import from file - supported fields?

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import from file - supported fields?

1Lee_Dailey
Bewerkt: jul 26, 2008, 9:43 am

howdy y'all,

just exactly what fields are currently supported for importing via the import-books/from-a-file function? i see there is the sample - LibraryThingSample.csv - at the lower right of the import page.

both of those lack ck-series and date-read fields. *sigh ...*

there is also the tools/export function that makes a file with quite a few more fields. are those fields only for export?

i am - as usual - easily confused. *grin*

so, two qs ...

1- would someone / could someone please point me to a definitive list of the currently supported import file fields?

i suspect the answer is "LibraryThingSample.csv".

2- what is the expected timeline for import file support of the date-read and date-acquired and series fields? or any other fields, for that matter ...

take care,
lee

2jjwilson61
jul 26, 2008, 10:10 am

Series level data doesn't exist in your library but at the work-level so if it gets changed it gets changed for everyone who owns that work. So I don't think it would be a good idea to allow series to be imported.

3Lee_Dailey
jul 26, 2008, 10:48 am

howdy jjwilson61,

i hadn't thot about that. makes some degree of sense, but i can STILL go in and muck the series info up by hand. *grin* i guess that not allowing it to be imported lessens the chance of mass muck-ups.

i've got a huge number of series, tho, and i find using tags for that is awkward. is there any official word on the subject?

take care,
lee

4jjwilson61
jul 26, 2008, 11:49 am

I'm thinking of the case where someone has saved off his books some time ago and reimports them and in meantime the series info has changed several times, re-adding old info doesn't seem like a good idea.

Why would you want to reimport series info though. Are you worried about the site losing its data? Or are you thinking about exporting some of your books and reimporting them to a different account? In the latter case the series info will be there on the work so it doesn't need to be reimported to your libarary.

5Lee_Dailey
jul 26, 2008, 1:48 pm

howdy jjwilson61,

i'm not wanting to RE-import it. i have it in readerware and i wanna get it into LT. many, if not most, of the books in my collection are part of series and those series do NOT seem to be documented in LT as of now.

i would dearly love to have series info on the individual book record. then perhaps the ck-series could be auto-filled form the most commonly used version? or perhaps do it as is done with the "canonical title" ...

hand-entering the series info for 1500 books is not a thing i look forward to! *grin*

take care,
lee

6infiniteletters
jul 26, 2008, 2:20 pm

Yes, but keep in mind that other people are working on filling in series info too, not just you. :)

7Lee_Dailey
jul 26, 2008, 2:32 pm

howdy infiniteletters,

*grin* yes, i do appreciate that! i suspect that the series info would be more complete if it wasn't such a nasty bit of manual labor, tho. when i first imported my catalog, the series column was rather empty.

wouldn't having series as a per-book field - and perhaps using that to fill empty work/series and empty "canonical series" entries get around the problem of other folks possibly working at cross purposes?

take care,
lee

8infiniteletters
jul 26, 2008, 10:31 pm

Well, you can copy/paste series info between books, so it is a per-book field... You just can't import it, since that'll affect too much work by other people. I can't see enough of what series you have, since your library is pretty empty right now, but I work on series on an author basis, or with my own books. :)

9andyl
jul 27, 2008, 4:38 am

You could also make a list of title, author, series name put it on your wiki page and ask for help in the Librarything Series group. This is probably more likely to succeed if you have a particularly large or complex series.

Also note that what LT counts as a series might not be what you count as a series.

10Lee_Dailey
jul 27, 2008, 11:52 am

howdy infiniteletters,

by per-book, i meant that it would be nifty to have a field on the book details page that would NOT affect others directly. use it to fill in series fields elsewhere if they are empty, but not to overwrite the info as it seems i would be doing with the current structure.

yep, i can do it by hand ... it's just gonna be boring grunt work that is also error prone. the EXACT type of repetitive grunt work that computers are so very good at!

an import method seems so ... obvious. to _me_ at least. *grin* i'm aware that i am not normally normal.

i deleted my library after i found that i had munged my import rather thoroughly. seemed better to start over ... AFTER i had done some testing to see what the limits might be.

thanks for your comments. i'll try to see if i can slowly, politely and /gently/ nag the management into providing import methods for series and date-read and date-acquired as those are the fields _i_ most desire to import at this time.

take care,
lee

11Lee_Dailey
jul 27, 2008, 11:55 am

howdy andyl,

that diff on what is and isn't a series - and what to name it - is one reason i think there otta be a series field on the book details page. that's in addition to one for the work and in common knowledge. tho i suspect that would result in ck-series being renamed ck-canonical-series ... *grin*

thanks for the pointer to the series group! i'll wander over there and lurk for a while before posting.

take care,
lee

12jjmcgaffey
aug 2, 2008, 6:12 pm

Yeah, I've been wishing for a catalog-level series field for a long time. Annoyingly enough, it exists in the tag-delimited export (so in the database) but there's no way to see or fill it (whaahhh!!). And it _doesn't_ exist in the CSV, so isn't supported in the export/import. Sigh.

Oh - LibraryThingSample.csv, to the best of my understanding, is the base set of fields - LT must have these fields in order to correctly import (not all necessarily filled, but those headers so it can tell what's what). It may or may not be all the fields that get imported. I don't use the file import (though I've been watching the discussions, since the new file import is so much better than the old!), so can't give a definitive answer.

13countrylife
Bewerkt: dec 4, 2008, 1:43 pm

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

14countrylife
aug 3, 2008, 10:12 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

15Lee_Dailey
Bewerkt: aug 6, 2008, 7:56 pm

howdy countrylife & jjmcgaffey,

since the series field is of interest to y'all - and _i'm_ very new here - would one of you please make a new thread requesting a catalog-level series field? i'll happily jump in and post an "add my name to the list" msg.

take care,
lee

16infiniteletters
aug 7, 2008, 9:27 am

There have been multiple threads for catalog-level series fields... hasn't happened yet.

17Lee_Dailey
Bewerkt: aug 7, 2008, 10:55 pm

howdy infiniteletters,

perhaps, but this ...
http://www.librarything.com/search_talk.php?searchbox=catalog-level+series

... is all _i_ can find! *grin* what i'm hoping for is to find a thread to add to my watch list ... and to post a *bump* to every few weeks.

take care,
lee

18infiniteletters
Bewerkt: aug 8, 2008, 10:16 am

I'll try to hunt one down. The main one I remember is from the person who was complaining that he couldn't use parentheses in series names for the CK series field.

It was probably in New Features or Recommend Site Improvements back when the feature was introduced in January (wow!).

19Lee_Dailey
aug 8, 2008, 6:53 pm

howdy infiniteletters,

thanks! i will be dropping in here every so often to see if you've had any luck. if not, then i may start one of my own just to have a single "bump for the idea" location.

take care,
lee

21timspalding
aug 9, 2008, 1:27 am

What is meant by "catalog level"? You mean a private series field, not touching others?

22jjwilson61
aug 9, 2008, 1:55 am

Exactly. A series field in your catalog, not in CK.

Although I don't know that it has to be private, just not shared.

23countrylife
aug 9, 2008, 9:38 am

Dit bericht is door zijn auteur gewist.

24Lee_Dailey
aug 10, 2008, 3:35 am

howdy infiniteletters,

thanks! that thread seems more to be wanting sorting of series. it gets there by having a personal (catalog level or my book level) field.

i think i will make a thread that has that as the title so it'll be both easier to for others to find and more specific. pro'ly this week some time ...

again, thanks! *grin*

take care,
lee

25SpencerBarfuss
aug 6, 2022, 11:02 am

Any update on this?

26Keeline
Bewerkt: aug 6, 2022, 12:56 pm

>25 SpencerBarfuss:

The handling of series (and publisher series) is rather different since 2008 when this thread was active. There is a new system for entering series data which is still part of Common Knowledge (data shared by all LT members). It is worth learning the new system and helping to improve data that we all can use.

But, if one wanted to record some series data in their own catalog that does not affect others, it could be done in the title field like this:

The Rival Ocean Divers: or, The Search for a Sunken Treasure (Deep Sea, #1)

In this case, the content in the parentheses is ignored by LT systems for the purpose of combining copies into the same work.

One benefit of having it in the title field is that searches in the mobile app (iOS and Android) will tend to look at these catalog fields but not common knowledge like series. But search on the website in a computer browser does include CK data.

James