[GUI Plugin] User Category

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jbacelar

An update to Calibre 6 beta would be very very nice.

I released a version that runs under calibre 3, 4, 5, and 6. I don't use this plugin so I have no idea if it works.

[jbacelar]

It works perfectly.
Thank you very much chaley.

[midnightmaze]

Hi any User Cat plugin experts:
I seemed to have done something to make all but one of my setup User Categories not show, still exist in 'Manage user categories', but return error "User category not found" when click 'Show in tag browser'.

Appreciate any advice. It happened before I updated plugin, I hoped updating plugin might fix it but it didn't change anything.

I can add new categories.

Appreciate any advice. Thanks!
(Note, first time on this forum so hope this is the right way to ask for assistance).

[kiwidude]

@midnightmaze - did you switch libraries by chance? The user categories are a per library setting.

[midnightmaze]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@midnightmaze - did you switch libraries by chance? The user categories are a per library setting.

@kiwidude :
I didn't knowingly switch libraries or anything. I only have the one library setup, with a few virtual libraries I never use.

I was at the time reorganising my user categories and making sub categories, and shifting series and authors around a bit.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by midnightmaze

@kiwidude :
I didn't knowingly switch libraries or anything. I only have the one library setup, with a few virtual libraries I never use.

I was at the time reorganising my user categories and making sub categories, and shifting series and authors around a bit.

Hmmm, interesting. Could you please post some screenshots, of what your Manage menu looks like and what the Add menu looks like, and what your Customize plugin dialog looks like?

Also you could try running calibre in debug mode, and see if there are any errors being thrown (Preferences side arrow -> Restart in debug mode)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by midnightmaze

Hi any User Cat plugin experts:
I seemed to have done something to make all but one of my setup User Categories not show, still exist in 'Manage user categories', but return error "User category not found" when click 'Show in tag browser'.

Appreciate any advice. It happened before I updated plugin, I hoped updating plugin might fix it but it didn't change anything.

I can add new categories.

Appreciate any advice. Thanks!
(Note, first time on this forum so hope this is the right way to ask for assistance).

This is a bug in base calibre.

User categories are always hierarchical, but in a way different from standard categories. The bug is exposed if one has a user category A.B (hierarchy) but doesn't have the parent user category A. The bug: if when A.B is processed calibre doesn't find parent user category A then A.B is not displayed.

Other than fixing calibre, which I am working on doing, the fix is to ensure that for all user categories A.B.C etc, user categories for the parents must also exist. In this example you would need user categories A and A.B before A.B.C will display. It is possible that creating A is sufficient -- I haven't worked through the bug far enough yet to be sure.

Note also that empty user categories aren't displayed. There must be an item somewhere in the user category hierarchy. EDIT: this is wrong. I had the Hide empty categories checkbox set.

[chaley]

The fix is in calibre source.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by chaley

The fix is in calibre source.

Thanks chaley. I was looking at the plugin code and had me confused as to what might be happening to make it go wrong - a nice change when the problem is elsewhere

[midnightmaze]

@ kiwidude & chaley
Thanks for assist.
Attached is pdf of what issue looks like for me.
I tried to understand your talk re issue, but a little confused. I think what you are saying I needed to be careful how I made user cat and sub cat.

Is there anything I can do to fix? Because they do exist I am able to edit them, just not show them. I can delete them.
I may just have to start from scratch recreating them one by one (a bit painful). But if I have to, what do I do to avoid issue in future?

Appreciate advice as the plugin is super handy for sorting my many books!

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by midnightmaze

@ kiwidude & chaley
Thanks for assist.
Attached is pdf of what issue looks like for me.
I tried to understand your talk re issue, but a little confused. I think what you are saying I needed to be careful how I made user cat and sub cat.

Is there anything I can do to fix? Because they do exist I am able to edit them, just not show them. I can delete them.
I may just have to start from scratch recreating them one by one (a bit painful). But if I have to, what do I do to avoid issue in future?

Appreciate advice as the plugin is super handy for sorting my many books!

In your screenshot you have categories like Crime.XXX without a separate “parent” category called Crime - that is the calibre bug that chaley has fixed so that you don’t get that error. You will need to wait for the next calibre release to get the fix (well you can run calibre from source code if you were desperate but better to just wait).

I don’t know whether or not to recommend creating a parent category such as Crime - chaley can opine on that. I suspect it means extra noise in the plugin menus. I don’t think hierarchical tags existed when I created this plugin aeons ago, or perhaps I never catered for them specifically. You might end up with noise in the plugin menus you never can remove if calibre didn’t let you delete the parent category in isolation, would have to test it (again chaley will know).

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

I don’t know whether or not to recommend creating a parent category such as Crime - chaley can opine on that. I suspect it means extra noise in the plugin menus. I don’t think hierarchical tags existed when I created this plugin aeons ago, or perhaps I never catered for them specifically. You might end up with noise in the plugin menus you never can remove if calibre didn’t let you delete the parent category in isolation, would have to test it (again chaley will know).

From calibre's point of view, creating a parent category Crime is not a problem. It will show as a separate category in calibre's Manage Categories dialog, and I suspect in the plugin's as well. The category will be empty unless you choose to put something in it. After the next calibre release you can delete it if you wish.

NB: That parent category must have been there at one point or you never would have seen the child categories. The bug has been there for years.

[kiwidude]

Release Notes:
https://github.com/kiwidude68/calibr...ategory-v1.6.0

[BetterRed]

@kiwidude - Since this PI was developed the User Categories editor has added support for Custom Columns, and additional standard columns (Languages, Formats, etc):



But they've not been added to the User Categories PI



Any thoughts of doing so, I gave up on User Categories because the PI didn't support Custom Columns. My gut feeling is that it's non-trivial.

BR

[jbacelar]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@kiwidude - Since this PI was developed the User Categories editor has added support for Custom Columns, and additional standard columns (Languages, Formats, etc):
But they've not been added to the User Categories PI

And at least to me, it would be very useful.