Guide to Collections Management with calibre (Touch / Glo / Mini /Aura)

[Corpsegoddess]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Oh... Did we mention that if you make a shelf called 'Brick me' your Kobo will self destruct??

I KNEW IT!

*erases "Brick Me" shelf*

[Corpsegoddess]

Worked like a charm. Peter, you were right--it wasn't scary at all. Thank you so much for encouraging me to try my hand at shelves with Calibre!

Okay, one question, though--every time I hook up my Kobo now, it wipes my Kobo-created shortlist. Do I need to create a Shortlist in Calibre in order to have it stick?

Edit: Actually, two questions. The other piece of infomation that gets wiped whenever I do a reset are the books that I've finished reading. Is there a way to set this information in Calibre? I've got a "read" column in Calibre, but that's for my own personal self there. Can I somehow translate that info over to the Kobo?

[daveman]

Hi there,

I am having an annoying issue which is driving me crazy.

Got a new Kobo Glo which is great!!

I have set up the plugboards and everything and it worked with my old Kobo with no issues.

I use the folowing:
{author_sort}/{author_sort} - {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

set on automatic management
I sent books to the memory card but only selected books went onto shelves. Also, in the listing on the KOBO, where series is listed, if there is no series, there is a letter which represents the first letter of the book title (I have not seen this before).

every time I plug in the KOBO into my computer, it is sending metedata to the device (I have 800 Books)

what is going on?

dave

[PeterT]

Any idea what version of calibre you have?

This was an issue that I did see several times while testing the Touch device driver for davidfor and I was sure had been resolver.

[daveman]

I am using the most up to date version 0.9.23

[PeterT]

I do seem to recall that the issue was mitigated by removing the use of the metadata plugboard and just letting files go over as-is. davidfor should be along in a few hours and is bound to have some ideas for you.

[daveman]

What is strange is when I add new books and then disconnect and reconnect and add more books, the shelves are created. But not always

strange

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by daveman

I am having an annoying issue which is driving me crazy.

Got a new Kobo Glo which is great!!

I have set up the plugboards and everything and it worked with my old Kobo with no issues.

I use the folowing:
{author_sort}/{author_sort} - {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

That looks more like a save template than what you would use for a metadata plugboard. Is that correct?

set on automatic management
I sent books to the memory card but only selected books went onto shelves.

What do you mean by "selected books"? Do you simply mean that not all of the books appeared on shelves? You have configured a shelf column and then put values in the column for all the books?

Also, in the listing on the KOBO, where series is listed, if there is no series, there is a letter which represents the first letter of the book title (I have not seen this before).

I thought I had sorted this out. It is related to putting the series in the save template and having series as a shelf column. And for books that are not in the calibre library. Or at least, that was the only way I could reproduce it. Does that agree with what you are seeing? If so, I thought I had swatted that bug, but I'll have another look on the weekend.

every time I plug in the KOBO into my computer, it is sending metedata to the device (I have 800 Books)

When you connect the device it does two things. The first is to collect details of the books. The second, the sending metadata job, is to update the shelves and series information on the device. This goes through the books and checks if anything has changed and updates the device database if needed. Are you concerned about what it is doing, or how long it is taking?

Originally Posted by daveman

What is strange is when I add new books and then disconnect and reconnect and add more books, the shelves are created. But not always

That is strange. There should be no reason the shelves are not setup for a book when it is first sent to the device. And if you change them afterwards in calibre, they should get updated the next time the device is connected. Can you see any sort of pattern for it?

[daveman]

Hi There,

Thanks for the quick response.

What I think is happening is that It is going through an iterative process... When I connected and reconnected the device several times it worked....

first connection the books were sent to the device but no shelves, the second time shelves were created but with the letters issue, the third time the shelves were corrected. Each time I added a few more books..

I would do more testing (by deleting entire library from the Kobo and starting over) but I am going on vacation this evening. I can try upon my return.

[davidfor]

@davemand: Can you give me an example of the name of a book that is getting the single letter shelf? And what is the save template you are using? Is it what you posted earlier, or something else?

What you are describing shouldn't happen. The shelves should be created when the book is first sent. Even if for some reason the book isn't processed by the device and shown in the library, the shelf should still be there but without anything in it.

[samhy]

Thank you PeterT and those who contributed to this thread
I followed all the steps (series and shelves) and so far so good. I think I'll fiddle a bit more with the way the series info are rendered, but it's already working fine.

Now, I'll try to see if there is a safe way to convert some of my epub files into kepub ones.

[paola]

Originally Posted by samhy

Now, I'll try to see if there is a safe way to convert some of my epub files into kepub ones.

you should definitely try Joel Goguen's Calibre plugin! The whole thread is here and though long it is worth a read, but the plugin itself is linked in post 13 (or here).

[samhy]

Originally Posted by paola

you should definitely try Joel Goguen's Calibre plugin! The whole thread is here and though long it is worth a read, but the plugin itself is linked in post 13 (or here).

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I'll check that out when things will be less busy here.

[Lily7]

Hello, I have a question I am hoping someone can help me with. I did the following:

Originally Posted by PeterT

Changing Book Titles to include Series Info

One probably also wants to change book titles to include Series info. That gets done via what is called a "metadata plugboard". Through these you are able to modify items like the book's title or author as it gets transferred to your device.

Goto Preferences | Import/Export | Metaboard plugboards

On the line that reads Add new plugboard do the following

• In the box Format (choose first) select epub
• in the Device (choose second) box select KOBOTOUCH
• In the Source Template the magic happens . Here you have a lot of options
  • To modify the book's title to <Series> - <Number> - <Title> type

    {series}{series_index:0>2s| - | - }{title}

But I am a bit confused about the difference between that and the "Set Series Information" option in the KoboTouch plugin configuration area. (Found at: Preferences > Plugins > Device Interface Plugins > KoboTouch)

Is it redundant to have this selected as well if I've already created a plugboard to add series info to the book title? Or does it do something completely different? If one must choose one or the other which is best?

Thanks!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Lily7

Hello, I have a question I am hoping someone can help me with. I did the following:

But I am a bit confused about the difference between that and the "Set Series Information" option in the KoboTouch plugin configuration area. (Found at: Preferences > Plugins > Device Interface Plugins > KoboTouch)

Is it redundant to have this selected as well if I've already created a plugboard to add series info to the book title? Or does it do something completely different? If one must choose one or the other which is best?

The difference is in where the series information is stored and the firmware version.

Up until firmware 2.2.1, the only way to have series information was to add it to the title via a plugboard. Doing that meant the series was displayed and sorting by title on the device put all the books in a series together.

From FW 2.2.1, the firmware supports series information. This is displayed on a separate line in the library lists. But, the firmware can't get this from the books. Series info is not part of the standard metadata for an epub. So, an option was added to the driver to write the series info into the database on the device. The sorting in FW 2.2.1, 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 treated the series info as part of the title in much the same way as when using the plugboard. This meant the plugboard was not really needed.

In FW 2.4.0, there was another change. This time the series info was dropped from the title when sorting. The series info is still displayed, but there is no way to sort the books in the library so that all books in a series are grouped together and in order. That means that if the plugboard comes in handy again to get the sorting working.

All that means is that you have options. You can use the "Set series information" option or the plugboard. Or both. How useful they are depends on the firmware version and how you want your books displayed on the device.