Authors shelves hates comma

[HarryT]

Geoff, you said in reply to one of my post above:

A name in the form "Miller Jr., Walter M." is sorted under M for Miller, the comma indicates that the name is in the form LN, FN and jr. is recognised as a name suffix.

If a name in that form will be correctly sorted under "M", why would a name in the form "Le Carré, John", not be sorted under "L"?

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by catimini

I had test, and made several tests, but it didn't work. Authors are splitted on comma. It's not a real trouble, I'm used to navigate using series and tags, but I'm a little bit disappointed.

Here are screenshots from my Glo showing the results of using the plugboard: program: raw_list('authors', ', ') with destination authors.

The authors list splits the authors at the comma, so that each author has their own entry in the authors list. Hopefully Kobo will rethink this flawed design, but for now I don't think there is any way around that if you want the authors list to work properly.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by HarryT

If a name in that form will be correctly sorted under "M", why would a name in the form "Le Carré, John", not be sorted under "L"?

Because "Jr." is one of the special forms the algorithm recognises, but "Le" isn't (at least, not in the English UI. I haven't tested how other languages work.)

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Because "Jr." is one of the special forms the algorithm recognises, but "Le" isn't (at least, not in the English UI. I haven't tested how other languages work.)

Wouldn't that imply, then, that the example I gave of "Alexander McCall Smith" needing to be sorted under "M" also fail? If "Le Carré, John", fails to sort under "L", that suggests that "McCall Smith, Alexander", would equally fail to be sorted under "M".

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Wouldn't that imply, then, that the example I gave of "Alexander McCall Smith" needing to be sorted under "M" also fail? If "Le Carré, John", fails to sort under "L", that suggests that "McCall Smith, Alexander", would equally fail to be sorted under "M".

That is why I said that you need to use a no-break space between "McCall" and "Smith".

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

That is why I said that you need to use a no-break space between "McCall" and "Smith".

Sorry, I missed that .

[catimini]

Originally Posted by davidfor

In what way didn't it work? I've been using that for a while and haven't seen any issues. But, if you have store the author as "LN, FN", rather than "FN LN" and relied on the separate author sort in calibre, then no, it won't work. The commas will still be there between the parts of the name and hence the author list will have an entry for "FN" and "LN". And for multiple authors, there will probably be "LN1", "FN1", "LN2" and "FN2".

Yes, that's the way I store my authors: "LN, FN", in authors and author sort.
I won't change it just because Kobo can't use it in its new feature of listing authors, I'll just not use this feature

[vjjustin]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Here are screenshots from my Glo showing the results of using the plugboard: program: raw_list('authors', ', ') with destination authors.

Just two days back I realised that multi-author books show only one author in kobo and was going through multiple threads and trying different solutions.

Anyways, this is working for me; thanks.

[Ferretqueen]

Sigh - it's time to bite the bullet.... I too have a new Kobo Aura H20. It is doing the very same thing as my dearly beloved recently demised Kobo Glo. I THINK this forum is discussing this particular problem..... In Books - under Author tab C.J Cherryh appears as C.J AND Cherryh....... 2 separate authors. I tried the above "program: raw_list('authors', ', ') with destination authors saved in the Plugboard. Didn't make an iota of a difference. Since I have only loaded this author (trial run) is it the . between the C.J that is causing this?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ferretqueen

Sigh - it's time to bite the bullet.... I too have a new Kobo Aura H20. It is doing the very same thing as my dearly beloved recently demised Kobo Glo. I THINK this forum is discussing this particular problem..... In Books - under Author tab C.J Cherryh appears as C.J AND Cherryh....... 2 separate authors. I tried the above "program: raw_list('authors', ', ') with destination authors saved in the Plugboard. Didn't make an iota of a difference. Since I have only loaded this author (trial run) is it the . between the C.J that is causing this?

I have just done some testing, and I don't see the problem. Sideloading a book with the author "C.J. Cherryh" using a few different versions of the initials (dots, space, no dots), works as I expect. The author appears as a single entry in the authors list.

That metadata plugboard should only be affecting books with multiple authors. For what you are seeing, it almost sounds like you have the author set as two names, "C.J" and "Cherryh". But, that should show in calibre with an ampersand separating the parts of the name. And in the book list on the device as "Cherryh, C.J". Or something weird in the actual name. Editing the metadata and retyping the name might fix it.

I can't think of anything else. If you run calibre in debug mode and resend the book in question, and post the log, I can look and see if it shows anything. If you have my Kobo Utilities plugin, you can use the update metadata function using the plugboard option. In debug mode, that shows a lot more details about what is actually happening. Seeing that should help.

Debug mode is started by right-clicking on the preferences button and selecting "Restart in debug mode". After you do the tests, close calibre and the log should be displayed. Post the complete log or PM it to me and I'll look at it.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Ferretqueen

Sigh - it's time to bite the bullet.... I too have a new Kobo Aura H20. It is doing the very same thing as my dearly beloved recently demised Kobo Glo. I THINK this forum is discussing this particular problem..... In Books - under Author tab C.J Cherryh appears as C.J AND Cherryh....... 2 separate authors. I tried the above "program: raw_list('authors', ', ') with destination authors saved in the Plugboard. Didn't make an iota of a difference. Since I have only loaded this author (trial run) is it the . between the C.J that is causing this?

How are you sending the author? "C.J. Cherryh" or "Cherryh, C.J."?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

How are you sending the author? "C.J. Cherryh" or "Cherryh, C.J."?

Just read this and odds are, they have the author as "Cherryh, C.J." in calibre. That would give the described behaviour.

[enuddleyarbl]

I'm necroing a half a decade old thread because it seems to still be necessary. I just got a Kobo Forma, side-loaded all my Calibre books over (with author and author sort set to LN, FN) and ended up with a mess on the Author Shelf (or whatever it's called) on the Forma (as described in this post). So, if I'm reading all these Kobo author threads correctly, to fix this as much as possible, I should:

- in the Quality Check plugin for Calibre, do "Fix" > "swap author FN LN <-> LN,FN"

- In Calibre > Preferences > Import/Export > Metadata Plugboards, set up a new rule that looks like "any format:any device = ([program: raw_list('authors', ', ')] -> authors)"

Are there any repercussions within Calibre for doing this?
In that plugboard, I chose any format/any device since the Kobo Forma isn't an option. Should I have picked EPUB/KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED (since I have that driver installed) instead?

EDIT: The above seems to work fine. The only side effect I see is the expected one that Calibre displays the Authors field FN LN instead of LN, FN but still sorts correctly based on my LN, FN author_sort setting. So, no problems.

[hobnail]

I started with a Kindle and had all of the authors set to LN, FN. When I got the Kobo I saw what a mess that made so I used the Quality Check plugin to fix them to be FN LN. I'm pretty sure I didn't add any Metadata Plugboard (I don't think I've ever added one).

In the Configure this device window (under the Device button) I have Read metadata from files on device checked as well as Use sub-folders) and my save template in the bottom box is

books/{author_sort}/{title} - {authors}

For its last tab I have Update metadata on device checked as well as Update metadata on Book Details pages. And Attempt to support newer firmware.

I'm using the regular Kobo Touch driver. Way back when I tried the other one I think I was having a problem with books that didn't have a cover, it seemed to mess up the rest of the book's margins, or something.

[enuddleyarbl]

Since it's way over in the Calibre forums, I'll put a link here to what I've done to move from Kindle to Kobo (most of it talks about the author LN/FN thing):

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=339606