Calibre book adding: Regular expression request...

[Tweetygirl10111]

Hi There

I have been through all the posts regarding renaming my books and i am still at a loss

I have 100's of ebooks which i have been manually editing and it becomes a huge pain...

This is how i would love my books to be when i load them into Calibre..
Elizabeth Briggs - Chasing the Dream 01 - More Than Music

The original file looks like this
Elizabeth Briggs - [Chasing the Dream 01] - More Than Music

I like my books to have the Series name in the title... so like this below

Title = Chasing the Dream 01 - More Than Music
Authors = Elizabeth Briggs
Series = No Match
Series Index = No Match
ISBN = Title


Sorry to be a pain... And is this at all possible...



ever so much ....

[davidfor]

Can I suggest that you don't do this? If you want to display the books in calibre like this, add an custom column that builds the "series title" from the other columns. You can then change the displayed columns to show this title, rather then the standard title.

The advantage of doing it this way is that the basic metadata is consistent with the metadata sources and you can use the metadata source plugins to maintain the data without any extra editing. And if you change your mind about how you want to show the title, you can. Also, it is common to want the title like this on ereaders. Most don't handle the series info, so a metadata plugboard is used to change the title in the copy sent to the device.

If you want to do what I suggest, then you can create a "Column built from other columns" with the template:

{series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

As to regex to create when adding the book, I can't think of how to do it. I suspect the simplest way to it is to set the title and series from the file name and then run a search and replace across new books in a batch.

[Tweetygirl10111]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Can I suggest that you don't do this? If you want to display the books in calibre like this, add an custom column that builds the "series title" from the other columns. You can then change the displayed columns to show this title, rather then the standard title.

The advantage of doing it this way is that the basic metadata is consistent with the metadata sources and you can use the metadata source plugins to maintain the data without any extra editing. And if you change your mind about how you want to show the title, you can. Also, it is common to want the title like this on ereaders. Most don't handle the series info, so a metadata plugboard is used to change the title in the copy sent to the device.

If you want to do what I suggest, then you can create a "Column built from other columns" with the template:

{series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

As to regex to create when adding the book, I can't think of how to do it. I suspect the simplest way to it is to set the title and series from the file name and then run a search and replace across new books in a batch.

Wow ... what an awesome community... Thanks for getting back to me so quickly.. What i am going to do is .... make a cup of coffee and sit and go through all u have suggested .... if i can't come right.. i will wait for my son, he can read all this and help me do what u suggested ...

[Tweetygirl10111]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Can I suggest that you don't do this? If you want to display the books in calibre like this, add an custom column that builds the "series title" from the other columns. You can then change the displayed columns to show this title, rather then the standard title.

The advantage of doing it this way is that the basic metadata is consistent with the metadata sources and you can use the metadata source plugins to maintain the data without any extra editing. And if you change your mind about how you want to show the title, you can. Also, it is common to want the title like this on ereaders. Most don't handle the series info, so a metadata plugboard is used to change the title in the copy sent to the device.

If you want to do what I suggest, then you can create a "Column built from other columns" with the template:

{series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

As to regex to create when adding the book, I can't think of how to do it. I suspect the simplest way to it is to set the title and series from the file name and then run a search and replace across new books in a batch.

Thanks so much, that custom column works really nicely, but sorry to trouble, but is there a way use the new column as part of the file name in calibre documents... I tried using the save to disk option and editing the template using the lookup name I created which was just series_title but it didn't seem to work.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Tweetygirl10111

Thanks so much, that custom column works really nicely,

Glad it is working how you want.

but sorry to trouble, but is there a way use the new column as part of the file name in calibre documents... I tried using the save to disk option and editing the template using the lookup name I created which was just series_title but it didn't seem to work.

My current save to disk template is:

{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

To use your column, I would try:

{author_sort}/{#series_title} - {authors}

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Tweetygirl10111

I tried using the save to disk option and editing the template using the lookup name I created which was just series_title but it didn't seem to work.

Here is what I use. It creates directories for series and prefixes the name of the directory with the book with a series number
This is not what you asked for ;-) but shows an example of advanced syntax of template language.

{author_sort:.1}/{authors}/{series:|# |}/{series_index:0>3s|| - }{title} - {authors}/{series_index:0>3s|| - }{title} - {authors}

To create something like you want you might want to use

{authors} - {series:|| }{series_index:0>3s|| - }{title}

No custom columns needed.

Please notice this {series_index:0>3s|| - }
series_index - is series index
:0>3s - the number is three characters long, so instead of part 2 it will write 002 - so the series can be alphabetically sorted when there is more than 10 books in series. Otherwise it would be like this: 1,10,11,2,3,...,9
|| - - if you did not use this, but instead {authors} - {series} {series_index} - {title} then when there is no series you would have filename such as: 'Author Name - - Title'. the || denominate prefix and suffix that is given to the series or series index IF they exist.
For the angle brackets version it would be something like

{authors} - {series:|[| }{series_index:0>3s||] - }{title}

Do not hesitate to ask for more details. Calibre is extremely powerful tool that has even more advanced features

[niijii]

Can anyone make a how to video for this?
Something incredibly simple?

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Tweetygirl10111

I tried using the save to disk option and editing the template using the lookup name I created which was just series_title but it didn't seem to work.

@Tweetygirl10111 - when you use custom columns in templates, the name must be prefixed with a '#' , so try #series_title

BR

[niijii]

Ok created column... now how do I run my whole library through it?

[niijii]

How do I change the "- 01 -" part to a simple [1] bracket part?

[niijii]

and thank you! You saved me a ton of time... just want to change that part to brackets

[niijii]

I really love you! I can't believe it! Thank you!

[BetterRed]

@niijii - suggest you read the calibre template language tutorial in the Calibre User Manual

BR

[niijii]

{series}{series_index:0>2s| [|] }{title} Guessed! And it worked! Thank you.