Plugboard, template, and custom composite column recipes

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Naturally, again, I try something that's not implemented yet

While waiting for the next release, you can work around the problem by creating (yet another) composite column to hold the version portion of the template (v{#version:ifempty(0)}). The composite formatter will convert the number to a string, which then will pass correctly through the save template formatter.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by chaley

While waiting for the next release, you can work around the problem by creating (yet another) composite column to hold the version portion of the template (v{#version:ifempty(0)}). The composite formatter will convert the number to a string, which then will pass correctly through the save template formatter.

I can live with it, but I have made a composite field: "file_name". And it still writes the #version... must have done something wrong then (can't check it here)

[speakingtohe]

I would like some help if possible to create a custom column for use in a plugboard to use with Sony 600.
I know the Soney doesn't quite support plugboards but It kind of works.

What I would like is an expression to give me an abreviated series name
Meg Langslow Mysteries MLM
Kriminalpolis Erlendur Sveinsson KES

I personally don't care if the whole title is displayed on the Sony menu as long as the book are in series order, but showing off the ereader to others is a bit daunting when the titles all look the same

Any help appreciated as my brain won't work this week.
Helen

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I personally don't care if the whole title is displayed on the Sony menu as long as the book are in series order, but showing off the ereader to others is a bit daunting when the titles all look the same

I'll let more knowledgeable folks help with the plugboard, but if you create a collection using series info then all books would be in Series order automatically. Apart from someone liking the look, there is absolutely no reason for series info to be included in the title of books on the Sony 600.

[speakingtohe]

I'll let more knowledgeable folks help with the plugboard, but if you create a collection using series info then all books would be in Series order automatically. Apart from someone liking the look, there is absolutely no reason for series info to be included in the title of books on the Sony 600.

Agggh I have been struggling with this for a while. I used to be able to have author_sort collections with the series sorted correctly. Just had to sort by series before sending.

Doesn't work for me now and I have even installed on a fresh vista installation and on three seperate computers.

As I said before it is something stupid I am doing. Either in Calibre or with the Sony

Thanks for the reply
Helen

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Agggh I have been struggling with this for a while. I used to be able to have author_sort collections with the series sorted correctly. Just had to sort by series before sending.

You have me at a disadvantage. I haven't tried author_sort collections recently and I don't use Sony software at all with my reader. I have metadata management set to Automatic management (see attached).

I always create collections automatically based on tags and series. The books under collections created by tags are in library sort order as I bet are the collections calibre creates by author_sort. Books in the collections based on series are in series order.

You could have calibre create collections based on author_sort and series and be able to reference the series collections to read the books in order.[/QUOTE]

[speakingtohe]

I have automatic management enabled as well.
Can be quite disconcertin at times when everything becomes rearranged on upgrading. All of a sudden I had many collections based on authors, series and tags.
Easily fixed of course but none of the collections were sorted by series.

I have a question if you don't mind my asking. If your collections are by series how do you organise the books(on ereader) by authors who have both series and standalone works?

I want my collections by author only and the books to be ordered by series if they are part of a series.
I have authors with six series and several standalone books, and authors with one book. Basically if there is an author I like, I would prefer to read the books in series order.
A flaw in my brain probably but my mental hierarchy goes author-> series.
Series->author just seems wrong to me when deciding what to read. No cohesive or coherency.
I know it won't be perfect but the way it used to work was perfect enough for me.
Helen

[Gary_M_Mugford]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

On the Kindle 3 if you leave the cursor on the title for about 3 seconds it displays two lines of title info with the second line being smaller font.

Meg Langslow Mysteries - ... Donna Andrews

becomes

Meg Langslow Mysteries - 03 - Revenge of
the Wrought-Iron Flamingos

No author but I have the collections by author so I can still see the author on the line above.

Helen

Helen,

I'm intentionally keeping my on-Kindle list to a managable lot of about 150 books. Books are coming off as read. New ones get added during the weekend's charging/updating. As a result, I don't use collections at all. Ultimately, just about every other eReader I have had a bit of a go at have superior book browsers. Even the Kobo outshines the Kindle3. And that's just not right. I WAS aware of the patience trick. It's just that patience and my itchy cursor finger are mostly unfamiliar acquaintances [G].

[speakingtohe]

@Gary_M_Mugford
Kindle sucks at a lot of things. TTS is especially unpleasant. Web browsing... I have yet to get interested enough to try it, and I am generally curious about these things.

I got the kindle 3 for my mother (85)and suspect that it was a mistake. However she can have my Sony if she wants it instead. Next week is her birthday so we shall see

I do use the kindle collection manager while putting books on for her as Kindle menus seem a bit haphazard without it.

Helen

[DoctorOhh]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I have automatic management enabled as well.
Can be quite disconcertin at times when everything becomes rearranged on upgrading. All of a sudden I had many collections based on authors, series and tags.

Collections are created based on whatever you have listed in the Sony plugin (see attached). If you don't want tags creating collections just remove tags from the plugin. Also if you have it set to automatic management then every time you connect it should sync all of the collections, not just when you upgrade.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Easily fixed of course but none of the collections were sorted by series.

I'll let chaley address this but unless there is a bug any collection based on series column info will be in series order.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I have a question if you don't mind my asking. If your collections are by series how do you organise the books(on ereader) by authors who have both series and standalone works?

I have 4000+ books in my calibre library, but only around 300 on my device. I only have collections based on Tags (which I keep to a minimum) and Series. I don't try to get fancy with my ereader. I have an idea of what books or series I want to read next and open the collection accordingly. As long as my Series collections are in series order (and they are automatically put in order) then I'm happy.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I want my collections by author only and the books to be ordered by series if they are part of a series.

Maybe chaley can hook you up. Or using the plugboard to adjust the title might be the way to go.

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Basically if there is an author I like, I would prefer to read the books in series order.

I think you speak for most of us that is why having calibre handle my collections and having the series collections automatically in order is so great.

Good Luck.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by chaley

While waiting for the next release, you can work around the problem by creating (yet another) composite column to hold the version portion of the template (v{#version:ifempty(0)}). The composite formatter will convert the number to a string, which then will pass correctly through the save template formatter.

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

I can live with it, but I have made a composite field: "file_name". And it still writes the #version... must have done something wrong then (can't check it here)

Now I'm sure it doesn't work...

{#file_name} = {#folder_name}/{author_sort}{series:|/|}/{series_index:0>2s|| - }{#custom_title} - {#test1}

{#test1} = v{#version:ifempty(0)}

save template: {#file_name}

and filename on device...

*drumroll*

01 - Neanderthal - v#version.mobi




(I found out that making a few test colums saves me a lot of time restarting!)

Edit:

I'm playing around a bit with my version column. The only reason I picked floating point is because there is no text column that doesn't show up in the tag browser. There is a long text, but not a simple text...

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

Now I'm sure it doesn't work...

...

Edit:

I'm playing around a bit with my version column. The only reason I picked floating point is because there is no text column that doesn't show up in the tag browser. There is a long text, but not a simple text...

Sigh...

I thought your version number was integer. That works. Or at least, my test of it works. I have a composite column #comp5 containing:

{author_sort}{series:|/|}/{series_index:0>2s|| - }{title} - V{#myint:ifempty(0)}

If I set my save template to {#comp5} I get the path
"C:\...\Verne, Jules\1632\00 - 20,000 Leagues under the Sea - V3.mobi"

Now why did I mention integer? Because float didn't work. When I changed the code to make zero values become empty, I broke it. I didn't mention this before because I didn't think it mattered. Apologies.

Regarding the problem of text fields showing up in the tag browser, why not just hide them?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I have a question if you don't mind my asking. If your collections are by series how do you organise the books(on ereader) by authors who have both series and standalone works?

I use the Sony's 'by author' list if I want to see books independent of series. This is one reason I put a short version of the series into the title. Also, I keep a small number of books on my reader (around 10). I make my choices of what to read using calibre, then send the set of candidates. I delete books I have read from my device.

I use a custom column, ondevice, and two or three saved searches to make this all easy. I can ask
- what books have I indicated I want to read are not on my reader?
- what books are on my reader that are not in my to-read queue?
- what is in my read queue? (These are ordered from 1 to 10, where 1 is what I want to read next.)

I want my collections by author only and the books to be ordered by series if they are part of a series.

Except for a few bugs related to manual management, series collections are sorted by series, and non-series collections are sorted by title. It has been like this since the early 0.7 releases.

Agggh I have been struggling with this for a while. I used to be able to have author_sort collections with the series sorted correctly. Just had to sort by series before sending.

This would have been in the 0.6 series, and perhaps 0.7 up to around 0.7.4.

I would like some help if possible to create a custom column for use in a plugboard to use with Sony 600.
I know the Soney doesn't quite support plugboards but It kind of works.

I will deal with this in a separate post.

Now, for collection sorting. I am willing to entertain implementing a tweak that specifies a (probably composite) custom column to be used to sort collections. Such a tweak would permit sorting by almost anything. For example, if you always want series order, then the composite column would contain something like:
{series_index:0>3s}{title_sort}
This would sort series columns by series index. If there is no series index, or if the series indices are equal, the books would sort by title.

Would this solve any problems?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

I would like some help if possible to create a custom column for use in a plugboard to use with Sony 600.
I know the Soney doesn't quite support plugboards but It kind of works.

Sonys fully support plugboards since 0.7.23.

What I would like is an expression to give me an abreviated series name
Meg Langslow Mysteries MLM
Kriminalpolis Erlendur Sveinsson KES

You don't say whether you want the series information before or after the title. As your original example was 'before', I will assume that. You don't say whether you want one-word series names to be treated differently, so I will ignore them.

Create a plugboard
Format: device_db
Device: PRS505
Source template: {series:re(([^\s])[^\s]+(\s|$),\1)}{series_index:0<2s| - | - }{title}
Destination: Title

This would produce for your example of a few posts back:

Series: Meg Langslow Mysteries
Series index:3
Title: Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos

Title on Sony: MLM - 03 - Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos

[speakingtohe]

Thank you Chaley
That seems good