Using Folder Names as Metadata

[volkermord]

All my ebooks are in a pretty basic format, but Calibre is not picking up the naming structure properly which is causing me to have to hand edit a lot of the files (we're talking a very large collection). So here's my setup:
Alphabet Letter as parent folder,
Author as sub folder
ebooks (with the name structure of <Series> - <# in series> - <Title> =or= <Title>

So I want to know if it's possible to pull the Author from the folder name, the Series, # and Title from the filenames (and for those without a series get the Title in the right location, instead of trying to use the title as the series)
I know in the end I'm probably going to have to do a lot of handwork, which I'm ok with, but fetching the metadata would be so much easier if it would figure out the Authors, and maybe not use the entire filename as the Title.

I search all over the forums, and google, and I don't normally like making posts to bug other people with questions but...
I'll be forever grateful to whomever could me

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by volkermord

So I want to know if it's possible to pull the Author from the folder name

No, but if you do one author at a time you can select all of the new entries and add the author to them all in one edit.

Originally Posted by volkermord

the Series, # and Title from the filenames (and for those without a series get the Title in the right location, instead of trying to use the title as the series)

Yes, check under Preferences - Add/Save and check Read metadata from file name. Then use the Regex below to set the import for your file names.

Try

<series> - <series_index> - <title>

to start.

Use the test tool by inserting one of your book names (including the extension .txt) to see if you have what you want.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by volkermord

So here's my setup:
Alphabet Letter as parent folder,
Author as sub folder
ebooks (with the name structure of <Series> - <# in series> - <Title> =or= <Title>

So I want to know if it's possible to pull the Author from the folder name, the Series, # and Title from the filenames (and for those without a series get the Title in the right location, instead of trying to use the title as the series)

When importing books, check the option preferences -> adding books -> Read metadata only from file name, then use the regular expression

./(?P<author>.*)/((?P<series>.*) - (?P<series_index>.*) - )?(?P<title>.*)

The regexp matches correctly when tested with the file names

s/john smith/Some Series - 1 - Title.epub

and

s/john smith/Title.epub

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by chaley

When importing books, check the option preferences -> adding books -> Read metadata only from file name, then use the regular expression

./(?P<author>.*)/((?P<series>.*) - (?P<series_index>.*) - )?(?P<title>.*)

The regexp matches correctly when tested with the file names

s/john smith/Some Series - 1 - Title.epub

and

s/john smith/Title.epub

Charles - are you sure about this? I thought we couldn't get the path when parsing with the regex during Add. I tested, and like you, I got a success during a test of the regex, but not during an actual Add. I thought the path was being stripped off the filename before it was passed to the regex for parsing into metadata. (I had to modify the separators to double backslashes for Windows to get the test to work - I tried an actual Add with both double backslashes and single forward slashes.)

Usually, I would take a look at the code, and put in a print statement to see if the path is there before parsing with the regex, but I'm really short on time. If this is actually working for someone to get metadata from a folder name, I'd appreciate confirmation (and also what OS it is working on.)

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Starson17

Charles - are you sure about this? I thought we couldn't get the path when parsing with the regex during Add.

Nope, wasn't sure about it. I took the easy way out and just used the tester. You are absolutely right. The code uses only the last component of a path, so the regexp won't work in anger.

The OP could use the regexp by doing a bulk rename of a/b/c to a/b - c, but that has its own complexities.

[Starson17]

Originally Posted by chaley

The OP could use the regexp by doing a bulk rename of a/b/c to a/b - c, but that has its own complexities.

Somewhere here there was a discussion of a flexible file rename utility that uses regexp in the file rename operation. I haven't had a chance to look at it, but it might do the job. It did look like a nice utility for those who are comfortable using regexp.

[Cryolithic]

http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main_Intro.php

[Cryolithic]

It will probably take a couple of passes (I'm doing the same thing with my collection as I write this)

I'll post the steps and regexes for Bulk Rename Util as I do it.

First step, stripping out Series Name/#

Match: ([A-Za-zA-Z0-9'\. ]*)(-? ?[0-9\.]* ?- ?)(.*)
replace: \3

In the box that says Append Folder name, set prefix, a seperator, and level.

Make sure you check the box for subfolders

This *should* get most of the items.