Skip to content

Virtual Tags

Jump to bottom Edit New page
maforget edited this page Aug 7, 2024 · 9 revisions

Basic

Set it up in the Preferences => Library (at the bottom). There are 10 available Virtual Tags. They can be used as sorting, grouping, stacking and Smart Lists. It uses the same feature that sets the caption in the ComicRack.ini.

To format numbers refer to this page on Microsoft's site. In the documentation linked you will see something like {0:000}, you basically just need to enter the 000. The rest is auto inserted, so you could technically pretty much do all the formatting that is linked.

Warning

Known Problem:

This feature is not backward compatibles, backup your DB before using it. The reason is that if the new columns & smart lists are saved inside your Database & Settings file. If for example you create a smart list containing one of the new Virtual TAG and decide to go back to the OG version, an older release or simply a version without this feature it will reset your database. If you ever want to go back make sure you don't have any smart lists that contains the Virtual Tags.

TO DO:

  • Basic functions are in, just no UI. Read the documentation below.
  • Have an option so that the caption can be set from a Virtual Tag from the software, instead of going the ComicRack.ini route. (You can kind of do it by changing the field under the thumbnails from Caption to your Virtual Tag.

Syntax (spaces added for clarity):

So the syntax is:

[ prefix { fieldName } suffix ]

For numbering:

[ prefix { fieldName:numberFormat } suffix ]

While using a custom field, just double up the curly brackets:

[ prefix {{ fieldName }} suffix ]

Here are some examples from the ComicRack.ini file:

Format of eComic captions

  • [{format} ][{series}][ - {title}][ {volume}][ #{number}][ ({year}[/{month}])]

Same as above but with numbering format

  • [{format} ][{series}][ - {title}][ V{volumeonly:00000}][ #{numberonly:000} [of {count}]][ ({year}[/{month}])]

Export File Naming

  • [{format} ][{series}][ {volume}][ #{number}][ ({year}[/{month}])]

You can embed a field inside another or even insert a reference to another Virtual Tag. Just don't reference a tag inside itself, it will crash the program. I did add a small protection so you can't save it or add it.

Advanced (using functions)

There is no UI to use these currently, you must refer to the documentation below. If you have any errors in your Virtual Tags, an error message will be output in the tag. So add the column to your view while modifying it. You will need to press Apply or Ok in the preferences dialog to update the values, since they are now cached.

Note

  • Functions names are not case sensitive.
  • Functions find themselves between square brackets. [ or ]
  • Prefix a function name with a $.
  • Wrap the function parameters with < & >.
  • Refer to a book field by surrounding the word with curly brackets. Ex: {Series} or {{CustomField}}
  • Special characters needs to be escaped with the \. Usually, $, <, > but also {, }, [, ], \.
  • All parameters are required.

Functions

Category: Text

Tip

You will need to escape \ the regex escape character \ if used in a regex pattern. When Regex Replace doesn't match anything it will return the input text. Regex are set to be case insensitive.

Example: Matching text that is around a parenthesis.

  • \(.+\) => Matching an actual parenthesis needs to be escaped in normal regex.
  • \\(.+\\) => You will need to double the escape character \ in your pattern. Parenthesis aren't a special character.

Example: Using capturing groups:

  • .+(\(.+\)) // $1 => Match everything and create a capturing group containing what is in parenthesis. The capturing group in C# is prefixed by a $.
  • .+(\\(.+\\)) // \$1 => Like above escape only the \ in the pattern. But we need to escape the $ in, since this is a special character.

Regex Match: Outputs a boolean indicating whether the regex matched.

$regexmatch<string inputText, string pattern>

Regex Replace:

$regexreplace<string inputText, string pattern, string replacement>

Substring: Setting the length to -1 (or bigger than the remaining length) will capture the remainder of the string.

$Substring<string text, int startIndex, int length>

Category: Math

Expression: This will run a C# expression and output it's result as a string. It can be code, math, etc. See special note about expressions.

$expr<string value> => Runs a C# expression

Category: Date

Date Format: This will parse your text as a date and apply formatting using the C# standard or custom format. Leave the format field empty if no formatting is required.

$date<string dateInText, string format>

Day: This will parse your text as a date and output the day (padded by 0).

$day<string dateInText>

Month: This will parse your text as a date and output the month (padded by 0).

$month<string dateInText>

Year: This will parse your text as a date and output the year.

$year<string dateInText>

Category: Boolean

If: The first condition parameter is evaluated as a boolean C# expression. See special note about expressions.

$if<string condition, string ifTrue, string ifFalse>

Not: This will evaluate the text as a boolean C# expression and return the inverse. See special note about expressions.

$not<string value>

Expression

These are C# code that is evaluated by a library called Dynamic Expresso. Test it online with this link.

Important

  • C# code requires you to wrap text in quotation marks. "Manga"
  • Required only when using a function with the parameter that is evaluated as an expression. $if, $not & $expr 1st parameter are affected only.
  • When referencing a field in a C# expression, you will need to wrap that field by quotation marks to indicate it is a string in regards to C#. "{Tags}".Contains("Manga")
  • true and false need to be lower case and not wrapped in quotation marks to be considered by Dynamic Expresso.
  • Dynamic Expresso evaluation will only occur if the C# default parser didn't work. Examples: True, "Text"=="Text", true, false || true or $not<"{Tags}".Contains("Manga")>. But not Text==Text, "false" || "true" or "True"

Examples

These aren't meant to be super useful. Just examples of the syntax and possibility.

Series (Year). Just using Added Time for demonstration purpose only.

[$if<$not<"{Tags}".Contains("Manga")>,{Series} ($year<{AddedTime}>), {Series}>]

Selecting the 1st word from a Series, using expressions.

[$expr<"{Series}".Split(' ').FirstOrDefault()>]

Selecting the 1st word from a Series, using substring. Both output the same thing, this one is just more complex.

[$substring<{Series},0, $expr<"{Series}".Split(' ').FirstOrDefault()?.Length>>]

Escaping special characters. We need to escape \ the > so it doesn't believe it is the end of the function. The \ is removed when being evaluated as C#, so it will be evaluated to 10 > 1.

[$if<$not<10 \> 1>,10 is bigger than 1, 10 isn't bigger than 1>]

Remove parentheses. Replacing them with nothing.

[$regexreplace<{Series},\\(.+\\),>]

Replace all the text by what is in the capture group 1. Only works when parenthesis are present, since the regex will not match in that condition it returns the original input text.

[$regexreplace<{Series},.+(\\(.+\\)),\$1>]
Add a custom footer
Clone this wiki locally