Getting IDs of books selected in the GUI

wladdy · 05-09-2015, 05:57 AM

Is there a direct way to get through the CLI the IDs of the books currently selected in the GUI?

Today, my workaround involves a custom Yes/No column whose lookup name is "current". In the GUI, I set to "Yes" the value for that column of the selected files. Then, running the following command in the CLI returns the IDs that I want:

Code:

calibredb list -w 1000 -s '#current:"Yes"' | sed -n 's_^\([[:digit:]]\+\) .*_\1_p'

This method works well enough, but requires the hassle of dealing with a dummy custom column. I'd be grateful to anyone suggesting a better, more direct approach.

Many thanks! W.

kovidgoyal · 05-09-2015, 06:12 AM

No, there's no way to query the state of the GUI from the CLI. You could if you wish write a GUI plugin that exposes whatever state you like via a socket, but there is no builtin way to do that.

chaley · 05-09-2015, 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wladdy

Is there a direct way to get through the CLI the IDs of the books currently selected in the GUI?

Today, my workaround involves a custom Yes/No column whose lookup name is "current". In the GUI, I set to "Yes" the value for that column of the selected files. Then, running the following command in the CLI returns the IDs that I want:

Code:

calibredb list -w 1000 -s '#current:"Yes"' | sed -n 's_^\([[:digit:]]\+\) .*_\1_p'

This method works well enough, but requires the hassle of dealing with a dummy custom column. I'd be grateful to anyone suggesting a better, more direct approach.

Many thanks! W.

If I understand you correctly, you want to select some books in the GUI then run some CLI command on those books. There isn't any way to do this. The CLI doesn't know that the GUI is running, much less have any access to the state of the GUI.

A GUI plugin can see the selection and do almost arbitrary things with it. For example, you might be able to modify the open-with plugin to run cli commands on books.

wladdy · 05-09-2015, 06:23 AM

Thank you for the prompt replies, I'll just keep using my workaround - Kovid's suggestion is way beyond my skill level!

A good week-end to all and, to Kovid, my wishes of full recovery! W.

05-09-2015, 05:57 AM	#1
wladdy Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: iPad / Kindle DX	Getting IDs of books selected in the GUI Is there a direct way to get through the CLI the IDs of the books currently selected in the GUI? Today, my workaround involves a custom Yes/No column whose lookup name is "current". In the GUI, I set to "Yes" the value for that column of the selected files. Then, running the following command in the CLI returns the IDs that I want: Code: calibredb list -w 1000 -s '#current:"Yes"' \| sed -n 's_^\([[:digit:]]\+\) .*_\1_p' This method works well enough, but requires the hassle of dealing with a dummy custom column. I'd be grateful to anyone suggesting a better, more direct approach. Many thanks! W.

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05-09-2015, 06:12 AM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,835 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	No, there's no way to query the state of the GUI from the CLI. You could if you wish write a GUI plugin that exposes whatever state you like via a socket, but there is no builtin way to do that.

05-09-2015, 06:23 AM	#4
wladdy Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: iPad / Kindle DX	Thank you for the prompt replies, I'll just keep using my workaround - Kovid's suggestion is way beyond my skill level! A good week-end to all and, to Kovid, my wishes of full recovery! W.

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