[Metadata Source Plugin] Smashwords

davidfor · 01-01-2019, 07:20 AM

This plugin gets the metadata for books from Smashwords.

Main Features

Can retrieve title, author, comments, publisher, publication date, language, series, tags and covers.
The identifier used is "smashwords". It will show in the details as "Smashwords".

Special Notes:

It retrieves the full size covers that are displayed when clicking on the cover when viewing the book. The usually have a height of 2200px.
Smashwords shows a category. This can have multiple values and levels. I haven't decided what to do with this yet.
For the series, Smashwords has both an index and what they call "custom_membership_statement". The latter seems to be descriptive text for where the book in the series. As an example, one book had this as "Volume 0.5", but the series index was "1". The plugin attempts to get the series index from the "custom_membership_statement".

Installation Notes:

Download the attached zip file and install the plugin as described in the Introduction to plugins thread.
Note that this is not a GUI plugin so it is not intended/cannot be added to context menus/toolbars etc.

Configuration:

Use long description: If this is checked, then long description shown when pressing "More" at the end of the description is used.

Version History:

Spoiler:

davidfor · 01-01-2019, 07:20 AM

[Reserved for later use.]

MCBastos · 02-03-2019, 03:59 PM

I tried it (and I'm very grateful for someone to be working on this), but it does not seem to really work. I tried searching for metadata on several books that I know for a fact are in Smashwords, and Calibre retrieved metadata from all sorts of sources (Amazon, B&N, Goodreads...) but not Smashwords. Even if I manually add the book's Smashwords ID, it fails to find any metadata.
OTOH, clicking on the link for the manually-added Smashwords ID does open the correct Smashwords page. So that part at least works.

davidfor · 02-03-2019, 07:31 PM

Can you give me some examples where it failed? I need to look at them to work out why it failed to find the book.

One common reason for not finding the right book is if the title is too common. The plugin is only using the title for the search. And only looks at the first page of the results. For a common title, there can be a lot of books found, and, the one you want is always the last one.

I will have another look at this. When I was developing it, adding the author didn't help the results. But, I just did a test on the site, and it did help. Maybe they have changed the search.

BeckyEbook · 02-04-2019, 02:52 AM

@davidfor
This issue is related to your comment in file __init__.py (lines 68-83).

Because there is already an Smashwords Metadata.json config file on your system - you do not see this issue.

Delete config file and check again -- the plugin does not download ANY data.

Spoiler:

davidfor · 02-04-2019, 08:30 AM

Well, that's embarrassing. I wonder if it explains why no one has commented before on the plugin.

Anyway, I have fixed this problem, and an error in handling ISBNs. The first post has been updated.

If there are any issues, please report them here.

MCBastos · 02-05-2019, 03:01 PM

It now seems to be working.

DNSB · 02-05-2019, 03:13 PM

For me, the major issue with this plug-in is that it is very enthused about returning books with no matching on the author. For instance, I picked up Connections in Death by J. D. Robb, added it to calibre and did a metadata update. There were 11 items returned. Two of them were for Connections in Death, the other 9 were books with Connections as the title by 9 different authors. Testing on various other books gives the same over-enthused results.

davidfor · 02-06-2019, 07:57 AM

Just posted another beta that should fix that. I wasn't checking the author at a good point, so it was getting far to many results if there wasn't a good match.

Sirtel · 02-06-2019, 10:18 AM

Very nice plugin, thank you! I buy from Smashwords quite often and always had to download the hi-res covers manually, because they didn't come with the files.

DNSB · 02-09-2019, 01:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

Just posted another beta that should fix that. I wasn't checking the author at a good point, so it was getting far to many results if there wasn't a good match.

DNSB · 03-23-2019, 03:22 PM

Any notable changes between the last beta and the release version?

davidfor · 03-23-2019, 08:38 PM

The released version has no function changes. I just removed most of the logging.

davidfor · 09-20-2020, 05:05 AM

I have just release version 1.0.2 of this plugin. This is basically for calibre version 5. It will still be compatible with older versions of calibre.

The changes are:

Fix: Small site change.
Update: Changes for Python 3 support in calibre.

Calibre will announce the availability of the update in the next hour or so. If there are any issues, please report them here.

MCBastos · 04-29-2023, 03:43 PM

Is this plugin in need of an update? I can't get Calibre to download metadata from Smashwords *even when I supply the Smashwords ID*.

02-05-2019, 03:13 PM	#8
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 35,311 Karma: 145435140 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Forma, Clara HD, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	For me, the major issue with this plug-in is that it is very enthused about returning books with no matching on the author. For instance, I picked up Connections in Death by J. D. Robb, added it to calibre and did a metadata update. There were 11 items returned. Two of them were for Connections in Death, the other 9 were books with Connections as the title by 9 different authors. Testing on various other books gives the same over-enthused results. Attached Thumbnails

09-20-2020, 05:05 AM	#14
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Update to version 1.0.2 - calibre v5 compatibility I have just release version 1.0.2 of this plugin. This is basically for calibre version 5. It will still be compatible with older versions of calibre. The changes are: Fix: Small site change. Update: Changes for Python 3 support in calibre. Calibre will announce the availability of the update in the next hour or so. If there are any issues, please report them here. Last edited by davidfor; 09-20-2020 at 05:35 AM. Reason: I can't spell.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
[Metadata Source Plugin] BiblioNETka.pl	fenuks	Plugins	8	01-15-2024 01:19 PM
[Metadata Source Plugin] DatabazeKnih (cz)	baghira	Plugins	240	10-08-2023 05:13 AM
[Metadata Source Plugin] INMONDADORI	Pr.BarnArt	Plugins	7	12-03-2021 12:56 PM
[Metadata Source Plugin] Pitaval.cz (cz,sk)	Miisha	Plugins	2	01-01-2021 10:48 AM
[Metadata Source Plugin] DIZZIE_NL	Pr.BarnArt	Plugins	7	08-11-2014 01:48 PM

01-01-2019, 07:20 AM	#2
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	[Reserved for later use.]

02-03-2019, 03:59 PM	#3
MCBastos Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brazil Device: Galaxy A71	I tried it (and I'm very grateful for someone to be working on this), but it does not seem to really work. I tried searching for metadata on several books that I know for a fact are in Smashwords, and Calibre retrieved metadata from all sorts of sources (Amazon, B&N, Goodreads...) but not Smashwords. Even if I manually add the book's Smashwords ID, it fails to find any metadata. OTOH, clicking on the link for the manually-added Smashwords ID does open the correct Smashwords page. So that part at least works.

02-03-2019, 07:31 PM	#4
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Can you give me some examples where it failed? I need to look at them to work out why it failed to find the book. One common reason for not finding the right book is if the title is too common. The plugin is only using the title for the search. And only looks at the first page of the results. For a common title, there can be a lot of books found, and, the one you want is always the last one. I will have another look at this. When I was developing it, adding the author didn't help the results. But, I just did a test on the site, and it did help. Maybe they have changed the search.

02-04-2019, 08:30 AM	#6
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Well, that's embarrassing. I wonder if it explains why no one has commented before on the plugin. Anyway, I have fixed this problem, and an error in handling ISBNs. The first post has been updated. If there are any issues, please report them here.

02-05-2019, 03:01 PM	#7
MCBastos Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brazil Device: Galaxy A71	It now seems to be working.

02-06-2019, 07:57 AM	#9
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	Just posted another beta that should fix that. I wasn't checking the author at a good point, so it was getting far to many results if there wasn't a good match.

02-06-2019, 10:18 AM	#10
Sirtel Grand Sorcerer Posts: 10,083 Karma: 224756896 Join Date: Jan 2014 Location: Estonia Device: Kobo Sage & Libra 2	Very nice plugin, thank you! I buy from Smashwords quite often and always had to download the hi-res covers manually, because they didn't come with the files.

03-23-2019, 03:22 PM	#12
DNSB Bibliophagist Posts: 35,311 Karma: 145435140 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Vancouver Device: Kobo Sage, Forma, Clara HD, Lenovo M8 FHD, Paperwhite 4, Tolino epos	Any notable changes between the last beta and the release version?

03-23-2019, 08:38 PM	#13
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	The released version has no function changes. I just removed most of the logging.

04-29-2023, 03:43 PM	#15
MCBastos Enthusiast Posts: 37 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Brazil Device: Galaxy A71	Is this plugin in need of an update? I can't get Calibre to download metadata from Smashwords even when I supply the Smashwords ID.

Advert

Advert