Way to couple/group book records which are basicaly same book in different languages?

Riva3000 · 09-19-2013, 03:30 PM

Which would be the best way to do this ?

Might be a bit ambiguous idea, but thats all I have in my head now. Seeing the chaos of different titles in my calibre library, a lot of which are basicaly the same book.

Sabardeyn · 09-20-2013, 10:49 AM

I'm not sure that there is an effective way to handle this situation in the current version of calibre.

At present calibre depends on a single record corresponding to a specific printing of a book. In this way it can account for multiple editions (original, illustrated, anniversary, etc), printings (re-printed without changes but different publisher or date), and other issues where either the title and/or the metadata changes. Effectively, there is a one-to-one relationship: 1 record in calibre = 1 real book.

What you are looking for is more of a 1 record = Nth book(s) situation. A one-to-many situation as found in relational databases. Unfortunately calibre does not easily handle these situations.

The primary stumbling block for something like this is how to handle the metadata. The title is easy; simply choose a primary language and enter all book titles fully translated to that language. You could account for the original language by adding "(language)" to the title, and/or equivalent tags or entries in the language field.

Which is fine. But now how do you deal with some of the other data, like publisher, published, date, and rating? Because the info displayed in these fields may be substantially different. Possibly including tags (due to poor translation issues?).

As I understand it, Kovid is looking into the idea and working toward a relational database solution which maintains current functionality... but he's also said it's a long-term project, not something that will be implemented any time soon. (Please note this is my phrasing based on my potentially faulty memory of Kovid's comments - so don't blame him if I got it wrong.)

The only thing I can think to recommend is adding your own unique identifier: MyID. Perhaps with five digits and making use of leading zeros (for proper sorting)? That would allow you to have 99,999 unique books (not titles, you can have unlimited titles) written in any language, by any publisher, at any time, etc. The problem becomes one of keeping track of your MyID listing/usage.

You could make the MyID a custom column and keep track of it separately, rather than adding it as an ID (per existing field). Or a derived custom column, with MyID# and MyIDName.

Hope this explanation and suggestion is of some use to you.

PS: Hmm... You might even be able to just use the book's title (MyIDName) as a tag. Then you could search for "The Hobbit", and get a listing of every edition within your library, regardless of differences within the rest of the metadata.

09-19-2013, 03:30 PM	#1
Riva3000 Calibre fan Posts: 30 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Europe Device: iRex 800SG, iPhone 3GS (shelved: iRex iLiad, KindleDX, Adam tablet)	Way to couple/group book records which are basicaly same book in different languages? Which would be the best way to do this ? Might be a bit ambiguous idea, but thats all I have in my head now. Seeing the chaos of different titles in my calibre library, a lot of which are basicaly the same book.

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09-20-2013, 10:49 AM	#2
Sabardeyn Guru Posts: 644 Karma: 1242364 Join Date: May 2009 Location: The Right Coast Device: PC (Calibre), Nexus 7 2013 (Moon+ Pro), HTC HD2/Leo (Freda)	I'm not sure that there is an effective way to handle this situation in the current version of calibre. At present calibre depends on a single record corresponding to a specific printing of a book. In this way it can account for multiple editions (original, illustrated, anniversary, etc), printings (re-printed without changes but different publisher or date), and other issues where either the title and/or the metadata changes. Effectively, there is a one-to-one relationship: 1 record in calibre = 1 real book. What you are looking for is more of a 1 record = Nth book(s) situation. A one-to-many situation as found in relational databases. Unfortunately calibre does not easily handle these situations. The primary stumbling block for something like this is how to handle the metadata. The title is easy; simply choose a primary language and enter all book titles fully translated to that language. You could account for the original language by adding "(language)" to the title, and/or equivalent tags or entries in the language field. Which is fine. But now how do you deal with some of the other data, like publisher, published, date, and rating? Because the info displayed in these fields may be substantially different. Possibly including tags (due to poor translation issues?). As I understand it, Kovid is looking into the idea and working toward a relational database solution which maintains current functionality... but he's also said it's a long-term project, not something that will be implemented any time soon. (Please note this is my phrasing based on my potentially faulty memory of Kovid's comments - so don't blame him if I got it wrong.) The only thing I can think to recommend is adding your own unique identifier: MyID. Perhaps with five digits and making use of leading zeros (for proper sorting)? That would allow you to have 99,999 unique books (not titles, you can have unlimited titles) written in any language, by any publisher, at any time, etc. The problem becomes one of keeping track of your MyID listing/usage. You could make the MyID a custom column and keep track of it separately, rather than adding it as an ID (per existing field). Or a derived custom column, with MyID# and MyIDName. Hope this explanation and suggestion is of some use to you. PS: Hmm... You might even be able to just use the book's title (MyIDName) as a tag. Then you could search for "The Hobbit", and get a listing of every edition within your library, regardless of differences within the rest of the metadata.

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