Libraries
There are a couple key concepts to go over regarding how Stump represents libraries:
- Libraries are really just paths on your computer that contain subdirectories representing series of books.
- A library paths must be recursively unique. This means if you have a library at
/books, you cannot have a library at/books/comics.
As long as a directory is accessible by Stump, and abides by the above specification, you can create a library with it. This allows for convenient configurations like network drives, etc.
There are way too many varying organizational preferences for Stump to support all of them. Instead, Stump supports two different patterns for organizing your library:
- Collection based library: Takes the top most folders and collapses their contents into it as a single series.
- Series based library: Will create a separate series for each folder that directly contains media files, not just the top most folder.
A collection based library is useful for libraries that have many nested folders that you'd like to be grouped by the top most folder.
Consider the following example:
Library name: Ebooks
When Stump scans this library as a collection based library, it will create 3 series: Shannon, Samantha, Sanderson, Brandon and J.R.R. Tolkien. The visualization of this library in Stump would look like:
For comparison, here is the same library configured as a series based library:
A series based library is useful for libraries which should be grouped by any directory that directly contains media files.
Consider the following example:
Library name: Comics
When Stump scans this library as a series based library, it will create 2 series: Daredevil and The Amazing Spider-Man (2018). The visualization of this library in Stump would look like:
Let's consider the following filesystem for a library:
Notice how I started mixing stand alone novels and book series, grouping the book series by folders, for each author. With a collection based library, the way this is represented in Stump is rather straight forward:
Everything still collapses nicely under a single series per author. However, look at how Stump will interpret this library when we use a series based library:
With a series based library, we end up with 7 series, instead of 3. This is because Stump will create a series for each folder that contains books, relative to the deepest most directory. If you have nested folders in a series based library, Stump will continue to create series for each parent folder containing media files.
For example, look at the Tolkien, J R R folder from the filesystem graphic in the begininning of this example. You can see inside Tolkien, J R R, the deepest directory is The Lord of the Rings. Stump will create a series for that folder and add the three books inside it. Afterwards, there is still a media file in the Tolkien, J R R folder, so Stump will create a separate series for that folder and add the Hobbit Or There and Back Again (1986).epub book to it.
There is no right and wrong when it comes to configuring a library as either collection based or series based. It's all about preference.
In general, if you plan on having nested folders in your library that can be grouped by the upper most level, then you should use a collection based library. If your library is flat, or you don't want to group books by the upper most level, then you should use a series based library.
Personally, I use a collection based library for my ebooks and a series based library for my comics. I find that the collection based library works well for ebooks, as I can group them all by author, regardless of how I organize the underlying filesystem, and the series based library works well for comics, as I can group them by major arcs.
Unfortunately, Stump does not support any other patterns. If you have a library that doesn't fit either of these patterns, check out the Library File Explorer section to see if that functionality helps with your use case.
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Deleting a library will remove all of the series, books, and other entities associated with the books (e.g. read progress, reading lists, etc) contained within it. Your actual files will not be deleted, but they will no longer exist in Stump.
This action cannot be undone.
You can delete a library from the library selection menu on the sidebar, or by navigating to the library's overview page. In either scenario, all that is required is to click the action button and select "Delete".
Currently, Stump only allows for two concurrent jobs to be running in parallel. This will eventually be a configurable option.
When a library is created, Stump will automatically queue a scan job for it. This scan job will analyze the contents of the library and populate it with all of the series/books contained within it.
To manually initiate a scan job, you can click the action button library selection menu on the sidebar and select "Scan". You may also navigate to the library's overview page and click the action button and select "Scan".
For more thorough information on library scans, see the filesystem scanning guide.