[GUI Plugin] Action Chains

[capink]

If you are talking about the this action, the answer is yes, but you need to modify the action to change the chain vars based on your choice.

But a better approach to this is to add a Chain Vars action to the top of your chain, add a variable called 'myvar' and check the "runtime option". Now whenever you run a chain you will have a dialog asking you to specify the value for 'myvar'. You can set conditions on the following action(s) based on the value of 'myvar'. For example:

Template:

program:
globals(myvar)

Datatype: text
Comparison: =
Condition Value: 1


You can replace 1 with whatever value you choose at runtime. You can also set multiple variables at runtime if you want.

[capink]

The new chain variations feature is experimental and hidden by default. To enable it add the following tweak:

action_chains_experimental = True

After restarting you should see two menu entries "Add variations" and "Remove variations" in the add/modify chains dialog. When you press add variations, a template dialog should appear, you can add chain variants using a template functions as follows:

program:
    add_chain_variant('first variant','argument1');
    add_chain_variant('second variant','argument2',  'submenu1', 'minus.png');

The whole idea behind variations is that you have the same chain repeated several times in dropdown menu. Each variant is passed a different argument that is stored as a chain variable called "_variant_argument". The chain can check the value of this variable and take different courses depending on the value of this variable.

The example above passes static arguments to the add_chain_variant(). You can do the same thing by simply copying the chain and modifying each copy to do what you want. The real value of this feature is that you can use the template language to calculate dynamic values and pass them as arguments. e.g. lists created by set_persistent_vars(). Each time you add a new list, a menu entry can be added for it automatically. And if a list is deleted, its menu entry should be remove automatically as well.

You can think of this like the "add to list" in the Reading List plugin where you have a menu entry for each list. The same can be done for the Action Chains. e.g. If you have multiple lists stored in persistent storage using the set_persistent_vars() function, you can have a template replicating the chain for each of those lists.

The add_chain_variant() take 2 mandatory arguments + 2 optional arguments:

1. menu_text: The name of the variant in that will appear in the dropdown menu. Variant names should be different from each other.
2. argument: The argument that will passed to the variant and stored as _variant_argument variable. It can be accessed by action in the chain using the globals() template function.
3. (Optional) sub_menu_text.
4. (Optional) icon.

Finally, you can use the same function to add a separator between the variants:

program:
    add_chain_variant('separator','');

[SoccerDad91016]

Latest update appears to have broken TemplateBox.

I have the following line in an action chain module:

from calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates import TemplateBox, check_template, get_metadata_object

Getting the following error after the latest plugin and Cailbre updates:
calibre, version 5.16.0
ERROR: Invalid Python code: The code you created is not valid Python code, with error: cannot import name 'TemplateBox' from 'calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates' (C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\calibre\plugins\ Action Chains.zip/templates/__init__.py)

Is this something I can fix, or do I need to wait for an update to ActionsChains plugin or Calibre?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by SoccerDad91016

Latest update appears to have broken TemplateBox.

I have the following line in an action chain module:

from calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates import TemplateBox, check_template, get_metadata_object

Getting the following error after the latest plugin and Cailbre updates:
calibre, version 5.16.0
ERROR: Invalid Python code: The code you created is not valid Python code, with error: cannot import name 'TemplateBox' from 'calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates' (C:\Users\xxxxxxx\AppData\Roaming\calibre\plugins\ Action Chains.zip/templates/__init__.py)

Is this something I can fix, or do I need to wait for an update to ActionsChains plugin or Calibre?

Try

from calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates.dialogs import TemplateBox
from calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates import check_template, get_metadata_object

[SoccerDad91016]

Originally Posted by chaley

Try

from calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates.dialogs import TemplateBox
from calibre_plugins.action_chains.templates import check_template, get_metadata_object

Worked great and fixed it. Looks like they moved TemplateBox down a level in the templates.

Are these types of changes documented somewhere?

[capink]

Originally Posted by SoccerDad91016

Worked great and fixed it. Looks like they moved TemplateBox down a level in the templates.

Are these types of changes documented somewhere?

That particular module has outgrown what it was originally intended for. I assumed that no one was using it and went ahead with the modifications. Will be more careful in the future and document if anything similar changes in the release notes.

I did post a custom action here that depends on this particular import, but this action has been included in the plugin as a builtin action called "Search Using Templates". If that was the action you are using, you should move to the builtin version.

[ownedbycats]

Can an action have more than one condition?

I switched my "View" action conditional to program: view_manager_last_view() != Physical Books, but I'd like to also keep the {formats} != PAPERBOOK conditional.

[capink]

Yes. See below.

Originally Posted by capink

Note that you can set multiple conditions using one template. As an example, this template tests for two conditions (selection_count + book format). The following boolean template functions can be useful for setting multiple conditions: and(), or(), not().

[ownedbycats]

OK that's good. I will try to figure that out.

[capink]

template:

program:
$formats != 'PAPERBOOK' && view_manager_last_view() != 'Physical Books'

Datatype: text
Comparison: =
Condition Value: 1

[ownedbycats]

That works.

[capink]

Version 1.8.0
Update: New template functions: sanitize_path(), cover_path().
Update: Events: New "Calibre Initialized" Event.
Update: Experimental: New chain variation feature.
Update: Open With: Template GPM can be used for command arguments.
Fix: Crash if you delete a row from the actions table with editor open but no action selected.

You can read more about chain variations here.

[ownedbycats]

I think I know what cover_path() is, but what does sanitize_path() do?

[capink]

You can see how both are used in the chain posted here. If you want to save a file using the plugin based on a template like {authors}\{title}, there are chances they contain illegal characters not supported by OS for filenames. sanitize_path() removes these illegal characters.

[ownedbycats]

That's good. I once had a cross-platform program mistakenly save a file with a colon, which is illegal in Windows. I had to use a Linux boot disk to get rid of the damn thing.