Metadata in Downloads - Title and Author but not Fandom?

[meridian_rose]

I love AO3 and I especially love the download feature so I can grab longer works and put them on my e-reader. Free bedtime reading for the win! I generally download in epub format and am overall satisfied with the results with one small caveat.

The metadata for a downloaded epub contains the fic title and the author name. However I'm in a lot of fandoms and tend to upload a lot of fic to my ereader in one go a few times a year rather than occasional updates regularly. Then I often have no idea, when I come to read some of my recently uploaded fic, which fic is which – ie which fandom, without opening several new fics until I find the one I want.

I'm currently saving an epub as fictitle-fandom-author.epub, then opening the downloaded epub in calibre, adding the fandom to the title metadata, and converting to an epub (ie making a copy of the epub with the new title) so when I look on my reader I can see the amended title.

So: Title becomes Title-Fandom and displays as
Title-Fandom (by) Fic Author on my ereader.

There has to be an easier way to do this? Could this be a possible adaptation to the download feature? Maybe an opt-in one?

Comments

[samjohnsson]

To answer your second-to-last question, it would require completely replacing the current code that generates the downloads completely—the current program used is, in computer terms, ancient. It's a very desired feature, but there hasn't been a pair of hands with knowledge and time to gut, replace, and test-to-destruction the new code yet.

As for opt-in, the file is created and stored when the work is first downloaded. To have a "choice" of epubs means creating and storing twice as many files.

[meridian_rose]

It sounds like a lot of work :/ Would anyone find it objectionable, I wonder to have it as Title(Fandom)+ Author instead. Which is assuming there's ever anyone able and willing to update the feature. Thanks for the response :)

[samjohnsson]

Parens in filenames range from a questionable habit to A Very Bad Idea, depending on operating system. Especially since many of the fandom names included parens for media disambiguation. Off the top of my head, it would in theory be possible, but it'd require someone to poke the code and not get bit by it.

That all said: http://ao3.org/support and send in a request for what you'd like in the eventual file name, and a vote for tab support. (While Support and Coders lurk absolutely everywhere, we don't record everything we see.)

[meridian_rose]

Thank you for that link, will do :)

Possible workaround?

[starwatcher]

.
Does your e-reader allow you to sort your fic into folders or collections? If so, fandom collections might help you.

If not, toss this suggestion in the trash where it belongs.
.

Re: Possible workaround?

[meridian_rose]

It's a Nook and it ignores my folders. The only thing it has is shelves, whereby you have to go through the uploaded files and check every fic you want on each shelf, which generates the same problem since once they're uploaded I don't have a clue. If I ever get a new ereader it probably won't be a Nook!

[amalthia]

Hi,

Have you considered using Calibre's plugin "Fanfiction Downloader?" I ask because this plugin will download the stories directly into calibre, keep the metadata, and you can sideload hundreds of ebooks from Calibre directly onto your reader. There are plugins to manage collections for Kobo and Kindle devices. You can also with metadata plugin boards change how the titles of fic display on your device. For example, when I view a title on my device I see "title -- word count -- reviews." It's a complex program that can do a lot if you're willing to try, and a community of people willing to help answer questions.

Best Regards,
Amalthia

[meridian_rose]

That's a good thought! I've used Calibre to grab and compile a whole series before. I think I'm lazy in immediately grabbing an epub, which then causes me more work by having to do the Calibre workaround later. I should grab an url and do a batch of Calibre downloads instead, maybe, ready them for my Nook that way. Thank you, that's definitely something to think about :D

[ariunderscore]

I've recently done a huge import of fic to Calibre - I've been using Pocket (used to be ReadItLater) to read fic on my iPad, so all I had to do was click a button in my brower and the story showed up in the app.

For backup purposes, I exported the over 10.000 links I had saved, and found that I can import several thousand links into Calibre at once - you can paste a looong list of links into the import field.

[meridian_rose]

Good to know, thanks ;)

[amalthia]

Good luck on trying it out. I use Fanfiction Downloader for everything and it works on multiple archives, not just A03. The combining series into one story is a life saver.