[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[auspex]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I use this plugin to fix up the metadata on kepub books downloaded from Kobo. What I do is download the plain epub version and add it to Calibre, then connect my Glo so that the epub in Calibre is matched to the kepub on the device,

Nice to know that's possible — I have not been able to figure out how to do that.

I also have a metadata plugboard in Calibre which transforms the authors names, so that the Calibre {authors} "Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter" appears as "Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter" on the device.

I have that book I haven't noticed the problem, but I'll look.

[auspex]

Originally Posted by auspex

I have that book I haven't noticed the problem, but I'll look.

No, I don't have the same issue - it's not showing up under Baxter at all. Only Clarke. Even though calibre has it as "Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter"

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by auspex

No, I don't have the same issue - it's not showing up under Baxter at all. Only Clarke. Even though calibre has it as "Arthur C. Clarke & Stephen Baxter"

Which firmware are you using? Older firmware would only display the first author if multiple authors were seperated by "&". The latest 2.8.1 firmware seems to display both authors, but sorts incorrectly if they are seperated by "&".

Both old and new firmware seem to display and sort correctly if the authors are seperated by "and" or a comma.

The plugboard I use to get the proper sorting behaviour is described in this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=202664

[auspex]

Ah. I'm still on 2.5.2. I've rarely searched by author, as I am usually only looking for recent additions, for which, even if they're not in the carousel, I have the title.

[davidfor]

There are a few issues: how calibre populates the author fields, how the device reads them, how the device interprets them for sorting.

The first bit is if the book has multiple authors, calibre puts each author in separate "creator" tags. The first of these have the author sort in the "file-as" property.

Then, the device only reads one of these tags and only uses the author from it.

For sorting, rereading the other thread and doing some quick tests with the following combinations of two authors:

FN1 LN1 & FN2 LN2
LN1, FN1 & LN2, FN2
FN1 LN1 and FN2 LN2
LN1, FN1 and LN2, FN2

What is in bold appears to be what the device is using as the author for sorting. I can't remember if this has changed or not.

Your plugboard solves this by building the author string using "and" instead of "&" to prevent calibre from splitting the authors when updating the metadata in the book.

What I will do is to add some extra options to the metadata updating in the plugin. I think I will add:

- Option to use the author sort and title sort.
- Option to use the plugboard.
- Maybe an option to replace "&" with "and".

The first is easy and I'll add it fairly soon. The last should be easy, but I'm not sure about using it. I have no idea how to use the plugboard, but it shouldn't be that hard. It won't be for a week or two while I sort some other things out.

David

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by davidfor

What is in bold appears to be what the device is using as the author for sorting. I can't remember if this has changed or not.

I think I was mistaken about there being a change in firmware 2.8.1, when I look through my books I see now that I had just never used the plugin to change the author for a book with multiple authors before. By coincidence all of my multiple author books were sideloaded ones (mainly from Baen for some reason) until now.

It could be I am the only one who would use the extra options, so don't spend too much time on it :-) Now that I know it is hapenning is not a big deal for me to make the change manually.

[speakingtohe]

Just as an aside, a while back I noticed that the Kobs did not display any authors after a certain number of characters. My plugboard appends the series info to the author sort string and puts them in {authors}
This allows me to have the books in series order by sorting by author, which is what I like,

With multiple authors, I would just get the first author and no series.
With an extra long name it was the same.

I got around this by just using the first author in the plugboard, which is fine for me but maybe not for everyone.

I was pretty sure it was a Kobo issue as same plugboard works well on non Kobo readers, so I didn't mention it, but now the topic has come up, I can verify it I think.

What seemed a little odd was that if I had Warren Murphy & Richard Sapir The Destroyer[10] I would get Warren Murphy only, but if I had one author and a long series name I would get as much as would fit on the line. Was 2 .6.1, so it is not overall length AFAIK.

Helen

[Skeldave]

I don't suppose any of these features (Specifically saving percentage read to calibre) would work on a Kobo Wifi? Or any other plugin that might do this?

Thanks.

[davidfor]

@Skeldave: Not at the moment. It has been on my todo list to add support, but I don't have a WiFi to use for testing. If you are willing to be a guinea pig, I can start adding the support. Most of it will be hiding menu items that are not valid for the WiFi. The reading location should be OK as I don't think that has changed for a while, but I would need a copy of the database from a WiFi to check.

[PeterT]

Ask and you shall receive. Just need to charge up the WiFi and get a few books on it. DB will be sent shortly.

[PeterT]

eMailed to you David.

[davidfor]

PeterT: I should have known you would appear Before I give you a version that handles the WiFI, how is testing the last one going?

[PeterT]

Seeing no issues with it. Been smooth sailing.

[Skeldave]

Originally Posted by davidfor

@Skeldave: Not at the moment. It has been on my todo list to add support, but I don't have a WiFi to use for testing. If you are willing to be a guinea pig, I can start adding the support. Most of it will be hiding menu items that are not valid for the WiFi. The reading location should be OK as I don't think that has changed for a while, but I would need a copy of the database from a WiFi to check.

I am willing to test but PeterT is obviously a lot more competent than I, so it would be better if he tested if he doesn't mind.

I appreciate the work! Thanks.

Edit: is it just me or do my posts have large blank sections at the top?

[davidfor]

I have just put up a new version of the plugin. This is version 1.2.3. The changes include:

• New: Add function to create trigger to remove AnalyticEvents
• Fix: Spelling error in tooltip on Dismiss Tiles dialog
• New: Add dismissing of new and finished books
• Fix: Error when restoring reading location for kepubs
• New: Changes to handle new db engine in calibre

The trigger for the AnalyticsEvents and new and finished books are based on code from the extended driver as written by jgoguen. When you use these options, the triggers created by the extended driver will be removed. Both of these functions have been removed from the extended driver as the utilities plugin is the better place to have them.

The new version of the plugin is in the first post. The update notice will come to calibre later in the day.

As always, if you find any problems, yell and scream here and I'll fix it as soon as possible.