Multiple Plugboards for the same device/format (VERY LONG POST)

[Rellwood]

I would like to be able to create multiple plugboards for a single instance based on what I want to do.

Right now, I only use the plugboard to books sent via email to my Kindle and this is the title format I use -

Original Title: Updating Pritkin (Cassandra Palmer, #5.3)

Plugboard 1 : {series}{series_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title}

Cassandra Palmer [05.30] Updating Pritkin


Plugboard 2: {#stk_series}{#stk_series_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title} - I use this one as well

Cassie [05.30] Updating Pritkin


Plugboard 3: {#series_universe}{#series_universe_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title} - I could use this one

CP World [05.80] Updating Pritkin (yes... I know)


Plugboard 4: {#original_title} - This is for standalones
Original title: Woom: An Extreme Horror instead of how it's in the title field as : Woom

Because the plugboards only allow one setting per format/device and I only use the plugboard for sending to my Kindle, I am stuck having to create bs combinations to save so I can look at them, copy over the title and paste it into the actual one I am using. I am forever deleting just sent books from Amazon because the format of the title is wrong.

I like having Kindle organize my books according to the series order so I put the series in the title. In order to combat the problems when you don't put leading zeros, I have the double leading and trailing zeros.

I also use different columns for series. I have a "STK" series - which is a way I shorten or do the series only for the books sent to my Kindle if the series is long. I don't like using the stripped series. I often come up with the stk series myself.

I am going to use Karen Chance for my examples on what I want to do - She writes three different series that are all included in a series universe as the stories all happen in the same world, and often at the same time.

{Series} - Cassandra Palmer, Dorina Basarab, Lia de Croissets
{#stk_series} - Cassie, Dorina, Lia De C

ALSO - I have a {#series_universe} column - for books like this - CP World (yes, I know...)


I am not unaware of the hoops I have to jump through to send books to my kindle in series order when I have multiple series or a series universe – I send the books in the series or {#stk_series} order and then – get this – I go into Calibre and copy the series to a holding series column, copy the series universe into the series column overwriting the series – and then create a catalog with the series universe in the series column – so now I have the books in the catalog in series universe order because I am not going to be sending multiple books multiple times just so I can read them by both the series and series universe order – then copy the series back from the “holding series” column overwriting the series universe that I put in the series to make the catalog – since the catalog ONLY USES SERIES. Yes I know this can be changed, and someone actually posted a changed catalog for me to copy the html or css, but I didn't, and I feel like yelling at the clouds right now. I have re-read this paragraph multiple times and I still have trouble following it - needless to say - I am copying a series universe column into the series column to get a series unverse to show. Then I copy it all back the way it was.



NOW then we come to the series indexes. To keep them in order and because too many of my series have authors that go back and add parts to anthologies that in turn get wedged into the series with indexes like: .05, .06, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5 and so on and because many of my series have books over 10, I have both leading and trailing zeros.


Because I can have only one plugin and I don’t want to deal with figuring out if it needs whatever combination of padding – the all go by the “00.00” series index. Which often looks ugly:

1, 2, 3 looks like:

[01.00], [02.00], [03.00]

when it would be nice to have it look like:
Series - 1 - Title
Series - 2 - Title
Series - 3 - Title

Honestly, I am getting tired of the blocky brackets but they have been used for so long, I only just now considered something else.
_______________________________________________
1, 1.5, 2, 2.5 - so no padding and only one zero trailing

[01.00], [01.50], [02.00], [02.50] – Normally

Nicer way to show it:
Series - 1.0 - Title
Series - 1.5 - Title
Series - 2.0 - Title
Series - 2.5 - Title

There is a bunch of combinations that depend on the number of main books in a series, and the number of wedged in books, but there can be a way of discerning.

I am guessing it would have to do with taking the series or stk series or whatever, and looking at all of the series indexes and determining which “padded” “partially padded” or “no padding” would be needed and maybe putting it in a column? I don’t know.

I am just tired of seeing [00.00] for every book. I would like there to be dashes instead of brackets, and only padding for the necessary full amount in the series.


If I didn't set up the {#stk_series} and left the numbering the way it is normally - with padding -

Legacy of the Nine Realms is only 4 books but if I did the whole series the way it is now, I end up with:

Legacy of the Nine Realms [01.00] Flames of Chaos
Legacy of the Nine Realms [02.00] Ashes of Chaos
Legacy of the Nine Realms [03.00] Ruins of Chaos
Legacy of the Nine Realms [04.00] Crown of Chaos

This is unacceptable as it - so of course I give it an stk series, but I’m still stuck with the padding. Even for books with a limited number of series, I am still going to send it out series first because this is how the plugins are set.

If I wanted to send them out with an {#stk_series} and a non-padded series index - and maybe dashes instead of brackets I could get this:

Legacy -1- Flames of Chaos
Legacy -2- Ashes of Chaos
Legacy -3- Ruins of Chaos
Legacy -4- Crown of Chaos

I could play around a bit with dashes or maybe hash marks I don't know but tell me this doesn't look better?

ALSO - I have an {#original_title} column which shows the title in full without editing.

I use the shortened titles in Calibre - splitting off the series. However, for books that are standalone - sometimes they get shortened too much for them to look good in a kindle. If there is no series, and there IS an Amazon or "long title" depending on if I use that instead then I would like to have THAT go in the title field and not just looking at the title - so somehow fix the plugin to specifiy the {#original_title} if it IS there and there is NO series?

So, here's my dilemma.

I have the options for my books if I could just portion them accordingly
{series}{series_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title} – This is how it is without an STK series.


{series}{series_index| [|]}{title} – This is for a series with NO padding at all (with the [] brackets)


{#stk_series}{#stk_series_index| -|- }{title} - This is for a book with an stk series with no padding and nice dashes instead of brackets


{#stk_series}{#stk_series_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title} This is for the [00.00] padding for a book with an STK series


{#series_universe}{#series_universe_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title} – This is for a book with a series universe that has full padding on the index.

Then there is the {#original_title} in place of the title for a standalone (if there is one).


The rules are looking to see if a book is in a series – if not – then does it have an {#original_title} if so – then that is the plugboard {#original_title} – in the title field


If the book has a series but not a {#stk_series} then the standard {series}{series_index} will be used – BUT what about the index? So then I need to know a formula to determine the padding (if any) for the series, stk series or series universe.

So, how can I figure this out? Until someone comes up with a plugboard dropdown menu that allows me to pick and choose various saved plugboards, I am stuck attempting to create a plugboard program. I have no real idea how that would work with the different combinations I am looking for.

Any suggestions or ideas on how this works?

[chaley]

Here is a template that (I think) follows your rules. I can't test it because I don't have real data. You can test it in the calibre template tester to see if it generates the right output for various books.

There are two parts to this template, a stored python template and the template to put in the plugboard. The stored template, has_index_over_ten(), is in the attached template export file. Note that you can make the plugboard template a stored template as well, which would make editing easier.

I could test this if you give me a subset of your metadata.db that has all the permutations.

program:

	# First find the parameters
	has_series = $series != '';
	has_stk_series = $#stk_series != '';
	has_series_universe = $#series_universe != '';
	has_original_title = $#original_title != '';

	# Check if the various series indices are larger than 10.
	# First, the normal series
	series_greater_than_10 = has_index_over_ten('series', $series);

	# Now check stk_series
	stk_series_greater_than_10 = has_index_over_ten('#stk_series', $stk_series);

	# Lastly, series_universe
	series_universe_greater_than_10 = has_index_over_ten('#series_universe', $series_universe);


	# Now select the right template.
	# First check if none of the special cases apply -- the book doesn't
	# have any of series_universe, stk_series, or normal series
	if ! (has_series_universe || has_stk_series || has_series) then
		if has_original_title then
			return $#original_title
		else
			return $title
		fi
	fi;

	# A special case applies.
	# Check series_universe first.
	if has_series_universe then
		if series_universe_greater_than_10 then
			return template('{#series_universe}{#series_universe_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title}')
		else
			return template('{#series_universe}{#series_universe_index| [|]}{title}')
		fi
	fi;

	# No series universe. Check stk_series
	if has_stk_series then
		if stk_series_greater_than_10 then
			return template('{#stk_series}{#stk_series_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title}')
		else
			return template('{#stk_series}{#stk_series_index| -|- }{title}')
		fi
	fi;

	# No series_universe or stk_series. Because of the test above we know 
	# it has a series so ...
	if series_greater_than_10 then
		return template('{series}{series_index:0>5.2f| [|] }{title}') 
	else
		return template('{series}{series_index| [|]}{title}')
	fi

[Rellwood]

Lol - no one wanted to touch this...I tried.
Ill give it a go and see if it works - thanks!

[Rellwood]

Ok, so I did my thinking on this, and I really only need the {#stk_series} and {series}

I won't be using the Series Universe to send to my Kindle, this is only really for use in Calibre and if I use a Catalog, so it's not necessary for a plugboard for the Series Universe

Books that are standalones - I can edit the titles. It's not like I am batch sending a ton of books that I haven't already set the titles nicely for my Kindle.

The biggest thing I am thinking is the general padding. I don't care anymore if they line up exactly. The days of the Kindle listview are over. Every book has a thumbnail and the books are spaced so far apart and there is so much between the titles, that you really only need the leading "0"s and however the rest is, is how it is. There doesn't need to be equal padding all through the series.

So..smart padding?

If there was a way to fill a column with how I want the plugboard to be. I can do one plugboard one column for all the books, but if there was a way to tag or use a column that I could preload with number or word or phrase or tag that would indicate how I want that book to be done - instead of making the plugboard fill it out. I would rather know ahead of time what it is going to look like if there was a way to make the column tell the plugboard which way to go - then have a second column show the final results. Then if I could change the tag, the column with the resulting plugboard will change - allowing me to see the results?

Does this make sense at all?

I think what I want is a control column to dictate which plugboard is used, and a preview column to show the results.

[Rellwood]

You know what? Don't worry about it. There are too many moving parts to this that I have to think on. I don't send every book in the series to my Kindle, I may only send a few which means I can't do automatic padding based on the series index of the Calibre, and in the end, I really just didn't want to see the full padding on all of the books like they are. Just "smart" padding. And whether or not I want to chose to use the STK series or the series. Plus I did want to make a preview column to see how it looks.

Im overthinking this.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Rellwood

If there was a way to fill a column with how I want the plugboard to be. I can do one plugboard one column for all the books, but if there was a way to tag or use a column that I could preload with number or word or phrase or tag that would indicate how I want that book to be done - instead of making the plugboard fill it out. I would rather know ahead of time what it is going to look like if there was a way to make the column tell the plugboard which way to go - then have a second column show the final results. Then if I could change the tag, the column with the resulting plugboard will change - allowing me to see the results?

Ignoring your last post ...

It is perfectly possible to put a plugboard template into a custom text column then show that evaluated template in a composite (column-built-from-other) column, with perhaps a default if the template text column is empty. The actual plugboard would use the value in the composite column. This gives you total control over how any book appears on the kindle.

Edit: something like this. One advantage is that you can use the tag browser to select all books with the same template.


The template in the composite column is

program:
	if $#foobar3 then
		template($#foobar3)
	else
		template('{title}')
	fi