Template language changes

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by chaley

the interpolated 'author' is already URL-encoded.

got it, thanks

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

At the moment I'm trying to figure how a deepseek query could be made using just a url. Not sure it's possible. :\

This add-on works fine on browser context menu:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir.../ask-deepseek/

Where are you trying to put that URL? In any event, I suspect that because it is interpreted by firefox, the only way it **might** work is if firefox is the system default browser. WHen I try it with Chrome as the default I get an invitation to switch to Firefox.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by chaley

Where are you trying to put that URL? In any event, I suspect that because it is interpreted by firefox, the only way it **might** work is if firefox is the system default browser. WHen I try it with Chrome as the default I get an invitation to switch to Firefox.

I edited my previous post to mention the add-on code and its AMO page to install it on mozilla based browsers.

Let me try to clarify: I don't see how to get a direct url to open a chat.deepseek.com query, as that add-on can do so seamlessly from selected text on any webpage.

If it was possible to find an endpoint (I think that's what devs call it), one could create a custom column to query {title} by {author} on Deepseek in order to get some blurb, or other inquiries about the title and author, via book details click

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Comfy.n

I edited my previous post to mention the add-on code and its AMO page to install it on mozilla based browsers.

Let me try to clarify: I don't see how to get a direct url to open a chat.deepseek.com query, as that add-on can do so seamlessly from selected text on any webpage.

If it was possible to find an endpoint (I think that's what devs call it), one could create a custom column to query {title} by {author} on Deepseek in order to get some blurb, or other inquiries about the title and author, via book details click

I took a quick look at the API. It appears that you could do it by constructing POST queries and be prepared to get JSON responses, which isn't something doable with a single URL. It requires code.

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by chaley

I took a quick look at the API. It appears that you could do it by constructing POST queries and be prepared to get JSON responses, which isn't something doable with a single URL. It requires code.

Yes, thanks for looking. Anyway, just a random idea, and this could be possible also with the Search Internet plugin if there was some direct api access... I examined the requests and it's clear it isnt doable with a single url

[ownedbycats]

Was this made on a request or "just seemed like a good idea"?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Was this made on a request or "just seemed like a good idea"?

Are you talking to me? About the custom column search URL? If so then on request: https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/2097591

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

Are you talking to me? About the custom column search URL? If so then on request: https://bugs.launchpad.net/calibre/+bug/2097591

Ahh. I was wondering,

[Comfy.n]

Originally Posted by chaley

I took a quick look at the API. It appears that you could do it by constructing POST queries and be prepared to get JSON responses, which isn't something doable with a single URL. It requires code.

program: make_url('https://chatgpt.com', 'q', $title  & ' ' & $author)

On the other hand it was easy peasy to have a clickable book details search for the much enshittificated chatgpt.

[Comfy.n]

program: make_url('https://phind.com/search', 'q', $title  & ' by ' & $author)

https://www.phind.com/search?q=The+P...B2+Machiavelli

I've found Phind to be a much better alternative for this purpose, so I changed my template.

[chaley]

26 June 2025 - (in calibre preview 8.5.100 and subsequent releases)

• Remove the GUI-only restriction from check_yes_no(). The function will now work in device templates.

[chaley]

08 July 2025 - (in calibre 8.6.0)

• In GPM, allow comment lines to start with blanks or tabs before the '#' instead of only allowing the '#' in the first column.

[chaley]

09 July 2025 - (in calibre 8.6.0)

• format_duration(value, template, [largest_unit])
  Format the value, a number of seconds, into a string showing weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds. If the value is a float then it is rounded to the nearest integer. You choose how to format the value using a template consisting of value selectors surrounded by [ and ] characters. The selectors are:
  

  [w]: weeks 
  [d]: days 
  [h]: hours 
  [m]: minutes 
  [s]: seconds

  You can put arbitrary text between selectors.
  
  The optional largest_unit parameter specifies the largest of weeks, days, hours, minutes, and seconds that will be produced by the template. If provided it must be one of the
  value selectors.
  
  The following examples use a duration of 2 days (172,800 seconds) 1 hour (3,600 seconds) and 20 seconds, which totals to 176,420 seconds.
  • format_duration(176420, '[d][h][m][s]') will return the value 2d 1h 0m 20s.
  • format_duration(176420, '[h][m][s]') will return the value 49h 0m 20s.
  • format_duration(176420, 'Your reading time is [d][h][m][s]', 'h') returns the value Your reading time is 49h 0m 20s.
  • format_duration(176420, '[w][d][h][m][s]') returns the value 2d 1h 0m 20s. Note that the zero weeks value is not returned.
  More functionality is documented in calibre.

[chaley]

12 July 2025 - (in calibre 8.7.0)

• formats_path_segments(with_author, with_title, with_format, with_ext, sep)
  return parts of the path to a book format in the calibre library separated by ``sep``. The parameter ``sep`` should usually be a slash (``'/'``). One use is to be sure that paths generated in Save to disk and Send to device templates are shortened consistently. Another is to be sure the paths on the device match the paths in the calibre library.
  
  See the manual for full documentation.

[chaley]

14 Sept 2025 (in calibre 8.10.100)

• A "with" statement in the template language that for the duration of the associated code block changes the "current book" to the one specified by the book id.
• A formatter function selected_books() that returns the book ids of the currently selected books
• A formatter function selected_column() that returns the lookup name of the column containing the selected cell.
• A formatter function sort_book_ids() that sorts the books specified by book_ids.
• A formatter function show_dialog() that opens a dialog to display plain text or html.
• Add check boxes to the template tester to control "run as you type" and to restrict test runs to the first selected book. These are very useful if generating reports using selected books.

Here is an example using several of the features described above. It generates a report of book sizes for the selected books.

program: 
	ids = sort_book_ids(selected_books(), 'series', 1, 'title', 1);
	res = '<style> th, td {padding: 2px;}</style> <h2>Book Size Report</h2><p><table>';
	total = 0;

	def table_row(title, series, size):
		return strcat('<tr><td>', title, '</td>', 
						 '<td>', series, '</td>',
						 '<td>', if size !=# 0 then human_readable(size) else '0' fi, '</td>',
						 '</tr>', character('newline'))
	fed;

	for id in ids:
		with id:
			s = booksize();
			total = total + s;
			res = strcat(res, table_row($title, $series, s))
		htiw
	rof;
	res = strcat(res, table_row('TOTAL', '', total));
	res = strcat(res, '</table>');
	show_dialog(res)