LT Read Helper

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LT Read Helper

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1brightcopy
Editado: mayo 31, 2011, 12:48 am

I've just put some finishing touches on one of my most ambitious scripts ever. I know it's something that will be very useful for me.

Basically, it's in response to some of the discussions about a default Read collection and how to better handle easier support of reading tracking. It does not play well with multiple dates, however, so caveat emptor. The main reason why this is the case is because of the limitations on what I can hack LT into doing. If this was implemented officially, they could probably handle it better.

Here's the full info from the script page:

LT Read Helper

Read Helper automates some common tasks to help with shuffling books between To Read, Currently Reading, Read and Read but Unowned collections. Additionally, it automatically sets start and end dates for the reading.

(Note: This script is not currently working with Chrome. Hopefully, I will get some time to figure out why. If you area greasemonkey programmer or just handy enough with web technologies, feel free to debug it and drop me a note on LT.)

It does this by creating a configurable strip of icons in the book information of a work page for any book you own. When these icons are clicked on, the books is moved to this collection and the reading dates are updated. Please note that multiple reading dates are not supported, and are in fact possibly erased when using this script. As such, this script is not geared towards those who like to use multiple reading dates. This script is geared toward tracking the first-time reading status of books.

Here is an example of the process:



If a book is in the To read collection, the icon will automatically be selected. If it is not already in the To read collection, clicking the icon of the book with the question mark will put it in this collection. If the book was in Currently reading, Read or Read but unowned it will be remove from them. It will also clear the start and end reading dates.






Clicking the open book icon to move the book into Currently reading. If the book was in To read, Read or Read but unowned it will be remove from them. The start date will be set to the current local date and the end date will be cleared.






Click the blue closed book icon to move the book into the Read collection. If the book was in To read, Read or Read but unowned it will be remove from them. The end date will be set to the current local date.






Clicking on the brown closed book icon will do all of the same action as clicking the blue closed book icon, except that it will put the book in both the Read and the Read but unowned collections.






Clicking the gear wheel icon will prompt for the names of the various categories. Any category can be hidden from use by entering "hide". By default, the To read, Currently reading and Read but unowned categories will use the LT default collections for those categories. As such, they will be translated into the local language of whatever site you are on. However, the Read collection is not a standard default LT collection and must be added by you to exist. If you use a name other than "Read", you must configure LT Read Helper to tell it the name you used.











Note: When clicking on the icons, the collection list displayed is automatically updated. However, this does not go the other direction. If you click on the collection list and manually add a book to a collection such as Currently reading, the script will not do anything special (including setting dates) and the page will need to be reloaded before the icons will reflect this change.

2rsterling
mayo 31, 2011, 12:48 am

Interesting. Is there a way to use it without using dates?

3brightcopy
mayo 31, 2011, 12:49 am

#2 by rsterling> Not as such, no. But it wouldn't be a stretch to add such a feature. Want me to?

4rsterling
mayo 31, 2011, 12:57 am

Maybe - up to you, of course. Is it complicated? I could see using this for CR and Read, but I don't use dates.

I like this idea of a simple and visual feature to change read status!

5brightcopy
mayo 31, 2011, 1:05 am

#4 by rsterling> I don't think it's too complicated. Just gotta throw in some conditionals and maybe another config box to allow you to say whether you want it to use dates or not. Probably could get to it sometime this week or next weekend.

I like this idea of a simple and visual feature to change read status!

Thanks! This is what I tried to get across in all those mega-threads about reading tracking. I'm fine with collections being used as long as there's some extra "cohesiveness" to the experience beyond just hauling books back and forth between collections and manually entering dates and such.

6jjmcgaffey
mayo 31, 2011, 2:50 am

It sounds very good. I won't use it, I think, because a) I do most of my shifting in the catalog, not on the work page and b) I _do_ use multiple reading dates. On the other hand...I may install it anyway; I can use it if I happen to be doing a first read and go to the work page. It's a very nice tool and I'd hate to ignore it completely...

7pgmcc
mayo 31, 2011, 5:18 am

Looks good. I will try it out. Thank you for your effort.

8Shannon.R
mayo 31, 2011, 6:57 am

Thank you, this is brilliant.

9DaynaRT
mayo 31, 2011, 8:26 am

*bows to the greasemonkey god*

10Aerrin99
mayo 31, 2011, 8:45 am

Wow. Every time I open one of these threads I'm shocked and awed! I love that I can tell it that my 'to read' collection is really 'wishlist'. I'll definitely give this a shot, even though I've previously been a multiple dates user. It'll be neat to see if it's as awesome as we imagine and might be helpful if Tim decides to move forward with reading tracking!

11SylviaC
mayo 31, 2011, 8:53 am

I'd also be interested in a version without dates.

12leahbird
mayo 31, 2011, 12:42 pm

when you say it doesn't support multiple read dates, do you mean that it just won't accept new ones or do you mean it will strip the ones that are already entered? i can see myself using this script, but i do have multiple read dates for a few things and wouldn't want to loose that information. if it's just an issue for dates added AFTER the script, that might be ok with me.

13brightcopy
Editado: mayo 31, 2011, 1:34 pm

#12 by @atlargeintheworld> It handles it in exactly the same way as editing the dates in Your books handles it. If you have multiple start dates, the Started column only shows the most recent one. And if you change it, it will overwrite that most recent one with the new value. Ditto for Stopped. So if you have five sets of reading dates and change them either in Your books or with this script, the fifth set (the most recent) one gets overwritten.

Of course, that's also assuming the new dates are AFTER any other reading dates. If you enter ones before, then it gets even wonkier because it resorts them at some point. Basically, Your books handles editing multiple dates poorly, and this script uses the Your books code to do its magic (that's the only way I know how). So it has to suffer from it, too.

14leahbird
Editado: mayo 31, 2011, 2:04 pm

ok, that makes sense. going to install script now which means CR will actually be meaningful to me for the first time!

ETA: now if we could just get this installed in catalog view, we'd be in serious business!

15brightcopy
mayo 31, 2011, 2:16 pm

#14 by @atlargeintheworld> I've been thinking about the catalog view, and there's a possibility there. I'm going to let the idea roll around in my head a bit before trying it. For me, it's really not as useful since my main entry point for things like this are to type the name of the book in the top-right search, then click on the result which takes me to the work page. But there seems to be a good portion that would get to them the other way so maybe it's worth it.

16leahbird
mayo 31, 2011, 2:21 pm

#15 by brightcopy>

yeah, i usually go through catalog view, most likely because the books i'm messing with are the ones i'm currently reading, which i have sorted to the top of the page. it's not a big leap for me to go to the work page to use your handy buttons, but it's not my natural inclination.

anyway, script is now installed and i'm already happy with it. i also installed a few of your other scripts, such as the very useful reply reference! ;)

17leahbird
mayo 31, 2011, 10:54 pm

possible bug noticed. when i installed the script earlier it worked just perfectly. then i turned the computer off and went to town for a bit. when i tried it again tonight, the icons weren't on the works page at all.

18leahbird
mayo 31, 2011, 10:54 pm

possible bug noticed. when i installed the script earlier it worked just perfectly. then i turned the computer off and went to town for a bit. when i tried it again tonight, the icons weren't on the works page at all.

19brightcopy
mayo 31, 2011, 11:36 pm

Are you still logged into LT?

20leahbird
Editado: mayo 31, 2011, 11:47 pm

yep

ETA: i double checked the scripts that are installed and it says it's still installed and active.