A PY script to make "shelves" from folders?

[Ken Maltby]

How hard would it be to write a script to allow the user to select a folder full
of ebooks and have a shelf made (with the same name as the folder) that
contained all the ebooks in the folder?

Say I had a folder labeled "Fantasy" that was full of ebooks/files named by
author - title.

And another folder labeled "PolyTicks", and another labeled "Action" and
another .... all with ebooks/files named like above.

Could the files in the folder be added to the Kobo kluge of files and the
"Shelves" made, in the same process?

Could it be that if you had a Folder/Directory of such folders, the script be
made so that the user can select which of those folders would be processed.

If it could be done, it would make things a lot simpler for those of us who
are used to ereaders that manage ebooks as files in the computer style
folder structure.

Luck;
Ken

[speakingtohe]

You could do it in I think 4 simple steps using calibre and then delete the books from calibre if you don't ike using calibre.

1. open calibre if you have it installed and set up device driver.

2. select preferences>adding books
put the shelf name you want in the box 'tags to apply when adding books" and uncheck the box that says read metadata from the file contents.

3. Drag the books to calibre

4. Send the books to the device

repeat step 2-4 for each folder

[Ken Maltby]

Hmm... all 51 folders and the 7225 files? A relatively simple utility to convert folders
to Shelves would be a way to migrate an existing folder based ebook library into the
Kobo approach. This could take a lot away from the argument that the lack of the
familiar folder based structure makes the Kobo hard to use for those with a large
existing ebook library.

Your steps may end up being a possible alternative method. Why the "uncheck the
box that says read metadata from the file contents"?

Luck;
Ken

[Lucas Malor]

It seems a japanese guy had created its own firmware modification with such this feature:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=213116

[BookBunny]

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=186102

A simple file browser would of course be far better but including something like that would require common sense, something completely foreign to most mobile device UI designers. Gotta love those clunky playlists!

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

. Why the "uncheck the
box that says read metadata from the file contents"?

Luck;
Ken

Because of just using the default tags to create the shelves for simplicity. if there are tags embedded in the books you would have a lot of unwanted shelves.

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Because of just using the default tags to create the shelves for simplicity. if there are tags embedded in the books you would have a lot of unwanted shelves.

No it doesn't. Or at least it isn't supposed to. If it does, it's a bug and I'd like an example so I can fix it. The shelves should only be created from the metadata in the calibre library.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

No it doesn't. Or at least it isn't supposed to. If it does, it's a bug and I'd like an example so I can fix it. The shelves should only be created from the metadata in the calibre library.

When I add a book with read metadata from the file contents checked it adds tags to the metadata in the calibre library, if there are any.

If you use tags to create shelves then all of those tags create shelves when you send the books from calibre AFAIK.

Maybe I am wrong in this and if so I apologise for giving misleading information and an extra step.

Helen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

When I add a book with read metadata from the file contents checked it adds tags to the metadata in the calibre library, if there are any.

If you use tags to create shelves then all of those tags create shelves when you send the books from calibre AFAIK.

Maybe I am wrong in this and if so I apologise for giving misleading information and an extra step.

There is some crossed wires. You said to uncheck the "read metadata" option on the driver configuration. This is useful when connecting to the device and there is a book on the device that calibre didn't put there. It makes it more likely that you will get a match with a book in the library. That option should not be affecting the shelves or other metadata.

But, you seem to be talking about the option to read the metadata when first adding the book to the calibre library. That would only mess with the shelf columns if the metadata was in the book. That would probably mean it had been exported out of a calibre library that had the same custom columns. Personally, I do use this option, but I normally check the metadata and probably use the download metadata function to get anything missing. But, as you are using the tags column for shelves, I can see why you wouldn't want to trust someone else's opinion of these.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There is some crossed wires. You said to uncheck the "read metadata" option on the driver configuration. This is useful when connecting to the device and there is a book on the device that calibre didn't put there. It makes it more likely that you will get a match with a book in the library. That option should not be affecting the shelves or other metadata.

But, you seem to be talking about the option to read the metadata when first adding the book to the calibre library. That would only mess with the shelf columns if the metadata was in the book. That would probably mean it had been exported out of a calibre library that had the same custom columns. Personally, I do use this option, but I normally check the metadata and probably use the download metadata function to get anything missing. But, as you are using the tags column for shelves, I can see why you wouldn't want to trust someone else's opinion of these.

I said in message 2 of this thread which was a reply to message 1.

2. select preferences>adding books
put the shelf name you want in the box 'tags to apply when adding books" and uncheck the box that says read metadata from the file contents.

I think we are talking about different things. I was trying to give a simple if kludgy way to shelve his books on his kobo but keep his own file structure. I don't believe I mentioned the driver anywhere. I was assuming he would still have the default driver setting to make shelves from tags if he was not using calibre to manage his books. Possible bad assumption.

It wasn't a question of trusting someone elses tags. He had very specific shelf names in his original post so probably did not want to use tags in the books themsleves, or so I assumed.

And I do not find all tags in all books to be what I want, I had a library book that had an excerpt from the book as a tag, and I dout it would have been meaningful as a shelf name.

I certainly wasn't casting aspersions on your driver which I truly appreciate. I am very sure I did not refer to it at all

Helen

PS tags are a standard column I think

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I said in message 2 of this thread which was a reply to message 1.

So you did. And I had a complete failure in reading comprehension which I then compounded

Rereading and actually paying attention to it all, you are correct in everything you have said.

[Ken Maltby]

I, at least, am one who has benefited from the efforts both of you have put into answering my question. Thanks Much, to both of you.

Speakingtohe;

I don't really see the steps you outlined as particularly "Kludgy" and this may be
the simplest approach available, at this time.

I still have one more question about the process; How will the use of "PeterT's"
custom shelves approach in calibre effect your process? And, how would it work
if I used the "Automatic Adding" watch folder approach, would the tag entered in
"Tags to apply when adding a book:" still be applied and work?

Luck;
Ken

[speakingtohe]

I am not sure what you mean by custom shelves approach.

If it is using a custom column then it is much the same except calibre won't add the column name automatically, but it is easy to just put the shelf name in the custom column as you add each directory using bulk edit.

I used tags because it is, I think, the default in the driver(s) and involved one less step.

Plus custom columns seem to mess up my Sonys But it is a sound aproach and works well on Kobo.

I have several readers and on each one I use a different method of making my collections, and amazingly enough I don't find it confusing

But I keep all of my books in calibre because it is for me the most logical method of maintaining order and I bought my first computer in 1977 so I could be considered kind of old school. But each to his own.

Slight caveat. Too many books in a shelf and/or too many shelves make opening the shelves very slow. One of these days I plan to put as many books as possible on a 32G SD card and see what happens, so I would be interested in how you come along as you add your collections.

Helen

[speakingtohe]

PS
If you put your books in calibre and don't want to keep them there, I think you can delete all formats and still use calibre to manage/change the collections without the actual books in calibres directory.

Helen