file organization - folder structure

[robrowald]

Is there a way to have bindery save files in a "root" folder for each author? e.g. A folder called Stephen King that contains sub folders for each work. The best I have been able to get it to do is new folders in my rott directory with the author-title which is sub optimal, especially when being used to how the *ARR programs save and rename.
I tried in the File Naming section by putting {Author}{Title} but that did not work

Thanks.

[cookesan]

Use path separators in the naming template. {Author}{Title} concatenates the two tokens into one path segment; it does not create an author folder.

Bindery's default ebook template is already shaped like this:

{Author}/{Title} ({Year})/{Title} - {Author}.{ext}

For a Readarr-style layout, set the ebook naming template to something like:

{Author}/{Title}/{Title} - {Author}.{ext}

or, if you want surname-style author folders:

{SortAuthor}/{Title}/{Title} - {Author}.{ext}

For audiobooks, the template names the destination folder, so this is enough:

{Author}/{Title}

Root folders are a separate concept. They are the shared/admin-managed library roots. Pick the library root first, then let the naming template create the author/title folders underneath it.

[robrowald]

Thanks, perhaps it isn't working because I used the wrong slash, being used to windows I used a backslash instead of the *nix forward slash.

[cookesan]

Yes, use / in the naming template.

The template engine treats / as the template path separator. The backend renders the template by splitting it on /, dropping empty segments, then joining the rendered result under the selected root folder. The UI preview mirrors that same rule and the placeholders use the same style:

{Author}/{Title} ({Year})/{Title} - {Author}.{ext}

So for your case I would use:

{Author}/{Title}/{Title} - {Author}.{ext}

or for audiobooks:

{Author}/{Title}

That is the template syntax even if the underlying filesystem is Windows. Bindery handles the final filesystem path when it imports the file; the template itself should stay forward-slash based.

[trininja2k]

I have a question on this topic, sorry to revieve this topic:

"/" is a problem in my case, I want to build a smarter layout:

{Author}/{Series}/{(SeriesNumber:3) - }{Title} ({Year}){ [ASIN]}
and
{Author}/{Series}/{Lang}/{(SeriesNumber:3) - }{Title} ({Year}){ [ASIN]}.ext

So far so good, but if no Series exists, what happens with this setup? Is there a way to bring the "/" into {Series} and {Lang}. i.e. {/Series} - actually it doesnt work, the rest works so far.

And advanced naming guide would be nice to see what actually is working and what are we able to bend around our storages.... ;)

[vavallee]

Your layout works as written, you don't need a special form for the slash.

When a path level renders empty, Bindery drops it instead of leaving a gap. So with no series, {Author}/{Series}/{(SeriesNumber:3) - }{Title} ({Year}){ [ASIN]} becomes {Author}/{Title} ({Year}), and an empty {Lang} level disappears the same way. The / stays in the template, outside the token, and each level is judged on its own.

Two things in your second template to check:

• The extension token is {ext}, so it should end in {ext} rather than a literal .ext. A literal one would name the file .ext. Audiobook folders render {ext} empty, so leave it off there.
• Text inside the braces only shows when the token has a value, which is what makes { [ASIN]} and {(SeriesNumber:3) - } vanish cleanly for books without an ASIN or series number. The parentheses and the dash are literals, so you will get (001) - .

The live preview under Settings, File Naming shows what a real book renders to, so it is the quickest way to try a variant. A written guide to every token and the brace rules is a fair ask, I will look at adding one to the docs.

[trininja2k]

Thank you, I think this is exactly what I wanted to know.

I saw the mistake I made with {ext} already. ^^

Actually, the thing with stuff inside {} saves a lot of trouble and I wonder what is possible besides the things I tried. So thank you to think about a documentation.

There are 2 things I may ask for (or should I make a feature request?)

• Replace Non-ASCII characters in folders and names. We have the metadata sidecar for that. Better save than sorry.

• Replacing characters in names with a list defined by the user, for example ' gets erased, & with an underscore, : with underscore and such things.