Can Kobo collections be synchronised by Calibre?

[bluepeter]

As I assume most users do, I use collections to organise the books on my Kobo e-readers. For example, fiction is organised into Unread, Partly Read, Read and Abandoned. Books are moved between collections as I read them. I have five Kobo devices in use (Clara HD, 2 x Clara 2E, Clara Colour and Mini). Synchronisation of collections via Kobo's servers isn't perfect, but it works reasonably well for books bought from Kobo.

The problem comes with books that I've loaded onto the e-readers from Calibre. The allocation and reallocation of these has to be done manually, and this can be tedious.

Is there any easy way of setting the allocation of books to collections in Calibre, and for Calibre to impose that allocation (or reallocation) on Kobo e-readers when they're connected?

I know how to create a suitable custom column in Calibre, but don't know how to make this control the allocation on the e-readers - or even if it's at all relevant.

[Sirtel]

Yes, it's possible. The settings for this can be accessed by customizing the Kobo driver, which can be done via the KoboUtilities plugin (right-click on the plugin icon -> Driver -> Configure the current driver). See this post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...28&postcount=7

[bluepeter]

Thank you for the pointer. Much appreciated.

Right, now I've got to get to grips with that plugin!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by bluepeter

Right, now I've got to get to grips with that plugin!

Nothing easier. Just install it from Preferences -> Plugins -> Get new plugins.

[bluepeter]

Thanks. Yes, I've got that far. No problem installing a plugin - I've done it before.

The problem comes with using it. I've created my list of collections for one of my devices (this simply copies the list of collections that already exists on the device):
[IMG]C:\Users\peter\Pictures\Screenshots\Screenshot 2024-05-03 093500.jpg[/IMG]

But now that I've got that list set up, I can't see how to allocate books to those collections, or to move books between them in Calibre. Obviously, I'm missing something.

The plugin doesn't appear to do anything beyond adding an icon at the end of the toolbar. That icon has a drop-down menu, but almost all of it is greyed out unless a device is connected. I'd expected (perhaps naïvely) that it'd automatically create a custom column with a fixed set of values from which I could select the collection to which a book is, or should be, allocated.

[bluepeter]

Bother! Now I'm having trouble adding a screenshot to my post. I can't see how to include an image from my hard drive, rather than from a web site. Sorry!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by bluepeter

Bother! Now I'm having trouble adding a screenshot to my post. I can't see how to include an image from my hard drive, rather than from a web site. Sorry!

Go to the Advanced options and click on the paperclip icon to attach your picture.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by bluepeter

The plugin doesn't appear to do anything beyond adding an icon at the end of the toolbar. That icon has a drop-down menu, but almost all of it is greyed out unless a device is connected. I'd expected (perhaps naïvely) that it'd automatically create a custom column with a fixed set of values from which I could select the collection to which a book is, or should be, allocated.

Right-click on the icon, don't click on it. Select "Driver" and "Configure the current driver" - those are not greyed out.

[bluepeter]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Right-click on the icon, don't click on it. Select "Driver" and "Configure the current driver" - those are not greyed out.

Yup, that's what I did.

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Go to the Advanced options and click on the paperclip icon to attach your picture.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

[Sirtel]

Create a custom column labelled, for example "Collections" or "Kobo collections" or whatever you like. You can add a set of fixed values to it or just leave the values empty, so you can add whatever you want. Now if you edit the metadata for a book, enter one (or several) of those values that you currently have in many separate columns (Abandoned, Partly Read, Nonfiction and so on) to that column you just created, in the Edit Metadata window.

And in the driver options just enter the column name, not its values (for example, #collections).

In short, don't create a column for each entry; create one column which can have all those entries and then choose which of those entries to add to a book.

I've added a couple of screenshots of my settings.

[bluepeter]

Thank you. I'd like to think that that's cracked it, but I'm not sure whether I set up my custom column correctly. In particular:
(a) should I have used # marks for each permitted option?
(b) What I've done doesn't, I think, allow me to select multiple collections for a book. This isn't a problem at the moment, because my practice has always been to keep books in only one collection, but I'm curious as to how this could be enabled. A different column type, maybe?

Screenshots of my revised setup attached.

Since the new column effectively duplicates the simpler one (headed "Read?") that I already had, I think that I can drop the earlier one once the new configuration is working.

I note in passing that my Edit Metadata window looks different from yours - I have Basic and Custom metadata on separate tabs. I assume that you're just using a different version of Calibre from mine (7.10, Windows 64-bit).

[Sirtel]

Looks to be in order now. And no, you can't assign multiple collections to a book with the fixed set of values column. That's why I chose a different type for my #shelves column - comma separated text, like tags. I can enter whatever I want for a given book there, even several values and thus several collections (one collection=one value).

My metadata editing window just uses a different layout. You can edit this in Preferences -> Look & Feel -> Edit metadata. I use All in 1 tab.

[bluepeter]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate your help.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes, it's possible. The settings for this can be accessed by customizing the Kobo driver, which can be done via the KoboUtilities plugin (right-click on the plugin icon -> Driver -> Configure the current driver). See this post:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...28&postcount=7

Or you can go into Preferences => Plugins, locate the KoboTouch driver and configure it from there.

[ownedbycats]

You can also access it by going to Plugin Updater, finding it in the list after switching to 'installed', and then the customize plugin button.