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Version: Unreleased

Browsing, Search, and Bulk Actions

Shisho provides library-scoped search, gallery controls, and selection tools for working with many books at once.

The global search field in the header is scoped to the current library. It searches Books, Series, and People, then groups matching results by resource type. Switch libraries before searching if the item belongs elsewhere.

The search field in the library gallery searches books only. Use it with Filter to narrow the gallery without searching series or people.

Filters​

Open Filter on the library gallery to combine any of these criteria:

  • File type
  • Genres
  • Tags
  • Language
  • Review state, including Needs review and Reviewed

Active filters appear as removable chips. Filters apply together, so a book must satisfy the current combination.

Open Sort to build a multi-level sort. Add levels, choose ascending or descending direction, remove levels, and drag them into priority order. Available fields include Title, Author, Series, Date added, Date released, Page count, and Duration.

A sort in the page URL is temporary and can be bookmarked or shared. Save as my default for this library stores the current sort for the current user and library. Each user can therefore choose a different default for every library.

The saved default also controls book ordering in that library's OPDS feed and eReader Browser. A temporary browser URL sort does not change those views.

Open Size to choose S, M, L, or XL covers. The control is available on the library home, the series list, and list detail pages. It is not a per-library setting.

Save as my default everywhere stores one global gallery-size preference for the current user. A size in the page URL temporarily overrides that preference on the current page.

The inline Size control is hidden on small screens. On those devices, open the user menu, select User Settings, and change the gallery size under Appearance.

Selecting Books​

Click the explicit Select button on the library gallery to enter selection mode. Click books to add or remove them from the selection. Selections remain active as you move between gallery pages.

Shift-click selects a range only within the current page. It cannot create a range across pagination boundaries.

The selection toolbar provides these actions:

  • Add opens Add to List.
  • More includes Mark reviewed and Mark needs review.
  • Merge combines two or more selected books in the same library.
  • Delete deletes the selected books and their disk content.
  • Download creates a bulk download.

Merge and delete can have destructive filesystem effects. Read Managing Books and Files first.

Bulk Downloads​

Select books, click Download, and choose from the available EPUB, CBZ, M4B, and PDF types. Shisho includes every matching main file, so a book with multiple editions of the same type contributes each edition. Supplements and sidecar files are not included.

Shisho generates download copies with format-specific metadata:

  • EPUB metadata and cover data are written into the EPUB.
  • CBZ metadata is written to ComicInfo.xml.
  • M4B metadata and edited chapters are written into MP4 metadata and chapter structures.
  • PDF metadata and edited chapters are written into the PDF information and outline.

The source files in the library are not replaced by these generated copies. Shisho prepares the ZIP in a background job, and you can navigate elsewhere while it runs.

Bulk Download Permissions​

Current backend routing requires all three permissions: jobs:read, jobs:write, and books:read. With the default roles, only Admin has the required jobs permissions. Bulk download is therefore Admin-only unless you define a custom role with this combination.

Bulk Download Cache​

Generated files and ZIP archives use the download cache. Cached output has no time-to-live expiration. Shisho evicts older cached output based on usage when the configured cache size limit is exceeded. See Configuration for download_cache_max_size_gb.