre or help constructing a plugin which would be called from the Add logic and handle the import of a cover.jpg?

Thanks ... Alec

[kovidgoyal]

Try it and see. Though if you want to script it, use calibredb.exe to write a script to import your books and add covers however you want.

[buralex]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

Try it and see. Though if you want to script it, use calibredb.exe to write a script to import your books and add covers however you want.

GREAT! looks like calibredb add [options] file1 file2 file3 ... with options -a -t -c (and possibly -s -S) is exactly what I need.

With notetab clips / some regex and a dir listing I s/b able to massage them into a .BAT file that does just what I want.

Thanks ... Alec