[GUI Plugin] FanFicFare

[jesscat]

It appears I spoke too soon.

When downloading/updating metadata from a website, only "&" works. The "&" doesn't. So in this case, I get the correct result ("char1 & char2" pairings excluded from my pairings column) when downloading or updating metadata from the webpage by using:

exclude_metadata_post: 
 onlyromships=~[ ]*&[ ]

But if I later update metadata from the saved metadata column, the "&" doesn't work - so the "char1 & char2" pairings are no longer excluded and will re-appear in the pairing column. In this case, though, "&" does work:

exclude_metadata_post: 
 onlyromships=~[ ]*&[ ]

So it appears that in order for me to get the result I want and for it to stay that way, even if I update later from the saved metadata column, I need this:

exclude_metadata_post: 
 onlyromships=~[ ]*&[ ] 
 onlyromships=~[ ]*&[ ]

Am I doing something wrong? Or is this the expected behavior?

[JimmXinu]

New Test Version Posted

2019-04-23
- Fix for BS halping with string conversions on PI update from Saved Meta Column.
- More improvements for adapter_asianfanficscom, including auto_sub feature, thanks oh45454545

Originally Posted by jesscat

When downloading/updating metadata from a website, only "&" works. The "&" doesn't.
...
But if I later update metadata from the saved metadata column, the "&" doesn't work - so the "char1 & char2" pairings are no longer excluded and will re-appear in the pairing column. In this case, though, "&" does work:
...
Am I doing something wrong? Or is this the expected behavior?

I think this is another weird BeautifulSoup 3 vs 4 difference that I didn't notice because it works fine 99% of the time.

FFF uses & internally for historical reasons, and that should be what works in general.

You should be able to use:

exclude_metadata_post: 
 onlyromships=~&

No need to match the spaces around &, I don't think. But if you do want to, you probably want the trailing * so it's "0 or more spaces" on both sides of the & like so:

exclude_metadata_post: 
 onlyromships=~[ ]*&[ ]*

You seem to be one of those people who (through no fault of their own) are just naturally gifted at finding bugs in my code.

I used to work with a guy like that--whatever I made would work fine for everybody else. But he just thought and did things differently, in ways I couldn't even think of, then...

[jesscat]

Works perfectly now, and thanks for the help streamlining and improving the regular expression (such as it is, since it's now just a character)! It's very useful to read through your examples whenever you provide them, and I am sure I am not alone in needing all the help I can get. (I'm sure my personal.ini is an ugly mess of redundancy and that if I were more adept with regex I could accomplish in 2 lines what it's currently taking me 25 to achieve, though mostly regarding character names....)

You seem to be one of those people who (through no fault of their own) are just naturally gifted at finding bugs in my code.

LOL, and of course from my perspective I don't really feel like I'm doing anything particularly unusual, or different from how anyone else would do it!

[Loumaria]

I am having trouble with Asianfanfics.com.
Whenever I download or update a story, I only get the chapter titles of all the chapters/new chapters.

Hoping for some help!

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Loumaria

I am having trouble with Asianfanfics.com.
Whenever I download or update a story, I only get the chapter titles of all the chapters/new chapters.

Should already be fixed in latest test version. See my sig for the link.

[Loumaria]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

Should already be fixed in latest test version. See my sig for the link.

Thank you!

[ILB]

Is there a possibility to update only the title page inside the epub without using Update Mode “Update EPUB Always?”
I created a few custom columns and I would like to add these on the title page before sending it to my device.

The only way I found is to update the whole epub but as I only want to update the title page I don´t want to causes excessive traffic to the site – especially if it isn´t necessary.

[JimmXinu]

@ILB - No, FFF doesn't have a way to update title page without doing update right now.

I'm not sure off hand how possible it would be to add that. I'm looking at something else right now, but I've written it down.

[ILB]

No rush - I just thought I'll ask.

[sun_reads]

Originally Posted by ILB

Is there a possibility to update only the title page inside the epub without using Update Mode “Update EPUB Always?”
I created a few custom columns and I would like to add these on the title page before sending it to my device.

The only way I found is to update the whole epub but as I only want to update the title page I don´t want to causes excessive traffic to the site – especially if it isn´t necessary.

While not strictly what you want, you can just re-convert the book to embed a new cover (epub to epub).

On on the Edit metadata window there is an option to browse for a new cover or generate a cover, though the second might be a button added by the Generate Cover plugin and not a vanilla Calibre feature. In that case, you'll need to get the plugin.

Here's the link.

[sun_reads]

I read back a couple (5) of pages and did not see this mentioned; it the problem has already been mentioned, apologies.

When I try to update the epubs I downloaded from AO3 and then added into Calibre, I get a "No story URL found" error.

Here's an example story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404165 though I randomly picked it from the Recent stories page; all my pre-downloaded epubs have the same problem.

My reason for doing this is that it's just convenient to download a story to one of my devices and read it there when I'm on the go, then later add it to Calibre and tidy up the metadata with updating the books via FFF.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by sun_reads

I read back a couple (5) of pages and did not see this mentioned; it the problem has already been mentioned, apologies.

When I try to update the epubs I downloaded from AO3 and then added into Calibre, I get a "No story URL found" error.

Here's an example story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18404165 though I randomly picked it from the Recent stories page; all my pre-downloaded epubs have the same problem.

My reason for doing this is that it's just convenient to download a story to one of my devices and read it there when I'm on the go, then later add it to Calibre and tidy up the metadata with updating the books via FFF.

After AO3 switched to using Calibre for generating epub, the epub files now use UUID instead of story url as identifier.

I believe FFF has a feature to search for story url within the ebook text. You'll need to enable that option to be able to update the epubs downloaded directly from AO3 website using FFF.

[JimmXinu]

(multi-reply)

Originally Posted by sun_reads

While not strictly what you want, you can just re-convert the book to embed a new cover (epub to epub).

The cover and the title page are actually two different things.

And there are at least two ways (Calibre's built-in Polish feature and plugin Modify ePub) to update a cover without doing a full conversion.

Originally Posted by sun_reads

When I try to update the epubs I downloaded from AO3 and then added into Calibre, I get a "No story URL found" error.

As ilovejedd said, FFF can find the story URL inside the epub if you check on the 'Search inside ebooks for Story URL?' option in FFF settings.

However...

Originally Posted by sun_reads

My reason for doing this is that it's just convenient to download a story to one of my devices and read it there when I'm on the go, then later add it to Calibre and tidy up the metadata with updating the books via FFF.

AO3's epubs are not compatible with FanFicFare's epubs. If you use FFF to 'update' a downloaded AO3 epub, it will 'work', but the existing AO3 epub will be discarded and a new FFF epub created.

Because FFF fetches the entire story (using the 'Entire Work' link) this isn't hugely disruptive, but you should be aware that it's happening.

[sun_reads]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

(multi-reply)
You'll need to enable that option to be able to update the epubs downloaded directly from AO3 website using FFF.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

(multi-reply)
AO3's epubs are not compatible with FanFicFare's epubs. If you use FFF to 'update' a downloaded AO3 epub, it will 'work', but the existing AO3 epub will be discarded and a new FFF epub created.

Yeah, that's no problem. I figured it'd be not quire the same; the ones that I downloaded from URL list still looked the same as the old FFF ones and the ones from AO3 did not.

File replacement completely works for me, though I mostly need the metadata updated - the AO3 tagging is completely bonkers. Because I can regex the hell out of the tags with FFF and sort them into multiple columns (plus there is some automatic tidying of ships and whatnot), I can create a neat tagging system for my tablet.

Most e-readers will just say "Sort by tags" and I'll look at five million different tags (from AO3) and despair. At least mine does this and I'm too used to Moon+ to switch to a new one.

But with FFF, when a story is complete and I got the metadata through AO3 sorted into several columns, I use Calibre's bulk metadata search and replace to send the tags into a backup column, then add the Category (fandom) and the ships into the tags.

Thanks again for the help.

[baggins41]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

@ILB - No, FFF doesn't have a way to update title page without doing update right now.

I'm not sure off hand how possible it would be to add that. I'm looking at something else right now, but I've written it down.

I'd just like to chime in and say how much I would appreciate it if you were able to add this.

There have been many times I've adjusted metadata in my Calibre library (especially adding series information) and had to either re-download the story or edit the epub by hand to update the title page. (And sometimes re-downloading isn't an option if e.g. the story has been deleted off the site it originally came from.)