PB740 (IP3) Series Handling

[kbaerwald]

I usually fill my eReaders with calibre. InkPad 3 (PB740) shows a peculiar handling of metadata: most of the time it takes the series information from calibre and displays it in the library view correctly.

However - when transferring single titles (no series information in calibre) it shows a strange behaviour:



Most of the titles above are scanned and converted into epub. The author information is garbled and contains either internal information or points to a series I did not insert in my calibre meta data (e.g. Arcot, Wade, Morey - 1).

If you look at the last line of the screen you see a correctly transferred title, author and series meta data.

Any idea?

Klaus

[kbaerwald]

Another strange behaviour: it sometimes happens that not all titles within a series are recognized by the EP3. The attached sample shows that only title #4 is checked.

I looked into the metadata of all titles (Sigil) and do not see any difference in the way the series information is represented.

Klaus

[trekk]

Originally Posted by kbaerwald

Another strange behaviour: it sometimes happens that not all titles within a series are recognized by the EP3.

Seems related to this bug. Epub to epub conversion fixed some of the missing metadata for me, in conjunction with the "embed metadata" and "manage series" options in Calibre.

The file management on PB devices is superb, but the missing metadata are a real pain ...

[trekk]

Checked again. After conversion from epub to epub I just had to click "embed metadata", no need for "manage series".

[kbaerwald]

Hi trekk (know you from the SciFi section of alles-ebook.de ),

I always do a conversion (because I got used to the font Bookerly too much ;-)). But tell me: where the heck do I find "the "embed metadata" button? - I have never used that explicitly. Is it a plug-in?

Thanks, Klaus

Always thought the embedding takes place during the transfer.

[trekk]

Hi Klaus, I love all your contributions in the SciFi section of alles-ebook!

You can add the "embed metadata" button manually to the toolbar:

Go to preferences, in the interface section choose "Toolbars & menus", choose the main toolbar (or any other option you prefer). Now you can add selected options to the toolbar, e.g. "embed metadata".

For some reason not all metadata are embedded during the transfer, so I always carry out these steps:

1. convert epub to epub
2. mark the specific files, click "embed metadata"
3. copy the files to my IP3 (via Calibre or file browser)

[kbaerwald]

I installed the embed button but that did not work. I am not shure if calibre did not touch the epub again during file transfer rewriting evreything.

As I wanted to see who is the culprit I set up a test scenario:

• I removed any non dc: metadata elements from my epubs within calibre with the plug-in "Modify epub options" (see metadata_calibre.jpg)
• then I transferred all epubs directly (without calibre) to my IP3 to avoid "contamination" by calibre tagging
• As you would expect: all files displayed correctly but without series information. No garbled information.
• Then transferred the same files to IP3 directly by calibre: and again the IP3 reads out calibre metadata text with the word 'series' in it and displays it as a series element. Complete nonsense. (see scr001.jpg)
• finally I tagged some series elements in calibre and transferred them to the IP3. Same situation as before - only one out of six items flagged as series title (see Metadata_calibre_series.jpg and scr002.jpg)

This is a complete mess!

[trekk]

I can't reproduce this. I added over 100 books in 24 series. Converting the files and clicking the matadata button fixed the problem for each book ...

[kbaerwald]

As long as we do not know how the IP3 generates/extracts the series information it will be very difficult.

There are three metadata lines which handle the series thing in my calibre metadate: calibre:series, calibre: series_index and further down calibre:user_metadata:#series (the way I setup the series on my system). Even in standalone titles without series the IP3 grabs the third line (which is always existing as a calibre:user attribute) and displays that content as the series name (see my scr001.jpg).

Either I have a fundamental problem with my calibre setup (since many years now) or IP3 is misinterpreting the delivered information.

@trekk: can you give me some snapshots of your metadata?

Klaus

[kbaerwald]

@trekk: writing down the few lines above I started to think why I need the third line (my own user data!) for the series thing. I had started to setup a series metadata approach long time ago when calibre had no solution for this - and when calibre's own series solution was released: I forgot about that user column because I never needed it any more. Shame on me!!!

Now: I deleted that user defined variable and updated the series titles metadata with the new calibre setup. Alas - now I have a correct display in the IP3.

All my other eReaders never complained about that additional line. remains the question why the IP3 is parsing that specific addtl line.

Thanks to you (and all readers) for being patient with me

Klaus

[trekk]

I am glad you could solve this problem

[eMole]

Well, I don't know about your device, but my Touch HD is also unreliable with series metadata.
For epub v2:
meta name="calibre:series" content="Erlebnisse einsamer Menschen" OK
meta content="Erlebnisse einsamer Menschen" name="calibre:series" Bad.
etc.
Didn't test it with a lot of books, though.

No luck with epub v3.

[Klecks]

Oje, 5 years ago we had a problem with missing metadata on pocketbook devices.
See this german thread: www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224126
Maybe it's still not solved completely? I finally switched to kobo and tolino, so I'm not up-to-date with pocketbook problems.
However, I've found that my pocketbook reader wanted metadata like that in the opf:

<metadata xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:opf="http://www.idpf.org/2007/opf">
    <dc:creator opf:role="aut" opf:file-as="Christie, Agatha">Christie, Agatha</dc:creator>
    <dc:title>Das fehlende Glied in der Kette</dc:title>
    <dc:subject>Krimi</dc:subject>
    <dc:language>de</dc:language>
    <dc:publisher>Fischer</dc:publisher>
    <dc:date>1920-01-03</dc:date>
    <dc:description>Der Fall scheint klar, alle Hinweise deuten auf den Ehemann des Opfers als Täter. Der jedoch kann das tödliche Gift nicht zur angegebenen Stunde erworben haben. Hercule Poirot und sein Freund Hastings geben nicht auf, bis das fehlende Glied in der Beweiskette gefunden ist … Der erste Roman von Agatha Christie und zugleich Hercule Poirots Debüt!</dc:description>
    <dc:identifier id="BookID">9783104021294</dc:identifier>
    <dc:identifier opf:scheme="mobi-asin">B00XLC19K4</dc:identifier>
    <dc:identifier opf:scheme="isbn">9783104021294</dc:identifier>
    <meta name="calibre:series" content="Hercule Poirot"/>
    <meta name="calibre:series_index" content="1.0"/>
    <meta name="cover" content="cover"/>
  </metadata>

(Series infos last; series_index after series)

The pocketbook reader didn't read metadata info under the line with series_index. And it didn't like the metadata lines switched (it wants meta name="" first, followed by content="")

I sorted the metadata for my pocketbook reader by hand (calibre editor) and transfered the books with windows explorer to my eBook reader. (Calibre is updating the metadata during file transfer and mixing the metadata-lines again.)

[trekk]

Originally Posted by Klecks

(Calibre is updating the metadata during file transfer and mixing the metadata-lines again.)

Hmmm, I tranfered my corrected files via Calibre. If Calibre mixed the lines, shouldn't my metadata be messed up again? All my metadata including series info show up correctly!

[Klecks]

Hm, just updated my pocketbook reader to actual firmware and did some tests.
Calibre is still shifting around the metadata, but the non-dc metadata (series-info) are always under dc-metadata. So it shoudn't be a problem.
I deliberately shifted the series_index line before the series name and after transfer to the reader the book missed the series-index. (as expected)
Then I twisted the series-metadata (content="" first, followed by name="") and that book showed no series-metadata at all (on the reader).
So the pocketbook-firmware really doesn't like twisted series metadata.
Problem: Sigil does this twisting (content="" first, followed by name="") regularly - every time you open a book with sigil, the metadata are twisted.
And Calibre doesn't care. If you later load the book (with twisted series-info) on the reader via calibre, the metadata stay twisted. (the polish book function also doesn't correct twisted data).
Solution for that problem is: if you touched a book with sigil, you should use calibre and the modify epub-plugin and delete non-dc:metadata. After that you can use polish book for re-adding the metadata.

Klecks.