[Metadata Source Plugin] Empty Plugin? (Fake Identifier)

[mneimeyer]

Python isn't my native language and I'm having some difficulty stripping down an existing plugin to write my own.

Is there a sample "empty" plugin that I could start with instead? I can't find one if there is.

That said, what I want to do is write a plugin that simply returns a fake identifier with the date so that I could do a search for identifers:metadownloaded:false to find books I haven't updated by doing a metadata download.

This because, from what I can tell, Metadata Download plugins can't write to custom columns.

Thanks in advance!

[kovidgoyal]

I highly doubt doing this is feasible. Remember that results from multiple plugins are combined and ones that cannot be combined will be ignored unless you actually pick them in the results list (or they are automatically picked during a bulk download).

If you want some way to know that you have done a download for a book, a better option would be to modify calibre to add an option to set a tag after downloading metadata. Or do so manually on all selected books after a download.

[mneimeyer]

I thought I was counting on that combination... If a book matches both at Barnes and Nobles and Amazon doesn't it bring both identifiers in? Or have I misunderstood?

I also assumed that for a non-python programmer that a plugin would be much smaller scale than modifying Calibre itself.

[kovidgoyal]

Only if the two matches are identified as being for the same logical book.