Plugboard, template, and custom composite column recipes

[chaley]

Originally Posted by maddz

What it's doing is if there are entries in all 3 fields is producing the output:
'Subseries' 'Subseries Index' - 'My Shelves' 'Hugo Nominations'

What I want it to do is produce:
'Subseries' 'Subseries Index' - 'My Shelves' - 'Hugo Nominations'

Ideally, it should be:
'Subseries' 'Subseries Index'
'My Shelves'
'Hugo Nominations'

But I am not sure if the subtitle field can take more than one line...

If there is less than three entries (every title will have 'My Shelves'), the line breaks for the subseries and Hugos should be suppressed, so there is either 1 line or 2 lines:

'My Shelves'

or

'Subseries' Subseries Index'
'My Shelves'

or

'My Shelves'
'Hugo Nominations'

Putting aside the newlines, this template does what the above says you want. There might be some misspellings in the column lookup names as I don't have those columns in my database.

{#subseries}{#subseries_index:| | - }{#myshelves}{#hugonominees:| - |}

I tested it with columns I have:

{#series}{#series_index:| | - }{#genre}{tags:| - |}

EDIT: According to this post I tested newlines in the subtitle and they didn't work. The the template below isn't useful.

This GPM template does the same thing except for using newlines instead of the minus signs.

program:
# This template produces a 1-to-3 line result.
# The first line is the subseries if there is one.
# The next line is the shelves, which are always present.
# The last line is the hugo nominees, if there is one.

	if $subseries then
		ss = $#subseries & ' ' & $#subseries_index & character('newline')
	else
		ss = ''
	fi;

	if $#hugonominees then
		hugo = character('newline') & $#hugonominees
	else
		hugo = ''
	fi;

	return ss & $#myshelves & hugo

NB: I left off some of the '#' characters in the template in my last post. I tested it with columns that exist then incorrectly edited it to reference your columns.

[maddz]

Ah yes - my mistake, it was you not Davidfor who helped me with the initial set-up for the subtitle field.

I think I will leave things as they are, although it's annoying not to have the separator (-) between the 'My Shelves' and 'Hugo Nominations' sections. I suspect I would need to change the order to subtitle, Hugo nominations, my shelves to get the separator working correctly.

Thanks for all your help!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by maddz

Ah yes - my mistake, it was you not Davidfor who helped me with the initial set-up for the subtitle field.

I think I will leave things as they are, although it's annoying not to have the separator (-) between the 'My Shelves' and 'Hugo Nominations' sections. I suspect I would need to change the order to subtitle, Hugo nominations, my shelves to get the separator working correctly.

Thanks for all your help!

But as I said, your template breaks the rules, specifically the "no subtemplates in Single Function Mode" one. It it works then it is by accident. It could fail at any time.

Try the template I last posted:

{#subseries}{#subseries_index:| | - }{#myshelves}{#hugonominees:| - |}

It should produce the same result except for properly placing the hyphen, without breaking the rules.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by chaley

But as I said, your template breaks the rules, specifically the "no subtemplates in Single Function Mode" one. It it works then it is by accident. It could fail at any time.

Try the template I last posted:

{#subseries}{#subseries_index:| | - }{#myshelves}{#hugonominees:| - |}

It should produce the same result except for properly placing the hyphen, without breaking the rules.

I did. I got PLUGBOARD ERROR on the Kobo whereas my modification to the original code works apart from the missing hyphen.

This is in the Kobo Utilities plug-in? The KoboExtended driver? It doesn't seem to be possible to create a metadata plugboard to input to the subtitle field.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by maddz

This is in the Kobo Utilities plug-in? The KoboExtended driver? It doesn't seem to be possible to create a metadata plugboard to input to the subtitle field.

I didn't feel like creating the custom columns but I suspect it should be in the subtitle field on page 3 (Metadata, on device & advanced) of the KoboTouch/KoboTouchExtended driver configuration dialog.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I didn't feel like creating the custom columns but I suspect it should be in the subtitle field on page 3 (Metadata, on device & advanced) of the KoboTouch/KoboTouchExtended driver configuration dialog.

Yes, that's where I've input it, as well as in the dialogue box when you click on the plug-in selector (the down arrow) and select the 'Update metadata in device library' option.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by maddz

I did. I got PLUGBOARD ERROR on the Kobo whereas my modification to the original code works apart from the missing hyphen.

This is in the Kobo Utilities plug-in? The KoboExtended driver? It doesn't seem to be possible to create a metadata plugboard to input to the subtitle field.

What is the rest of the error message?

My guess is that I misspelled one of your column names. You can test this by using the template editor/tester.

[maddz]

Originally Posted by chaley

What is the rest of the error message?

My guess is that I misspelled one of your column names. You can test this by using the template editor/tester.

I amended my original code to match yours and got the error... It was the same message if I copy/pasted your code.

I'll check next time I fire up Calibre; it's nearly bedtime for me.

[dunhill]

Hello everyone, I have an advanced rule that I use in the emblems part to show me the author's image next to the cover.
program: rslt=''; tags = $tags;
rslt = list_item(tags, 0, '&') & '.png';
for i in range(1, list_count(tags, '&')):
if i == 4 then break fi;
rslt = rslt & ':' & list_item(tags, i, '&') & '.png'
rof;
return rslt

I thought about using it in the tags column to put one icon per label but it only shows me a single icon with the images of the other tags.
Any solution or comment would be helpful.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by dunhill

Hello everyone, I have an advanced rule that I use in the emblems part to show me the author's image next to the cover.
program: rslt=''; tags = $tags;
rslt = list_item(tags, 0, '&') & '.png';
for i in range(1, list_count(tags, '&')):
if i == 4 then break fi;
rslt = rslt & ':' & list_item(tags, i, '&') & '.png'
rof;
return rslt

I thought about using it in the tags column to put one icon per label but it only shows me a single icon with the images of the other tags.
Any solution or comment would be helpful.

Tags use a comma as a separator, not an ampersand.

[dunhill]

Originally Posted by chaley

Tags use a comma as a separator, not an ampersand.

Thank Chaley, it worked!!

[Mister L]

I am trying to create a custom column from tags to manage collections on the kobo, but no values are being added (neither in the column, nor in the collections on the device). Maybe it's because I'm trying to use regex in the program code?

When I add a book recommended by someone, I add a tag "reco [name]". So for instance "reco Martha Wells". I would like the copy this tag to the "reco" column to use as a collection column.

I created a "reco" column from other columns, acts like tags:

program:
	switch_if(
		$tags == 'reco (.*)', 'reco \1', 
		'')

But this "reco" column is never filled. Am I missing a step somewhere?



Part two, would it be possible to also, automatically add any books with a value in the "reco" column to a general collection named "friends recos"?

Could I do that with something like this, either in the column or in the collections model in the KoboTouchExtended Driver?

program:
	switch_if(
		$tags == 'reco (.*)', 'reco \1', 
		$tags == 'reco (.*)', 'recos amis', 
		'')

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Mister L

I am trying to create a custom column from tags to manage collections on the kobo, but no values are being added (neither in the column, nor in the collections on the device). Maybe it's because I'm trying to use regex in the program code?

When I add a book recommended by someone, I add a tag "reco [name]". So for instance "reco Martha Wells". I would like the copy this tag to the "reco" column to use as a collection column.

I created a "reco" column from other columns, acts like tags:

program:
	switch_if(
		$tags == 'reco (.*)', 'reco \1', 
		'')

But this "reco" column is never filled. Am I missing a step somewhere?



Part two, would it be possible to also, automatically add any books with a value in the "reco" column to a general collection named "friends recos"?

Could I do that with something like this, either in the column or in the collections model in the KoboTouchExtended Driver?

program:
	switch_if(
		$tags == 'reco (.*)', 'reco \1', 
		$tags == 'reco (.*)', 'recos amis', 
		'')

The expression you are using won't work in the template language. I didn't add perl syntax.

Also, if I am understanding you correctly there can be multiple 'reco XX' tags attached to a book. In this case you must process the tags one at a time. This template does that, and your case 2.

program:
	result = '';
	for t in $tags:
		if substr(t, 0, 5) == 'reco ' then
			result = list_join(',', result, ',', t & ',' & 'recos amis', ',')
		fi
	rof;
	result

Alternatively you could do it in python template mode using a list comprehension that filters out anything not starting with 'reco '. Try that if you know python.

[Mister L]

Originally Posted by chaley

The expression you are using won't work in the template language. I didn't add perl syntax.

Ha. I knew it was the regex causing trouble.

Originally Posted by chaley

Also, if I am understanding you correctly there can be multiple 'reco XX' tags attached to a book. In this case you must process the tags one at a time. This template does that, and your case 2.

program:
	result = '';
	for t in $tags:
		if substr(t, 0, 5) == 'reco ' then
			result = list_join(',', result, ',', t & ',' & 'recos amis', ',')
		fi
	rof;
	result

Excellent. Works perfectly! Thank you!

[ownedbycats]

As I often re-read books, I like to store all my completion dates in a taglike column (e.g. 2021-03-13, 2022-04-21, 2023-04-17, 2024-05-29). I use this composite column to group them by month in the tag browser:

program:

	new_dates = '';

	for dates in '#datesread':
		converted = format_date(dates, 'yyyy.MM (MMMM)');
		new_dates = list_union(new_dates, converted, ',')
	rof