Different tag columns for different books or devices?

[zay]

I have what I'm guessing is a fairly unique problem because I can't seem to find any information about how to solve it. Either that, or it's just so niche it's unsolvable lol.

I have a Boox Palma 2.
My daughter has a Kobo Clara Color.
Other members of my family also have various eReaders.

Instead of different libraries in Calibre, which didn't work for us for a number of reasons, I have a custom column called "Shelf" and add the names of the family members to whom that book should be available to that column.

To organize libraries on each device, I have three columns:

First is Category - this is a broad general category like "Children's" or "Fiction." I had to do it this way because otherwise my kid's "Fantasy" books ended up in my "Fantasy" tag, and this solved that problem. She gets a main category like "Children's" or "Middle Grade" and I get a main category like "Fiction" or "Non-fiction."

Next is Genre - this is the subcategory, like "Science Fiction" or "Dystopian."

Then I have Tags, which is just a combination of both.

When I upload my kid's books, I filter by her shelf and use Genre as the grouping tag in Kobo, so she can click on "Fantasy" or "Graphic Novels" to sort her books.

When I upload my own books, I filter by my shelf and use "Tags" as the grouping tag.

Here's the problem:

I want to upload her shelf to my Boox Palma so that she can read when she's forgotten her Kobo or it has died or something. However, if I select "Tags" as the column that gets synced as the tag metadata in Boox, then when I click "Fantasy" in my device I will see all her fantasy books as well. This doesn't sound like a big deal...but we have very large (1500+ book) libraries.

However, I can't figure out how to designate a different custom column to be the "tag" metadata field in Boox, and even if I did, it would mess up all the rest of my books, unless I could say "For only these books, when syncing with only this device, use the column "SHELF" as the tag metadata, and for everything else, use the column "TAG" as the tag metadata." I don't know that that's possible.

Alternatively, I use MoonReader Pro on my Boox, and if there was a way to filter by NEGATIVE tags, that would work, too. So for example, if I send all the tags from the tags column and chose "Fantasy," then from within that I could continue to filter by "books that DO NOT include the tag "Children" that would also display only my books.

This is such a weird problem. Does anyone know how to solve it? Thank you!

[theducks]

The search would be:
not tags:childrens

You can build searches using the Tag Browser.
first click is a Green Plus, Second click makes it red minus

Here is an example of a multi criteria (saved) search

((formats:false and not #master:"LNK") or #usertags:"missing")

In this case
No formats <<wishlist entry only
The #master is NOT "LNK" <<< Just a cross ref to another book. Omnibus containing...
#usertags has missing as part of the tag

Saved searches can be a basis for a VL eg PGlib for children
Saved searches can further refine what is shown
In my case I do not keep read books on my device, I log the date in {#read} in calibre. So my To Read VL only shows those

 not #finished:true

(false in some cases may include Not set, thus Not True )

[zay]

Oh! I think maybe you're helping me find the books in calibre, which is great, but I can already do that. I need to be able to do it in Moon Reader, which means I need to have Calibre send a different tag based on a custom column. I think I can use plugboards and templates to do this, but the documentation is...incomplete, so I can't figure out how.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by zay

Oh! I think maybe you're helping me find the books in calibre, which is great, but I can already do that. I need to be able to do it in Moon Reader, which means I need to have Calibre send a different tag based on a custom column. I think I can use plugboards and templates to do this, but the documentation is...incomplete, so I can't figure out how.

I never used sending books to Moon+, I have the last Multipie (chaley) version of Calibre Companion, so that is my front end to Moon.

Let see if I can clear some of the plugboard fog
Plugboards are for devices that DO NOT use the filename, but use data stored in the book (Calibre updates the sent copy ONLY)

Kindles have no series or index
So we use the METADATA plugboard to wedge additional data during transfer
YOUR CALIBRE LIBRARY IS NOT TOUCHED
so i set up a plugboard to do a wedge
format is AZW3 and the device driver name is Kindle2
I insert the series Index into {title} (My Kindle 4 still let me use collections for the {series}

Source Template:

{series_index:0>5.2f|| - }{title}

5.2f makes it always have 2 integers and 2 fraction 23.24 (my way of saying vols 23-24 ) so 23-24 - the title
and the destination is {title} (on the device)
Destination has a pulldown of the allowed places the Devices driver allows, so make sure you DO set a device instead of 'any' if possible
The rest of the template is very similar to what you would use as a file name to send

[zay]

Wait, how do you use Moon with a Kindle?!?!

[theducks]

Originally Posted by zay

Wait, how do you use Moon with a Kindle?!?!

Sorry for the confusion.

I used my Kindle as a Plugboard example (My kobo does what I need with no fuss)
Moon is on my Tab A, and I mainly use that only as a compatibility test view.