Import books from excel, csv or similar list?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Normally as I understand it I accomplish this by doing a send to disk then creating a new library and then bulk adding all my books to it. But, the empty books in Library1 aren't there in Library2. What do I have to do to get them there? Add them to Library2, which is a clunky should-be-unnecessary extra step.

Why not just replace the formats in the existing library?

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by chaley

calibre automatically creates an OPF file in the book folder in the library. This file will be created whether or not there are any book formats. Its purpose in life is to permit rebuilding the database in the event the db gets corrupted and the user has no backup.

which perhaps lends more weight to my point about consistency.

[itimpi]

I would have thought that it was easy enough to do this within a library by taking advantage of the Author Tweaks/Manage Authors facility and the plugboard facility (depending on what you are starting with).

This would accomplish all the required changes to author/author-sort and any required renaming of files/folders within the Calibre library file/folde structure. The metadata already embedded in ebook files would then be updated as soon as you tried to do a Send to Disk/Device for ones of interest.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by chaley

Why not just replace the formats in the existing library?

hmm. You mean a bulk format to format conversion, forcing the new metadata into the books? How does the conversion handler know to write the new metadata into the actual book formats, which I thought only send-to-disk or -device could do?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by unboggling

which perhaps lends more weight to my point about consistency.

Sorry, but I don't see the issue. Consistency of what? It seems that you are talking about the metadata in every format of a book being equal to the metadata in the DB for that book. If there are no books, then there isn't a problem.

My guess is that you have a particular work flow scenario in mind that I don't share.

As for replacing formats, use the command line calibredb add_format. Generate the script from the files in the save to disk hierarchy. To simplify things, put the book ID into the path somewhere.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by itimpi

I would have thought that it was easy enough to do this within a library by taking advantage of the Author Tweaks/Manage Authors facility and the plugboard facility (depending on what you are starting with).

This would accomplish all the required changes to author/author-sort and any required renaming of files/folders within the Calibre library file/folde structure. The metadata already embedded in ebook files would then be updated as soon as you tried to do a Send to Disk/Device for ones of interest.

But would still leave all the empty books inconsistent, i think. unless the plugboard step could create an empty txt file and write the metadata to it?

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by unboggling

But would still leave all the empty books inconsistent, i think. unless the plugboard step could create an empty txt file and write the metadata to it?

No - each empty book (folder) would still contain a metadata.opf file with the updated metadata inside it. The metadata.opf file is re-written any time the metadata for a book changes.

[unboggling]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I'm curious though did you have the options (Preferences - Saving books to disk) of Save cover separately and Save metadata in OPF file checked?

Sorry dwanthny, I somehow missed your post earlier. Answer: both, i think. Regarding the BU info, thx.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by unboggling

hmm. You mean a bulk format to format conversion, forcing the new metadata into the books? How does the conversion handler know to write the new metadata into the actual book formats, which I thought only send-to-disk or -device could do?

Yes this would put the new metadata into the books.

Send to Device
Save to Disk
Conversion

Three ways to embed whatever metadata the ebook format can contain into a book. I'm backing out of this conversation because your OCD might be contagious.

[unboggling]

Thx @ kiwidude, dwanthny, chaley, itimpi for all responses and suggestions. At this point I'm not able to explain even to myself why i thought there was an issue, if there is one. I'll give it a rest while digesting your responses.

[unboggling]

After some sleep:

I get it. The OPFs, empty book and full, are updated automatically. So are full books if the setting's set. No problem.

Backups, ok. No problem.

Send to disk or device? Um. Calibre doesn't send the empty book OPFs. Which is what started me thinking about this issue in the first place. So here's a case: I want to buy all the books in a particular series, but so far only have some and not others. I have listed those un-owned-yet as empty books to keep better track of series numbers and what I own and don't. eBooks aren't available yet because the series is over 20 years old but not public domain. So off to the used bookstores I go, either physically traveling or virtually online, with trusty eBD containing calibre catalog in hand, to buy pBooks. Wanting to use the catalog as reference to what I need to buy. Question: does the catalog contain the OPF metadata from the empty books, or did it skip over them like send to disk or device did? (I haven't checked yet.) If it skips, I have a problem because the metadata I need to refer to won't be there. If it doesn't skip, there isn't a problem.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by unboggling

Question: does the catalog contain the OPF metadata from the empty books, or did it skip over them like send to disk or device did? (I haven't checked yet.) If it skips, I have a problem because the metadata I need to refer to won't be there. If it doesn't skip, there isn't a problem.

I just tried it. I removed the formats for a book and generated a catalog. My epub catalog contains the empty book.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by chaley

I just tried it. I removed the formats for a book and generated a catalog. My epub catalog contains the empty book.

Indeed - I vaguely recall reading that if you have a tag called "Wishlist" on those items you are missing they get especially marked in the catalog too.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...st#post1223881

[unboggling]

Awesome that catalog includes empties. Awesomer that "wishlist" tag might highlight them. I'll try that. My confusion stems from my not previously defining or knowing what universes each operation lives in. (save to disk, send to device, conversion, cataloging) There is a set of items called bookID. There is a set of items called metadatabookID (or whatever you call it) that includes both empty-of-format and formats-exist. The universe of metadatabookID is larger than bookID. The universe of bookID doesn't include metadatabookID if empty-of-format. Some operations use one universe, other operations use another universe.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by unboggling

The universe of metadatabookID is larger than bookID. The universe of bookID doesn't include metadatabookID if empty-of-format. Some operations use one universe, other operations use another universe.

To be pedantic (something I am good at):

In calibre, there are two concepts that you have mostly identified. First, there is the notion of 'book', which is the fundamental thing that calibre manipulates. When you edit metadata, send to device, or do almost anything else, you are first-and-foremost operating on a book. Books are abstract. For example, you can't read a calibre book.

The second concept is a 'format'. A format is a file that is part of the data associated with a book (is a child of book). The assumption made is that the format is something you can read, and can have a life independent of calibre.

Thus, in calibre, every book in a given library has what you are calling the metadatabookID. This is one-to-one mapping. Books in another calibre library will have a different metadatabookID, even if you (the human) know that the books are in fact the same.

A book can have zero or more formats. Inside calibre, a format cannot exist without being associated with (is a child of) a book. Books can exist quite happily without formats.

When you export information from calibre (send/save to), you are exporting format files. The resulting files are no longer associated with the book. Because of metadata updating, they may be (probably are) different from the format file still in calibre's library. After export, calibre doesn't know what the files are, and in fact completely forgets about them. Only if the user asks for it does calibre attempt to re-associate an external format file with a book. The most obvious way of 'asking' is to add a format file to the library. The second-most is to connect a device, in which case calibre sniffs over the format files on the device, trying to determine which book (if any) the files are associated with.

Given the above, I argue that the universe of "bookID" is much larger than that of "metadatabookID". BookID includes every format file that exists: whether exported, sent to devices/folders, on dropbox, or put wherever-have-you by the content server. MetadatabookID is strictly associated with a book in a given calibre library. There is no fixed mapping between bookIDs and metadatabookIDs. One can have formats that have no analogous book, and vice versa. Many formats that can be associated with a given book.