How do Sidecar Metadata Files Work in Komga?

[sidney-eliot]

Would it be possible to have metadata of either an entire comic folder or a single comic issue in a sidecar metadata file? Like ComicInfo.xml, or some other metadata container like OPF or OPS.

Reasoning for not wanting the metadata in the CBZ file:

Because I want it to be easily editable without having to re-zip the comic. And I also don't want to add it via the Komga UI, as that can easily be messed up if the file is renamed in the file explorer, for example or x other reason.

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An example of what I'm talking about:

(single metadata file for entire comic)

📂Spider Man
└─ Issue 1.cbz
└─ Issue 2.cbz
└─ Issue 3.cbz
└─ ComicInfo.xml

(one metadata file for every issue)

📂Spider Man
└─ Issue 1.cbz
└─ Issue 2.cbz
└─ Issue 3.cbz
└─ Issue 1.xml
└─ Issue 2.xml
└─ Issue 3.xml

It seems like as soon as I zip the xml file, even if nothing else is in the zip, Komga can read it, which seems odd. Also worth noting, is that renaming a regular folder metadata.cbz does not work in tricking Komga.

Cheers,
Sidney

[gotson]

This is not part of the accepted standard for ComicInfo.xml. No application producing ComicInfo.xml actually do that.

related to #1713

Because I want it to be easily editable without having to re-zip the comic

You should not edit those files manually anyway, better use something like ComicTagger or MangaTagger.

And I also don't want to add it via the Komga UI, as that can easily be messed up if the file is renamed in the file explorer, for example or x other reason.

I don't quite understand this statement. Would you be able to supplement?

[gotson]

Komga requires 1 folder per series, since forever. That's how 99% of people sort their books on disk anyway. If that doesn't work for you, you may consider other software.

The series name in metadata is used to change the series name, check how metadata is used here: https://komga.org/docs/guides/scan-analysis-refresh/#import-metadata-for-cbrcbz-containing-a-comicinfoxml-file

[sidney-eliot]

Komga requires 1 folder per series, since forever ...

Ok, got it. One last question on this topic. How would one handle PDFs. From what I understand, there isn't really any established metadata for them.

Putting them in Series folders that are in a Series Group folder also doesn't work as Komga needs for the files to be tagged with their series group name, and won't create the collection otherwise.

Maybe instead of allowing metadata to create collections via series groups metadata, one could allow the group series folder and series folders (which as you say 99% already use) to create collections in Komga.

P.S. Thanks for the quick replies.

[sidney-eliot]

I also just noticed that the one shot directory works well with collections, so I won't have to put every oneshot in their own folder. 👍

[gotson]

How would one handle PDFs. From what I understand, there isn't really any established metadata for them.

In Komga directly.

[sidney-eliot]

In Komga directly.

Fair, PDF is a hard file format to work with in this context, I think the better approach is for me to simply convert my PDFs (as long as they aren't books) to CBZ files.

I see now that loose ComicInfo.xml files all over the place is not a good idea.