[GUI Plugin] Multi-Column Search

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.29 - 13 December 2015 New: MCS Search Accelerator Functionality for search criteria involving Tags. This functionality is automatic and routine. The user has to do nothing to use it. Same speed improvement as for Authors (below).

Version 1.0.28 - 12 December 2015 New: MCS Search Accelerator Functionality for search criteria involving Authors. Such searches in one ~40,000 book library now take only a couple of minutes or less instead of (very) much longer.

Version 1.0.27 - 12 December 2015 Inter-Book Search regression error fixed.

Version 1.0.26 - 12 December 2015 Major performance enhancements, especially if your queries do NOT need to analyze Authors or Tags. That is because a single book may have many Authors and many Tags.

Version 1.0.25 - 11 December 2015 New: Progress Indicator and ability to Cancel an MCS Search when the number of selected books > 149 (otherwise, finishes too quickly). Performance enhancements.



DaltonST

[enkirkby]

Hello,

thanx a lot for great updates to the plugin but unfortunately let me report a problem I experienced with canceling action during ongoing inter-book search.

When I hit "cancel" button, it does nothing, the search still running, no visible changes in dialogs. I am using latest Calibre with latest MCS plugin.

thanx and all the best in Year 2016

EKB

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.32 - 3 January 2016 Improved Cancellation of Inter-Book Searches.

Having said that, since Inter-Book Searches have a final analytical phase that is entirely in SQL, and hence 'above' Python, if a huge number of books is being searched and MCS is already in that final analytical phase, then the search will not cancel until MCS comes out of that final analytical phase after that final SQL query has completed and MCS once again continues with Python so it can check to see if the user has clicked the cancel button.


DaltonST

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.33 - 5 January 2016 New Search Option: 'Show All Authors' Books'. This will also mark and display all books from the authors the search has otherwise found.

This new option is available for Intra-Book Searches and Inter-Book Searches.

See the attached example.


DaltonST

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.34 - 11 January 2016 New Search Option: 'Final Filters'. This will apply a maximum of 10 additional filters at the very end to all books that would otherwise have been displayed.



DaltonST

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.35 - 20 January 2016 Miscellaneous Final Filter logic improvements.

If you use Final Filters, you should upgrade to the new version sooner rather than later.


DaltonST

[timediver]

Cleaning up my library:
Can I use MCS to find all book titles and author names where the book title contains an author's name from this library? The result should be a list of these books.

Examples for a special author Karl May:
Title0: Old Shatterhand Authors: Karl May
Title1: Karl May Authors: Old Shurehand
Title2: Karl May - Winnetou
Title3: May, Karl - Winnetou
Title4: Karl May - Winnetou 3 - Winnetou's Death
Title5: Winnetou 3 - Karl May - Winnetou's Death

The result should be a list with titles:
Title1: Karl May
Title2: Karl May - Winnetou
Title3: May, Karl - Winnetou
Title4: Karl May - Winnetou 3 - Winnetou's Death
Title5: Winnetou 3 - Karl May - Winnetou's Death

If possible it would be very nice, if you could outline how to use MCS!

[BetterRed]

Moderator Notice
@timediver - when posting a query about a plug-in, please post in the plug-in's 'home' thread. Use the Plugin Index sticky at the top of the Plugins subforum to find the plug-in's 'home' thread.

Thanks - BR

[DaltonST]

Originally Posted by timediver

Can I use MCS to find all book titles and author names where the book title contains an author's name from this library?

@timediver:

Yes and no, depending on the exact definition of "an author's name from this Library".

[1] Yes, it is trivial to do an Intra-Book Search with the criterion that "Title CONTAINS Author" or "Author CONTAINS Title" or "Title CONTAINS Series" etc. The "All Authors' Books" option would be useful in this scenario. The "Final Filters" option may or may not be useful, depending on exactly what is in your Library. See the various ToolTips for details.

[2] No, it cannot answer this question: "Are there any books in my Library that have any Author name (i.e., used anywhere for any book in the same Library) in their Titles?"

For [2], there is an "industrial-strength" add-on that can definitely answer that question while simultaneously fixing the Author and Title metadata for you automatically: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=247425 . Carefully read the "Special Usage Notes" section within that post. If you have any doubts, especially about being autodidactic and comfortable with ambiguity, please do not continue; fix your metadata manually instead. If you decide to continue, pay special attention to and closely follow the "Important Message for New Users" section.

Good luck.



DaltonST

[timediver]

@BetterRed: Sorry for posting in the wrong place; I will improve the next time.

@DaltonST: Yes, what I was searching for was [2].

Your recommended add-on seems to be a very powerful and sophisticated tool which takes quite some time to learn! What do you mean with ambiguity? Do you mean it takes try and error to get to know it?
When I have some spare time I will read the documentation and then decide.

Thank you very much for your answer!

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.36 - 26 January 2016 New: 'Special Queries' Tab (refer to the ToolTips for details); Bug Fix in Final Filters evaluation logic.

This new tab is independent of the "normal" Search Criteria Tab.

The 'Special Queries' answers questions such as:

* "Are there any books in my library that have any Author's name in their Title?

* "Are there any books in my library that have any Series name in their Title?

* "Are there any books in my library that have any Series name in their Author?

* "Are there any books in my library that have any Title in their Author?

* "Are there any books in my library that have any Title in their Series?

* "Are there any books in my library that have any Author in their Series?


It is intended to be helpful in cleaning Author, Title and Series metadata.



DaltonST

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.40 - 28 January 2016 Special Queries now include as choices all Custom Columns with a datatype of "text".

Special Queries are designed to be helpful in finding and cleaning metadata that needs it, especially Author, Title and Series.

Each book is evaluated for all of the specified column values in all books in the same library.

Example: What books have a Title that contains a Series found elsewhere in the same library?

'All Authors' and 'Final Filters' are also available search options for Special Queries, just as they are for 'normal' Intra-Book and Inter-Book queries.


DaltonST

[timediver]

Hi DaltonST thank you very much for your 'special queries'! Thats exactly what I was looking for!

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.43 - 12 February 2016 New: Raw SELECT SQL Query Tab


This new Tab only allows SELECT queries via the use of multiple validation rules prior to allowing execution to proceed.

Refer to the ToolTips on the new Tab for details. An image is attached below.



DaltonST

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.44 - 16 February 2016 New: Raw SELECT SQL Queries can now use the SQLite Regular Expression keyword REGEXP.

Example:

SELECT id FROM books WHERE id IN (SELECT book FROM custom_column_8 WHERE value REGEXP '^.+$' )

DaltonST