Calibre 0.7 + Apple iDevices (Archived)

[kelf001]

Hello,
First I'd like to compliment the fantastic work done both on Calibre, and specifically making it work with the iPad!

At this point my biggest annoyance with the Calibre/iPad/iBooks combination is my inability to see the series data on my iPad (I do like to read my books in order )

Working in the constraints of iBooks, I'd love to be able to add the Series & number information to the beginning of the title (SeriesName: SeriesNumber - Title)

This would solve two problems: it would make it easy to see which order the books go in, and it would keeps the books in a series together when grouping by category/author

I know I could do this manually in Calibre, but I would like to keep my metadata clean, and was hoping there was a way to modify the metadata as I was sending books to my ipad (so it would appear this way on the iPad, by not in calibre)

I gather I can customize most things if I'm willing to dig into the code, but I'm pretty new to this program, and don't really know where to start (and I really don't want to break what is currently working!), I was hoping for some suggestions.

Thanks

[GRiker]

There's currently no mechanism to dynamically transform a title during an upload, but feel free to create an enhancement request.

G

[kelf001]

Originally Posted by GRiker

There's currently no mechanism to dynamically transform a title during an upload, but feel free to create an enhancement request.

G

Is it possible to play with the existing Interface Plug-in you wrote to try it myself? I can't seem to find it in the application package?

[GRiker]

The driver is in the source bundle at calibre.devices.apple.driver

You'll need to follow these directions to install the source tree on your machine and set up a development environment.

The code you're looking for is in _update_iTunes_metadata()

G

[JeFurry]

Thanks for the great work you've done on the iPad import features. The plugin works pretty well. However, I do have a suggestion - I don't know how challenging this might be, or how useful to anyone other than me, so I'm raising it as a discussion point.

Currently, the first tag in the book's list of tags is converted into an iBooks category. This seems like a sensible choice in many cases. However, since iBooks has no reliable way of interpreting series, might it be more useful in some cases to convert the series name into the category? Or perhaps to fall back to the series if there are no other tags to convert into a category?

On the upside, it'll make the task of locating a series of books easier - currently if they have differing authors, it's virtually impossible.

On the downside, it doesn't solve the problem of ordering within a series.

This might provide a partial workaround until some form of title renaming becomes available within Calibre, which looks like the only method that will really work until iBooks is one day updated to recognise series (I live in hope!).

Just a thought... feel free to criticise.

[kovidgoyal]

GRiker's the ultimate authority on this, but to me, using series when available in preference to tags makes sense.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by JeFurry

However, since iBooks has no reliable way of interpreting series, might it be more useful in some cases to convert the series name into the category? Or perhaps to fall back to the series if there are no other tags to convert into a category?

I'm willing to revise the code so that if there are no tags associated with the book, it will generate a Category based on available series data. What pattern would you like to see? Just the Series name? Give me an example.

Or is your preference that if there is Series data, to always use it in preference to any tags?

G

[tlrowley]

I have been setting the genre tag in iTunes to be the series name when I add the book myself. I then set the disc number to be series number.

I would be in favor of using series data in preference to any tags.

Thanks for this, GRiker, it's working great.

[GRiker]

@tlrowley: that seems like a workable solution. The series number -> disc number is easy, since that metadata isn't currently used for any other purpose. And thanks for letting me know the driver's working well for you.

@JeFurry?

Anyone else?

G

[setherd]

A friend has an iPad and she wants to try reading some ebooks. we work together and I have many on my laptop.....but how the heck can I use my laptop (running ubuntu linux) to get some ebooks to her? I tried emailing some to her but of course apple couldn't let you simply import a file
She really isn't computer savy, I was hoping if she liked ebooks she'd spend the time to learn how to use itunes to get more.

does anyone know if calibre can get books on her ipad without itunes?

[GRiker]

@setherd: The calibre driver works through iTunes, so that's a requirement in the calibre environment.

Assuming that she has iTunes, export the epubs from your calibre, email them to her, then she can drag them into her iTunes library, then sync her iPad.

G

[setherd]

Originally Posted by GRiker

@setherd: The calibre driver works through iTunes, so that's a requirement in the calibre environment.

Assuming that she has iTunes, export the epubs from your calibre, email them to her, then she can drag them into her iTunes library, then sync her iPad.

G

ok, I'll give it a shot that may be a little advanced for her

thanks!

[itimpi]

Originally Posted by GRiker

Please check the 0.7.2 release to confirm that the driver is properly ignoring your audiobooks.

Just to confirm that my AudioBooks are now being ignored by Calibre.

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by tlrowley

I have been setting the genre tag in iTunes to be the series name when I add the book myself. I then set the disc number to be series number.

I would be in favor of using series data in preference to any tags.

I've been implementing the code to use Series name as the iTunes/iBooks Category. The good news is that it works fine under OSX; the bad news is that it doesn't work under Windows.

Unfortunately, this is a limitation of the iTunes automation interface.

I'll leave the code in place with the hope that improvements in the automation interface are on the way.

G

Edit: I'm now rewriting the metadata when sending epubs to the iDevice, so I'm simply deleting the tags in the epub if a Series name is present. That allows the Series name to be used as the Category.

[DevilChild_LA]

Since series information was recently discussed by GRiker, I had a quick question. I know that iTunes/iBooks does not have any way currently to display or use this type of information. Which is unfortunate, because this information is highly useful in filtering out your books, and determining what order they occur in.

It would be most helpful in iBooks if they could at least sort properly. In addition to the changes GRiker had just mentioned, if the series and series number could be populated to the sort name, and sort artist fields, etc...they could at least be displayed in the correct order.

I fully recognize the fact that you are probably already aware of this, but thought i would mention it just in case...cause it would make my life a LOT easier, lol.

No matter what, this is an amazing application, and in reading these forums...you guys are mega helpful. - Thanks for all your hard work.

Here is the link to where i found the information.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread....3572&tstart=15

PS: any chance of a Calibre app for the Apple store (and android marketplace?) I would buy them in a hearbeat...