Editing the date in metadata query

[Cyclops]

I like put the year the book was originally published in the metadata but strangely although you can put any year you want you cant remove the month field. So for example the book you edit was published in 1955 but you have no idea what month, so you would normnally leave the month field blank, but you cant!

[chaley]

See the tweak gui_pubdate_display_format. Tweaks are found in preferences -> advanced -> tweaks tab. You need to restart calibre after changing a tweak.

Documentation from the tweaks file:

# Format to be used for publication date and the timestamp (date).
#  A string controlling how the publication date is displayed in the GUI
#  d    the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31)
#  dd    the day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31)
#  ddd    the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. 'Mon' to 'Sun').
#  dddd    the long localized day name (e.g. 'Monday' to 'Qt::Sunday').
#  M    the month as number without a leading zero (1-12)
#  MM    the month as number with a leading zero (01-12)
#  MMM    the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. 'Jan' to 'Dec').
#  MMMM    the long localized month name (e.g. 'January' to 'December').
#  yy    the year as two digit number (00-99)
#  yyyy    the year as four digit number
#  For example, given the date of 9 Jan 2010, the following formats show
#  MMM yyyy ==> Jan 2010    yyyy ==> 2010       dd MMM yyyy ==> 09 Jan 2010
#  MM/yyyy ==> 01/2010      d/M/yy ==> 9/1/10   yy ==> 10
# publication default if not set: MMM yyyy
# timestamp default if not set: dd MMM yyyy
gui_pubdate_display_format = 'MMM yyyy'
gui_timestamp_display_format = 'dd MMM yyyy'

You want
gui_pubdate_display_format = 'yyyy'

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by chaley

See the tweak gui_pubdate_display_format. Tweaks are found in preferences -> advanced -> tweaks tab. You need to restart calibre after changing a tweak.

Documentation from the tweaks file:

# Format to be used for publication date and the timestamp (date).
#  A string controlling how the publication date is displayed in the GUI
#  d    the day as number without a leading zero (1 to 31)
#  dd    the day as number with a leading zero (01 to 31)
#  ddd    the abbreviated localized day name (e.g. 'Mon' to 'Sun').
#  dddd    the long localized day name (e.g. 'Monday' to 'Qt::Sunday').
#  M    the month as number without a leading zero (1-12)
#  MM    the month as number with a leading zero (01-12)
#  MMM    the abbreviated localized month name (e.g. 'Jan' to 'Dec').
#  MMMM    the long localized month name (e.g. 'January' to 'December').
#  yy    the year as two digit number (00-99)
#  yyyy    the year as four digit number
#  For example, given the date of 9 Jan 2010, the following formats show
#  MMM yyyy ==> Jan 2010    yyyy ==> 2010       dd MMM yyyy ==> 09 Jan 2010
#  MM/yyyy ==> 01/2010      d/M/yy ==> 9/1/10   yy ==> 10
# publication default if not set: MMM yyyy
# timestamp default if not set: dd MMM yyyy
gui_pubdate_display_format = 'MMM yyyy'
gui_timestamp_display_format = 'dd MMM yyyy'

You want
gui_pubdate_display_format = 'yyyy'

ah cool, thanks!
You guys are brilliant!

[Cyclops]

Ah poo I been editing the wrong field! Its the one above it I should change, Date rather than Published! The 'Published' field doesnt show on the Reader, but if you select Books By Date you get all books by the year they were put on the device-not much use!
Back to square one!

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Ah poo I been editing the wrong field! Its the one above it I should change, Date rather than Published! The 'Published' field doesnt show on the Reader, but if you select Books By Date you get all books by the year they were put on the device-not much use!
Back to square one!

If you're talking about the Sony, I don't think either date field will do what you want. Sony adds the date when they are sent to the device independent of any metadata.

What is your goal?

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

If you're talking about the Sony, I don't think either date field will do what you want. Sony adds the date when they are sent to the device independent of any metadata.

What is your goal?

Thanks! My goal is to get the books with their year of publication so that when I click on Books by Date on the reader I get 1726,1810,1901 etc instead of 18-8-2009, 10-6-2010 etc

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Thanks! My goal is to get the books with their year of publication so that when I click on Books by Date on the reader I get 1726,1810,1901 etc instead of 18-8-2009, 10-6-2010 etc

Sounds like a good goal, please let us know if you get it working or if you determine it can't be done.

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

Sounds like a good goal, please let us know if you get it working or if you determine it can't be done.

Hmmm looks like the latter case! I edited the date in Calibre fine so Gulliver's Travels had 1727 in the date field (I forget the true year now) but on the reader it shows as something like 10-08-2010!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Thanks! My goal is to get the books with their year of publication so that when I click on Books by Date on the reader I get 1726,1810,1901 etc instead of 18-8-2009, 10-6-2010 etc

To the best of my knowledge, you cannot do what you want to do.

The 'date' in the sony is the date the book was sent to the reader. That date is stored in the Sony's database, and it must match exactly the date the file containing the book was written to the device. If it does not, then the reader will erase the database entry and re-create it from metadata in the book. Does us no good, and takes a long time in addition.

Once calibre supports collections made from custom fields (a few weeks, probably), you will be able to make collections from pubdate (or any other field). Not sure if that will help, especially if you have a lot of books all having different dates.

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by chaley

To the best of my knowledge, you cannot do what you want to do.

The 'date' in the sony is the date the book was sent to the reader. That date is stored in the Sony's database, and it must match exactly the date the file containing the book was written to the device. If it does not, then the reader will erase the database entry and re-create it from metadata in the book. Does us no good, and takes a long time in addition.

Once calibre supports collections made from custom fields (a few weeks, probably), you will be able to make collections from pubdate (or any other field). Not sure if that will help, especially if you have a lot of books all having different dates.

Hmmm, I've been spoiled by my (non-'i') mp3 player, which allows me to put the actual date the track was published, and expected to be able to do the same in Calibre.

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by Cyclops

Hmmm, I've been spoiled by my (non-'i') mp3 player, which allows me to put the actual date the track was published, and expected to be able to do the same in Calibre.

You can do that in calibre, you just can't view it on the Sony.

[Cyclops]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

You can do that in calibre, you just can't view it on the Sony.

Which is pretty pointless really!