Does this happen to you? Series info deleted after modifying a field.

[MelBr]

Hi all,

Just to confirm that I'm not seeing things…

1) Select some books that have Series field filled.
2) Hit "E" to edit metadata
3) Type something into Series filed
4) Delete what you just typed into Series field(as if you've made a mistake and wanted to modify some other field).
5) Type something into Add Tags
6) Save

All of your series information is now gone.

Kovid says he can't' reproduce this and yet I can reproduce it all the time and this bug has lost me info twice now. Sanity check please

Thanks!

[ShellShock]

I don't understand...if you delete the series field and then save, I am not surprised that you lose the series info.

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

I don't understand...if you delete the series field and then save, I am not surprised that you lose the series info.

You leave the field empty. And you don't check the "CLEAR SERIES" checkmark. And it all gets removed. How is that a logical? So if you leave all fields empty, everything should be cleared? How does that make any sense?

[ShellShock]

But if the series field was previously filled, and you deleted it and then save, then I would expect the series info to be deleted.

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

But if the series field was previously filled, and you deleted it and then save, then I would expect the series info to be deleted.

You obviously haven't tried the steps. The Series field IS EMPTY when you edit multiple books. There's nothing in there. And you type something in, delete it, type into another field and Series of ALL BOOKS YOU SELECTED is gone.

I'm guessing this is the behavior of other fields as well in that dialog.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

But if the series field was previously filled, and you deleted it and then save, then I would expect the series info to be deleted.

You did not 'Undo' your series change (calibre has no undo), you left it blank.

If you goof: CANCEL
then try it again otherwise any change you make gets saved

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by theducks

You did not 'Undo' your series change (calibre has no undo), you left it blank.

If you goof: CANCEL
then try it again otherwise any change you make gets saved

How does that make any sense? In which UI/OS combo is leaving a field empty equal to deleting that info? What's the point of "CLEAR SERIES" checkbox then?

[Adoby]

Yes, exactly the same happens to me. However, it is exactly what I expect to happen.

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by Adoby

Yes, exactly the same happens to me. However, it is exactly what I expect to happen.

So to delete fields you just leave fields empty?

Can you tell me which fields will be replaced with null here:

[aleyx]

Originally Posted by MelBr

How does that make any sense? In which UI/OS combo is leaving a field empty equal to deleting that info? What's the point of "CLEAR SERIES" checkbox then?

The way I see it, when the dialog comes up the blank fields mean "whatever value the individual books have".

As soon as you replace that blank field by a value, it becomes "the value that will be applied when you hit 'OK' ". At that point, it doesn't matter anymore what the final value happens to be, including "no value".

You entered some values in a blank field. At that point, it becomes a common value that will be applied to all selected books. And since you removed everything in that field, it becomes an empty field, which is then applied to all books.

The point of the 'clear series' checkbox is precisely to skip the "type then delete" step.

Edit:

Can you tell me which fields will be replaced with null here:

Any field where you typed something then deleted it.

[At_Libitum]

I just tried MelBr's steps and indeed the series information gets cleared WITHOUT the checkbox "Clear Series" being checked...

The fact that you change your mind and backspace what you typed should not have any influence on the existing values if that checkbox is not ticked.

Any regular database system out there doing the same would go bankrupt the next day...in any regular database you simply do not remove existing data if an edit field's content is the same on entry and exit of the edit session without explicitly indicating this.

If there is no data in this field when beginning and there is no data there when hitting apply, and it then still acting as if the "Clear series" checkbox was marked is illogical

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by aleyx

Any field where you typed something then deleted it.

[MelBr]

Originally Posted by At_Libitum

I just tried MelBr's steps and indeed the series information gets cleared WITHOUT the checkbox "Clear Series" being checked...

The fact that you change your mind and backspace what you typed should not have any influence on the existing values if that checkbox is not ticked.

Any regular database system out there doing the same would go bankrupt the next day...you simply do not remove existing data if an edit field's content is the same on entry and exit of the edit session without the user explicitly indicating this

If there is no data in this field when beginning and there is no data there when hitting apply, and it then still acting as if the "Clear series" checkbox was marked is illogical

Absolutely correct! Thank you for actually trying this

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by aleyx

The way I see it, when the dialog comes up the blank fields mean "whatever value the individual books have".

I think this is the main point. Presumably if you select books in different series then there is no simple way for Calibre to display all the different series in the one field, so it is displayed blank, although there are in fact underlying values. It sort of makes sense to me. Once you type into the field you have set a modified flag, so whatever you then enter into the field will become the saved value.

[At_Libitum]

Not quite true, if all selected books belong to the same series, the field is still blank on entry.

And if this is the underlying reason then the same should hold true for Author, Publisher, Tags, and Languages. Yet here you can type and backspace all you want without the underlying data getting cleared on the books when hitting Apply/Ok

So aleyx's claim that any field gets nulled in which you type something and then remove it before applying is not what I am seeing