[GUI Plugin] Reading Goal

thiago.eec · 08-22-2023, 09:56 AM

This plugin was created to help you manage your annual Reading Goal and keep a reading record over the years.

Main Actions:

Add to reading goal:
- Add the selected books to your current reading goal
- Books already in your reading goal will be ignored
- If you checked the option Allow adding other year's reading goal, you will be prompted to confirm the year (automatically fetched from selected books). Note that every book must have the same year to be added in batch.
Remove from reading goal:
- Remove the selected books from your reading goal
- Books not in your reading goal will be ignored
Edit reading goal:
- Here you can see all the books in your current reading goal
- Books are automatically organized in shelves (Want to read, Reading and Read), based on their reading progress
- Besides overseeing your reading goal, you can edit it:
  - Link to another book: you can change the calibre book linked to this entry. Useful in case you want to change the edition you are reading, or when the original book in your library was removed, leaving the entry orphaned
  - Remove from reading goal: remove the book from you reading goal, just like using the main menu option. No record is kept.
  - Mark the book as abandoned: differently from removing, the existing records are kept, and the last reading progress still counts for your goal statistics. Abandoned books will not be updated or moved to your next year's goal.
  - Show book's records: manage your reading records for this book. A new record is created every time you change your reading progress. You can delete past records, but not the current one.
    - Delete this record: if the book has more than one reading record, you will see this button for past records.
- Changes will be committed only when you hit Apply
Statistics:
- Here you have multiple graphics and statistics:
  - Readings by month
  - Readings by genre (top 12)
  - Annual readings
- You can also see the statistics for past years, if they are present

Plugin options:

Custom columns: you must set the first three custom columns. Only columns of the right type will be available in the dropdown list.
- Reading progress: integers, floating point numbers or composite
- Status date: date
- Page count: integers
- Genre: text, composite. This column is not mandatory, but if you don't set it, then you will not have a 'Genre view'.
- You can create new custom columns, if you don't want to use the existing ones, by pressing the icon. Create all the columns you want before exiting the config dialog. You will be prompted to restart calibre.
Customize interface:
- Main button: choose which action will be performed when clicking the plugin icon on the toolbar
- Sort by: choose how books should be sorted on the Edit reading goal dialog
Auto add:
- Add to goal:
  - If you use other plugins that sync your reading activity, like Goodreads Sync or Skoob Sync, you might want to automatically add your books from a Want to read shelf. To accomplish this, you need to configure your sync plugin to use the same column selected here.
  - To trigger the auto add, this column just need to be set for the book, with any value. You can also check for a specific value, but only for some column types: bool, int, float or text. If the selected column is of one of those types, a value field will be available.
  - Notice that all values are converted to string before comparing.
- Add to challenges:
  - You can set a python dictionary to determine which columns/values will trigger the auto add. If the chosen column's value match, then the book will be added to the specified challenge. If the book is not in your goal, it will be added automatically.
  - Python dictionary model: {'challenge_name_1': {'#custom_column' : 'column_value'},'challenge_name_2': {'tags': 'some_tag'}
Auto backup:
- Set up an interval for automatic backups. If you leave it empty, no automatic backups will be made.
- You can also restore a backup file from the config dialog
Main options:
- Migrate unfinished books to the next year's goal: if you check this option, when a new year starts, all books on your Want to read and Reading shelves will be moved to your current year reading goal.
  - Your reading progress for the last year will not be taken into account when calculating your current year statistics
  - Abandoned books will not be moved
- Allow adding other year's reading goal: if you check this option, when adding books to your goal, you will be prompted to confirm the year (automatically fetched from selected books). Note that every book must have the same year to be added in batch.
- Use 'Rereading' shelf: If you check this option, books that you already read before, will be added to a Rereading shelf.
- Use a 'Rereading' color, instead of a shelf: Check this option to use a different color for rereadings.
- Use a rereading counter: Check this option to add a counter for how many times you've reread the book.
- Keep 'Rereading' color for finished books: If you check this option, it will retain the line color for books migrating from the 'Rereading' shelf to the 'Read' shelf.
- Jump to the selected book: If you check this option, when opening the 'Edit reading goal' dialog, it will jump to the selected book in your calibre library.
Display options:
- Auto collapse: List the shelves you want to be collapsed when opening the 'Edit reading goal' dialog. Use a comma separated list with the shelves numbers. Example: 1, 3, 5.
- Shelf colors: Set the color for each shelf on the 'Edit reading goal' dialog. Use a python dictionary with shelf number and RGB value. Example: {1: (180, 230, 255), 3: (250, 190, 80)}.

Database information:

The plugin does not modify your calibre library. Its database is kept in a JSON file saved to your calibre config directory (AppData\Roaming\calibre\plugins, for Windows).
Each calibre library has its own database, but the same columns must be used, since there is no library specific setting for custom columns
The database uses the book id as a key to store the book info. So, if you remove a book, the link will be lost and you will be prompted to relink it.
On the Edit reading goal dialog, you can backup/import/clear your database.
Be careful when importing a new database: the current one will be completely replaced by the imported file. It's recommended to first backup your current database, so you can restore it in case anything goes wrong.

Requirements:

calibre 6.0 or later

Installation Steps:

Download the attached zip file and install the plugin > add to context menu or toolbar > restart calibre as described in the Introduction to plugins thread.

Getting Help:

If you need assistance using this plugin, you can check out the built-in help dialogs by clicking on the '?' icon in the upper right corner of the dialog window. Then, hover your mouse over the options, and click when the cursor changes to an arrow and a question mark.

If any doubt still persists, feel free to ask here. Also, suggestions are welcomed!

License: GNU General Public License v3 (GPL-3)

Latest calibre version tested: 7.20

Version History:

Spoiler:

Comfy.n · 08-22-2023, 10:22 AM

dei uma olhada rápida, mais tarde vou testar melhor xD

looks awesome!

thiago.eec · 08-22-2023, 10:40 AM

Thank you, @Comfy.n.

I'll wait for your comments.

P.S: the plugin is also available in pt-BR

Wiggo · 08-23-2023, 01:46 PM

I am very keen on the Reading statistics. Unfortunately, I'm on holiday at the moment and can't test it.

The only thing that bothers me when reading the description is the need of a new column again - Reading Progress. Couldn't there be an alternative with a simple read-column yes/no?

What would also be cool is to break down the books of a year by tags.

Your plugin would be a good replacement for Goodreads/StoryGraph.

thiago.eec · 08-23-2023, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiggo

The only thing that bothers me when reading the description is the need of a new column again - Reading Progress. Couldn't there be an alternative with a simple read-column yes/no?

Well, it would be fairly easy to add the option to check only a yes/no column, instead of your reading progress. I did this based on my use case, and I really like seeing how much of the book I've already read.

Besides, the reading progress (%) is also needed for the sync plugins (like Goodread Sync and Skoob Sync).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiggo

What would also be cool is to break down the books of a year by tags.

If you mean to eliminate the shelves and separate by tags, I think this could lead to a messy layout, if the user has too many tags. On the other hand, maybe I could add a tags-like column, so you could use it to sort the books, but still inside the shelves. This is already possible with the existing columns (e.g.: you can sort by date instead of title/title Sort, by clicking on the 'Date' header).

EDIT: Actually, using a tags column makes no sense. For sorting to work, it would have to be a single value column.

Comfy.n · 08-24-2023, 09:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thiago.eec

Thank you, @Comfy.n.

I'll wait for your comments.

P.S: the plugin is also available in pt-BR

Hi @thiago.ecc!

I read more often in Calibre's Ebook viewer, and I had never observed that the Count Pages plugin doesn't pull the actual number of pages from it, even if the specific Viewer Algorithm is selected in the plugin options.

So I decided to create a second Page Count custom column, and now I have:

- Page Count - #pages - used by the Count Pages plugin (good for quick comparisons, as it makes a one-click automagical estimate of the page count based on the chosen algorithm)

- Viewer Pages - #vp - the actual number of pages displayed in my Ebook viewer Header. I'm filling this manually.

For Reading Goals I have set up the second one. Ideally, the #vp value should be obtained automatically, but the Count Pages PI developer isn't adding new features to his plugins at this time - and i'm not sure this is possible. See:

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As for the Reading Progress (percentage), I haven't figured a way to update it...

Also, it would be nice to have a "select book in library" button similar to the one in the FTS window, or perhaps a double-click action in the 'Edit reading goal' dialog.

After I installed the plugin, I created all custom columns manually, using the parameters provided in the first post - I missed that "Only columns of the right type will be available in the dropdown list" bit, so perhaps this could be emphasized or made more obvious in the instructions: all the user has to do to create the columns is to click the buttons located on the right side of the dropdown. Not a big deal, anyway. (this was just me skipping steps because I hadn't paid attention to this line: )
You can create new custom columns, if you don't want to use the existing ones, by pressing the icon.

As for pt-br availability: that's cool, though I love all my OS and software in English, you know... don't ask me why as I can't tell exactly, but I think one of the reasons is that it makes it easier to find support. BTW there's a small typo in the 'Edit reading goal' help dialogue: should be "The options are.."

Comfy.n · 08-24-2023, 10:01 AM

I've just now thought of this: the Highlights in the Annotations browser have a timestamp and possibly a coded "position". I'm sure this would mean a lot more work in your plugin and would be rarely used by most people, but if it were able to pull the last highlight position (actually the nearest one towards the end of the book), this would make a very interesting reading progress pointer for me. :P

(also, not sure if it would be feasible to somehow translate that highlight position into some #percentage/progress column). Just a thought...

thiago.eec · 08-24-2023, 10:35 AM