[GUI Plugin] Import List

[Rellwood]

Thanks for this! I had no idea why import list suddenly stopped.

[davidfor]

Version 1.4.0 of the plugin has been released today. The changes in this release are:

• Fix: Open CSV in "Universal new-line mode" to handle mismatch of files and OS.
• Update: Use BeautifulSoup from calibre base.
• Fix: Goodreads, SFJazz and Wikipedia predefined sources for page changes.

This is basically the same as the recent beta, but I have made the BeautifulSoup update compatible with older versions of calibre.

If you see any problems with this release, please report them here.

[coconuts]

Up until this point I have been using fictfact to track what books I have read. They have closed down so I have a csv file with all the information from that site. Unfortunately they list the first and last name of the author in separate columns. I can successfully import the csv file with just the last name but can not figure out how to get the first name without retyping 1500 entries. I tried adding a column called comments with the first name then having it as #3 (#1 title, #2 author last name, #3 comments, #4 series title) but even in the preview it came in fourth and did not show up at all when imported to Calibre. Any suggestions?

[theducks]

Originally Posted by coconuts

Up until this point I have been using fictfact to track what books I have read. They have closed down so I have a csv file with all the information from that site. Unfortunately they list the first and last name of the author in separate columns. I can successfully import the csv file with just the last name but can not figure out how to get the first name without retyping 1500 entries. I tried adding a column called comments with the first name then having it as #3 (#1 title, #2 author last name, #3 comments, #4 series title) but even in the preview it came in fourth and did not show up at all when imported to Calibre. Any suggestions?

Do you have a spreadsheet program? Use that to create a new column with LN concatenated with FN (IMHO Fn<sp here> Ln is easy to construct)
No spreadsheet? Libre Office is Free and there is versions for most common OS)

[BetterRed]

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔️

I would load the CSV into a spreadsheet, concatenate the given and family names into a singe column - probably as 'family name, given names', i.e. as author_sort, and then save as a CSV with ';' as the separator. Then I'd use that CSV in Import List.

BR

[coconuts]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

↑ ↑ ↑ ✔️

I would load the CSV into a spreadsheet, concatenate the given and family names into a singe column - probably as 'family name, given names', i.e. as author_sort, and then save as a CSV with ';' as the separator. Then I'd use that CSV in Import List.

BR

Thanks all. I had to reformat the author name columns to be text but then it worked great.

Somewhere I set up something wrong since even though the last name of the author appears first Calibre is sorting by the first name. But I suspect that is a problem with my calibre preferences rather than a problem with the plugin this board is discussing.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by coconuts

Thanks all. I had to reformat the author name columns to be text but then it worked great.

Somewhere I set up something wrong since even though the last name of the author appears first Calibre is sorting by the first name. But I suspect that is a problem with my calibre preferences rather than a problem with the plugin this board is discussing.

Quality check Plugin: Fix: Author sort
will flip selected records
(I also us Fix: Format author initials (you configure the PI to find those that don't match your prefs, then use the Fix to make those selected comply)

[Rellwood]

Hi there,

I love this plugin and use it for a lot more than importing a list. I use it to update my libraries by importing the goodreads_libary_export.csv file as well as other .csv Calibre catalogs from other libraries.

I have come across a few problems I was hoping to address here.

1. Dropping the leading articles and the "the", "and", "to", and other symbols in book titles generally cause the books not to match in the library. I have my tweaks set to "strictly alphabetic" and I noticed that this causes problems when the "The" is dropped from titles. I understand not matching up verbage between parentheses but dropping those other symbols, conjunctions and leading articles more often than not causes me to have to manually match the book. Also, the plugin drops the "." in author names. I wish it wouldn't.

2. The gui for matching books and updating metadata often drops the column names for many tag or long text columns. Also, it is often impossible to see those columns from their boundary lines adjacent to other columns (the "beginning" of the columns generally cut from where it should be at the line to maybe an inch past). They are shown partway through the left boundary, but if I scroll left to see if I can move to the beginning, the view jumps to the next column. Not sure if this makes sense, but moving the column widths and trying to move the adjacent columns doesn't help. I can attach a screenshot if that helps.

Request:

Being able to save the manually matched books so that in other imports the plugin recognizes a match that it would normally not make. Being able to move the columns withing the gui so that they fall in a desired order. Usually that order has the columns from the list line up next to the columns from my library so I can compare the two columns side by side. I do this with the date columns.

Thanks!

[alkmaar]

Hi,

export fields is working seamless, including the defined custom fields.
What I want to achieve is exporting the needed fields, with use of the internal key (id) field, than, populate the blanks (with my 'efficient' ;-) method e.g. scanning shelf, cabinet, etc etc. with use of barcodes) and than import the same data set again, using the key, and thus populating the internal fields in Callibre, can I use this add-on ? would you be able and willing to give some directions ?

Best, Frank (NL)

[davidfor]

The plugin can do what you want. But, it keys of the title and author. This is because most sources for the information come from elsewhere and do not already have the internal id. But, use of the plugin is simple. I would recommend trying it and seeing what the issues you have. There is some explanation and screenshots in the first post that might help as well.

[cc_in_oh]

My last few Fantastic Fiction imports haven't been populating the Series column. Anyone know if there's an updated template for FF?

Thanks...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by cc_in_oh

My last few Fantastic Fiction imports haven't been populating the Series column. Anyone know if there's an updated template for FF?

They aren't something I use, so I rely on others to report problems. And hopefully tell me what the fix is

In this case, it looks like you can change the XPath for series to:

a[1]/text()

That works for my test case. If you can try it, I can update the plugin if it works.

[cc_in_oh]

Originally Posted by davidfor

They aren't something I use, so I rely on others to report problems. And hopefully tell me what the fix is

In this case, it looks like you can change the XPath for series to:

a[1]/text()

That works for my test case. If you can try it, I can update the plugin if it works.

That did it for me too - thanks!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by davidfor

They aren't something I use, so I rely on others to report problems. And hopefully tell me what the fix is

In this case, it looks like you can change the XPath for series to:

a[1]/text()

That works for my test case. If you can try it, I can update the plugin if it works.

I was thinking this was just me, since there were no other reports

[cc_in_oh]

I tried to make the series xpath fix for Fred Vargas, but the code doesn't contain the XPATH keyword. The only occurrence of "series" looks like

...
<div class="ff">
<div class="sectionhead">
Series
</div>
<div class="sectionleft">
...

Is there a way to import the series field in this case?

Thanks...