[GUI Plugin] FanFictionDownLoader

[JimmXinu]

FFDL FAQ on images in general. Also here.

[RadiantPhoenix]

I had already managed to get a front page with a picture.

I'm trying to get the stories to have cover images in the library browser, like the example book does.

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by RadiantPhoenix

I had already managed to get a front page with a picture.

So you have the cover image inside, but not in calibre? There's an FFDL setting, see attached.

Originally Posted by RadiantPhoenix

I'm trying to get the stories to have cover images in the library browser, like the example book does.

If you want a generated cover, I suggest looking at the Generate Cover plugin. FFDL integrates with it and can call it on each download/update.

If neither of those are what you mean, please be more specific.

[RadiantPhoenix]

The first one seems to have worked.

[Jade Aislin]

Is there a way to add a character when the story does not have any?

When a story is downloaded, I want it to add 'no character' when there is no characters in the metadata. I'm primarily looking at FFN.

I tried the code:

 characters=>=>No Character

But it didn't seem to work. Is there a way to change the character metadata when it is empty?

[JimmXinu]

Originally Posted by Jade Aislin

Is there a way to add a character when the story does not have any?

When a story is downloaded, I want it to add 'no character' when there is no characters in the metadata. I'm primarily looking at FFN.

The fact that there are no characters isn't good enough to indicate 'no characters'??

This is what I've puzzled out that works:

# Add a new entry to hold the enhanced characters list.
extra_valid_entries:withnochars
withnochars_label:Characters

# Replace the regular characters list with withnochars in the title page.  
# It's your problem to do this everywhere you use characters. title, log, custom columns
titlepage_entries: seriesHTML,category,genre,language,withnochars,ships,status,datePublished,dateUpdated,dateCreated,rating,warnings,numChapters,numWords,site,description

# Add No Characters to characters always.
extracharacters:No Characters

# withnochars has all the real chars and No Characters
include_in_withnochars:characters

# Finally, remove No Characters from withnochars if there's 
# anything in characters other than No Characters.
replace_metadata:
 withnochars=>^No Characters$=>&&characters=>^(.+No Characters|No Characters.+)$
# The replacement is matching each list entry, while the conditional
# pattern (after &&) is matching the whole list with comma separators.

You can't match 'when it's empty' because when it's empty, replace_metadata isn't applied.

You can't do the replace directly on characters because that sets up an infinite recursion.

If you want this for a calibre column, I suggest you instead investigate creating a Custom 'Column built from other Columns' based on your (presumably) existing characters column. See attached and refer to the template manual.

[JimmXinu]

Testing changes to support fanfic.mugglenet.com as well as fanfiction.mugglenet.com.

UPDATE Jul 3 2013 - Remove obsolete beta versions

[JimmXinu]

Version 1.7.29 - 28 Jun 2013

• New Site: fanfic.potterheadsanonymous.com - Thanks Ida!
• New Site: www.simplyundeniable.com - Thanks Ida!
• Allow domain fanfic.mugglenet.com for mugglenet.com

[njd09]

Hi, I was wondering if there was a way to auto-populate a custom column with a pre-defined value when adding a new story. For instance, I have a custom column for unread, read, etc. Whenever I add a new story, or several stories, I have to manually edit each one and set it to unread. It would be very helpful if I could make it so that any new story I added was automatically set to unread, so I just wanted to know if that was possible. Thanks!

[JimmXinu]

Yes, but not directly. What you can do (and is the way I do it), is use the integration with the Reading List plugin.

If you have the Reading List plugin installed, FFDL can be configured to automatically add each new download or update to a 'to be read' list. Then you can configure the Reading List to update a custom column.

FFDL also has a handy feature for adding books to reading lists for sending to you devices.

[njd09]

Great! I do have it installed, so I'll do that now. Thanks!

[JimmXinu]

It's a bit dated now, but there's a how-to document for that on the project home site.

[Ghostdraconi]

I am suddenly experiencing this error on Fanfiction.net on this story
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3142126/1/April-10-1997



I've tried other urls and they work but I'm not sure what's up with this one. I'm on the latest version of Calibre and the plugin.

[Snowman]

I'm also receiving "substring not found" error for

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8861685/1/Just-Desserts

The same link appears to generate just fine on the ffdl site.

[JimmXinu]

Looks like ffnet is either having problems or changed their HTML again.

The problem is, I'm still seeing the old version so it works fine for me still. Until I'm seeing the new version too, I can't update FFDL for it.