are references among books possible?

[DrChiper]

I have books which sometimes directly refer to each other but are otherwise not related (not part of a series). Can calibre provide the possibility to make (some crude form of semi-automated) references to other books?

I know I can create a private column and do some manual magic there, but perhaps there is already some hidden build-in feature which supports this.

[Sabardeyn]

I'm assuming you're talking about footnote or bibliography cross-linking. So if, while reading BookOne you find a citation to BookTwo, you could click on that link and have BookTwo load (preferably to the indicated area), right?

As far as I know, nothing of the kind is available.

Nor am I sure that it could be done because it would require being able to alter links on the fly, throughout all the books in the library, if you change the title or author (ie, the structure calibre uses to store the book) to prevent a "file not found" error.

At that point you've exceeded the abilities of calibre and are approaching Content Management System (CMS) software.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by Sabardeyn

I'm assuming you're talking about footnote or bibliography cross-linking. So if, while reading BookOne you find a citation to BookTwo, you could click on that link and have BookTwo load (preferably to the indicated area), right?

Not quite, I meant to make books references just within (the database of) calibre, and never touch the books themselves. What you describe is much too sophisticated (but could be nice though ).

Let me clarify: when reading a book, I sometimes encounter some textual reference to another writer/book name in which the current book's subject is also touched. And now and then I happen to have that referenced book. So I want to register that discovery in calibre for the current book. When I thereafter access (the meta data) of that first book, I then can not only see the author/title/series/isbn/comments, etc., but also some ref. to 1 or more other books in the calibre database which have some relation with this book.

And, yes, you could do this by making a private column, but it would be nice to use the unique internal calibre refs somehow so you do not have to enter the ref manually, while any future changes are also automatically forwarded between referencing and referenced book.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I have books which sometimes directly refer to each other but are otherwise not related (not part of a series). Can calibre provide the possibility to make (some crude form of semi-automated) references to other books?

I know I can create a private column and do some manual magic there, but perhaps there is already some hidden build-in feature which supports this.

@DrChiper - I don't think there is

It was discussed once before in here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...light=citation See post 17 where Kovid outlines why he's not going to rush in and do it.

BR

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

@DrChiper - I don't think there is

A pity. It would have been fun to have in a (relational) database the possibility to make relations, though.
Thanks!

[Sabardeyn]

Ok, perhaps I think weird, but while it isn't what you wanted, wouldn't mind-mapping software offer you something roughly equivalent? Granted you would still have to do the data entry, but if you're trying to see the associations, this might be one way to handle things.

[DrChiper]

Interesting, and no, you are not thinking weird . I used to had the same idea, and followed the following trail:

• FreeMind (development was long halted at version 0.9),
• FreePlane (much new functions and now to my opinion overloaded),
• SciPlot (now obsolete)
• Docear (successor of SciPlot and promising)

However, I wanted some quick storage around 2009 and start using calibre which much does what I need, save for the relations

[Sabardeyn]

Well at present I think the closest you're going to come to your desire is two programs: calibre and a mind-mapping program used in conjunction.

If the MM program can accept a text file as input perhaps calibre could generate the necessary output (via plugboards and/or catalogs?). So ultimately you would only have to establish the relationships between two books.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Interesting, and no, you are not thinking weird . I used to had the same idea, and followed the following trail:

• FreeMind (development was long halted at version 0.9),
• FreePlane (much new functions and now to my opinion overloaded),
• SciPlot (now obsolete)
• Docear (successor of SciPlot and promising)

However, I wanted some quick storage around 2009 and start using calibre which much does what I need, save for the relations

Have you considered using a Comment based custom column into which you you put one or more file system URI's that reference related Calibre library book folders or the book format files.

It has the advantage of maintaining the relational links within the context of Calibre, and in the same context you can 'annotate' the links with text describing the relationship. The only functional thing you can do with them is to click on them and open the related book folder or file, you wont be able to navigate to the 'book' line within the calibre spreadsheet itself - just to the folder or file

Works across Libraries. URI links will break if related book folder name changes or library is relocated etc - but that's also true of an HTTP or FTP - i.e. all URIs are fragile.

BR