[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I looked up the help page for "update metadata" but didn't find anything more about "utiliser le panneau" than what appears when hovering above it. It translates something like "define the metadata on the device using the panel for the device and the type of book", which I don't understand. What is the panel?

Where did you find that in the Kobo Utilities help? The only references I found to panneau in the Kobo Utilities French language help files were to Ignorer les panneaux de l'écran d'accueil and Affichage des panneaux supplémentaires which would have panneaux translating as tiles.

Your translation sounds like a reference to the Metadata plugboards in the calibre preferences.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I looked up the help page for "update metadata" but didn't find anything more about "utiliser le panneau" than what appears when hovering above it. It translates something like "define the metadata on the device using the panel for the device and the type of book", which I don't understand. What is the panel?

I had to look at the translation file to see what this was. In English it is "Use plugboards". It probably should be "Use metadata plugboard". With this option, if there is a metadata plugboard for the book format and device, it is used to set the metadata on the device.

[anacreon]

I tested using this metadata plugboard: it means I get the metadata in the books, but lose what I added in kobo utilities (the tags) and the individual metadata (the number of pages and a line separating it from the blurb). So I dropped it.
Thank you for your help.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I tested using this metadata plugboard: it means I get the metadata in the books, but lose what I added in kobo utilities (the tags) and the individual metadata (the number of pages and a line separating it from the blurb). So I dropped it.

Are you talking about the comment? What sort of template are you using in the plugin? Unless you are using a "jacket" style template, the plugin actually creates its own plugboard for the template to generate the comment. If you copied this to the metadata plugboard, then it should be producing exactly the same thing.

The jacket template is different, but, you should be able to produce the same result.

The plugboard I use is:

{comments}{:'raw_field("tags")'|<p><b>Tags:</b> |</p>}{rating:rating_as_stars()|<p><b>Rating:</b> |</p>}{#kobo_last_read:|<p><b>Last Read:</b> |</p>}{:'test(field('#words'),'<p>',test(field('#pages'),'<p>',''))'}{#words:|<b>Word count:</b> |}{:'test(field('#words'),test(field('#pages'),' ',''),'')'}{#pages:|<b>Page count:</b> |}{:'test(field('#words'),'</p>',test(field('#pages'),'</p>',''))'}

That puts the comment, followed by the tags, rating, last read and the word and page counts. I was thinking I had a horizontal ruled after the comments, but, I must have removed it at some time.

And for the record, the plugboard is used by calibre when sending the books to the device, and can be used by the driver to update the metadata later. Using these mean you don't need to worry about using the plugin to update the metadata.

[anacreon]

I use this for the "comments/synopsis"

PHP Code:

{timestamp:|ajout calibre |<br>}{#lu:||<br>}{tags:}{comments} 


and this for the subtitles

PHP Code:

{#nb_page} pages 


I've also used this for years in calibre, in the "search and replace" for bulk metadata treatment:
search: {#nb_page} pages
search field: #nb_page
replace with: \1 pages<BR>_________________________
add to begin of comments field


Until a few F/W back I had to send this to the device once after the second connection after sending a new book, or after modifying the metadata, but now I have to resend it to all my books after every connection, or I loose the date added to calibre, the #lu information and the tags.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

I use this for the "comments/synopsis"

PHP Code:

{timestamp:|ajout calibre |<br>}{#lu:||<br>}{tags:}{comments} 


and this for the subtitles

PHP Code:

{#nb_page} pages 


I've also used this for years in calibre, in the "search and replace" for bulk metadata treatment:
search: {#nb_page} pages
search field: #nb_page
replace with: \1 pages<BR>_________________________
add to begin of comments field


Until a few F/W back I had to send this to the device once after the second connection after sending a new book, or after modifying the metadata, but now I have to resend it to all my books after every connection, or I loose the date added to calibre, the #lu information and the tags.

The last has nothing to do with the firmware. You probably have the metadata updating option turned on in the driver. That will update the metadata on the device with every connection. But, you can use those options. This uses the metadata plugboard. Set the comment to the template you have above. For the subtitle, this can't be done via a plugboard as it isn't a standard column. But, the driver has an option to set the subtitle using a template. Again, the above template should work there.

For your search-and-replace, I find that a horrible idea. It means the page count is at the start of the comments in the calibre library. But, if that is how you want it. The following template, either through the plugin or a metadata plugboard would achieve the same effect:

{timestamp:|ajout calibre |<br>}{#lu:||<br>}{tags:}{#nb_page} pages<br/>_________________________{comments}

Or maybe:

{timestamp:|ajout calibre |<br>}{#lu:||<br>}{tags:}{#nb_page} pages<br/><hr/>{comments}

My template above does a lot of this, except that it adds the HTML tag so it formats well. And checks the values exist before using them.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The last has nothing to do with the firmware. You probably have the metadata updating option turned on in the driver. That will update the metadata on the device with every connection. But, you can use those options. This uses the metadata plugboard. Set the comment to the template you have above. For the subtitle, this can't be done via a plugboard as it isn't a standard column. But, the driver has an option to set the subtitle using a template. Again, the above template should work there.

For your search-and-replace, I find that a horrible idea. It means the page count is at the start of the comments in the calibre library. But, if that is how you want it. The following template, either through the plugin or a metadata plugboard would achieve the same effect:

{timestamp:|ajout calibre |<br>}{#lu:||<br>}{tags:}{#nb_page} pages<br/>_________________________{comments}

Or maybe:

{timestamp:|ajout calibre |<br>}{#lu:||<br>}{tags:}{#nb_page} pages<br/><hr/>{comments}

My template above does a lot of this, except that it adds the HTML tag so it formats well. And checks the values exist before using them.

What you propose would be cleaner than what I do, but my problem is "heritage". My comments now include the page number and line on all my 11000+ books, and eliminating them would be an enormous hassle, so I'm sort of locked in.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

What you propose would be cleaner than what I do, but my problem is "heritage". My comments now include the page number and line on all my 11000+ books, and eliminating them would be an enormous hassle, so I'm sort of locked in.

Of course. And that's one of the problems with populating the metadata that way. But, you should be able to clean it up.

What you are adding to the comments appears to be well structured. You should be able to use search-and-replace to remove it. At a first pass the search would be:

\d+ pages<BR>_________________________(.*)

Though I would probably use:

\d+ pages<BR>_+(.*)

And the replace string is just:

\1

With the search and destination fields both being comments.

The problem I can think of with this is that any changes to the comments in the metadata editor would wrap tags around it and change the exact format.

[ownedbycats]

Question: I have a book on both my Kobo and in Calibre. (Synced with the Reading List plugin, if that matters.) If I begin reading the book in Calibre, it populates the previously-empty #lastread column.

I know it's not possible to sync the progress between the Calibre viewer and the device, but can Kobo Utilities somehow mark the book as "currently reading" so that it'll appear on the title screen when I'm done my current books?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Question: I have a book on both my Kobo and in Calibre. (Synced with the Reading List plugin, if that matters.) If I begin reading the book in Calibre, it populates the previously-empty #lastread column.

I know it's not possible to sync the progress between the Calibre viewer and the device,

At the moment, no, but, I'll revisit this with the calibre 5 release. And some free time magically appearing. It should be easy for epubs, but, might not be possible for kepubs that aren't in the library.

but can Kobo Utilities somehow mark the book as "currently reading" so that it'll appear on the title screen when I'm done my current books?

I'm not sure what you want. I use the percent read and a reading list to show books as read in calibre. And an icon rule to add an icon to make it obvious. Are you wanting the book added to the recently-read list the view uses? If so, to me that is a horrible idea. If anything, I'd want the viewer to update my calibre columns.

The Auto Datestamp and View plugin does what I would think of doing. Though @DaltonST appears to have added similar function in one of his plugins.

When/If I do the position sync to the calibre reader, it will probably also add the book to the recently read list. Or, at least I'll look at what happens then.

Of course, that is assuming I understand what you are after.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by davidfor

At the moment, no, but, I'll revisit this with the calibre 5 release. And some free time magically appearing. It should be easy for epubs, but, might not be possible for kepubs that aren't in the library.

Wow, so if the stars align just right and the functionality does get added, this would work for kepubs if they are in the Calibre library?

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by davidfor

At the moment, no, but, I'll revisit this with the calibre 5 release. And some free time magically appearing. It should be easy for epubs, but, might not be possible for kepubs that aren't in the library.


I'm not sure what you want. I use the percent read and a reading list to show books as read in calibre. And an icon rule to add an icon to make it obvious. Are you wanting the book added to the recently-read list the view uses? If so, to me that is a horrible idea. If anything, I'd want the viewer to update my calibre columns.

The Auto Datestamp and View plugin does what I would think of doing. Though @DaltonST appears to have added similar function in one of his plugins.

When/If I do the position sync to the calibre reader, it will probably also add the book to the recently read list. Or, at least I'll look at what happens then.

Of course, that is assuming I understand what you are after.

Job Spy actually handles populating the #lastread column for me.

I mean if I start reading the book in Calibre, it still shows as "unread" on the Kobo. I tried manually adding Im_Reading to the collections but that didn't work.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Wow, so if the stars align just right and the functionality does get added, this would work for kepubs if they are in the Calibre library?

I was probably a little to positive on that.

For epubs, I am sure that the location is convertible between what the calibre viewer uses and what the RMSDK uses, and hence Kobo devices use for epubs. The structure of the two different locations aren't that dissimilar. And at some time in the past, I have done it manually.

For kepubs, the location is basically an anchor in the book. Every sentence has one. Converting that to the method that calibre uses will probably need the kepub. And a lot of staring at code. And far to many four letter words. But, I haven't really looked at it at all. It might turn out to be easy, or impossible. It won't surprise me if getting to the right paragraph is easy, but, getting to the exact position might be a bit harder. For the reading position, that might be OK. But, I also want to do this for annotations, and the exact position is important there.

I have things floating around in the back of my brain about this. Hopefully they will pop out fully formed when I actually start to do it.

[ownedbycats]

I wonder if it could work with KoboTouchExtended to automatically add the converted kepubs to the library when they're sent to the device. I think there's already an option in there to put them into a folder?

[davidfor]

Right now, I don't have a real clue about the best solution. It is way to early to think about it.