[GUI Plugin] FanFicFare

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by bigwoof

To "solve" this exact problem, I ended up writing a whole set of custom action chain scripts all tied together in an action chain module mapped to a hotkey. so for any new AO3 book, instead of whatever the authors thinks I need to know about, I just press the hotkey and the module changes all the tags to things I care about (by extracting and processing keywords from all the fields present in the metadata).

yes, it means I will never get any new tags but it also means my tags are capped at 115 (what calibre tells me) which makes my mobile book reader (moon+) happy when I search :-)

oh, do you have this summarized anywhere? I know there is a chain actions plugin but I have not installed it or used it. I wouldn't really know where to start but I know there is a thread for that chain actions plugin.

I'm starting a new library because of the tags issue. In my new one, right now, I exclude "genre" aka AO3categories and freeformtags from subject tags so new books coming in only get relationship and character tags. But, all the freeform tags are in the saved metadata column.

Then my plan is to either add my own tags as I go OR search on a phrase such as "time travel" or "alternate universe" and add just a simple straightforward tag to those.

Do your chain actions do something similar? ie. look for a phrase and then set a tag based on that phrase?

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

...
FFF saved metadata using column type Long Text, 'interpreted as text'...

Can I ask why "interpreted as text" instead of html?

I didn't realize that text was recommended so in my new test library (And still testing...only about 10 books in it right now.) I had html.

With it as interpreted as html, obviously it's nicely readable in the box on the custom column tab of the book record. Whereas when I just switched the column to interpret as text, it's not as easily readable since now all the html code is shown. p span div, etc.

Is the text version more readable by FFF when doing metadata updates?

I'm planning on using the saved metadata info to search for terms/keywords to set some basic tags. So as long as html vs text doesn't impact that, I guess I don't care?

(reminder: I have excluded genre (aka ao3categories and freeformtags) because of crazy stupid tagging on ao3 and because I didn't want thousands of stupid tags. So the plan is to do basic searches like "time travel" and then assign a tag of my choosing to those results. So instead of stories having 10 different variations of "time travel", they will only have 1, when I add it.)

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

Can I ask why "interpreted as text" instead of html?
...
Is the text version more readable by FFF when doing metadata updates?

If interpreted as HTML, Calibre rewrites the HTML in such a way it breaks FFF's ability to read it back again if you ever edit it. And as I recall, it could happen sometimes even if you didn't think you'd edited it.

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

I still recommend leaving the Saved Meta column interpreted as Text to be a little bit safer.

Calibre changing the HTML in long texts automagically came along after the FFF Saved Metadata Column feature. I would not have used an HTML format when the feature was implemented if I had known that was coming.

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

If interpreted as HTML, Calibre rewrites the HTML in such a way it breaks FFF's ability to read it back again if you ever edit it. And as I recall, it could happen sometimes even if you didn't think you'd edited it.

ah. ok. I consider the saved meta column to be one I would never even think of editing. but accidents do happen. so I did go ahead and change the column type to interpreted as text.

[JimmXinu]

New Test Version Posted

2026-01-19
- Image Handling Changes

Actually, it's the previously posted alpha test version, but now posted as the normal test version.

I've written a wiki document all about these changes: Image Handling Changes - uuid5 file names and CSS url() because I wanted to use document formatting and markdown is easier than MR's mark up lang.

I'm stilling working on some of the corner cases of this, but so far, haven't had any problems reported.

[ownedbycats]

Will this affect already-downloaded stories with images upon update?

[JimmXinu]

I mean, yes? Or at least, they will be renamed as described.

The image files themselves are reused as-is.

[texasnightowl]

Originally Posted by JimmXinu

New Test Version Posted

2026-01-19
- Image Handling Changes

This is all kinda under the covers though, right? I mean...I don't need to worry about messing with my personal.ini for example, right?

[JimmXinu]

Beginning of the linked document:

Document uploaded January 2026 for testing version.

In pursuing support for image url() references in CSS, I've made some significant changes to FanFicFare's image handling and naming conventions.

Note: Unless you look inside the EPUB, or enable more CSS options, these changes should be invisible to the user.

[Demanih]

When working with storiesonline.net some of the stories cannot be saved, such a message falls into the log:
Error
Unknown
Unknown
Page Not Found - always_login needed? (REDACTED)
Although the link to the job itself (shown in the example) is working and the login details for storiesonline are spelled out, is it possible to fix this?

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Demanih

When working with storiesonline.net some of the stories cannot be saved, such a message falls into the log:
Error
Unknown
Unknown
Page Not Found - always_login needed? (REDACTED)
Although the link to the job itself (shown in the example) is working and the login details for storiesonline are spelled out, is it possible to fix this?

That page comes up as "Not Found" in browser for me, unless logged in.

As the error suggests, setting always_login:true in personal.ini works. Some sites report stories that require login, so FFF can do it automatically, but storiesonline does not.

Also, please don't post NSFW links on this forum. You can PM them to me or use github.

[JimmXinu]

Next round of changes involves changes to handling image of download failures and duplicate images.

I could use a few examples of stories with broken images and/or duplicate images (same *file*, but different URLs), if anyone has some? Thanks.

[bigwoof]

Originally Posted by texasnightowl

oh, do you have this summarized anywhere? I know there is a chain actions plugin but I have not installed it or used it. I wouldn't really know where to start but I know there is a thread for that chain actions plugin.

not documented anywhere really. I remember posting in the action chains thread to ask how to run chains using a hotkey. and the author helped me created a modified chain iterator module that does that.

this post should point you in the right direction

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...postcount=1085

so you use that as the module and then add whatever action chain scripts you want to the module. These are small python like scripts that do various regex things. and yes they look for keywords and phrasewords and then create a series of tags that match. the tags then overwrite what is there.

[Eridyne]

How would I concatenate a string and variable into a custom column, e.g., "WormFic - " and 'site', into collections? I can get either the string or site working OK, but can't figure out how to concat.

I've skimmed the docs and plugin-defaults.ini, futzed with it for a while, and I'm stuck.

As much of a pain as it kind of is to add a long list of fics, and as challenging as the config can be, I really do appreciate how much this project simplifies handling... basically everything.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Eridyne

How would I concatenate a string and variable into a custom column, e.g., "WormFic - " and 'site', into collections? I can get either the string or site working OK, but can't figure out how to concat.

There isn't a specific 'concatenation' mechanism as such. If you can get both parts into custom columns, doing that and then adding a third custom "column built from other columns" to do the concat is an option.

What, exactly, are you trying to do? Without at least one concrete example (with story URL), I'm just guessing.