[GUI Plugin] Kobo Utilities

[davidfor]

Attached is a beta for the plugin with changes in how the comments and subtitles are handled. The changes are to add an entry field for the two templates. Each template also has a button to open the calibre template editor.

The existing template for the comments is still supported. If it exists and no template is entered in the dialog, the template from the file will be used. One important thing here is if the results of evaluating the template is empty, the unchanged comments from the calibre library will be used.

For the subtitle, using a template will give more flexibility for what it can be set to. If you just want a custom column, the the template is "{#custom_column_name}". And if the template evaluates to an empty string, the subtitle will be cleared. So, if you simply want to remove the subtitle, leave the template empty.

As usual, please test and tell me if there are any problems.

[oren64]

How can i add a Published to the subtitle template.
When {published} I get ,EXCEPTION: Value: unknown field published.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by oren64

How can i add a Published to the subtitle template.
When {published} I get ,EXCEPTION: Value: unknown field published.

If you hover your mouse in the Published column heading you'll see its fieldname is pubdate not published. Hence the correct template field would be {pubdate}

[davidfor]

Or, if you want to see all the available column names, go to the "Add your own columns" page of the calibre preferences. The list of columns also shows these details.

[Terisa de morgan]

I checked it yesterday (template for comments) and it worked well for me.

[oren64]

The rating shows in numeral (1,2,3...) in template for the comments, and not like here that the stars is show.

{pubdate:|<p>Published: |</p>}{rating:|<p>Rating: |</p>}{#pages:|<p>Pages count: |} \ {#words:|Word count: |</p>}{tags:|<p>Tags: |</p>}<hr/>{comments}

FW 3.13.1

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by oren64

The rating shows in numeral (1,2,3...) in template for the comments, and not like here that the stars is show.

{pubdate:|<p>Published: |</p>}{rating:|<p>Rating: |</p>}{#pages:|<p>Pages count: |} \ {#words:|Word count: |</p>}{tags:|<p>Tags: |</p>}<hr/>{comments}

FW 3.13.1

That image was produced using the "jacket" style template. That was the only choice with the initial beta of this. The disadvantage of this style was that it is harder to not show anything with no values. This will still work with the latest version, but you need to prefix the template with "jacket:".

With the "plugboard" style template, there doesn't seem to be a way to display the stars directly. I had to write a template function to do it. My template is:

{comments}{tags:|<p>Tags: |</p>}{rating:rating_as_stars()|<p>Rating: |</p>}{#kobo_last_read:|<p>Last Read: |</p>}{#words:|<p>Word count: |</p>}

The "rating_as_stars()" is defined in the "Template Functions" screen of calibre. On this, you define:

Function: rating_as_stars
Arg count: 1
Documentation: rating_as_stars(x) -- returns x number of stars.
And the code:

def evaluate(self, formatter, kwargs, mi, locals, r):
	try:
		x = int(r) * '★'
	except:
		x = ''
	return x

And alternative version of this is:

Documentation: rating_as_stars(r) -- returns r number of filled stars followed by 5-r empty stars.
And the code:

def evaluate(self, formatter, kwargs, mi, locals, r):
	if r:
		try:
			i = int(r)			
		except:
			i = 0
		x = i * unichr(9733) + (5-i) * unichr(9734)
	else:
		x = ''
	return x

I haven't been able to decide which of these I like better.

[oren64]

Excellent, thanks David.

I like more the rating_as_stars(r), i also made a patch to increase the details container.

{pubdate:|<div>Published: |</div>}{rating:rating_as_stars()|<div>Rating: |</div>}{#pages:|<div>Pages count: |} \ {#words:|Word count: |</div>}{tags:|<div>Tags: |</div>}<hr/>{comments}

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you for the function [rating_as_stars(x)+, it's very useful as the origin for my half star rating

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by oren64

Excellent, thanks David.

I like more the rating_as_stars(r), i also patch the info-book and increase the details.

Attachment 148376

That looks pretty good. Could you post the template you are using? I might collect a few into one of the early posts in the thread as examples.

[oren64]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That looks pretty good. Could you post the template you are using? I might collect a few into one of the early posts in the thread as examples.

{pubdate:|<div>Published: |</div>}{rating:rating_as_stars()|<div>Rating: |</div>}{#pages:|<div>Pages count: |} \ {#words:|Word count: |</div>}{tags:|<div>Tags: |</div>}<hr/>{comments}

[anacreon]

Thank you David: at long last I have the tags in the comments, instead of having to explore the collections to find those a book belonged to.

Edit: I've noticed that transferring new books, the pre-registered search and replace info get stripped, while the other metadata (blurb) are there. Also the usual disconnect / connect again is not enough to get it and the new info, I must also update the metada.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Thank you David: at long last I have the tags in the comments, instead of having to explore the collections to find those a book belonged to.

Edit: I've noticed that transferring new books, the pre-registered search and replace info get stripped, while the other metadata (blurb) are there. Also the usual disconnect / connect again is not enough to get it and the new info, I must also update the metada.

Um, yes, that's how it works. The functions in the plugin are separate from the driver. And its the point of the plugin. There are things that the driver can't do, or are out of scope for the driver. I do intend to add metadata updating to the driver, but it won't be as flexible as the plugin. It will be a straight update from the library metadata using a plugboard if you have one configured. This is what happens when you send a book to the device.

Most of the functions of the plugin are manual. You select the books you want to act on and then select the function. The metadata update is one of the manual functions.

[davidfor]

I have just uploaded version 2.3.0 of the plugin. This is the official release of the beta from earlier in the month. The change from version 2.2.0 is to add template edit fields for the comments/synopsis and the subtitle. Each field also has a button to open the template editor to help edit and debug the template.

The existing template for the comments is still supported. If it exists and no template is entered in the dialog, the template from the file will be used. One important thing here is if the results of evaluating the template is empty, the unchanged comments from the calibre library will be used.

For the subtitle, using a template will give more flexibility for what it can be set to. If you just want a custom column, the the template is "{#custom_column_name}". And if the template evaluates to an empty string, the subtitle will be cleared. So, if you simply want to remove the subtitle, leave the template empty.

Calibre should present the update in the next hour or so. As usual, if there are any problems, please report them here.

Edit: Sorry, I uploaded the wrong version. The code was the same, but it didn't have the updated version number. I have fixed that now.

[DNSB]

After updating to 2.3.0, I got the following error message attempting to update the metadata on a dozen books:

calibre, version 2.56.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>UnboundLocalError</b>:local variable 'new_comments' referenced before assignment

calibre 2.56 [64bit]  embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Windows-8-6.2.9200 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '8', '6.2.9200')
Python 2.7.9
Windows: ('8', '6.2.9200', '', 'Multiprocessor Free')
Successfully initialized third party plugins: DeDRM && Obok DeDRM && Fantastic Fiction && Open With && FictionDB && Barnes & Noble && Find Duplicates && Extract ISBN && Webscription && Goodreads && Quality Check && Kobo Utilities && SmartEject && Modify ePub
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 863, in update_metadata
  File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 3558, in _update_metadata
UnboundLocalError: local variable 'new_comments' referenced before assignment

Things that make you go hmmmm....