[Enhancement] Filter dupes in TOC editor

[John Matushek]

In the TOC editor, I frequently use the feature to generate TOC entries from XPath. For example, I might use the regular expression ^(contents|prolog|chapter|section|epilog) in the "value" field of the HTML tag prompt. However, this frequently finds duplicate entries. I presume that's because of nesting of the HTML, so the TOC editor gets multiple hits. Normally I just allow it to generate, then delete the duplicates, which can be very tedious. It would be much easier if the system would detect duplicates and filter them for me. I don't care if it's an option or a permanent feature of the XPath editor.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

How are you defining a "duplicate"? Something with the same text? At the
same level? If you have multiple tag types with the same text in them, simply
specify a single tag type for the XPath expression.

[John Matushek (johnmatushek)]

Yes, I'm defining duplicate as an entry with the same text at the same level. (I rarely try to find multiple levels using the TOC editor.)

I guess I could use the tag type, but that involves opening the full book editor. In most cases, I simply use the TOC editor stand-alone, so there's no way to see the underlying HTML tags. Also, the conversion to HTML may not be consistent, so this technique might not always work.

I think the dupe-finding logic could be quite simple. I would not want to search for dupes across the entire document. It would be sufficient to eliminate all entries that are exactly the same as the prior entry.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

Fixed in branch master. The fix will be in the next release. calibre is usually released every alternate Friday.

 status fixreleased

[Ben L (marvinnn)]

Can you please make this an optional feature? I have frequently used the Generate ToC from XPath on books that have the same tag/string at the start of each chapter. I thought I was crazy today when it no longer worked the way it did last month until I read the changelog.

[Kovid Goyal (kovid)]

Sure shouldn't be hard to add an option. Can you open a separate ticket for it so I dont forget.