[GUI Plugin] Action Chains

[ownedbycats]

A very minor visual glitch: "Ask at Runtime" metadata changes cause the cursor to appear like this. Thankfully things are still clickable.



Also, would it be possible to add "Re-apply current sort" as a Calibre action somehow? There's a slight glitch in Calibre where column icons don't immediately update if changed by a plugin.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by capink

Another thing I am not sure about, is whether it makes sense to make the chains library specific, or keep them as they are now. If people have any input about this, I would be interested in hearing it. It might break existing settings though.

Firstly, I haven't used the plugin

Definitely - I do sequences that are library specific, e.g. in Books I frequently do the following -- DOCX->EPUB conversion, Count Pages (words), and Modify EPUB. I would never use that in my Media or Movies libraries.

BR

[ownedbycats]

Note that the OP states that some tasks (conversion, background tasks) don't work properly.

[capink]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

A very minor visual glitch: "Ask at Runtime" metadata changes cause the cursor to appear like this. Thankfully things are still clickable.

The plugin starts a busy cursor that remains active from the start of the chain until it ends. I will modify it to temporarily turn it off during the popups of single field dialogs. The same cannot be done however for dialogs from Calibre Actions (e.g. Edit metadata dialog) because I have to track every possible action and see whether it pops up a dialog or not.

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Also, would it be possible to add "Re-apply current sort" as a Calibre action somehow? There's a slight glitch in Calibre where column icons don't immediately update if changed by a plugin.

I need a clarification of the problem because it is not clear to me. Also if it helps, if you have view manager plugin installed, you can access whatever view you want (which might help with any sort preference).

[capink]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Firstly, I haven't used the plugin

Definitely - I do sequences that are library specific, e.g. in Books I frequently do the following -- DOCX->EPUB conversion, Count Pages (words), and Modify EPUB. I would never use that in my Media or Movies libraries.

BR

Noted. It is not currently so because it was based on open with plugin which is not library specific. But sine chains can be exported/imported, I guess it should not be problematic for those who want cross-library chains

Also, as noted by ownedbythecats, some actions like conversion don't work for reasons outlined in the opening post.

[ownedbycats]

Example:

1. I have a column icon rule set to display an icon if the Languages field is empty.
2. If I use Action Chains to set the Language field, the icon doesn't immediately disappear. This is a common glitch when plugins change the metadata.
3. So I use "Re-apply current sort" (a default Calibre action, in the Keyboard Shortcuts) and the icons will refresh.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

There's a slight glitch in Calibre where column icons don't immediately update if changed by a plugin.

FWIW - the Miscellaneous->Focus the book list shortcut will refresh current row - default is Shift+Esc.

And, there are situations where icons aren't refreshed that don't involve plugins - one that comes to mind is when an icon's presence is based on the existence of a specific format, after adding said format the icon doesn't appear without the 'refresh', but if it's removed it disappears immediately

BR

[ownedbycats]

I also occasionally get the glitch when editing from the book list too - I have an icon rule based on a psuedobool composite column, but changing one of the columns that the composite pulls from doesn't always update the icon right away.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by capink

Noted. It is not currently so because it was based on open with plugin which is not library specific. But sine chains can be exported/imported, I guess it should not be problematic for those who want cross-library chains

Also, as noted by ownedbythecats, some actions like conversion don't work for reasons outlined in the opening post.

as well as not installing it, I also hadn't read the fine-print

"sine chain" - a block-chain catching a wave

BR

[capink]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Example:

1. I have a column icon rule set to display an icon if the Languages field is empty.
2. If I use Action Chains to set the Language field, the icon doesn't immediately disappear. This is a common glitch when plugins change the metadata.
3. So I use "Re-apply current sort" (a default Calibre action, in the Keyboard Shortcuts) and the icons will refresh.

Ahh, I got it. The plugin should probably refresh the gui after running the chain. I will add this to next release, and see if it solves your problems.

Was not aware of the re-apply sort trick. If you want an action that does that, try this custom action. (Manage modules > create module > copy paste in the module editor, and give the module a name)

from calibre_plugins.action_chains.actions.base import ChainAction

class ResortAction(ChainAction):

    name = 'Re-sort'

    def run(self, gui, settings, chain):
        gui.current_view().resort()

[Terisa de morgan]

I'm giving this plugin a try for some common actions I do, usually to change a couple of metadata values (that I have now in one of my plugins, but I can clean them, perhaps). I'm using calibre portable 5.5 on Windows 10 and I have a couple of problems:

1. Shorcuts for chains are not working for me (they don't appear in the menu till I restart calibre and, when they appear, they don't work)

Edit: Second point removed, there was a problem in my column definition.

[capink]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Shorcuts for chains are not working for me (they don't appear in the menu till I restart calibre and, when they appear, they don't work)

Strange. It is working for me with calibre 5.4. I will update later to 5.5 and see if it makes a difference.

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Date template (format_date (today, "dd/MM/yyyy")) is not giving the right month.

When applying templates to date columns the formatting depends on the formatting value of the date column itself. So, make the template "program: today()" and modify the formatting in your column (preferences > add you own columns > double click on column > format for dates).

If you are applying the template to a text column, I tried your example and it returns the month correctly. (see screens)

If you want a pre-defined value that evaluates to current time, there is a checkbox for that, you can use templates but you don't need to. But make sure you have the latest version, because there was a glitch earlier. (see screenshot).

Also whenever you hardcode a date value into a date column (does not matter for text columns) using a template, it is better to use a format that will not confuse parse_date (because sometimes it confuses months with days). So use 12-nov-2011 instead of 12-11-2011. (and the formatting will follow your column value as explained above)

[Terisa de morgan]

Yes, sorry, as you can see I've removed that point because it was my mistake when defined the date column.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by capink

When applying templates to date columns the formatting depends on the formatting value of the date column itself. So, make the template "program: today()" and modify the formatting in your column (preferences > add you own columns > double click on column > format for dates).

I am not sure if this is relevant, but if you use raw_field() instead of field() the format in the column definition is ignored. You get the date in 'iso' format.

[capink]

Originally Posted by chaley

I am not sure if this is relevant, but if you use raw_field() instead of field() the format in the column definition is ignored. You get the date in 'iso' format.

In this case we are actually trying to write a template output into a date column. The result of the template is parsed by parse_date before it is written into the date column. Your tip about raw_field certainly applies, but only if we are getting the date value from another date column — which is not always the case — but if it is the case, your way would be the most straightforward way of doing it.