Templates: various questions not worth their own thread

[Levinas2021]

Hello everyone,

I'm using Calibre Portable to manage my ebooks and I have a column named Ranking with a numeric value for each book.
I would like to create a new column called Ranking Position that displays the position of each book based on their value in the Ranking column (book with highest value has position number 1).
I'm not very familiar with Calibre's functions, so I was wondering if anyone could help me with the steps to populate this new column automatically.

Thank you in advance!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Levinas2021

Hello everyone,

I'm using Calibre Portable to manage my ebooks and I have a column named Ranking with a numeric value for each book.
I would like to create a new column called Ranking Position that displays the position of each book based on their value in the Ranking column (book with highest value has position number 1).
I'm not very familiar with Calibre's functions, so I was wondering if anyone could help me with the steps to populate this new column automatically.

Thank you in advance!

You need to use the image link not the webpage link to show the image.

i.e. [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/gr3wMI2.jpeg[/IMG] instead of [IMG]https://i.imgur.com/gr3wMI2[/IMG]

[ownedbycats]

Small unrelated question:

{field:|prefix_text|suffix_text}

Seeing as it's used for the separator, it possible to use a pipe as either prefix_ or suffix_? I got an error even when I enclosed it in single or double-quotes.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by Levinas2021

Hello everyone,

I'm using Calibre Portable to manage my ebooks and I have a column named Ranking with a numeric value for each book.
I would like to create a new column called Ranking Position that displays the position of each book based on their value in the Ranking column (book with highest value has position number 1).
I'm not very familiar with Calibre's functions, so I was wondering if anyone could help me with the steps to populate this new column automatically.

Thank you in advance!

I don't believe Calibre's built-in functions have a useful way of ranking values, but Python does, if you're willing to bust out the big guns. Here is an example which I think will do approximately what you are after. I am assuming that your “ranking” is better the higher it is. If I've made the wrong assumption here, and a lower “ranking” value means a better-ranked book, then simply change reverse=True to reverse=False. The title:true argument is merely meant to represent a search query which will return all books. The ampersand may be replaced with any arbitrary value that will never appear within the values you are looking up; make sure to replace it in both places on that first (3rd) line of code. Finally, if you wish to restrict your search to the current virtual library, replace that 0 with a 1. Finally, this code will assign the top rank a value of 1 – without the “1 +” on the last line, the top-ranked book would have a rank of 0.

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
	vals = context.funcs.book_values('#ranking', 'title:true', '&', 0).split('&')
	vals = sorted([float(v) for v in vals], reverse=True)
	return str(1 + vals.index(float(book.get('#ranking'))))

Warning: if you have multiple books with an identical ranking, the above code will NOT correctly count ties. For example, if your top rank is shared by two books, the next rank will be 2, not 3. If you wish to fix this error then you will have to modify the code; the error arises because the book_values() function returns unique values. In order to have it count correctly in the case of ties, you will need to count the multiplicity of each value in your library, and add that many copies of the value to the vals list. I'm ignoring this because it seems like your ranking value has enough precision to easily avoid duplicates, but that assumption may be incorrect.

[Levinas2021]

Hi everyone,

I'm having trouble with adding code to the "model" field (column Ranking Position) in my application.
I've tried adding the code to the field, but it keeps giving me an error.
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I've attached some screenshots to show what I've tried.
When I test the function in the "Edit Model" option, it works fine and returns the value "1" (Screenshot 1).
However, when I try to use it in the "model" field for the column Ranking Position, it returns an error (Screenshots 2 and 3).

Can anyone help me understand what I'm doing wrong and how I can successfully add my code to the "model" field?
I would greatly appreciate any guidance or suggestions.

Thank you!

Screenshot 1



Screenshots 2 and 3

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Levinas2021

Hi everyone,

I'm having trouble with adding code to the "model" field (column Ranking Position) in my application.
I've tried adding the code to the field, but it keeps giving me an error.
I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.

I've attached some screenshots to show what I've tried.
When I test the function in the "Edit Model" option, it works fine and returns the value "1" (Screenshot 1).
However, when I try to use it in the "model" field for the column Ranking Position, it returns an error (Screenshots 2 and 3).

Can anyone help me understand what I'm doing wrong and how I can successfully add my code to the "model" field?
I would greatly appreciate any guidance or suggestions.

Thank you!

The error tells you that the book_values() function can't be used in a composite column. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...35#post4235735 for how to get around this.

The problem is that those functions can be slow. Since you are writing in Python you would be better served using the calibre database API, which is much faster. Glancing at your template I think you want

context.db.new_api.get_custom_book_data('#ranking')

[isarl]

Originally Posted by chaley

The error tells you that the book_values() function can't be used in a composite column. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...35#post4235735 for how to get around this.

The problem is that those functions can be slow. Since you are writing in Python you would be better served using the calibre database API, which is much faster. Glancing at your template I think you want

context.db.new_api.get_custom_book_data('#ranking')

Thanks for this Charles, I'm not very experienced at writing templates which query the rest of the library, so I haven't encountered this yet and just tinkered in the template tester until it appeared to work well enough.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Small unrelated question:

{field:|prefix_text|suffix_text}

Seeing as it's used for the separator, it possible to use a pipe as either prefix_ or suffix_? I got an error even when I enclosed it in single or double-quotes.

Since this slightly got buried in the other conversation, any idea? I also tried using escape character on the pipe but that didn't seem to help.

[isarl]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Since this slightly got buried in the other conversation, any idea? I also tried using escape character on the pipe but that didn't seem to help.

Use general program mode instead? I can't find anything in the docs about escaping pipe characters.

[ownedbycats]

Yes, I think thsts probably the only way.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Since this slightly got buried in the other conversation, any idea? I also tried using escape character on the pipe but that didn't seem to help.

Originally Posted by isarl

Use general program mode instead? I can't find anything in the docs about escaping pipe characters.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Yes, I think thsts probably the only way.

Do it in GPM using finish_formatting().

Example:

program: finish_formatting($series_index, '02s', ' |', '| ')

Make it a stored template if you want to use it in SFM or TPM templates.

[Levinas2021]

The code would be something like this?

python:
def evaluate(book, context):
context.db.new_api.get_custom_book_data('#ranking' )
vals = sorted([float(v) for v in vals], reverse=True)
return str(1 + vals.index(float(book.get('#ranking'))))

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

Do it in GPM using finish_formatting().

Example:

program: finish_formatting($series_index, '02s', ' |', '| ')

Make it a stored template if you want to use it in SFM or TPM templates.

Thanks. How do I get a stored template into an SFM template, anyways?

Example: I had this SFM template for a save path:

{#kobopath}/{author_sort:sublist(0,1,&)}/{title} - {authors}

I copied the GPM template for #kobopath to a new template, device_path().

{device_path()} isn't a field, and entering it without the squiggly brackets just adds it literally

I looked through the template page but couldn't find this

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

How do I get a stored template into an SFM template, anyways?

Example: I had this SFM template for a save path:

{#kobopath}/{author_sort:sublist(0,1,&)}/{title} - {authors}

I copied the GPM template for #kobopath to a new template, device_path().

{device_path()} isn't a field, and entering it without the squiggly brackets just adds it literally

I looked through the template page but couldn't find this

To call stored templates that want no arguments, use this TPM utterance:

{:'device_path()'}

This says that for the "null" field, call the function device_path() in TPM mode.

[ownedbycats]

Thanks

I did a ctrl+F for "{:" and found only a brief example buried in the middle of the approximate_formats() entry. No wonder I missed it