Trying to get collections sorted on PRS-T1

[capnm]

First, I apologize, I suspect the answer to this may exist floating around here, but I'm out in a place with very restricted internet access so I can't readily browse right now...

I'm trying to get a PRS-T1 to sort nicely, as my 350 does.

On the 350 I set up a plugboard, setting author_sort to a compound author-series-index with leading zeroes in the series index.
Similarly setting author but without the leading zeroes (and other cosmetic differences)

When looking at a series collection, the books appear in the desired order, with the author-series[n] displayed on line 2.
Likewise in the all-by-author collection. I think that was using sort by added order.
I'm not sure what the sorted by author result was. I think it was by author name (as displayed), because I recall being annoyed I couldn't have both a proper sort, and the letter tabs on the side (the tabs only show when sorting by author).
Tag collections are either sorted by title, or, frustratingly, displayed author instead of author-sort.
(The problem with sorting by the displayed author instead of by author-sort is that the series gets out of order without leading zeroes)

Now on to the T1 ...
I copied the plugboard, additionally duplicating the two templates into an epub plugboard to inject the metadata tweaks into the epub to deal with the T1's sporadic database regeneration.

Within a series collection:
Sort by added order seems to work sometimes. Possibly until the T1 regenerates it's database?
Sort by author seems to sort by the displayed author (so with no leading zeroes, series can be out of order).

Within all-by-author:
The sorting within an author appears to be by title(?) whether sorting by added order or by author.

In both device plugins I have "use author sort for author" unchecked.
I am using automatic metadata management.

No SD card.

So my question is:
Did anybody get this to work on a T1?
("This" being to consistently sort on author-sort as defined by the plugboard, or do something equivalent.)

[jackie_w]

See item '3. Define how you want to SORT Sony Collections' in this (rather long) post of mine.

[capnm]

Thank you Jackie_w, that was what I was looking for.

Except it isn't quite working for me ... for whatever reason.

Have you used the special all_by_author collection on the T1?

If you have, and it sorts correctly, then I've done something incorrect, and need to keep troubleshooting.

If not, I'm suspecting the T1 just doesn't play nicely with it, and I should probably stop trying to chase it down, and live with it.

I think you're using the custom column & tweak to the same purpose/effect I was using the plugboard & author_sort field on the 350.

I *thought* on the 350 that added_order on all the collections, including a_b_a, was being pulled from the author_sort I defined in the plugboard.
edit: No that's not right .... because collections usually ended up by title,I think. Not sure why I was using the plugboard for author_sort. Maybe I never got it quite working either

On the T1, added order in a_b_a seems ... confused, within author.
And neither setting author_sort in the device_db plugboard, and in the epub plugboard, or tweaking the collections sort seems to affect it.

On the other hand, for the other collections, sorting via the tweak seems to be producing a lasting sort on the T1, while plugboarding author_sort in both device_db and epub didn't.
Which is the opposite of what I would expect, but it is, after all, Sony ...

[speakingtohe]

I have found that if you have a custom column built on other columns in calibre it messes up the T1 sorting, but not the 350. Does not have to be a column used for collections or displayed.

Also if this is not the case you might try disconnecting the T1 after ejecting and then reconnecting in non transfer mode till it finishes processing the books. Seems to make it less unpredictable.

Helen

[jackie_w]

@capnm,

I have a vague memory (someone correct me if I'm wrong) that the special Collections, all by author and all by title, may not have been added to the calibre driver for PRST1/T2. It was a special feature added to the original Sony driver (PRS505 to PRSx50) by calibre developer chaley. I believe Kolenka did all the calibre work for the PRST1/T2 driver.

I also seem to remember Kolenka saying there was something odd about the way the T1 handled sort fields, hence the unpredictability of sorting the main book listings. I think sorting within Collections is done by the calibre driver, i.e. it works! ... as long as you sort by Added Order

[capnm]

It seems that predictable does_not_equal T1, so I'll live with 'less unpredictable' ...
And the logic behind some of our observations escapes me, which I guess makes them predictably unpredictable

@jackie_w
Well, you indirectly answered my question - you obviously don't use all_by_author/all_by_title on the T1.
FWIW they're apparently in the driver, because I successfully referenced a_b_a.
It just doesn't sort as the other collections do.
So I'm not going to worry about it anymore.

It's all working well enough for me.

BTW, if it's of use to anybody, I tweaked my sort template to only look at the first author, as I have several series where some books have different co-authors:

{author_sort:'uppercase(list_item($,0,' & '))'}{series:| - |}{series_index:0>6.2f| - |}
 - {title}

I also have a ridiculously complex author template for the Sony, which initializes series names where needed, to display the most info possible in the author line:

Readable:

Spoiler:

*limitation: a lowercase extended non-latin1 char will popup as an initial

program:
linelen=42;
author1 = list_item(field('author_sort'), 0, ' & ');
authorx = re(author1,'(\, .).*','\1.');
series1 = template('{series:| - |}');
seriesx = template('{series:re((?u)\s*(\d+\.?\d*\'?\w?|\w)[a-zà-ÿ_\']*\.?\s*,\1)| - |}');
iauthor1 = strlen(author1);
iauthorx = strlen(authorx);
iseries1 = strlen(series1);
iseriesx = strlen(seriesx);
mode=cmp(linelen,add(iauthor1,iseries1),cmp(linele n,add(iauthorx,iseries1),
cmp(linelen,add(iauthor1,iseriesx),4,3,3),2,2),1,1 );
strcat(switch(mode,1,strcat(author1,' ',series1),2,strcat(authorx,' ',series1),
3,strcat(author1,' ',seriesx),strcat(authorx,' ',seriesx)),' ',
template('{series_index:| [|]}'))

Pasteable (assuming it comes out all one line):

Spoiler:

program:linelen=42;author1 = list_item(field('author_sort'), 0, ' & ');authorx = re(author1,'(\, .).*','\1.');series1 = template('{series:| - |}');seriesx = template('{series:re((?u)\s*(\d+\.?\d*\'?\w?|\w)[a-zà-ÿ_\']*\.?\s*,\1)| - |}');iauthor1 = strlen(author1);iauthorx = strlen(authorx);iseries1 = strlen(series1);iseriesx = strlen(seriesx);mode=cmp(linelen,add(iauthor1,iser ies1),cmp(linelen,add(iauthorx,iseries1),cmp(linel en,add(iauthor1,iseriesx),4,3,3),2,2),1,1);strcat( switch(mode,1,strcat(author1,' ',series1),2,strcat(authorx,' ',series1),3,strcat(author1,' ',seriesx),strcat(authorx,' ',seriesx)),' ',template('{series_index:| [|]}'))

Cheers!