Quick Guide to Shelf Management with calibre 0.9.1 & above (Touch / Glo / Mini /Aura)

[PeterT]

Please review the instructions found at Kobo_Shelves_and_Collections

The columns you use are probably not the same as mine.

If you like post screen shots of the settings so we can review them

[iostrym]

thanks for the link.

I wasn't looking for the correct option. I was in the device configuration menu. whereas in your wiki it is said :

"Preferences | Import/Export | Sending books to devices"

and I guess, I'm in "only on send" mode. I will check this evening. => [edit] : it was because of this, problem resolved, thanks !!!

[iostrym]

Hello,

Do you know if a kobo could be synchronized correctly with a calibre that use 2 differents database and have books from the 2 different database ? If yes, is there some specific stuff to do or is it completely transparents :
- import book
-switch the database
-import another book
.etc... and collection from the two different database are correctly managed ?

[edit] => I've the feeling it is ok as it was able to detect the presence of book in the device in 2 different database but I didn't do so much test...

[davidfor]

@iostrym: Yes, I do this all the time. I have to main calibre libraries that should have no books in common. The collections work fine for these. But I use several others for testing. These get copies of books from the other libraries plus books from other places. Again it works correctly. The issue you will have is that the collection management will be done for the current library. That means that if in one library should be in a collection, but the other library puts it in a different library, then whichever was the last you used will be the one that sets the collections for that book.

[iostrym]

Thanks it means that if library contains exclusives books (no common books between them) => no problem at all. Thanks a lot.

[fabrice91]

Hi,
I have a problem to include series info with my Kobo Aura 2...
It worked for some books but I dont remember how I did it, now it doesnt work anymore !
I tried many kind of formula with series and title, nothing works...
In the Metaboard plugboards, i tried :
Format : epub
Device : 2 choices : KOBO and KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED
with KOBO choice :I never had a serie in the title
with KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED I have had serie in title BUT the template are not good...
I want this template on 3 lines :
Title (big character)
Series name - nb_serie (small character)
Author (small character)
You can see the result here :

Unfortunately the template given by the author of the blog doesnt work and dont show the expected result :
{title}{series:| – |}{series_index:0>2s}
I tried {title}{series}{series_index:| - |} but It doesnt work...
Any help ?
Thanx !

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by fabrice91

Hi,
I have a problem to include series info with my Kobo Aura 2...
It worked for some books but I dont remember how I did it, now it doesnt work anymore !
I tried many kind of formula with series and title, nothing works...
In the Metaboard plugboards, i tried :
Format : epub
Device : 2 choices : KOBO and KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED
with KOBO choice :I never had a serie in the title
with KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED I have had serie in title BUT the template are not good...

Which of those you use depends on the driver your are using. As you appear to be sending books as kepubs, you are probably using the KoboTouchExtended driver. In that case, you need to set the metadata plugboard for the KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED and format EPUB.

I want this template on 3 lines :
Title (big character)
Series name - nb_serie (small character)
Author (small character)

Which, as far as I can see is what you have. And that is the format defined by Kobo for the book lists and you have absolutely no control over. The first line is the book title and comes from the title in the metadata. The second line is the series info and has to populated for sideload books by the driver. The last line is the author and comes from the metadata in the book.

You can see the result here :


Unfortunately the template given by the author of the blog doesnt work and dont show the expected result :
{title}{series:| – |}{series_index:0>2s}
I tried {title}{series}{series_index:| - |} but It doesnt work...

Neither of those will produce the results you are asking for. And no metadata plugboard is needed to produce the results you describe. But, the screenshot shows what you describe you want, so I'm at a loss as to what the problem is.

[fabrice91]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Neither of those will produce the results you are asking for. And no metadata plugboard is needed to produce the results you describe. But, the screenshot shows what you describe you want, so I'm at a loss as to what the problem is.

The result I posted is the result of a blogger, not mine !!! ;-)

Originally Posted by davidfor

you need to set the metadata plugboard for the KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED and format EPUB.

OK you're right.

Originally Posted by davidfor

And no metadata plugboard is needed to produce the results you describe.

No, here is the result without using metadata plugboard, and the serie's name and number is right in the metadata of the ebook :
Below is the "default" series result without using metadata plugboard. The serie's name and serie's number of the book DOESNT appears...
Above is the result I obtained weeks ago but I dont remember wich formula I used in the metadata plugboard !


Here is a test but a carriage return is missing between title and serie's name :



Here is a screenshot of my Caliber, you see that series info are right but dont appears in the list without using metadata plugboard :


Anyway thanks for your help

[davidfor]

Ahhh! The series info displayed on the list is not put there by a metadata plugboard. The Kobo devices support it, but do not read it from the metadata. The driver will check each time the device is connected and update the database on the device if there are changes. It can't do this until the books have been processed by the device into the database. So, it should be updated the next time you connect the device to calibre. But, it requires the driver to be configured to do this, and, for the "Metadata management" management option on the "Sending books to devices" page of the calibre preferences to be set to automatic.

[fabrice91]

Originally Posted by davidfor

But, it requires the driver to be configured to do this, and, for the "Metadata management" management option on the "Sending books to devices" page of the calibre preferences to be set to automatic.

It works !!!
Many thanx !

[wroane]

I have had to reset and sync my KA1, and am looking for a way to maintain the "finished" tag on my books on the device when i sync. I have checked on this thread, but only seem to get bits and pieces, and Calibre returns "Template Error", even when I copy and paste. Can someone give me a clear procedure to follow?

[davidfor]

There isn't really anything in this thread about maintaining the reading status. if you want to put books into a collection called "Finished", you can. But, that doesn't affect what the reading status. To do this, look at my Kobo Utilities plugin. That has ways to sync the reading status between the device and calibre or to simple set the status from calibre.

For the template error, we would need to see the error and what you copied-and-pasted. But, the most likely reason is that you needed to change something in the template based on your calibre library. This is probably the name of the column the template uses. These need to exist in your library or the template changed to use what you have.

[vjjustin]

A quick question; is there any way to delete all the collections ONLY in Kobo? I know we can delete collections individually from kobo by long pressing each collection, but is there anyway to do it for all at once either through device or through calibre?

I have automatic collection management enabled in calibre but was trying some automatic folder management while sending books to kobo. So, now I have many collections with wrong book count. This is not getting fixed during regular calibre connect.

The only way I know to fix this is to delete all the collections in kobo and next time when I connect calibre/metadata will create all collections for me with correct book count, this has worked in the past. But I have around 100 collections and it will take a lot of time.

Any help?

[PeterT]

Why not remove all columns from the device driver configuration for tags to use for collections and then attach the device and allow calibre to resyn the shelves. Then put the columns you want to use back in the configuration and let calibre do it's magic one more time.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by vjjustin

I have automatic collection management enabled in calibre but was trying some automatic folder management while sending books to kobo. So, now I have many collections with wrong book count. This is not getting fixed during regular calibre connect.

The only way I know of to get a wrong book count for a category is to have a corrupt database. I've fought with this a couple of times, and the only permanent and complete solution is to log out and back in and rebuild the library on the kobo from scratch.

Luckily, between the kobo cloud and backing up positions with calibre, this isn't too difficult.