Adding Yes/No column to the grouping drawer

[chaley]

Moderator Notice
I am moving this from private messages to a thread so I can add attachments, and so that others can chime in if they see something I missed.

From CC-Peter:

I read your description how to add custom columns to grouping drawer in calibre companion. By the way: great app, that prevents to have two libriaries in parallel, one in calibre and another one in your reader app. It worked as described. Database has been reorganized and the new "Name" appears in grouping drawer. But unfortunately the content of this column from calibre (it´s a yes/no-parameter) does not appear. The custom column is visible in the datails of each book (green arrow for "yes" and no entry for "no") but in the grouping drawer just the name appears, tapping it does not show e.g. Yes<45>, NO<15>.
Or do I understand the intent of adding custom columns completely wrong. What I want is to bring a user defined Yes/No-parameter from calibre to CC to group on it.
CC for itself contains a read-flag, but this will not be transferred back to calibre. So I generated "Read Yes/No" in calibre for grouping.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by CC-Peter

Hello,
I read your description how to add custom columns to grouping drawer in calibre companion. By the way: great app, that prevents to have two libriaries in parallel, one in calibre and another one in your reader app. It worked as described.

Thanks for the kind words.

Database has been reorganized and the new "Name" appears in grouping drawer. But unfortunately the content of this column from calibre (it´s a yes/no-parameter) does not appear. The custom column is visible in the datails of each book (green arrow for "yes" and no entry for "no") but in the grouping drawer just the name appears, tapping it does not show e.g. Yes<45>, NO<15>.

I assume you are running CC V3.4.4?

Almost certainly you have not typed the correct lookup name of the yes/no column into CC. What you types should look something like "#mycolumn/Column name". The #mycolumn must be exactly the same as you see in calibre if you hover your mouse pointer over the column heading. The "/Column name" is optional.

The next release will show a list of columns where you choose the ones you want, eliminating the problem of typographical errors.

Or do I understand the intent of adding custom columns completely wrong. What I want is to bring a user defined Yes/No-parameter from calibre to CC to group on it.

It seems that you correctly understand what should happen, and what will happen when the lookup name is entered correctly.

CC for itself contains a read-flag, but this will not be transferred back to calibre. So I generated "Read Yes/No" in calibre for grouping.

This I do not understand. CC can sync its read information back to a calibre yes/no column, and its read date information back to a calibre date column. In CC's settings, scroll down until you see the "Marking Books Read" section. There are two settings there, one for the read information and one for the read date information. You enter the lookup name of the calibre custom yes/no column into one setting and the lookup name of the calibre custom date column into the other setting.

[chaley]

From CC-Peter:

If you advise me how to open a diskussion, we could start again with my first question to make this issue public. Otherwise here my answer:
Version is 3.4.4 of course.
I also assumed wrong entry of name, but it is not fact as I can see.
The column name is "Gelesen".
When I enter "#Gelesen" and confirm this, I find "#gelesen". I also entered "#Gelesen/Gelesen", this will me mirrored as "#gelesen/Gelesen".
The capital letter will be changed in any case.
So I also to change the column name in calibre to "gelesen", because I assumed that CC cannot cope with capital letters. The metadata have been transmitted but the behaviour is the same as described above.
the group "Gelesen" or "gelesen" is empty in any case.
Peter

[chaley]

I also assumed wrong entry of name, but it is not fact as I can see.
The column name is "Gelesen".
When I enter "#Gelesen" and confirm this, I find "#gelesen". I also entered "#Gelesen/Gelesen", this will me mirrored as "#gelesen/Gelesen".
The capital letter will be changed in any case.
So I also to change the column name in calibre to "gelesen", because I assumed that CC cannot cope with capital letters. The metadata have been transmitted but the behaviour is the same as described above.
the group "Gelesen" or "gelesen" is empty in any case.

To find the correct spelling of the lookup name, go to calibre. Put your mouse pointer over the column heading of the "Gelesen" column. You will see the lookup name in a popup box. This screen capture shows you what it will look like.

You then put that name spelled in exactly the same way into CC, as shown in this screen capture.

If all goes well then you will see something like this in the grouping drawer

[CC-Peter]

Thanks,
meantime I found out the same: The column name is "Read", the search name "read", tricky..
Now I determined in "Sync column for read" "#read" and after synchronizing these data fields seem to be matched. But not completely: When I change in calibre, it will be transferred to CC, but when I change the flag in CC, it will NOT be changed in calibre...

[chaley]

Originally Posted by CC-Peter

Thanks,
meantime I found out the same: The column name is "Read", the search name "read", tricky..
Now I determined in "Sync column for read" "#read" and after synchronizing these data fields seem to be matched. But not completely: When I change in calibre, it will be transferred to CC, but when I change the flag in CC, it will NOT be changed in calibre...

What column name are you referring to? CC does not choose the name of the yes/no column in calibre. It is up to you to choose which column is used for syncing. Have you created a column with the lookup name "#read"?

CC does sync both directions (from calibre and to calibre), unless you have checked the box asking that it sync only one way. This screen capture shows that option.

[CC-Peter]

Hello,
the box is checked of course, otherwise I could not change the flag in CC.
The column name is "Read" and the search name is "#read". I use the last one in "sync column for read", and as I already mentioned the contents of "Read" in calibre will appear in book details: custom column "Read" will have a green check or it´s empty, Read-Flag from CC will be "Yes" or "No". When I change Read-Flag from CC, it will not be transferred back to calibre.
By the way: it seems to be a one way connection anyway. Option "Scan on connect" is checked, but when there is a new book available in calibre, this will not be noticed oand transferred automatically. I have to push it from calibre manually.
I could attach a screenshot for better understanding, but I do not find how to do (just entering a URL is possible, not from local).
Peter

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by CC-Peter

I could attach a screenshot for better understanding, but I do not find how to do (just entering a URL is possible, not from local).Peter

@CC-Peter - go into Advanced mode, scroll down until you see Manage Attachments

Also see Posting Messages - Attachments and Images

BR

[chaley]

Originally Posted by CC-Peter

Hello,
the box is checked of course, otherwise I could not change the flag in CC.

You must mean "unchecked".

The column name is "Read" and the search name is "#read". I use the last one in "sync column for read", and as I already mentioned the contents of "Read" in calibre will appear in book details: custom column "Read" will have a green check or it´s empty, Read-Flag from CC will be "Yes" or "No". When I change Read-Flag from CC, it will not be transferred back to calibre.

Then something is not set up correctly.

To sync CC's read information back to calibre:
1) You must create a yes/no custom column in calibre. Make a note of the lookup name. In this example the lookup name I am using is #mybool


2) In CC's settings go to the Marking Books Read section and tap on Sync column for Read


3) Enter the exact spelling of the lookup name of the calibre yes/no custom column in the dialog box.


4) You now see the lookup name of the calibre column in CC's settings.


From this point on, when you connect as a wireless device CC's read information will be sent to calibre and put into the custom column with the lookup name you used, in this example #mybool. Information in that custom column will be sent to CC and put into CC's read info.

By the way: it seems to be a one way connection anyway. Option "Scan on connect" is checked, but when there is a new book available in calibre, this will not be noticed oand transferred automatically. I have to push it from calibre manually.

"Scan on connect" tells CC to look in the books folders on the device to see if there are books that are not in CC's database. It has no effect on calibre. You are correct, when using the wireless device connection you must push books to CC from calibre. You can use the calibre reading list plugin to automate some things, but I suggest that you don't do that until you have CC & calibre talking to each other correctly.

I could attach a screenshot for better understanding, but I do not find how to do (just entering a URL is possible, not from local).
Peter

BetterRed answered this one.

[CC-Peter]

I did it exactly this way you described. My problem at first was that the column name "Read" and the lookup name "read" were the same for me. But this is solved, when you exchange your "#mybool" with my "#read", your and my screenshots are exactly identically. The mistery is that changes in calibre from yes to no or vice versus will be synchronized to CC´s read flag, but changes of this flag, done in CC, will not be synchronzid back to calibre. The first working part shows me that the configuration must be ok. May it be that "read" in CC "Read" as column name and "#read" as lookup name may cause the trouble? I will try another column and lookup name which is completely different to "read". It might be not very proable, but we will see...

[CC-Peter]

If you believe it or not: I deleted the current custom name "Read" with lookup name "#read" and generated a new one name: "Gelesen", lookup name "#leseflag" and entered it in CC. And now synchronization in both direction works...
May there were too many "reads" in the play?!
Thanks a lot for your support!
Peter

[chaley]

EDIT: This post isn't needed because CC-Peter already solved his problem. I will leave it just in case it helps someone else.

Originally Posted by CC-Peter

I did it exactly this way you described. My problem at first was that the column name "Read" and the lookup name "read" were the same for me. But this is solved, when you exchange your "#mybool" with my "#read", your and my screenshots are exactly identically. The mistery is that changes in calibre from yes to no or vice versus will be synchronized to CC´s read flag, but changes of this flag, done in CC, will not be synchronzid back to calibre. The first working part shows me that the configuration must be ok. May it be that "read" in CC "Read" as column name and "#read" as lookup name may cause the trouble? I will try another column and lookup name which is completely different to "read". It might be not very proable, but we will see...

But it does sync from CC to calibre and from calibre to CC. The following screen captures show this.

1) This first screen capture shows what is in calibre. The #mybool column is marked with read. You will see that 1632 is not marked read and 20,000 leagues under the see is marked read.


2) This screen shows CC after having connected to calibre as a wireless device. You see that here as well, 1632 is not marked read and 20,000 leagues is marked read.


3) I now in CC change the value of read for 20,000 leagues from yes to no, and then connect.


4) This screen capture shows calibre's data after the connect. 20,000 leagues has changed from Yes to No.


5) In calibre, I now change 1632 from empty to Read (Yes).


6) Next I connect CC to calibre as a wireless device. The book 1632 changes to Read. 20,000 leagues does not change.


7) CC's grouping drawer shows this information.


These screen captures were done with CC V3.4.4 and calibre 2.5.

What version of calibre are you running?

[CC-Peter]

Versions are CC 3.4.4 and calibre: 2.5.0
Thanks again!