Updated catalog features for AZW3 • EPUB • MOBI (0.8.68)

[GRiker]

Moderator Notice
This post specifically discusses changes to catalog generation in 0.8.68. For general information about calibre's Catalog feature, refer to the Creating catalogs: Start here sticky.

Catalog generation has been enhanced in 0.8.68 with the following new features:

• Changed the layout of the Generate catalog dialog.
• Excluded genres now features a live preview, so you can see which tags will be excluded as a result of the regex.
• Added an option to use an existing cover, for example covers created by the Generate cover plugin.
• Added a Help button, which opens an overview in calibre's online manual.

1. Included sections (changed layout)
   • Authors - all books, sorted by author, presented in a list
   • Titles - all books, sorted by title, presented in a list
   • Series - all series books, sorted by series, presented in a list
   • Genres - all enabled genres, with individual genres presented in a list sorted by Author and Series
   • Recently Added - all included books sorted in reverse chronological order by date added to your library over the last 30 days, plus a month-by-month listing of added books. Presented in a list.
   • Descriptions - detailed descriptions of each book, including a cover thumbnail and Comments. Description pages are sorted by author, with regular titles followed by series titles.
2. Prefixes (no changes)
   Each rule specifies a matching criteria and prefix.
   The checkbox in the first column enables the rule.
   Name is a rule name that you provide indicating the purpose of the rule. Field is either Tags or a custom column. Value is the content of Field to match. When an enabled rule is satisfied, the book will be marked with the prefix from the Prefix column.
   Three exclusion rules have been specified in the example above:
   • Rule #1, 'Read book', specifies that a book with any date in a custom column 'Last read' will be prefixed with a checkmark.
   • Rule #2, 'Wishlist item', specifies that any book with a 'Wishlist' tag will be prefixed with an X.
   • Rule #3, 'Library books', specifies that any book with a value of True (or Yes) in a custom column 'Available in Library' will be prefixed with a double arrow.
   If a book matches more than one prefix rule, the first matching rule supplies the prefix. Only one prefix is used. Disabled or incomplete rules are ignored.
   
3. Excluded books (no changes)
   Exclusion rules specify criteria for books that will not be included in the generated catalog.
   The checkbox in the first column enables the rule.
   Name is a rule name that you provide indicating the purpose of the rule. Field is either Tags or a custom column. Value is the content of Field to match. When an enabled rule is satisfied, the book will be excluded from the generated catalog.
   Two exclusion rules have been specified in the example above:
   • Rule #1, 'Catalogs' specifies that any book with a 'Catalog' tag will be excluded from the generated catalog.
   • Rule #2, 'Archived books', specifies that any book with a value of 'Archived' in the custom column 'Status' will be excluded from the generated catalog.
   All rules are evaluated when deciding to exclude books. Disabled or incomplete rules are ignored.
   
4. Excluded genres (added Results of regex feature)
   A regex pattern describing tags to exclude as genres.
   Tags are used to create the genre sections in your catalog. You may be using certain tags that you don't want included as genres in the catalog. For example, you might use a tag [Amazon freebie], but you don't want that tag included as a genre in your catalog. The default exclusion pattern \[.+]]|\+ excludes any tags of the form [tag] as genres, as well as excluding +, the default tag for read books.
   The recycle button resets the regex pattern to the default value.
   Results of regex shows which tags will be excluded as genres.
   
5. Other options (added Catalog cover option)
   • Catalog cover specifies whether to generate a new cover or use an existing cover.
   • Extra Description note specifies a custom column's contents to be inserted into the Description header, opposite the cover. For example, you might want to display the date you last read a book using a Last Read custom column described earlier. For advanced use of the Description note feature, see this post.
   • Thumb width specifies a width preference for cover thumbnails included in the Descriptions section. The catalog generator caches these thumbnails for performance reasons; changing this value invalidates the cache. If you want to experiment with different widths, try building a catalog with just a few books until you've found your optimal width, then build your entire catalog. The first time a catalog is generated with a new thumbnail width will be slower, but subsequent builds will take advantage of the cache.
   • Merge with Comments specifies a custom column whose content will be non-destructively merged with the Comments field during catalog generation. For example, you might have a custom colum Author Bio that you'd like to append to the Comments section. You can choose to insert the custom column contents before or after the Comments section, and optionally separate the appended content with a horizontal rule. Eligible custom column types include text, comments, and composite.

Questions, comments, feedback specific to the new features in 0.8.68 should be posted to this thread.

[MartyTX]

Thanks for the “Use existing cover” option. I’ve been using Edit Metadata to change to a custom cover after every Catalog creation … your update now handles this automatically.

Another automation would be useful to me and possibly other Catalog users:

There’s an option to set a default Catalog Title, but I use Edit Metadata to make “0-calibre” the Title and Author of the Catalog. The leading “zero” automatically puts the Catalog at the top of both the Title and Author lists on my Nook … very easy to locate and open the Catalog. An option to set a default Title and a default Author would handle this automatically.

Thanks again for your continuing improvements to the Catalog.

Marty

[GRiker]

What format catalog are you generating?

After you change the author, are you doing a conversion before downloading to your Nook, or simply downloading?

G

[MartyTX]

Originally Posted by GRiker

What format catalog are you generating?
After you change the author, are you doing a conversion before downloading to your Nook, or simply downloading?
G

1. Generate an EPUB catalog.
2. Convert EPUB>EPUB to do 3 things: change author to "0-calibre", import custom cover, remove spacing between paragraphs.
3. Download to Nook.

However, I just noticed that regenerating the catalog changed the author back to "calibre" and I lost the custom cover. My post yesterday was incorrect. I probably just reconverted the EPUB catalog several times (which retained the author and custom cover) and did not actually regenerate the catalog. Yet another "senior moment".

[GRiker]

A couple of observations:
- If you have a custom cover, you can reuse it during catalog generation.
- I believe you can use a plugboard to change the author name during the download.

What spacing between paragraphs are you removing?

G

[MartyTX]

Before and after pictures of "Look & Feel: Remove spacing between paragraphs":

[GRiker]

Is that screenshot from the Nook? Do you see the same spacing if you view the catalog with calibre's viewer?

[MartyTX]

Picture is PC screen capture of calibre viewer; 2 separate cropped captures placed side-by-side for comparison. The Nook spacing and indentation is exactly like the right hand side of the picture.

Marty

[MartyTX]

Here's a cropped photo of the Nook screen:

[GRiker]

The default layout of the catalog doesn't have those extra spaces between lines.

Have you edited the templates or changed the default css?

G

[MartyTX]

G,

Thank you very much for your patience. Yes, I incorrectly modified the template and caused the extra lines to occur. (Now corrected!)

Sorry I wasted your time. You are indeed the Comparer of the Ephemeris and Corrector of the Proofs.

I'll be "learning" about metadata plugboards next and will proceed with caution.

Sincere thanks,
Marty

[GRiker]

In anticipation of your next question ...

To change the author for catalogs sent to your Kobo, do the following:

1. Create a Template Function

• Open Preferences|Advanced|Template Functions
• In the Function field, type change_author_if_catalog
• Set Arg count to -1
• Paste the following code into the Program Code field:
  

  def evaluate(self, formatter, kwargs, mi, locals):
      for tag in kwargs.get('tags'):
          if tag == "Catalog":
              return "0-calibre"
      return mi.get('authors')[0]

  You can change 0-calibre to whatever author name you'd prefer.
• Click the Create button
• Click Apply to close the Template Functions dialog
• Open Preferences|Import/Export|Metadata plugboards
• In Add new plugboard, select EPUB as Format and KOBO as Device
• In the Source template field, type:
  

  program: change_author_if_catalog()

• In the Destination field, select authors
• Click Save plugboard, then Apply

When sending epubs to your Kobo, if the epub has a 'Catalog' tag, the author name will be replaced.

If this is the end result you're looking for, you can do something similar with the title. The only difference would be in the change_title_if_catalog function, the last line would be

    return mi.get('title')

G

[MartyTX]

G,

Thank you for "anticipating". Looking at what you've done, I would have pulled out my remaining hair in sheer frustration!

I've got a Nook, not a Kobo, so I changed your instructions accordingly.

I did a copy/paste and gave it a try, but it did not work ... author remained unchanged after downloading to Nook.

Will double-check everything later and try again. Off to an appointment right now.

Later ...

[MartyTX]

G,

I have tried the template/plugboard procedure several times and still can't get it to work.

The ability to automatically create an EPUB catalog is a huge timesaver ... changing the catalog author's name automatically would save just a few seconds.

So ... thanks again for all your work. I've already used up more than my fair share of your time!

Marty

[GRiker]

I'd like to figure out why the plugboard's not working. If you're willing to spend more time on this, I'll give you some steps so we can troubleshoot where things are failing.

G