Custom Column: Price

[treadlightly]

Originally Posted by chaley

Not much of one unless someone makes a plugin to do it. The problem is that functions like that require access to all books, not just the current one. The template system is limited to one book at a time.

It is of course possible to do this sort of thing in plugins and in python "calibre helper scripts" (calibre-debug -e script.py), but neither of these are useful for someone who isn't already a python programmer.

Ok, thanks. I wish I was talented enough to write a plugin, but alas.

[Nyssa]

Chaley - Going off of a similar issue as the previous "penny problem" (thanks again ), I have Calibre set up to "highlight" all of my freebies with text coloring "If the price column is equal to value: 0.00".

Unfortunately, calibre can not seem to determine the difference between "0.00" and "undefined", nor can I point out that distinction in the rules, so anything that has not yet been priced, has also been "highlighted".

Any suggestions?

Please & Thank you.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Chaley - Going off of a similar issue as the previous "penny problem" (thanks again ), I have Calibre set up to "highlight" all of my freebies with text coloring "If the price column is equal to value: 0.00".

Unfortunately, calibre can not seem to determine the difference between "0.00" and "undefined", nor can I point out that distinction in the rules, so anything that has not yet been priced is also been "highlighted".

Any suggestions?

Please & Thank you.

You are correct. Empty is considered to be zero.

You can get around this by using an advanced rule that can check if the column is empty before comparing it to zero. Here is an example:

program:
	test(field('#myfloat'), cmp(raw_field('#myfloat'), 0, '', '#00aa00', ''), '')

The "test" function first checks to see if the field contains any text. If it does then it compares the field with zero, and if equal returns (in this example) the color green. Otherwise it returns nothing.

You must use raw_field() in the comparison because of the formatting. The word "Price" is not a number. You must use field() in the test so you can tell the difference between empty and "Price: 0.00" (or whatever it is).

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by chaley

You are correct. Empty is considered to be zero.

You can get around this by using an advanced rule that can check if the column is empty before comparing it to zero. Here is an example:

program:
	test(field('#myfloat'), cmp(raw_field('#myfloat'), 0, '', '#00aa00', ''), '')

The "test" function first checks to see if the field contains any text. If it does then it compares the field with zero, and if equal returns (in this example) the color green. Otherwise it returns nothing.

You must use raw_field() in the comparison because of the formatting. The word "Price" is not a number. You must use field() in the test so you can tell the difference between empty and "Price: 0.00" (or whatever it is).

I'm apparently doing something wrong.

 test(field('#price'), cmp(raw_field('#price:0.00'), 0, '', '#2aa29e', ''), '')

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I'm apparently doing something wrong.

 test(field('#price'), cmp(raw_field('#price:0.00'), 0, '', '#2aa29e', ''), '')

I see two mistakes.

1) The "program:" in my example is important. That tells the template processor that what follows is code and not text.

2) the raw_field() should contain '#price' without the ':0.00'.

This should work

program: test(field('#price'), cmp(raw_field('#price'), 0, '', '#2aa29e', ''), '')

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by chaley

I see two mistakes.

1) The "program:" in my example is important. That tells the template processor that what follows is code and not text.

2) the raw_field() should contain '#price' without the ':0.00'.

This should work

program: test(field('#price'), cmp(raw_field('#price'), 0, '', '#2aa29e', ''), '')

Oh.. I had price by itself the first time, but then added the "0.00" when that didn't work.

Unfortunately, even after adding program, (and removing the zeros) the code did not work.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

Oh.. I had price by itself the first time, but then added the "0.00" when that didn't work.

Unfortunately, even after adding program, (and removing the zeros) the code did not work.

What does it do?

Note that there can be no spaces before the word program.

[chaley]

This is what you should see in the advanced rule editor, except for #price instead of #myfloat.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by chaley

What does it do?

Note that there can be no spaces before the word program.

Originally Posted by chaley

This is what you should see in the advanced rule editor, except for #price instead of #myfloat.

I made sure there wasn't a space.

Its still not seeing a difference between "0.00" and "undefined".

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I made sure there wasn't a space.

Its still not seeing a difference between "0.00" and "undefined".

Did you delete your previous rule that didn't work?

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by chaley

Did you delete your previous rule that didn't work?

Yes, and added a new one. I also restarted Calibre, just in case.

[chaley]

I am running out of ideas because it works fine for me.

The following 4 attachments show what I have done.

First, I created a column #price so we aren't using different columns.


Next I entered a rule:


Here is that rule in the list:


And here is the result:


As you can see, the line with price 0.00 is green and the lines with no price are not.

Idea: some other rule is being applied to the lines so that the "price" rule is being ignored. Try moving the price rule to the top.

[Nyssa]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am running out of ideas because it works fine for me.

The following 4 attachments show what I have done.

First, I created a column #price so we aren't using different columns.
Attachment 130160

Next I entered a rule:
Attachment 130162

Here is that rule in the list:
Attachment 130161

And here is the result:
Attachment 130163

As you can see, the line with price 0.00 is green and the lines with no price are not.

Idea: some other rule is being applied to the lines so that the "price" rule is being ignored. Try moving the price rule to the top.

I forgot to remove the original price related rule. I was so busy making sure I had the code written correctly I forgot about the other one.
So I had both the standard "If the price column is equal to value: 0.00", rule and the code you gave me. When you had asked me if i had removed the code that didn't work, I meant the one that I had copied incorrectly.
Scrolling the code to the top made me realize that the other one was there, even though I was looking at it the whole time.

[Nyssa]

It all works!

Thank you Chaley!!!

[Inukami]

@chaley, thanks for this information. It looks very useful and I think I will use the colouring for free books.

I'm also assuming you could get Calibre to also do the following with composite columns? If price is value or 0.00, have another column say either BOUGHT or FREE using logic...

On the other hand, I do have two currencies (Australian dollar & Japanese Yen). Would it be possible to choose which currency to choose from in one column, or would you need to make another column?

If you had to have another column #price2, could you set that to be active if the #price1 is blank?

• Australian Dollars $5.00
• Japanese Yen ¥650
• Free Book $0.00

Inukami