[GUI Plugin] Import List

[maxlinworm]

Hi,

I'm migrating my extensive library from mendeley.

To do that, I exported my files from mendeley with the filenames: “AuthorLastName – BookTitle”

I added the mendeley files in calibre, extracting the metadata. So, my books in calibre contain only the author last name and the title.

Next, I exported a csv file with the complete metadata from mendeley. Then I tried to use this awesome plugin to update the incomplete calibre metadata. So, the plugin would update the incomplete book entry in calibre with the complete metadata from mendeley.

The problem was that the plugin never matches the books that I had added, because it searches form the author full name, and I only have the last name in calibre. So, the plugin doesn't match the metadata in the list to the book entry in calibre.

If I manually edit the plugin wizard search to remove the author first name, making it search only for the last name, it matches the book already in the calibre library and updates its metadata correctly. Trouble is I have a very large library, so manually editing the search is unfeasible.

Is there a way to make the search on the wizard use only the author last name as a parameter? In other words: to make the plugin wizard match the calibre entry only by the lastname of the author. In other words still: to remove the first name from the plugin wizard search criteria.

That way, the plugin would automatically update the incomplete calibre metadata (author last name and book title) obtained when I added to calibre the exported files form mendeley with the complete mendeley metadata.

Or does anyone have another suggestion?

I attached 3 printscreens for clarity. The first shows the books added from mendeley with incomplete metadata (authorLastName - BookTitle). The second shows the matching problem. And the third shows that the plugin matches the existing books if I remove the author's first name from the search.

Thanks in advance.

[davidfor]

@maxlinworm: To do what you want, the plugin would need to be changed to do the matching in this way. Sorry, but I have no interest in making that change. It would be much better to change the book export from Mendeley to include the full authors name in the file name.

A workaround would be:

1. Add a custom column called something like "Full Author Name".
2. Add a column in your spreadsheet that has just the surname.
3. During the import, match the surname column in the spreadsheet with the author in the library and populate the custom column with the full author name.
4. After the import, use the find and replace to move the full author name from the custom column to the author column.

Something else that will work, is to edit the author via the "Manage Authors" dialog. If you fix the author names here, then all books by that author will be updated to use the same author. Of course, that doesn't work if you have authors with the same surname. For these, you would need to select the books in the library and use the bulk edit to change the author. Of course, this isn't practical if you basically have one book per author.

[redbaronix]

Hi,

Anybody know how to import a wish list form Amazon Canada? Sorry if this was answered somewhere on MobileRead...couldn't find how to do this.

I've done it manually copy/paste the wish list (from print view) to CSV file but it's a pain.

Anyone has a better way?

Thanks

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by redbaronix

Hi,

Anybody know how to import a wish list form Amazon Canada? Sorry if this was answered somewhere on MobileRead...couldn't find how to do this.

I've done it manually copy/paste the wish list (from print view) to CSV file but it's a pain.

You can't import from a page like this directly. You will need to login to Amazon to do this and the plugin doesn't support any sort of authentication.

What you can try is to save the page to disk and then import from that. From memory, the web page method can use a URL like "file:///path-to-saved-web-page". Once you have done this, you can save the import for next time.

Alternatively, save the page and edit it to make it into a CSV. That will take time, but sometimes it is the simplest way.

[Sarmat89]

1. Is there a way to specify the codepage for the CSV files? By default, there are invalid characters instead of letters.
2. Is it possible to add the localization support?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Sarmat89

1. Is there a way to specify the codepage for the CSV files? By default, there are invalid characters instead of letters.

Not at the moment. Can you post or send me an example with the codepage to use to check?

2. Is it possible to add the localization support?

It is possible, but it is a bit of work. It means going through all the code and converting each displayed string to a translatable string. And then someone writing the translations. I'll put it on the wishlist, but I'm not promising it any time soon.

[Sarmat89]

A list in Windows encoding.

[towermancn]

I just tried to install this plugin, but can't see anything in preferences. I have the newest version of calibre. Does anybody know what happened? How can I see the Step 1?

[theducks]

There are none (at that level/method)
Run the Plugin for options

[davidfor]

@towermancn: As theducks said, there are no configuration options for the plugin at that level. The dialog you are looking at will show the options you select when using the plugin, but in an internal storage method. It is mainly intended for troubleshooting.

[towermancn]

@davidfor @theducks
thanks! problem is solved!

[yonkyunior]

need help, for importing list from worldswithoutend,

http://worldswithoutend.com/lists_cl...f.asp?type=xml

Row
//*[@id="reportlist"]//div[@class="awardslisting"]

Title
p[@class="title"]/text()
Author
p[@class="author"]/text()

the marker show the right match, but, the field table empty..

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by yonkyunior

need help, for importing list from worldswithoutend,

http://worldswithoutend.com/lists_cl...f.asp?type=xml

Row
//*[@id="reportlist"]//div[@class="awardslisting"]

Title
p[@class="title"]/text()
Author
p[@class="author"]/text()

the marker show the right match, but, the field table empty..

The result of your expressions for the title and author include a carriage return and lot of extra spaces. You need to be a bit more specific with these The following seems to work:

Row
//div[@class="awardslisting"]

Title
p[@class="title"]/a/text()
Author
p[@class="author"]/a/text()

[yonkyunior]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The result of your expressions for the title and author include a carriage return and lot of extra spaces. You need to be a bit more specific with these The following seems to work:

Row
//div[@class="awardslisting"]

Title
p[@class="title"]/a/text()
Author
p[@class="author"]/a/text()

great! THX
this setting almost reusable for the whole site lists.

[capink]

Can someone add an option to match entries in library using id instead of title/author?