How can I use the database API to get a collection of all known series?

[charlweed]

I'm writing a plugin, and I'd like to obtain a list of all the series in all the books. I'll use the list to answer questions like "Is there a series with this name 'SomeName'" and "Which series have a name that starts with the string 'SomePrefix'"
I've tried various approaches including:

series_fields = self.db_cache_api.fields['series']
for val, book_ids in series_fields.iter_searchable_values(
    self.db_cache_api.get_metadata,
    self.db_cache_api.all_book_ids()
):
    print("val=\"%s\"" % val)

But the results are always empty.

Thanks for any help!

[chaley]

I don't know where the attribute 'cache_api" is defined. Is it something you made?

In any event, here is a calibre python template that returns all the current series names.

python:
python:
def evaluate(book, context):
	series_names = context.db.new_api.all_field_names('series')
	return ', '.join(series_names)

Going from your example, I would use

	series_names = self.db.new_api.all_field_names('series')

But if you are looking for all the books for a given series then

	series_id = context.db.new_api.get_item_id('series', 'Bah')
	# should check for None
	series_books = context.db.new_api.books_for_field('series', series_id)

[charlweed]

Thanks! This works for me so far. I just want the series names.
`self.db_cache_api`is just an instance field where I keep the results of `db.new_api` after the current class was constructed.