Possible tweak: Stop auto-collapsing browser nested items

[arspr]

I am really annoyed with this behaviour of Calibre.

Would it be possible to change it?

I proceed to explain it. When you have hierarchical tags (or custom fields BTW), if you drag one book to one of the lower levels in the left browser the full group is collapsed into the parent item.

So if you want to continue adding this tag to other books by the drag method, you have to expand the group EACH time you've made one addition...

Maybe, you have no other (easy) way to make Calibre behave in order to update the book sums or perform whatever other needed internal Calibre process, but I find it really annoying.




Another related suggestion. (Which I suppose it could be more difficult).

The browser collapsing issue DOES happen whenever you update tag info in any way:

• typing a tag value for a book directly in the column view,
• erasing a tag value in the column view,
• erasing the LAST available tag value so it has to disappear from browser,
• adding a brand-new value so it has to appear in browser,
• ...

Would it be possible to keep Calibre from collapsing the browser view in these situations too? Even when a fully new value appears or when the last available value disappears?

[kovidgoyal]

If you want to add the same tag to more than one book. Select all the books, then drag them to the tag.

[arspr]

Thank you for your reply. It's a good workaround I haven't thought of...

But nevertheless what do you want the auto-collapse feature for? Is it due some kind of desired behaviour I cannot foresee? Or is it just a side-effect of the internal coding?

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

If you want to add the same tag to more than one book. Select all the books, then drag them to the tag.

Or, if you have lots of tags, as I do, select all the books you want to apply it to, hit "E" to edit metadata in bulk for the selected books and just type in the tag (it will autocomplete and pop up a suggested list of tags as you type).

[jesscat]

Those solutions both work, but it does sometimes happen that you forget a book, or you still want to see your list of tags after adding books to it (or making one of the other changes the OP mentioned). I would like to second the OP's question: is there a reason for the auto-collapse? Would there be a way to prevent it? It's admittedly a minor thing in the grand scheme, but still a little bit annoying, especially because I have a very long list of tags that I hate subgrouping. I guess I just have an ingrained expectation that trees/structures like this will continue to look the way I've customized them to look until I specifically expand or collapse something myself, so it still always takes me by surprise.

[kovidgoyal]

The reason is simple. Statistics have to be recalculated, which means the entire tree structure is updated. It takes extra code to remember and restore the original position. If you want this feature feel free to open a bug requesting it. No guarantee it will be implemented though.

[jesscat]

Okay, thanks, good to know the reason. Not sure I care enough to open a bug - I'll leave it up to the OP.

[arspr]

Yes, I agree with jesscat.

Just keep in mind as a possible improvement in order to get a more polished piece of software. But nevertheless you have to put in balance the improvement vs. the coding effort. (You are neither Google nor Microsoft, aren't you? )