[GUI Plugin] Goodreads Sync

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Add a Paste Goodreads.com right-click option (ctrl+V) to Pick Goodreads book dialog as alternative for Opera users to drag/drop

@Noughty - a quick google I did revealed that it is a long-standing flaw in Opera. Sounds a bit rubbish to me, but then I'm a Firefox user myself. At least this should give you an alternative - just click back on the Calibre Goodreads dialog and hit ctrl+v once you have copied the book URL in Opera.

[Gwen Morse]

I wanted to thank you for this plugin, I signed on to Goodreads just to give it a spin .

[kiwidude]

Thanks Gwen, that's great to hear, much appreciated.

[Noughty]

Thanks so much. I know, I looked for solution for awhile now.

I used firefox before but it for some reason doesn't work for my computer anymore (no matter how many times I reinstall (even deleting any related files))

So this is very good news for me

[nynaevelan]

Kiwidude:

I need a little help understanding how to get a custom field setup in order for it to always have the data from the shelves it is on in Goodreads. I have the mapping setup for it to update a custom column from Goodreads, but if I move the book(s) around on different shelves after the initial sync with Goodreads, how do I get it to update the column? Here are my setup screens, is there something I need to change in my setup?





PS: How do you guys get your pictures to show up small with the click on option??

Nyn

[theducks]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

Kiwidude:



PS: How do you guys get your pictures to show up small with the click on option??

Nyn

MR Advanced editor view

Additional options

select files. Remember to click UPLOAD

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by theducks

MR Advanced editor view

Additional options

select files. Remember to click UPLOAD

I never saw that big area with the manage attachments. I just clicked on the paperclip icon at the top of the Advanced editor to attach a image, just like every other email editor out there.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by dwanthny

I never saw that big area with the manage attachments. I just clicked on the paperclip icon at the top of the Advanced editor to attach a image, just like every other email editor out there.

Paperclip! Oh, that paperclip. Never saw it before Been using the other way since I joined.
Never could find a good tutorial for using this board. The FAQ stuff at the bottom is fairly thin.

[kiwidude]

Originally Posted by nynaevelan

Kiwidude:

I need a little help understanding how to get a custom field setup in order for it to always have the data from the shelves it is on in Goodreads. I have the mapping setup for it to update a custom column from Goodreads, but if I move the book(s) around on different shelves after the initial sync with Goodreads, how do I get it to update the column? Here are my setup screens, is there something I need to change in my setup?
Nyn

What custom column type did you setup for your #goodreads column?

The "Linked Book -> Download tags from shelves" menu option is the one you are using to populate that column, right?

If you move books around on your goodreads shelves then you will need to select those same books in Calibre and once again do the "Linked Book -> Download tags from shelves" menu option.

However (and this is important) depending on the custom column type you may want to clear the data out of that custom column first. If you set it up as a "Comma separated text, like tags" column, then it means the column can have multiple values. The plugin can have no way of knowing that you actually intend to "replace" in this one situation where you now have new "tag" values to be applied into that column. So it will always append new values into your #goodreads column. So if you initially had it on your "foo" shelf, and got a #goodreads value of 'foo', then moved it on Goodreads.com onto your 'bar' shelf, then download tags again it will have tags of 'foo, bar'. So you would want to delete the value 'foo' out of the custom column before you download tags again.

Similarly, if you moved it onto a shelf that no-longer has a mapping, the plugin has no way of knowing that actually it should now blank that column. So again you would need to remove it manually.

These limitations are because my initial implementation was deisgned around using the Calibre "tags" column, which of course has other purposes. One change I could make to the plugin now is to make it the case that if you choose a custom column to contain your downloaded shelf mapped values (e.g. a genre column like you are doing) that the column is treated as being only for that purpose. This would mean that when you select a bunch of books to download tags from, the first thing it does is to blank out the values from that column and overwrite with the "current" mapped values if any. That would remove the need for manual blanking if you move books around on your Goodreads shelves.

As I said this isn't behaviour people would want if they were using their "tags" column - you wouldn't want to lost all your other tags in this instance. But it would be reasonable to expect that a user specifying a custom column as the target is dedicating it to this purpose.

[nynaevelan]

Thanks guys, the only way I know how is to use the img tags.

[nynaevelan]

Hi Kiwidude:

Yes that is the type of column I setup and I set it up only to be used with the plugin and as you stated I did not want to mess with my tags column. The manual process seems complex to work with manually, I read several books a week and thereby move books around alot on goodreads and trying to remember which ones need updating would be too much for my old mind. I think I will leave this alone unless you add this additional functionality to the plugin.

[kiwidude]

@Nyn - this functionality was not intended to be used with your "read", "to-read", "currently-reading" shelves. It was intended purely for "genre" type shelves, which surely you are not moving books around on weekly? Do you not just pick a genre shelf to put a book on and leave it there?

The to-read etc shelves you should just use the "Sync" functionality to handle your updates. That gives you all the power to do stuff like removing a tag, adding a tag, setting a custom column value etc.

What actual shelves are you "moving around" on a weekly basis?

[nynaevelan]

Originally Posted by kiwidude

@Nyn - this functionality was not intended to be used with your "read", "to-read", "currently-reading" shelves. It was intended purely for "genre" type shelves, which surely you are not moving books around on weekly? Do you not just pick a genre shelf to put a book on and leave it there?

The to-read etc shelves you should just use the "Sync" functionality to handle your updates. That gives you all the power to do stuff like removing a tag, adding a tag, setting a custom column value etc.

What actual shelves are you "moving around" on a weekly basis?

I do not use it for my to-read, currently-reading, read shelves. These three are being updated correctly in a separate column. Oh and sorry I posted a pic of this column instead of the one for the goodreads other shelves. But I have my genres setup for my own personal genre's and also for shelves on whether I would want to read the book again, is it a favorite, is it a favorite author... Anyway, when I finish reading a book I want to update the shelves to match their new location, I have been manually doing this on the goodreads website, but I am having a hard time getting Calibre to only have the current shelves in the tags2 field.

Nyn

[kiwidude]

Right, thanks for clarifying. Sounds like the "overwrite" behaviour is what you are after. I will change this shortly - as stated above a "tags" column as the destination will have the same behaviour as currently of appending, but a custom column will overwrite.

[kiwidude]

Changes in this release:

• Change the Download shelves as tags behaviour so that if the target is a custom column it always overwrites.

See my previous posts above or the help file for more details. Behaviour is unchanged if you set your destination to be the "tags" column of always appending rather than overwriting.

BTW I hope people don't mind the more frequent "mini updates" - when it's a bug I want it fixed asap, and simple feature requests it is nice to get out of the way too. I would rather a spurt of quick small releases than saving up for some future time that may not eventuate. And they are easier to test in isolation. Hopefully you are all using the Plugin Updater plugin to pick these updates up anyways so it is just a couple of clicks...