ComicVine Plugin information

[searcygr]

I have been helping my son load metadata on comic books using the ComicVine Calibre plugin. I had to learn the information below the hard way and after much trial & error. The following information assumes you have a comicvine login and API key.

To ensure the Comicvine Calibre Plugin downloads covers (found this solution in an obscure reference in a MobileRead forum):
1. Copy comicvine.zip plugin to a temp folder & extract the contents of the zip file
2. Edit source.py
Find the line url = 'http://static.comicvine.com' + url and comment the line
# url = 'http://static.comicvine.com' + url
4. Save source.py and rezip all the files.
5. Install the comicvine plugin into Calibre.
6. Covers are now downloaded with the comic metadata.

First thing to do:
1. If you don't already have a login, create a user account on https://comicvine.gamespot.com/. This is required to get an API key.
2. Customize Plugin (Preference/Plugins/Search for Comicvine Plugin/Customize)
3. input your unique API Key
4. Change worker threads to 1 (This is important to prevent running into API limits too quickly)

Next on the list: Create an "Update ComicVine IDs" Search and Replace template
1. Search Mode: Regular Expression
2. Search Field: identifiers
3. Identifier type: comicvine-volume
4. Search for: .*
5. Replace with: nnnn where nnnnn=any five digit number for now
6. Destination field: identifiers
7. Identifier type: comicvine-volume
8. Case sensitive (uncheck)
9. Mode: Replace field
Now click on the SAVE button & Save template as "Update ComicVine IDs"

The comicvine plugin has a problem with comics that were published with different series/volumes/etc. For example Deadman came out with issues under Volume 1, Volume 2, etc. The plugin doesn't match the comic books too well under those circumstances.

The instruction below should be used if you are downloading metadata for a large number of issues in a given volume.

Each comic gets a comicvine-volume and individual comicvine number. If you provide only the comicvine-volume number in the bulk change to all the issues in a given volume, it almost ensures 100% accuracy on the metadata download. If you are only dealing with a single issue, then you should get the comicvine-volume and comicvine issue number & edit the single issue, placing the 2 numbers (example: comicvine:57420, comicvine-volume:3370) in the ids field prior to metadata download.

What to do when you are not getting a good matches on comics with a bulk metadata download?
Login to comicvine website.
Search for the Comic you want to retrieve metadata on
For Example Armor Wars: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/ultim...rs/4050-28008/ is the high-level URL that shows 4 issues.
I then highlight the 4 issues in Calibre, do "Edit Metadata in Bulk", go to search/replace and load my Template. Change the Replace with: from my template default to Replace with: 28008 (the comicvine-volume number for this set of issues) and then click OK.

Now the Comicvine Plugin will get the metadata for the correct comics.

I hope this helps those of you doing comic book metadata downloads into Calibre.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by searcygr

I have been helping my son load metadata on comic books using the ComicVine Calibre plugin. I had to learn the information below the hard way and after much trial & error. The following information assumes you have a comicvine login and API key.

To ensure the Comicvine Calibre Plugin downloads covers (found this solution in an obscure reference in a MobileRead forum):
1. Copy comicvine.zip plugin to a temp folder & extract the contents of the zip file
2. Edit source.py
Find the line url = 'http://static.comicvine.com' + url and comment the line
# url = 'http://static.comicvine.com' + url
4. Save source.py and rezip all the files.
5. Install the comicvine plugin into Calibre.
6. Covers are now downloaded with the comic metadata.

First thing to do:
1. Customize Plugin (Preference/Plugins/Search for Comicvine Plugin/Customize)
2. input your unique API Key
3. Change worker threads to 1 (This is important to prevent running into API limits too quickly)

Next on the list: Create an "Update ComicVine IDs" Search and Replace template
1. Search Mode: Regular Expression
2. Search Field: identifiers
3. Identifier type: comicvine-volume
4. Search for: .*
5. Replace with: nnnn where nnnnn=any five digit number for now
6. Destination field: identifiers
7. Identifier type: comicvine-volume
8. Case sensitive (uncheck)
9. Mode: Replace field
Now click on the SAVE button & Save template as "Update ComicVine IDs"

There is a thread dedicated to this plugin. Looking at it, the plugin was last updated in 2014. The author hasn't been around for a while, and I think that update was done by someone else to make the plugin compatible with calibre v2. As other people might want to do this, you could post your updated version of the plugin in the thread.

Also, the first post of the plugins thread has a link to a Github repository. It looks like some changes have been made there that weren't released here. It might be worthwhile checking if these fix the problems you are seeing.

The comicvine plugin has a problem with comics that came out with different series/volumes/etc. For example Deadman came out with issues under Volume 1, Volume 2, etc. The plugin doesn't match the comic books too well under those circumstances.

What to do when you are not getting a good match?
Login to comicvine website.
Search for the Comic you want to retrieve metadata on
For Example Armor Wars: https://comicvine.gamespot.com/ultim...rs/4050-28008/ is the high-level URL that shows 4 issues.
I then highlight the 4 issues in Calibre, do "Edit Metadata in Bulk", go to search/replace and load my Template. Change the Replace with: from my template default to Replace with: 28008 (the comicvine-volume number for this set of issues) and then click OK.

Now the Comicvine Plugin will get the metadata for the correct comics.

I hope this helps those of you doing comic book metadata downloads into Calibre.

I don't read comics, but some of this seems weird to me. You seem to be suggesting to record the link to the volume rather than the individual comic issue. Wouldn't using the issue be better? Or is this something peculiar to how comics worked?

And with the absence of the author of the plugin, if you want to fix this as well and post it, other users would probably be appreciative.

[theducks]

Moderator Notice
Since this is discussing a Plugin, it has been moved to that section

[searcygr]

Thank you for pointing out problems with my post. I have edited the post and tried to make it a bit more clear. You are correct when writing about an individual comic. It is better to "Edit metadata individually" and put the correct comicvine-volume and comicvine number (example: comicvine:57420, comicvine-volume:3370) in the ids field.

My post pertained to a single volume that has multiple issues. Highlighting all the issues for a given volume, doing a "Edit metadata in bulk" and putting just the comicvine-volume in the ids field will increase the odds of matching 100% of the issues within a given volume. For example, Hellblazer has 333 issues within a given volume.

Again, thanks for the points you made and if it is still not clear, I would appreciate any help you can give me in explaining how to assist other Calibre users with their comic metadata downloads.

[sneakypete]

I confess I am a newbie so your help would be appreciated - i run calibre in windows 10 so exactly do I install this plugin please?