Convert comments field to HTML in bulk

[d3m0sth3n3s]

Hi!

I have read in these forums that while comments are displayed/edited as HTML they are not always stored internally as HTML code, depending on where they originally come from. Sometimes they are just stored as plain text. After you edit a comment using the calibre metadata editor it is always stored as HTML internally.

That said, is there any way to get all the comments in a bunch of books converted to HTML the same way the metadata editor would do? Some template that performs this operation in bulk?

[theducks]

While you may paste plain text, there is always HTML on that tab.
It is just simple. <p>words</p>
Same as you would get by 'using the remove formatting (of selected text)

[d3m0sth3n3s]

Originally Posted by theducks

While you may paste plain text, there is always HTML on that tab.
It is just simple. <p>words</p>

I know that. The thing is I’m not talking about manually pasting text (for an individual e-book) into the Comments field using the calibre GUI metadata editor.

I have lots of e-books in ePub format whose Comments field was filled during the import process and it is stored internally in plain text (in the Comments field in the calibre database). I want to convert the Comments format for those e-books to HTML prior to some regex Search & Replace tweak. To that end, I need that all my e-books have their Comments field stored internally in HTML.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by d3m0sth3n3s

I know that. The thing is I’m not talking about manually pasting text (for an individual e-book) into the Comments field using the calibre GUI metadata editor.

I have lots of e-books in ePub format whose Comments field was filled during the import process and it is stored internally in plain text (in the Comments field in the calibre database). I want to convert the Comments format for those e-books to HTML prior to some regex Search & Replace tweak. To that end, I need that all my e-books have their Comments field stored internally in HTML.

Why do you need all of your comments to be HTML?

All of your comments are converted to HTML if they are not HTML. So you don't need to convert them. Select a book you think has the comments not in HTML. Press the E key and then under the blurb, click the HTML Source tab. You'll see that it is HTML.

[d3m0sth3n3s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

All of your comments are converted to HTML if they are not HTML. So you don't need to convert them. Select a book you think has the comments not in HTML. Press the E key and then under the blurb, click the HTML Source tab. You'll see that it is HTML.

No, you are mistaken. That is what the Qt GUI component implementing the Comments metadata editor shows you, not what it is really stored in the calibre database. Check this:

Originally Posted by kovidgoyal

That's probably because it is actually just a <p><br> (the markup you see via the edit metadata dialog is not an accurate representation of what is present internally as it is roundtripped through Qt's text edit widget.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by d3m0sth3n3s

No, you are mistaken. That is what the Qt GUI component implementing the Comments metadata editor shows you, not what it is really stored in the calibre database. Check this:

If it doesn't store the blurb as HTML, then how is text being made bold? I've some blurbs from the eBook that have some text bold.

Why is it you need the blurb to be HTML?

[d3m0sth3n3s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If it doesn't store the blurb as HTML, then how is text being made bold?

It’s bold because calibre stores it as HTML But that is AFTER you edited the Comments field with the GUI metadata editor. If it was imported as plain text and you left the Comments field untouched in the GUI it is kept as plain text internally in calibre database. The HTML code you see in the Comments metadata editor is not an accurate representation of the real information stored in the database. That can be plain text!

[DNSB]

Odd. When I download metadata, it shows bold, italic, underlines, etc. and those seem to survive closing and re-opening calibre. Perhaps what is stored in the database is not HTML code but the HTML code seems to survive that storage.