Author page: Swipe between books

[ChristianGruen]

Copied from #150:

It would be great if it was possible to swipe between the authors’ books in the detail view.

[tfonteyn]

@maverick74
@ChristianGruen

I've implemented this, but I'm a bit troubled by inconsistencies. Let's see what you make of the below.

Abreviations:
TOC: Table-of-content, for a book which is a collection of short stories (or essay/poëzie... ).
TOCEntry: one of the story titles.
N/P: next+previous swiping

A TOCEntry can be present in multiple books if, for example, you bought "original collection" + "The best of....", so you have some stories present in both.

Current situation when you're on the Author-Works screen:

1. click on a Book:
   => the book opens in a detail-screen; no N/P.
2. click on a TOCEntry:
   a) the TOCEntry is present in a single Book
   => the book opens in a detail-screen; no N/P.
   b) the TOCEntry is present in multiple books
   => the list of these books opens in the main book-list view (behind the scenes this is just a filter).
   You can again click on a book, and N/P is available.

Current situation when you're on the TOC screen for a Book:
click on a TOCEntry: same as above point 2.

Bottom-line: both screens are consistent when a TOCEntry is clicked.

New implementation when you're on the Author-Works screen:

1. Click on a book
   => the details screen opens positioned on the clicked-book + N/P is available
2. Click on a TOCEntry
   => the details screen opens positioned on the "first" book where that TOCEntry is present +N/P is available

For BOTH, the list of books for N/P actions is the combined list of actual books + all books where all TOCEntries are present in.
Duplicates are removed, keeping the first occurrence of a book only. The same sorting is of course kept.

New implementation when you're on the TOC screen for a Book:

NO CHANGES => we now have inconsistent behaviour with the author-works screen!

OR

change the behaviour so instead of a filtered main book-list view, you get the details-screen with N/P and the books are the list of all books where all TOCEntries for the original book are present in.

All this might be academic if the user has only a few story-collections.

I hope all this makes sense..... if it's confusing, don't hesitate to tell me.

[ChristianGruen]

I must admit I haven't discovered TOCs in NTMB yet. Could you possibly name the ISBN of a title with a TOC and the settings that should be active to get it displayed?

[tfonteyn]

enable ISFDB search-site, and add these books for example, by Alastair Reynolds

0-575-06876-0 a "book"
978-1-59606-766-0 a best-of collection
1-59780-058-9 an original collection

The story "Zima Blue" can serve as an example of being present in both collections
note the use of icons next to the title, click on those items to see the books in which stories are present.

Note that TOC info is not available on all sites of course.

Side note: the whole author-works screen was implemented so I could satisfy my desire of collecting all short-stories of authors.

settings that should be active to get it displayed?

as long as you don't hide the Table-of-content fields on the global settings, the TOC's will show up.

[ChristianGruen]

+1 I could reproduce it. So many hidden features that I’m not even aware of!

One more dummy question: How do I reach the "TOC screen for a Book"? When I edit a book, I have spotted the TOC tab, but this one doesn’t seem to provide any hyperlink functionality.

[tfonteyn]

How do I reach the "TOC screen for a Book"

when a book has a TOC, a big button 😇 will show on the book-details screen (on 10" tablets the TOC list is embedded in the screen itself)

[ChristianGruen]

when a book has a TOC, a big button 😇 will show on the book-details screen (on 10" tablets the TOC list is embedded in the screen itself)

Oh dear, right!

When I click on »Zima blue« on the TOC screen, and when I go back, I noticed that I end up somewhere else. I guess that’s by design?

Which was not really your question ;) But…

b) the TOCEntry is present in multiple books
=> the list of these books opens in the main book-list view

Maybe, instead of opening the book list view, an intermediate menu could be displayed that allows you to select the book to be shown? That might simplify the organisation of the click history. But it would possibly contrast the way how you work with the feature by yourself.

A compromise could be to provide an additional option in that intermediate menu to open the books in the list view, as it is currently the case.

[tfonteyn]

when I go back, I noticed that I end up somewhere else

yes, by design, the previous toc/book screen is closed. I found it usually annoying having to go back 3x.

intermediate menu / additional option

hum, sounds annoying too.

I'll need a think....

[tfonteyn]

putting this on the back-burner.... technically it all works, but I'm not happy with the "feel/logic".
I'll let it rest for a while.