Allow Custom Columns in Catalog Template?

[JimmXinu]

It looks like current Create Catalog code for epub(code link) doesn't allow custom columns in resources/catalog/template.xhtml.

XML/CSV catalog output already includes custom columns.

Would it be possible to get custom columns in epub catalog, too?

Debug output suggests custom columns are already known in the catalog generation process:

...
 Custom fields:
  #chapters            'Ch'                 int
  #device_info         'Device info'        composite
  #extranotes          'ExtraNotes'         text
  #fanficfare_error    'FanFicFare Error'   comments
  #fanficfare_metadata 'FanFicFare Metadata' comments
  #formats             'Formats'            composite
  #noton               'Not On'             text
  #series_title        'Series Title'       composite
  #title_prefix        '000'                text
  #updated             'Updated'            datetime
  #urlid               'URL'                composite
  #wordcount           'Words'              int
  #words_added         'Added'              int
 Thumbnails:
  DPI = 132.0; thumbnail dimensions: 396.0 x 526.6800000000001
  existing thumb cache at C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\calibre-cache\catalog\thumbs.zip, cached_thumb_width: 3.00"
Sorting titles (0:00:00)
Sorting database (0:00:00)
Thumbnails (0:00:00)
Descriptions HTML (0:00:00)
 unhandled exception in catalog generator
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "runpy.py", line 198, in _run_module_as_main
  File "runpy.py", line 88, in _run_code
  File "site.py", line 83, in <module>
  File "site.py", line 78, in main
  File "site.py", line 50, in run_entry_point
  File "calibre\utils\ipc\worker.py", line 213, in main
  File "calibre\gui2\convert\gui_conversion.py", line 82, in gui_catalog
  File "calibre\library\catalogs\epub_mobi.py", line 403, in run
  File "calibre\library\catalogs\epub_mobi_builder.py", line 314, in build_sources
  File "calibre\library\catalogs\epub_mobi_builder.py", line 2828, in generate_html_descriptions
  File "calibre\library\catalogs\epub_mobi_builder.py", line 2753, in generate_html_description_header
  File "calibre\library\catalogs\epub_mobi_builder.py", line 2655, in _generate_html
KeyError: '#chapters'

[Comfy.n]

If that can be made true, I guess I'd appreciate being able to export my GR Author notes author Bio column alongside the book data!

Bio column:

[kovidgoyal]

EPUB catalog code is unmaintained (apart from bug fixes that I do) since GRiker, it's original author left. So PR is welcome, in this case you will probably need to add custom column metadata into the args passed to format(), possibly underscore prefixed since # is not valid in format keys. And that in turn will require adding custom column metadata into the book dict.

[JimmXinu]

Fair enough. I will look into it.

[BetterRed]

Nirsoft's CSVFileView can create an HTML file which can then be converted into an EPUB.

BR

[Katja_hbg]

JimmXinu,
of course taking over the catalog feature into active management would be great.

Actually there is a workaround to include custom column content.
The catalog gui offers a field for "additional description" which allows custom fields as well.
That field is named "notes" with note_source and note_content in the xhtml

[thiago.eec]

@JimmXinu

I made some changes to the catalog code to acomodate my preferences, including the use of custom columns. It's just a simple hack, no GUI option was changed. Basically I modified the python code to use custom columns defined in my 'template.xhtml' and 'stylesheet.css' files.

P.S.: There are other changes, including using 'author' instead of 'author_sort', using a custom cover ('CatalogCover.jpg'*), and the use of 'calibreSymbols.otf'* so I can have half stars, but those can be ignored.

*'calibreSymbols.otf' was copied from the calibre install directory. 'calibreSymbols.otf' and 'CatalogCover.jpg' were saved to my '..\config_dir\calibre\resources\catalog' directory.