Folder organization & Role-playing Books

Theeo123 · 11-23-2010, 05:42 PM

I know that one question addressed before is the ability to store books in calibre, without having it re-organised the physical folder structure
universally this seems to get shot down with the "tags are better, it does a better job than you can" sort of argument.

I'm not here to continue that argument, but to hopefully find a solution that works.

Calibre is GREAT for a lot of books, fiction, especially, author sorting, title sorting etc. even if you collect a lot of "for dummies" type books you can tag them by category topic etc.

Right now I have almost 5,000 books in my calibre library, it's about 6.5 gig's on disk.

what I have not included is my extensive 60 Gig collection of RPG books. almost all of these are in PDF, sadly, some of them don't look so great on e-readers, also not all my players have e-readers.

so as it stands now the RPG books are organized, generally speaking as thus
RPG books
-- Game
---- Edition
-------- Player books
-------- GM books

so on so forth. these books often have multiple authors or even entire creative teams, and the author is unimportant.

I can put these into Calibre, and add a ton of tags, to try and make them all easy to find, but it's far from a simple task but it is do-able.

where I run into a problem is that I them have all these, hundreds, and hundreds of books, all just sort of scattered around within calibre's main e-book folder, and the folders are titled by author. meaning there is no way to look up the books except THROUGH calibre.

meaning other people on my network can't find what they want anymore.

As it stands now I can simple share my RPG books folder, and everyone can find what they want easily and quickly. However I want to be able to use calibre's management & conversion features when putting the books on my Kindle.

I can't come up with a solution short of simple having the books stored in two different places, and eating up a TON of hard drive space.

How can i let Calibre manage my RPG books, but still make them accessible to my gaming group/network?

kovidgoyal · 11-23-2010, 05:53 PM

use the calibre content server?

Starson17 · 11-23-2010, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theeo123

I can't come up with a solution short of simple having the books stored in two different places, and eating up a TON of hard drive space.

Content server is the first option. Keep them as originals, or do a nightly export to the structure you want - as a second option. I saw a 1.5 TB drive yesterday for $69. Your 60GB costs less than $3 today.

Worldwalker · 11-23-2010, 10:25 PM

This is a pet peeve of mine:

Calibre does not reorganize the folder structure.

Calibre makes its own copy of the files, off in its own folders, where gerfingerpoken und mittengrabben are prohibited. Your files are right where you left them.

suecsi · 11-24-2010, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

where gerfingerpoken und mittengrabben are prohibited. Your files are right where you left them.

Theeo123 · 11-24-2010, 06:46 AM

ok perhaps I mis-spoke I know the files are right where I left them See my notice about taking up extra space.

yes I know the storage is Cheap I'm running a 1Tb RAID array as, is but it's Waste for waste sake, literal duplicate copies of books.

I thought the Calibre content server required the users to have calibre as well?
Asking a half dozen individuals to install software, they otherwise don't need, just to access my shared files seems... I'm not sure how to phrase it, rude maybe.

to put it another way, Assume your friends came over and wanted to borrow some music, and you forced them to install I tunes just to copy 2 or 3 MP3's off your computer (and please lets not get into a legal debate here, it's just the first example that came to mind) Do you think they would be happy/willing to do it?

Worldwalker, I too k the time yo read the post linked in your signature, and I agree with what you have to say, but there are exceptions to every rule. you suggest using Calibre to export books to lend to your friend,s which is great and fine & good, and I wholeheartedly agree with it, and it the way calibre handles book management in general.

But these books are often used as reference, you don't pull one out, and read it cover to cover, you grab one, look up some rule you forgot, some chart you needed to reference, and then put it back. for me, the guy running Calibre, with local access to the file,s this might be fine, but for the others in my gaming group, less so.

if it's not do-able, that's fine I'm not here to raise a stink and go "oh noes" or whatever
I was just hoping there was a way to get it to do what I wanted, if there isn't, there isn't I'll eat the extra 60 gig, but I figured I'd ask before I fragment the crap out of my drive :P

Believe me, 60 gig of books, not a huge amount of space, I just hate inefficiency of having duplicate files lying around

Sweetpea · 11-24-2010, 06:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

This is a pet peeve of mine:

Calibre does not reorganize the folder structure.

Calibre makes its own copy of the files, off in its own folders, where gerfingerpoken und mittengrabben are prohibited. Your files are right where you left them.

Problem is that you have no idea where the original file is, if you use Calibre as Calibre doesn't save where it got the file. So, using Calibre to keep track of your "own" copies is useless. So, either you use the Content Server, or you just can't use Calibre if you are dependent on folder structure to find the books you want without Calibre.

Sweetpea · 11-24-2010, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theeo123

I thought the Calibre content server required the users to have calibre as well?

No, it's a web application. But it does require that Calibre is running on a server. So, if you're using a NAS with your books, it's probably useless.

itimpi · 11-24-2010, 06:55 AM

There is also the option of using Calibre2opds for those who want a web server based catalog without the need to have calibre itself running. This is what I use to allow my ebooks to be accessible online from my NAS which is not capable of running Calibre, but comes with an apache web server built in.

Sweetpea · 11-24-2010, 06:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by itimpi

There is also the option of using Calibre2opds for those who want a web server based catalog without the need to have calibre itself running. This is what I use to allow my ebooks to be accessible online from my NAS.

Then you'd have to make something that reads that opds (whatever that is...)

itimpi · 11-24-2010, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Then you'd have to make something that reads that opds (whatever that is...)

No you do not as you can generate either HTML and/or OPDS catalogs using calibre2opds.

FYI: The OPDS standard is the one that Calibre itself uses for readers such as Stanza that understand such a format. It gives a much better navigation experience than an HTML catalog on mobile devices/readers that support the standard.

Theeo123 · 11-24-2010, 07:06 AM

**reads help file**
**starts content server**
**wipes egg from face**

Oh..... um... that is possibly the most beautiful thing I've seen this year.... please excuse me while I beat my head on my desk repeatedly.

ok thanks for all the help guys, I was completely misinformed on how the content server works I blame my own stupidity.

granted, I might be able to blame that on the public education system, but that's for a different forum

really though, thanks for the help this solves a lot of problems for me.

This will work really well, thank you again.

Manichean · 11-24-2010, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Theeo123

if it's not do-able, that's fine I'm not here to raise a stink and go "oh noes" or whatever
I was just hoping there was a way to get it to do what I wanted, if there isn't, there isn't I'll eat the extra 60 gig, but I figured I'd ask before I fragment the crap out of my drive :P

For what it's worth: We've seen a repeat of this exact same discussion, many times with the OP being quite... adamant that his way is the right and only way, many times over- in fact, it's a recurring theme around here. (This is not to say that you are one of those annoying know-it-alls who usually post that request, before you get confused. I found your posts to be civil and not as stubborn as they could have been

) So, if someone, and be it with the best of intentions, repeats the request, people tend to react a bit more aggressive and/or annoyed than they usually would.
Also, while any change to the calibre database structure should certainly be implementable, it would, I gather, necessate an almost complete rewrite of certain parts. And the developer(s) picked one philosophy of doing things, and that is the way it is now.

Edit: Oh, and I'm glad the content server worked out that well for you.

Theeo123 · 11-24-2010, 01:26 PM

Manochean:
thanks for the kind words. Believe I've seen a few other threads, and I've seen people get angry, that's why i tried to focus on finding a solution rather than debating who was right in the first place.

admittedly, my situation is far from mainstream, I can think of few other situations where Calibre's tagging and file structure are NOT more efficient. Perhaps RPG's and encyclopedias, maybe certain technical journals, that's about it Id think.

Expecting a program to change what works for millions of other scenarios, just to accommodate a few special cases, always seemed dumb to me.

Lady Fitzgerald · 11-24-2010, 01:37 PM

[QUOTE=Theeo123;1234033]admittedly, my situation is far from mainstream, I can think of few other situations where Calibre's tagging and file structure are NOT more efficient. Perhaps RPG's and encyclopedias, maybe certain technical journals, that's about it Id think.QUOTE]

Since I know nothing about role playing games (and have no desire to learn; I have too many things on my plate as it is), I won't address that. However, I am curious why you feel the old folder/filename tree could be more efficient for encyclopedias and certain tech journals.

11-23-2010, 05:42 PM	#1
Theeo123 Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Kindle DX	Folder organization & Role-playing Books I know that one question addressed before is the ability to store books in calibre, without having it re-organised the physical folder structure universally this seems to get shot down with the "tags are better, it does a better job than you can" sort of argument. I'm not here to continue that argument, but to hopefully find a solution that works. Calibre is GREAT for a lot of books, fiction, especially, author sorting, title sorting etc. even if you collect a lot of "for dummies" type books you can tag them by category topic etc. Right now I have almost 5,000 books in my calibre library, it's about 6.5 gig's on disk. what I have not included is my extensive 60 Gig collection of RPG books. almost all of these are in PDF, sadly, some of them don't look so great on e-readers, also not all my players have e-readers. so as it stands now the RPG books are organized, generally speaking as thus RPG books -- Game ---- Edition -------- Player books -------- GM books so on so forth. these books often have multiple authors or even entire creative teams, and the author is unimportant. I can put these into Calibre, and add a ton of tags, to try and make them all easy to find, but it's far from a simple task but it is do-able. where I run into a problem is that I them have all these, hundreds, and hundreds of books, all just sort of scattered around within calibre's main e-book folder, and the folders are titled by author. meaning there is no way to look up the books except THROUGH calibre. meaning other people on my network can't find what they want anymore. As it stands now I can simple share my RPG books folder, and everyone can find what they want easily and quickly. However I want to be able to use calibre's management & conversion features when putting the books on my Kindle. I can't come up with a solution short of simple having the books stored in two different places, and eating up a TON of hard drive space. How can i let Calibre manage my RPG books, but still make them accessible to my gaming group/network?

11-24-2010, 06:55 AM	#9
itimpi Wizard Posts: 4,552 Karma: 950151 Join Date: Nov 2008 Device: Sony PRS-950, iphone/ipad (Marvin/iBooks/QuickReader)	There is also the option of using Calibre2opds for those who want a web server based catalog without the need to have calibre itself running. This is what I use to allow my ebooks to be accessible online from my NAS which is not capable of running Calibre, but comes with an apache web server built in. Last edited by itimpi; 11-24-2010 at 06:57 AM.

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11-23-2010, 05:53 PM	#2
kovidgoyal creator of calibre Posts: 43,858 Karma: 22666666 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Mumbai, India Device: Various	use the calibre content server?

11-23-2010, 10:25 PM	#4
Worldwalker Curmudgeon Posts: 3,085 Karma: 722357 Join Date: Feb 2010 Device: PRS-505	This is a pet peeve of mine: Calibre does not reorganize the folder structure. Calibre makes its own copy of the files, off in its own folders, where gerfingerpoken und mittengrabben are prohibited. Your files are right where you left them.

11-24-2010, 06:46 AM	#6
Theeo123 Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Kindle DX	ok perhaps I mis-spoke I know the files are right where I left them See my notice about taking up extra space. yes I know the storage is Cheap I'm running a 1Tb RAID array as, is but it's Waste for waste sake, literal duplicate copies of books. I thought the Calibre content server required the users to have calibre as well? Asking a half dozen individuals to install software, they otherwise don't need, just to access my shared files seems... I'm not sure how to phrase it, rude maybe. to put it another way, Assume your friends came over and wanted to borrow some music, and you forced them to install I tunes just to copy 2 or 3 MP3's off your computer (and please lets not get into a legal debate here, it's just the first example that came to mind) Do you think they would be happy/willing to do it? Worldwalker, I too k the time yo read the post linked in your signature, and I agree with what you have to say, but there are exceptions to every rule. you suggest using Calibre to export books to lend to your friend,s which is great and fine & good, and I wholeheartedly agree with it, and it the way calibre handles book management in general. But these books are often used as reference, you don't pull one out, and read it cover to cover, you grab one, look up some rule you forgot, some chart you needed to reference, and then put it back. for me, the guy running Calibre, with local access to the file,s this might be fine, but for the others in my gaming group, less so. if it's not do-able, that's fine I'm not here to raise a stink and go "oh noes" or whatever I was just hoping there was a way to get it to do what I wanted, if there isn't, there isn't I'll eat the extra 60 gig, but I figured I'd ask before I fragment the crap out of my drive :P Believe me, 60 gig of books, not a huge amount of space, I just hate inefficiency of having duplicate files lying around

11-24-2010, 07:06 AM	#12
Theeo123 Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Kindle DX	reads help file starts content server wipes egg from face Oh..... um... that is possibly the most beautiful thing I've seen this year.... please excuse me while I beat my head on my desk repeatedly. ok thanks for all the help guys, I was completely misinformed on how the content server works I blame my own stupidity. granted, I might be able to blame that on the public education system, but that's for a different forum really though, thanks for the help this solves a lot of problems for me. This will work really well, thank you again.

11-24-2010, 01:26 PM	#14
Theeo123 Member Posts: 17 Karma: 10 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: Kindle DX	Manochean: thanks for the kind words. Believe I've seen a few other threads, and I've seen people get angry, that's why i tried to focus on finding a solution rather than debating who was right in the first place. admittedly, my situation is far from mainstream, I can think of few other situations where Calibre's tagging and file structure are NOT more efficient. Perhaps RPG's and encyclopedias, maybe certain technical journals, that's about it Id think. Expecting a program to change what works for millions of other scenarios, just to accommodate a few special cases, always seemed dumb to me.

11-24-2010, 01:37 PM	#15
Lady Fitzgerald Wizard Posts: 2,013 Karma: 251649 Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Tempe, AZ, USA, Earth Device: JetBook Lite (away from home) + 1 spare, 32" TV (at home)	[QUOTE=Theeo123;1234033]admittedly, my situation is far from mainstream, I can think of few other situations where Calibre's tagging and file structure are NOT more efficient. Perhaps RPG's and encyclopedias, maybe certain technical journals, that's about it Id think.QUOTE] Since I know nothing about role playing games (and have no desire to learn; I have too many things on my plate as it is), I won't address that. However, I am curious why you feel the old folder/filename tree could be more efficient for encyclopedias and certain tech journals.

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