Tags Column - Left Alignment not maintaining adjustment

[crissman]

I am not sure if it has always been this way or not, but I just recently realized that the Tags Column is center justified,

I prefer it to be left justified as all the other columns are. Except when I choose to re-adjust it to left alignment it is not retaining the chosen setting after a calibre restart.

Is this working as intended or is it a bug?

Thanks
crissman

[chaley]

Originally Posted by crissman

I am not sure if it has always been this way or not, but I just recently realized that the Tags Column is center justified,

I prefer it to be left justified as all the other columns are. Except when I choose to re-adjust it to left alignment it is not retaining the chosen setting after a calibre restart.

Is this working as intended or is it a bug?

Thanks
crissman

For me the tags column is left justified and stays that way. If I change it to center, it stays that way until I change it back.

It sounds like your calibre configuration directory is read only, preventing calibre from saving the change to left justified. Another possibility: something is overwriting the configuration directory, such as some cloud sync.

[crissman]

Originally Posted by chaley

For me the tags column is left justified and stays that way. If I change it to center, it stays that way until I change it back.

It sounds like your calibre configuration directory is read only, preventing calibre from saving the change to left justified. Another possibility: something is overwriting the configuration directory, such as some cloud sync.

Thanks chaley! The calibre directory and library both have full access to read and write, but you are correct in that I am running Aerofs (It is like dropbox but not in the cloud it stays behind your firewall) on one of the library folders. It does seem to coincide with around the same time-frame that I using the started to use the sync program. Ironic that it is just the Tags column and not any of the rest?

[chaley]

I looked at the code and the column alignment is stored in the metadata.db file in the library. You can see the saved alignment by looking at the metadata_db_prefs_backup.json file in your library, searching for "column_alignment". The information is saved in both the metadata.db and the .json file when calibre exits. The .json file is a backup.

If Aerofs is overwriting your metadata.db then you might be in a world of hurt. I suggest that you run check library to be sure that books you have added are really in the db.

An easy test: start calibre, change the alignment for tags, and quit calibre. Look at the .json file to see if the alignment is changed. Note that a column is listed only if its alignment is not "left". If the alignment is "left" then start calibre. If it becomes "center" then something, such as a plugin, is changing it at startup.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

I looked at the code and the column alignment is stored in the metadata.db file in the library.

- that confirms what I thought I had seen. When in your initial response you indicated it was in configuration folder, I assumed I must be misremembering or misinterpreting what I saw.

When I started using calibre I had the idea to use the alignment of Title and Author as a means of giving me a spatial clue as to the current library, - eg left/left would be Main (regular books), left/centre would be Journals, centre/centre would be Media etc.

But I found that if I changed the alignment of Authors in Journals to 'centre', the realignment of the Authors column propagated itself to Main and Media etc. So I gave up on the idea, on the assumption that the alignment must be a global setting rather than a library setting - despite what my eyes were telling me.

The propagation seems to occurs if I switch from a library where Author column_alignment has a value (centre or right) in its library preferences to a library where the Author column has no value - i.e. it's left-aligned by default.

I can avoid the propagation if I forego use of the library switch feature, and instead always open calibre using the --with-library option and stop it before opening with another library - but I choose not to do that

Perhaps this is another defect that's been lurking long since

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Perhaps this is another defect that's been lurking long since

BR

It is a bug, and I suspect it has been there since multiple libraries were introduced.

The bug: when you first open calibre it builds a map of column keys to alignment. Only the exceptions from "left" are stored in the DB. When you switch libraries, calibre again builds the map, but this time the old non-left values are still there because nothing restored the map to its default values.

I have submitted a fix.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by chaley

It is a bug, and I suspect it has been there since multiple libraries were introduced.

I have submitted a fix.

That's the second long standing bug you've had to swat in as many weeks.

BR

[crissman]

Originally Posted by chaley

I looked at the code and the column alignment is stored in the metadata.db file in the library. You can see the saved alignment by looking at the metadata_db_prefs_backup.json file in your library, searching for "column_alignment". The information is saved in both the metadata.db and the .json file when calibre exits. The .json file is a backup.

If Aerofs is overwriting your metadata.db then you might be in a world of hurt. I suggest that you run check library to be sure that books you have added are really in the db.

An easy test: start calibre, change the alignment for tags, and quit calibre. Look at the .json file to see if the alignment is changed. Note that a column is listed only if its alignment is not "left". If the alignment is "left" then start calibre. If it becomes "center" then something, such as a plugin, is changing it at startup.

Ok tried the "test" and your right I changed the alignment to left, quit calibre opened the .json did show "center alignment.

exited Aerofs, reopened calibre, changed the alignment again closed calibre, opened .json it showed nothing, no "center" So assumed it Aerofs overwriting the .json as you suggested.

Figured I would see if it was for sure by doing the "Test" agaiin.

Restarted Aerofs, Opened Calibre, verified in the Aerofs log that the .json files was updated. Tags still showed left alignment.. Hmm, closed calibre exited Aerofs opened the .json, still was left as "center was not there.

Opened Calibre yet again (without Aerofs) still left justified, started Aerofs, No matter which sequence I opened and closed both programs it stayed left justified!!

Not sure what fixed it or if it just temporary, but it is now left justified.