Request about author data

[mariaclaudia]

Hi everybody:
Sometimes it's good have dreams. because occasionally it become reality. I suffer OCDP (Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder) but I'm used, and based on that, I like things with some order. I wonder, is it possible that in future versions include more fields for authors? Currently it's only available 3: author, author sort and link. I would like a field for nationality and 2 more (date format) for birth and death.

Well, that's my request. I wait with patience see what happens. Thanks for reading me.

[PeterT]

Why not add your own custom columns?

[mariaclaudia]

Thanks for answer. It's simple, some books are written by two or more authors, so with a single costum column it's very confuse to add nationality, specially when authors are from different country. Of course it's easy to filter by country like tags, but the order of the countries in this column must be the same order of the authors name, and that's the problem. I tried but didn't work.

[BetterRed]

@mariaclaudia - you could use the author link field to to link to something - a file, a folder, or in my case a Note in an Evernote or OneNote notebook.

BR

[mariaclaudia]

Yes, I know, I have a custom column linking my evernote account, but I use the link field to link the book list of the author, in my favorite epub website

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by mariaclaudia

Yes, I know, I have a custom column linking my evernote account, but I use the link field to link the book list of the author, in my favorite epub website

Create an Evernote note for an author and put the link to "the book list of the author, in my favorite epub website" into that note, then put a link to the Evernote Author note into the calibre Author link field.

Now you can add whatever you like to the Author Note - date of birth, picture, links to obituaries, Wikipedia/Amazon/Publisher links etc.

BR

[theducks]

You can add a Link to an individual author.

In the Tag Browser: Right click on any Author: Manage: Scroll to where you need to This applies at The Author Name level

[mariaclaudia]

Thanks for answer, but as I said, I use the link field to set the url of the author in my favorite epub website, where I check and download epubs. I also have a custom column just for evernote. For that reason I ask, if it is possible, add some fiels to the author information. I hope I explained better now.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by mariaclaudia

Thanks for answer, but as I said, I use the link field to set the url of the author in my favorite epub website, where I check and download epubs. I also have a custom column just for evernote. For that reason I ask, if it is possible, add some fiels to the author information. I hope I explained better now.

This has been asked several times (add custom columns to authors) and Kovid has said he is not interested in doing it, but he would consider patches, so far no one has come up with the patches.

To me at least, it looks like it would be a major change, as it would require significant enhancements to the database design (on-disk and in-memory versions). The on-disk database design has been stable for many years, and the in-memory database design was last changed in Version 1.0.

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So, you have something like this - Dickens is the author, Gutenberg is the site where you can get his books as epubs



What I have suggested is that you do something like this:

Create an Authors Notebook in Evernote and add an entry for Dickens, that includes the link to the Gutenberg site, along with anything else, something like this :



That shows I have right clicked on the Charles Dickens note in the Notebook Index and selected Copy Note Link

Now I go to the Manage Authors List in Calibre and replace the Gutenberg link in the Author link field with the link to the Evernote Note.



Now when I click on Charles Dickens in Book Details the Evernote note will popup - and from there I can go to Gutenberg, etc .

Obviously that would not allow you to search a calibre library for books written by "Nigerians" tagged as "Political". But it would provide you with the means to get a list of Nigerian Authors (via Evernote tags), which could be fashioned into a calibre search term e.g.

(authors:"=Jude Dibia" or authors:"=Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani" or authors:"=Helon Habila"...) and tags:"=Political"

BR

[mariaclaudia]

I regret not having interest in considering this type of requirement, because it would be very useful for many, not only for me. Anyway I do not lose hope, for I am convinced that it is no big deal add some fields. Thank you anyway.

[mariaclaudia]

One more detail. I created two columns, one for books with one author and other for books more than 2 authors. These columns is to put the nationality of the author. So far it works for me. However there is one detail that makes interesting that the required fields be included. If I need filter by a country, I only write "#nacionalidad: Spanish" and all books will be listed in the "#nacionalidad" field have the "Spanish" value. Same for the "#nacionalidades" field, where I include more than one nationality usually (unless all authors are of the same nationality).

The problem is that so I'll just have a list of all the books filtered, but, what if you want to have only a list of authors of a nationality? That could be if there was a field exclusively for that data. That's the main reason of my request. The Evernote method or mine is not the same, because it does not allow to filter correctly.

I hope I made myself clear. I just wanted explain better my request.

Sorry my grammar.
Blessings