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Old 07-06-2011, 07:06 AM   #1
reader363
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multiple series support

I find that some books are part of more than one series. For ex. 1) books may touch upon a character or book from more than one series, 2) books may fully cross over into multiple series, and 3) short stories written by different authors in an anthology collection may be part of distinctly different series written by each individual author.

I've tried inputting multiple names and book series numbers into the system Series field to no success. Looks like that field only supports 1 series name and number. Currently....Series Name [#]

Can I request it be enhanced to support multiple series? Seems like Author field recognizes more than one. Something like....

Series Name [#], Series Name [#], Series Name [#]
or
Series Name [#] & Series Name [#] & Series Name [#]
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Old 07-06-2011, 07:21 AM   #2
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You can make your own custom series column which behaves exactly like the standard one.

Oh, and then you'd create a custom composite column which shows all series in a format you want.
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Old 07-08-2011, 06:07 AM   #3
reader363
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Gave the above workaround a try. I created 2 custom series Category columns (using column type 'text column for keeping series-like information') in addition to the system Series column already in the application. Plus, added the composite column to show all 3 series columns and each of their respective series index numbers. It displayed correctly in the library view in that I can see all 3 series names and index numbers. However, this does not really accomplish what I was looking for.

The drawbacks I ran into with this approach include:

1) For anthology collections that have 3-5 different stories in it that each have their series, I would potentially have to create up to 3-5 separate custom series columns in order to input each Series name and index number.

2) When inputting a series name into each one of the new custom series columns that I created, there is no correlation to the series names in the primary system Series column. By that I mean, that when inputting a name, I only get a drop-down/category editor list of series names that have been input into that specific column to date. No series names from either the system Series column or any of the other custom series columns appears. That could mean that I potentially end up with the same series name in more than one Series category list...but unlinked to each other. I could not be assured that when clicking on a series name from the tag browser that I would see all the books in that series. Makes Series in tag browser unmeaningful and would have to resort to searches instead to find all books under that one series name.

If I try to workaround that by placing the composite Series field in the tag browser instead, it just shows an expandable list of all the series names with each line having potentially up to 3 series names. For example, it would show "seriesname1 [n], seriesname2 [n], seriesname3 [n]". It does not break the 3 out into each individual Series name of "seriesname1 [n]" , "seriesname2 [n]" and "seriesname3 [n]". Again, that means I could have the same series appearing more than once in that composite list and not being to click on it to see all the books in that one series.

--

By comparison, what I was really looking for is having the system Series category work like the system Author category. The latter can not only support the input of multiple authors in that one field but when it comes to the tag browser, it will break out and list each individual author separately. For example, if I had Author(s) field in a book set to "Doe, John & Smith, Jane" for a book. The system would automatically list them separately as "Doe, John" and "Smith, Jane" in the Author category in the tag browser.

How would one go about achieving a solution similar to how Author field works for Series?
I tried looking thru the customizable sections of the GUI and plugins. I don't see a way to view the code that controls how Author works. And don't have a way to view/change the code that controls how Series works to match it. It's obvious in my tests on creating new custom Series categories (i.e. User categories) that they are working differently than how the existing system Series category works.
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Old 07-08-2011, 07:10 AM   #4
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There is no support for the idea of storing multiple series in the Series field in the way that you describe.

While I can see how it might occasionally be useful it is likely to be a significant development effort with all sorts of ramifications (e.g. how do you handle series number). As far as I know no such development is currently on anybodiy's radar.
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Old 07-08-2011, 08:31 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reader363 View Post
1) For anthology collections that have 3-5 different stories in it that each have their series, I would potentially have to create up to 3-5 separate custom series columns in order to input each Series name and index number.
That is correct.
Quote:
I could not be assured that when clicking on a series name from the tag browser that I would see all the books in that series. Makes Series in tag browser unmeaningful and would have to resort to searches instead to find all books under that one series name.
You can use grouped search terms to solve this problem. See Preferences/searching. Note: today I made improvements in the display of grouped search terms in the tag browsery that should appear in today's release (0.8.9).
Quote:
How would one go about achieving a solution similar to how Author field works for Series?
You can't unless you change calibre itself.
Quote:
I tried looking thru the customizable sections of the GUI and plugins. I don't see a way to view the code that controls how Author works. And don't have a way to view/change the code that controls how Series works to match it. It's obvious in my tests on creating new custom Series categories (i.e. User categories) that they are working differently than how the existing system Series category works.
Custom series columns are not user categories. I am not sure what you mean by the "i.e.".

Custom series columns do work like the standard series column. Why do you say otherwise?

If I understand your use of "view the code" correctly, you want to see calibre's source code. See http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/develop.html for instructions on how to get the source. I should note, however, that changing the standard series column to support multiple items will be an enormous change.
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Old 07-08-2011, 10:47 AM   #6
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Thanks for the update. Seems like you're reconfirming what I thought might the case. Not a simple way to address this and that there is no efficient workaround through config or plugins at the moment. That's unfortunate. Well, I'll keep my eye out for if anything comes up in this area in future. I may try the search approach next as an interim solution if I decide to go forward with multiple, separate Series columns. Composite Series column doesn't seem to gain me anything so I won't be doing that.

As to your question...Perhaps my terminology was not accurate. I am new to Calibre. I saw that creating the column, created a category in the tag browser. Thought that was what was known as a User Category. Perhaps that term only applies to the ones that are created via the 'User Categories Editor' like Favorites user categories.

Right. What I stated above what just my attempt to try to implement the solution suggested and noticing some of the differences in how my custom Series columns seemed to be working in the tag browser vs. Author. Looks like I typo'd that.



btw...Just building my database now. Got thousands of books to input. Using it for ebook, audiobook, paperback, hardback, periodicals, fanfic, and userguide tracking. Love it so far. Seems to really help me find stuff easily. And use it for home insurance purposes as well. Catalog export works great to feed into my home inventory mgt software. We'll see how far I get.
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Old 07-09-2011, 10:07 AM   #7
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You could add empty book for every short story. In that way it will show up together with the novels of the series.
If you want to keep library view less populated, I think you could use view maneger plugin, and make it so that empty books are not shown. If not, I'm sure it can be done with search.
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Old 07-09-2011, 10:16 AM   #8
chaley
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Quote:
Originally Posted by reader363 View Post
I may try the search approach next as an interim solution if I decide to go forward with multiple, separate Series columns.
Grouped search terms do more than search. They aggregate columns together under a common name. You can both create a tag browser category and perform searches using this name. Starting with 0.8.9, items with the same name are consolidated to a single entry in the tag browser. For example, if 'foo' exists in multiple columns that are grouped together, it will appear once in the grouped search term category with the count updated to reflect all the columns. Clicking it will search across all the columns.
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Old 07-14-2011, 10:12 PM   #9
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The suggested work around sounds great for me and I'm definitely going to try it as it is just what I have wanted.

For example I can have "Shannara" in the series list but in my custom series field I can have the individual Trilogys (Voyage of the Jerle Shannara, Jaaka Ruus, etc.) listed out. Ditto Raymond Feist's Midkemia series.

Thanks!
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