No duplicate inventory number

[ayclau]

I want to catalog a physical library and want to add a column for inventory number. The default ID column doesn’t work for me because half of the books already have an identifying number.

I created an inventory number custom column, can I make it so it doesn’t allow repeating numbers?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ayclau

I want to catalog a physical library and want to add a column for inventory number. The default ID column doesn’t work for me because half of the books already have an identifying number.

I created an inventory number custom column, can I make it so it doesn’t allow repeating numbers?

You could write an action chain to check for duplicates. Or you could store the IDs and manually scan for duplicates.

[Koosr1946]

If I have read a book I put the date in "DATE".

Is it possible to copy this data to a self-created column?

[BetterRed]

@Koosr1946 - IMO it would be better to put the date (e.g. today) into a "self-created column" directly.

Add a custom column, thus:



Set the date when and as appropriate:



BR

[Koosr1946]

Thanks for your response, but that's not what I want.
There are approximately 600 books in which I have set a date.
I would like to copy/move those dates to a new column.
If I have to do that one by one, I'll lose a few days.

They are now in the "Date" column, but with every change the change date is set there and my date is overwritten.
Maybe you can change that so that there is no longer a date when changes are made.

[hatuluang]

Originally Posted by Koosr1946

If I have read a book I put the date in "DATE".

Is it possible to copy this data to a self-created column?

If you are Kobo user, may I suggest using the Kobo Utilities plugin.
Kobo Utilities has a feature to store your reading progress (reading location, percentage of reading, book rating, and last reading) from the Kobo device to the Calibre library.
Here is the setup.

[Koosr1946]

249 / 5.000
Just a clarification by means of a screenshot.
I would like to move the contents of the DATUM column to the GELEZEN column
If this is not possible then that is also fine, but then I know for sure and will have to do it manually one by one

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Koosr1946

Thanks for your response, but that's not what I want.
There are approximately 600 books in which I have set a date.
I would like to copy/move those dates to a new column.
If I have to do that one by one, I'll lose a few days.

Edit Metadata > Edit in Bulk > Search & Replace with these settings:



Test on 1 or 2 books to make sure it's right.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Koosr1946

249 / 5.000
Just a clarification by means of a screenshot.
I would like to move the contents of the DATUM column to the GELEZEN column
If this is not possible then that is also fine, but then I know for sure and will have to do it manually one by one

You can do this with bulk metadata search & replace.

Steps:

1. Backup you library in case something goes wrong.
2. Search for date:true to find all books where Datum is set
3. Select all the books (usually Ctrl + A)
4. Open the bulk metadata edit dialog (usually E)
5. Select the Search and replace tab
6. Set "Search field" to Datum.
7. Set "Search for" to "^(.*)$" (without the quotes)
8. Set "Replace with" to "\1" (again without the quotes).
9. Set "Destination field" to #gelezen, or whatever the lookup name is.
10. Press OK

[chaley]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Edit Metadata > Edit in Bulk > Search & Replace with these settings:

Attachment 210562

Test on 1 or 2 books to make sure it's right.

Did you really mean to use /1 instead of \1 in replace field? And what is the /1 in the search field for?

Using a raw_field() template is a good idea. Avoids all sorts of formatting problems.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by chaley

Did you really mean to use /1 instead of \1 in replace field? And what is the /1 in the search field for?

I'm actually not sure - this is something I saved ages ago because it worked.

[Koosr1946]

Thank you for your help, but this 78 year old man can't figure it out yet.
I added 2 screenshots.
In the 2nd I don't see "Date".
What else can I do?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Koosr1946

Thank you for your help, but this 78 year old man can't figure it out yet.
I added 2 screenshots.
In the 2nd I don't see "Date".
What else can I do?

Use "timestamp" instead of "date", as @ownedbycats showed in his screen capture.

[Koosr1946]

I believe it works fine, but I have another problem that I already mentioned a bit.
I had copied 3 books to a temporary library and then saw that the date had changed to today's date.
I don't know why and how that happened, I don't want to use that date at all anymore.
Do you know a solution for that?